12 LIFE ZONES AND CROP ZONES. 



In northern New York and "Wisconsin ^ the dairying industry is one 

 of the chief sources of revenue, and cheese is a staple product. In 

 years like the present, when cheese sells at the factory for 8 or 9 

 cents — and still worse a few years ago, when it sold for 4 cents — the 

 farmer is left at the end of the season without return for his labor. 

 Yet, most of the lands now devoted almost exclusively to dairying are 

 situated in the sugar-beet belt, and are also adapted to several excel- 

 lent varieties of wheat and other crops to which little or no attention 

 is now given. 



WHAT THE FARMER NEEDS TO KNOW. 



The farmers of the United States spend vast sums of money each 

 year in trying to find out whether a particular fruit, vegetable, or 

 cereal will or will not thrive in localities where it has not been tested. 

 Most of these experiments result in disappointment and jiecuniary 

 loss. It makes little difference wliether the crop experimented with 

 comes from the remotest parts of the earth or from a neighboring 

 State, tlie result is essentially tlie same, for the main cost is the labor 

 of cultivation and tlie use of the land. If the crop happens to be one 

 that requires a i^eriod of years for the test, the loss from its failure is 

 proportionately great. 



The cause of failure in tlio great majority of cases is climatic unfit- 

 ness. The quantity, distribution, or interrelation of heat and moisture 

 may be at fault. Thus, while the total quantitj' of heat maj" be ade- 

 quate, the moisture may l)e inadequate, or the moisture may be 

 adequate and the heat inadequate, or the quantities of heat and mois- 

 ture may be too gieat or too small with respect to one another or to 

 the time of year, and so on. What the farmer wants to know is how 

 to tellin advance whethei" the climatic conditions on his own farm are 

 fit or unfit for the particular crop he has in view, and what crops lie 

 can raise with reasonable certainty. It requires no ai'gument to show 

 that the answers to these questions would be worth in the aggregate 

 hundreds of thousands of dollars yearly to the American farmer. The 

 Biological Survey aims to furnish these answers. 



MAPPING AGRICULTURAL REGIONS. 



From the study of the geographic distribution of our native animals 

 and plants it has been learned that the United States maybe divided 

 into seven transcontinental beltsand a number of minor areas, each of 

 which is adai)ted to particular associations of animal and vegetable life. 

 It has l)een found also that each of these belts and minor areas, except 

 the coldest, is adapted to (he needs of particular agricultural products, 



' In 1890 New York produced 48.3 per cent and Wisconsin 21.3 per cent of the 

 total output of cheese for the country. The New York output in that year was 

 124,086,524 pounds. 



