766
POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
4. What proportion of the arable land above measured should you consider suitable to the production of wheat under general conditions such as are given in the text, say, a stable price of one dollar per bushel in London?
Answersquare miles.
5. To what extent, in your judgment, is wheat becoming the cash or surplus crop of a varied system of agriculture as distinct from the methods which prevail in the opening of new lands of cropping with wheat for a term of years?
What further remarks can you add which will enable me to elucidate this case, to complete the article and to convey a true impression of the facts to English readers?
| Your assistance in this matter will be gratefully received. |
| Respectfully submitted, |
| Edward Atkinson. |
To this circular I received twenty-four detailed replies, containing statistics mostly very complete; also many suggestive letters, in every case giving full support to the general views which I had submitted in the proof sheets. It has been impossible for me to give individual credit within the limits of a magazine article to the gentlemen who have so fully supplied the data. Space will only permit me to submit a digest of the more important facts in a table derived from these replies:
| Name. | from returns made to my inquiry. | From United States report in wheat, 1897. | ||
| Area of State. | Arable. | Suitable to wheat. | ||
| Minnesota | 84,287 | 66,000 | 50,000 | 7,189 |
| South Dakota | 76,000 | 42,500 | 40,000 | 4,187 |
| North Dakota | 74,312 | 50,000 | 50,000 | 4,300 |
| Illinois | 56,000 | 54,000 | 20,000 | 2,292 |
| Missouri | 68,000 | 64,000 | 64,000 | 2,448 |
| Wisconsin | 56,000 | 35,000 | 35,000 | 961 |
| 414,599 | 311,500 | 259,000 | 21,372 | |
| Texas | 269,694 | 200,000 | 100,000 | 700 |
| California | 158,360 | 54,000 | 30,000 | 5,062 |
| Montana | 145,310 | 30,000 | 25,000 | 109 |
| Idaho | 87,000 | 30,000 | 15,000 | 192 |
| 660,364 | 314,000 | 170,000 | 6,063 | |
| Total | 1,074,963 | 625,500 | 429,000 | 27,435 |