UNITED STATES                                      Ï97Í                                      UNITED STATES

tricity, gas, steam, water and even windmills and animals were used to produce power. The manufacture of electrical apparatus has become an immense industry, and in making agricultural machines and tools the United States excels every other country. The hand-trades and the local industries annually produce over $1,200,-000,000 of goods. The manufactures of the United States equal those of France, Germany and the United Kingdom together. (See Furniture, Glass, Smelting and Steel; articles on other manufactures; and the subject of Manufactures in articles on states.)

Agriculture. For more than a century the United States has been the greatest agricultural country on the globe. The American farmer in two years produces more wealth than have all the gold-mines of the entire world since 1492. The immense extent of fertile land, the liberal policy of the national government as to the public domain (see Homestead Laws and Preemption), the climatic advantages and the comparative ease of access are among the causes that brought about this preeminence. In the continental United States, excluding Alaska and the islands, there remained 406,349,094 acres of public lands on July 1, 1907, still available for settlement. Most of this, however, is in mountainous and arid regions. In 1900 the farms were worth $20,439,901,164. The size of an average farm is nearly 150 acres. Agriculture employs nearly 11,000,000 people, almost half of all laborers in the United States, and almost 5,000,000 families live on farms. The chief agricultural areas are the central plain from the Appalachians to 100° W.; the Gulf states and Georgia; and the Pacific slope. But the Atlantic slope also abounds in valuable farms on its fertile lowlands; and the soil of the arid regions along the Rockies — regions comprising nearly a third of the United States — is generally fertile and only needs irrigation (q. v.). New York and New England chiefly engage in mixed farming and in dairying; the Mississippi valley grows the cereals; the south cotton, sugar, tobacco and tropical fruits, besides truck-farming for northern markets; and the Pacific coast grain and fruits. The agricultural products of the United States form the bulk of the exports.

Cereals are the most important farm-product, and corn (q. v.) leads in the amount grown. In 1907 the yields were 2,592,320,000 bushels of corn; 754,443,000 of oats; 634,087,000 of wheat; 153,597,000 of barley; 31,566,000 of n^e (some European countries far surpassing the United States as producers of rye); 18,738,000 of rice; and 14,290,000 of buckwheat. (See articles under these titles.) In 1906 the corn of the United States was worth $1,166,626,179; the wheat $490,332,760; and the oats

$306,292,978. All cereals in that year totaled 4,854,5x4,837 bushels and were valued at $2,065,886,900.

Cotton (q. v.) stands next to corn as a commercial asset of the United States. It is the chief product of the south, and in 1906 it was worth $640,311,538. The cotton-states from first to last in production are Texas, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Florida, Missouri, Virginia and Kentucky. Kansas raised 21 bales.

The humble hay-crop, however, has sometimes been worth even more than cotton, though lacking its commercial and industrial importance, for in 1907 it weighed 63,677,-000 tons and was valued at $743,507,000.

Potatoes (Irish and sweet) come next in value ($177,417,232), Wisconsin, Minnesota and New York raising Irisn potatoes in large quantities, and southern Illinois and the south the sweet potato. See Potato.

Fruit-raising, taken in the widest sense, is a great branch of American agriculture. In Delaware, Florida, New Jersey, southern California, western New York and western Michigan it is the leading industry of the farm. In the mountainous regions of Montana, in Oregon and in Washington it also is a great industry. Oranges and pineapples are the chief fruits of Florida; almonds, apricots, grapes, lemons, oranges and prunes of the greatest importance in California; grapes in New York and Ohio; apples in New York and New England; peaches in Michigan and Georgia. Small fruits, as blackberries, gooseberries, raspberries and strawberries, are grown almost everywhere. Over half a billion bushels of apples, apricots, grapes, peaches, pears, prunes and small fruits are raised, apples being largely exported, and the value of the fruit crops, nuts and orchard products in 1900 was $140,000,000. (See Fruit and articles under titles as above.)

Tobacco (q. v.) is another of the great crops. In 1907 it was raised on 820,800 acres to the amount of 698,126,000 pounds and the value of $76,234,000. For rice and sugar see articles under these titles. In 1905-6 the output of cane-sugar was 268,-193 tons; and in 1907-8 that of beet-sugar was 420,000 tons, the sugar-beet being cultivated in many of the states with temperate climates. Considerable flax ts grown, chiefly for seed, in Minnesota, Wisconsin and some other states of the north, the yield in 1907 being 25,851,000 bushels.

Stock-raising (including poultry-farming) and dairying are other great branches of American agriculture. In 1905 the dairy-factories used 12,183,375,885 pounds of milk, and made 531,478,141 of butter; 317,-144,872 of cheese; and 308,485,182 of condensed milk, the v#lue of the thiee oeing $168,182,789. New York, Wisconun and