American Agriculture

Europe and America. – The world’s grain bin. – Grain speculation. – Cost of production. – Transportation. – Agricultural machinery. – Grain and garden fruits. – Cattle raising and the meat trade. – Sheep raising. – Swine and their social position. – What we have to learn from the Americans.

America with its grain production has finally thrown Europe into confusion. The quarrelsome, militant old woman, who spent the last few decades on the madness of bloody orgies and lost her sanity in inventing improved instruments of self-destruction, now with horror begins to look at her young rival, who has beaten her swords into ploughshares and with the energy of fiery youth has devoted herself to the peaceful labor of husbandry. Already at the very brink of bankruptcy, old Europe has awakened and turned to her foundling, who has grown and developed into a blossoming beauty, asking her to set her gray head on the path of wisdom. When wheat from America flooded the world grain market, not only Russia—for whom study of grain production was, for which the study is, for which it was almost a Hamlet question—turned to studying American grain production, but also England, which until now had regarded its “colony” with truly lordly contempt. In the year before last, these two countries, differing in all things, as if by agreement, sent agents to the United States to investigate American grain production. In view of this, a brief sketch of American agricultural economy is not out of place.

The center of wheat production in the United States is located in the basin of the Missouri River and the upper Mississippi. This land was recently occupied by the red man, but now here grandly agriculture has unfolded and unparalleled agricultural industry is in full swing. Masses of emigrants occupy this land, penetrating farther and farther to the west. What attractive force this land has for them can be judged by their expression: “if hell lay between us and the west, we would step over it just to reach the promised land.” But emigrants, in essence, are not cultivators of the land, they are only scratchers of the soil. When the virgin land becomes exhausted and not an acre of rich prairie remains, succeeding generations will again turn to the east and take up rational husbandry of the old type. It is incredible, however, that such an active and enterprising people would limit themselves only to the surface of the land, when directly beneath it, in the basin of the Missouri River, with the city of Kansas at the center, lie enormous deposits of coal, far exceeding similar deposits in Pennsylvania and Maryland. Two great mountain ranges frame this territory: the Alleghenies, running parallel to the Atlantic coast, and the Rocky Mountains, stretching along the Pacific coast. A distance of 1,700 miles separates the bases of these mountain chains at the points where they cross the border line of Canada. To the south the distance narrows and descends to 750 miles. Except for a small strip, through which for a distance of two hundred miles the Red River flows toward Lake Winnipeg, all this space is watered by only one great river. It contains approximately eight hundred million (800,000,000) acres of land, so that this Mississippi valley is fourteen times larger than all of Great Britain.

The chief grain products here are wheat and maize. The latter is produced more in the southern part of the valley, and the former in the northern and north-western parts, with spring wheat produced in the north and winter wheat in the south, where the fields are not occupied by maize. Remarkable is the peculiarity in the harvest of these two products. The wheat harvest depends more on weather, while the maize harvest depends on cultivation. Besides, the period in which maize may be sown is prolonged, and the time in which it may be harvested without fear of material loss is measured in whole months up to winter. It is different with wheat. Sowing may be limited to only a few weeks in spring or fall, and harvest cannot last more than a few days. Since it depends less on cultivation than on climate and weather, it is for this reason mainly that it is chosen for sowing on new lands. It is the bread of the virgin prairies and newly plowed lands of the western states. For all its capriciousness, wheat always brings the highest prices of any grain, and transportation itself gives an enormous source for speculation. Immediately after threshing, the grain is carted to the station of the nearest railroad and stored in the local elevator. Here one can always find agents of large grain traders, and they are always ready to buy according to “exchange prices.” Prices are checked in newspapers, which in America, thanks to the widespread use of telegraph wires, always and everywhere provide news no later than the day before. Payment for the grain is made in cash, and it is lowered into the elevator for sorting, weighing and cleaning, and with the issuance of a receipt is placed at the disposal of the buyer or future owners of the receipt. When the cost of production and weight of wheat are determined, its price still depends very much on speculation. Speculation in wheat in America is easier and more tempting because of the known method of its transfer from hand to hand. Upon depositing wheat in some public warehouse or elevator and its inspection by a special official designated for “sorting” the grain, the latter distributes it into classes 1, 2 or 3—by weight in 60 pounds per bushel. Then the owner is issued a receipt for a certain quantity of bushels of wheat of a certain grade, and according to this receipt the wheat is issued. The receipt may pass through several hands (each new buyer giving only a small sum to secure the seller from loss), and when the wheat is issued, it will surely not contain a single grain of that which was originally deposited. Sometimes it happens that at the place of issue the wheat is cheaper than at the place of production.

