The great geographical regions of the United States are indicated by this map. Starting from the East we have the Atlantic Plains and, just behind them, the Eastern Plateaus running north and south. Then come the Appalachian Mountains and the Allegheny Plateaus, followed, still further westward, by the Lake Plains, the Prairie Plains, and the Great Plains. Southward, fringing the Gulf of Mexico, are the Gulf Plains. To the far west are three great land regions, namely, the Rocky Mountain area, the Western Plateaus, and the Pacific Slope.
This map should be used in connection with Question 1 (page [354]).
4. Cattle raising.
As the frontier rolled westward to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains a fourth type of agriculture—using the term in its wider sense—began to make rapid strides. This was the stock-raising industry, the production of horned cattle and sheep on large tracts of grazing land or ranches. This branch of agricultural activity has made its greatest progress in the Middle Southwest and upon the upland states just east of the Rockies (Montana, Wyoming, etc.). Cattle are raised on the ranches, then shipped to the corn belt where they are fattened before being sent to the abattoirs at St. Louis and Chicago.[[156]]
Miscellaneous activities.
Other branches of agriculture which have developed largely within the past half century are dairying, market gardening, and fruit growing. These activities are not confined to any one section of the country but to a considerable extent are carried on everywhere. Dairying and market gardening have made most progress within convenient distance of the large cities, although improved transportation facilities in the way of air-cooled and refrigerator cars now permit the shipment of dairy and garden produce over long distances.
From all this it can be seen that when one speaks of the interests of agriculture a great many different things are included. The agriculture of the United States is diversified to an extent that is found in no other country.
Size of the various crops.
The Value of American Agricultural Products.—The largest cereal crop produced in the United states is corn; the total in some years runs as high as three billion bushels. This is more than twice the amount of corn grown in all the rest of the world. Oats come next, with about one and one-half billion bushels in the best years, and wheat third, with a round billion or thereabouts. Cotton is the largest staple crop, with an annual yield of from ten to fifteen billion bales, each bale containing five hundred pounds. Of this nearly half is exported. More than twelve million cattle are received each year at the great abattoirs, besides an equal number of sheep and twice as many hogs.