[Sidenote: =The great cotton crop of the southern states=]
=228. Cotton Fields and Cotton Factories.= Since the days of Eli
Whitney cotton has been grown in all the southern states from Virginia
westward to Texas, and from the Gulf of Mexico north to Missouri. More
than one half of all the cotton in the world is grown in southern
United States. High-grade cotton is also grown in California,
Arizona, and New Mexico, and California is now one of our leading
cotton-producing states.
A field of growing cotton is very picturesque. Its culture employs
many laborers. The number of laborers needed, however, is not the same
throughout the year. In the fall, when the bolls ripen, all hands,
large and small, pick cotton. This work takes several months. Then the
picked cotton is put through a gin which is still built along the
lines of Whitney's invention. The cleaned cotton is pressed into large
bales and is then ready for market.
[Sidenote: =Cotton-seed oil=]
The cotton seed goes to one mill, the cotton to another. For many years
the seed was wasted. Farmers burned it or threw it away. But now in
all parts of the South great mills crush the seed and make from it a
valuable oil. What is left is cotton-seed cake, and is bought eagerly
by cattle growers everywhere.
[Sidenote: =Cotton mills in the South=]
Only a few years ago almost all the cotton grown in the South was
shipped away, either to Europe or to New England. In Massachusetts and
Rhode Island cotton mills employ more people than any other industry,
and great cities are supported almost entirely by manufacturing cotton
goods. Now the South has also discovered that it can spin and weave its
cotton at home. About many of its waterfalls is heard the hum of busy
cotton mills. New cities are growing up, and prosperity has returned to
the South.
[Illustration: PICKING COTTON
_From a photograph_]
[Sidenote: =Wheat belt west of the Mississippi=]
=229. The Grain that Feeds the Nation.= From the days of the early
colonists, wheat has been one of the most valuable crops produced in
this country. In the states east of the Mississippi River the farmers
have long raised it in connection with a variety of other crops. But
as the newer lands west of this river were taken up, the settlers
discovered that in that region wheat yielded more abundantly than any
other crop.
From Kansas northward to Minnesota and western Canada lies a broad
stretch of land which has cool spring weather and a light rainfall.
This is the climate best suited to wheat, and here has developed the
great wheat belt of America.
[Sidenote: =Traction engines=]
In this region there are vast wheat fields almost everywhere,
stretching farther than the eye can see over the level surface. Most
of the farms are very large, some of them including many thousands of
acres. The work on these places is done with the most modern machines.
Traction engines are used to pull the great plows, the largest of which
turn fifty furrows at a time. In harvest time an army of reaping and
binding machines harvests the golden grain. The harvesting machine and
the thresher have also been combined. On some of the greatest farms a
huge complex machine makes its way through the standing grain, leaving
behind it rows of bags, filled with threshed grain ready for the market.
[Sidenote: =Grain elevators=]
With the aid of such machinery a few people can cultivate a great many
acres. As a result, the country is thinly settled. The towns are few
and far between. In most of them the principal building is the grain
elevator, which holds the grain until it is ready to be shipped.
[Sidenote: =Flour mills=]
From the elevators the wheat goes to the flour mills. The largest of
these are in Minneapolis, in the eastern part of the wheat belt. The
flour in its turn goes to feed the many millions of people in all parts
of the country.
[Sidenote: =Grain exports decrease=]
For many years this country grew much more wheat than we needed, and
we shipped great quantities to Europe. But each year our growing
population needs more food, and our exports of this grain decrease
steadily. Even now our farms grow but little more of this grain than is
needed at home, and the time is almost at hand when we shall no longer
send any of it abroad.
[Illustration: THE STEAM PLOW AT WORK ON A PRAIRIE FARM
_From a photograph_]
[Sidenote: =Texas and Iowa lead=]
=230. Cattle Raising and Meat Packing.= Cattle raising, like wheat
farming, is principally an industry of the West. As late as 1850 the
states which raised the most cattle lay along the Atlantic coast. But
to-day Texas and Iowa are in the lead, and Kansas and Nebraska follow
closely.
[Sidenote: =Cattle ranches of the West=]
As the eastern states became peopled more densely, cattle grazing
was forced west. The cattle pastures were broken up into fields. The
prairies of Illinois and Iowa became a vast cornfield. Eastern Kansas
and Nebraska were turned into corn and wheat farms. Always the cattle
had to give way to the grain. At last the farmers came to a strip
of country where the rainfall was not enough to make grain growing
profitable. This comparatively narrow strip stretches north in an
irregular area of plains from western Texas to Montana. This region
grows fine grass and has become the great grazing country of the United
States. Here vast herds of cattle still roam on large ranches and are
cared for by cowboys.
[Sidenote: =Corn-fed cattle=]
East of the ranch country lies the corn belt, in which Illinois and
Iowa are the leading states. Cattle fatten better on corn than on any
other food, and the meat of corn-fed stock brings the best prices.
The corn states have therefore taken up the raising and fattening of
cattle on a tremendous scale. When western cattle leave the ranch they
are generally not very heavy. Thousands of carloads are shipped into
the corn country each year, there to be fattened before going to the
packing houses.
The Department of Agriculture, at Washington, is now taking great pains
to induce the boys, especially of the South, to make experiments in
corn raising. Some wonderful results have been produced, and the South
is in a fair way to take to the raising of corn.
[Illustration: COWBOYS DRIVING CATTLE FROM THE PRAIRIE PASTURAGE
_From a photograph_]
[Sidenote: =Invention of refrigerator cars=]
The largest meat-packing plants are located in the corn belt at
Chicago, Kansas City, Omaha, and other cities. To-day meat packing
is the greatest business of Chicago and many other large cities. A
generation ago it had scarcely begun. But the packers learned to can
meat, to use ice for cold storage, and, most important of all, the
refrigerator car was invented.
By this last discovery it became possible to ship meat almost
everywhere. Where before the packers had to sell their goods at home,
now they have the world as a market. A steer raised on the western
prairies may now be fattened for market in Illinois, slaughtered in
Chicago, and served in New York, or sent to England or even to the
Orient.