Although in general it can be said that if the cost of production exceeds the price of the product, then production should cease, regarding America one must bear in mind that it has an annually increasing surplus in grain and meat, which it must sell at whatever price. Three-quarters of this surplus is sold annually to England. Other countries, except in years of particular famine, do not need American wheat and therefore impose heavy duties on its import. Therefore, whatever low prices may be in England, the greater part of the grain and meat exported from the United States will always be directed to its shores. And when a good harvest happens simultaneously in both the Old and New World, then prices can fall into the abyss. By round figures one may determine the cost of cultivation of an acre at 10 dollars, including expenditures for delivery of grain six miles to the local railroad, warehouse or elevator. But these figures do not determine the cost of production of a bushel of wheat; here the harvest, which depends on the year, has paramount importance. For a whole series of recent years, wheat harvest in the United States has yielded more than 12 bushels per acre. In 1879, an acre even yielded 13.1 bushels. It has been observed that the center of population and industrial labor in the United States constantly and rapidly moves westward; consequently, wheat production has a nomadic character and moves in the same direction. Farmers consider it more profitable, that is, cheaper, when conducted on virgin soil at some distance from centers of consumption than in depleted districts, from which they migrate, yielding place to another population needing the grain they produce.

Regarding transportation and freight, there is a significant difference between the cost of transportation from Chicago to New York by water or by railroad, the latter being exactly twice as expensive. Water routes are closed by ice from November to April. For ocean transportation, sailing vessels and steamers are used; but the difference in their cost over the last five years was so insignificant that there is no need to examine it.

Observations on the cost of wheat production in America are based mostly on calculations drawn from the practice of huge farms where land is worked with the best machines and under the most perfect economic management. Other figures for cost are taken from the practice of small farmers. But very little value is placed on the labor of the farmer himself and his family. Few have any idea of the stubborn and tireless work that falls to even well-to-do farmers in America. Except perhaps during harvest, no farmer spends as much time and labor in his daily work. The readiness with which farmers in America take to machines is simply astonishing. The skill and ease with which they work speaks well for the perfection of the machines, but even more for the shrewdness and intelligence of the farmer. In America, labor-saving machines, even on small farms, are an absolute necessity. Moreover, the purchase of machines is further encouraged by the fact that the farmer can always buy them on credit with installment payments. In their construction, the machines used on farms are very good, extremely light and handy. Sometimes there are complaints about the lack of durability of American agricultural implements, but this is more the fault of the inexperience of European farmers in handling them. American machines in their perfection are far superior to English ones. They are lighter, more elegant, and better.

When the natural fertility of virgin soil becomes exhausted or the productive power of the land declines and there arises the need to resort to crop rotation to restore its productivity, the cost of wheat production in these western prairies and in the basin of the great river will undoubtedly increase. That this exhaustion, with continuous wheat production accompanied by burning of straw, must eventually occur—this is certain. But it will not happen soon. The enormous plant deposits accumulated over centuries, and masses of all kinds of grass burned and rotting on the prairies, cannot be exhausted in a few years. Besides, when wheat begins to show weakness in growth, a simple change of crop to “Indian corn,” as it is called, appears to be sufficient to restore the fertility of the land. In northern latitudes, where Indian corn or maize cannot grow, a one-year crop of clover is sufficient for the same purpose. But the declining productivity of land in some eastern states and the necessity of fertilizing it in others clearly show that no matter how great the fertility of virgin land, it is still not inexhaustible.

Immediately after wheat in importance in American agriculture comes corn or the so-called Indian grain—maize. Corn slowly but steadily pushes wheat northward and now occupies the vast area from the Mexican Gulf to the shores of the Great Lakes. The cost of its production is determined at 5 1/2 dollars per acre, which ordinarily yields up to 40 bushels. Corn is a convenient grain for restoring the productive power of the land. The land rests, is cleaned, and becomes enriched by its cultivation. Besides, it is an extremely reliable grain. Wheat is capricious and its harvest constantly fluctuates. Of the last 18 harvests in the state of Ohio, only six gave complete yields; some suffered greatly from drought; but corn during all this time gave a satisfactory harvest, averaging 35 bushels per acre. The annual production of corn in recent times has increased in enormous progression. In 1868 it was sown on about 35,000,000 acres, and in 1878 already on 51,500,000, but its monetary value constantly declined. This increased surplus and cheapness made it the subject of important foreign trade, so that at least 6 percent of it goes abroad. Recently it has, as is known, attempted to penetrate even into Russia. In America it has much use. It serves first of all for fattening cattle and swine. A bushel of corn at 25 cents, given to swine, returns already 30 cents, if the fattened pig is sold even at so low a price as three cents per pound of live weight. Besides, there is great demand for it for human consumption. Americans love it and it is served at the table in all possible forms and ways. As an after-dinner dessert, Yankees eat boiled cobs, spreading them with butter and sprinkling them with pepper. A very large quantity of it is processed into spirits and exported abroad. Barley is little produced in America, and its grain is unclean, poor, and irregular; but oats, on the other hand, constantly increase in production. In 1874 it was produced 11,000,000 bushels, and in 1878 already more than 13,000,000.

A fairly important branch of agriculture is the potato, although in general its production does not increase particularly rapidly. In 1874, 1,333,333 bushels were produced, and in 1878 only 1,750,000. New York State supplies one-third of this quantity. Its quality in general is good, except in the southwestern states. The general yield is not particularly large, and is assessed at 88 bushels per acre, 60 pounds per bushel. In America there are two kinds of potatoes—the common variety known in Russia, and the sweet potato. The latter Americans love perhaps even more than the former, but for a European it is cloying, has the taste of ordinary potato stewed in molasses.

American farms produce an enormous quantity of fruits of all kinds, and in general each farm appears from the outside like a sort of garden. Each spring, on the territory from the Delaware Bay to the inter-oceanic strip of the northwest, more than 5,000,000 peach trees bloom. In the middle states and New England, hundreds of families derive considerable income from gathering and selling wild berries—strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, huckleberries, and many others, growing abundantly in fields and forests and along the borders of farmers’ fields. These small fruits are mostly consumed by the native population. Palisades with pears and peaches are scattered everywhere. Even cemeteries are planted with pear and peach trees, where they serve for the free and costless use of Americans, who love to hold funeral feasts for their ancestors. Whole fields are sown with sunflowers, their stems often rising above 11 feet and the disks themselves being more than 13 inches in diameter. Grapes grow abundantly in California, though in quality they far fall short of our Crimean grapes. Wines made from them, and especially the “California champagne” so beloved here, according to the Americans, are no worse than French, but European wine connoisseurs merely smile at them. Watermelons and melons are produced in enormous quantities and in some states, especially Georgia, are of superior quality. Georgia watermelons have an oblong shape and are often so large that they are hard to lift. But the largest item of horticulture is apples. More than 2,000,000 acres of land are planted with apple trees, and over the last eight years apple growing has increased rapidly. Together with peaches, apples here are, as one might say, dirt cheap, and accessible to all classes of people. In New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland there are many such orchards with 10,000, 20,000 and 30,000 trees.

Another important branch of American agriculture is cattle raising. However, whoever has seen the magnificent bulls in England called American, and the massive beef carcasses unloaded at Liverpool from ocean steamers, will form an erroneous impression of American cattle. In America there is comparatively very little cattle of good breed. Of course, in Kentucky and surrounding states thousands of large and pure short-horned cattle graze, but in the eastern states the cattle are quite ordinary, descended from ordinary ancestors brought by the original settlers, and good breeds are rarely met. In the south and west, Texas and similar breeds predominate, descended undoubtedly from ancestors brought from Spain.