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our corn crop has increased over 350 per cent. Illinois and Iowa are the greatest corn-producing states, each having a yearly record of over four hundred million bushels. The Figure on page 58 shows the principal corn-producing areas in the United States.

Indian corn is put to many uses. It is a valuable food. It contains a large proportion of starch, from which glucose and alcohol are made. Machine oil and soap are made from it. The leaves and stalk are an excellent fodder; they can be made into paper and packing material. Mattresses can be stuffed with the husks. The pith is used as a protective belt placed below the water line of our huge battleships. Corn cobs are used for fuel, one hundred bushels having the fuel value of a ton of coal.

Wheat. Wheat is the crop of next greatest importance in size, and is of even greater money value to this country. Nearly seven

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hundred millions of bushels were raised in this country in 1910, representing a total money value of over $700,000,000. Seventytwo per cent of all the wheat raised comes from the North Central States and California. About three fourths of the wheat crop is

exported, nearly one half of it to Great Britain. Wheat has its chief use in its manufacture into flour. The germ, or young wheat plant, is sifted out during this process and made into breakfast foods. Flour-making forms the chief industry of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and of several other large and wealthy cities in this country.

Other Grains. Of the other grain and cereals raised in this country, oats are the most important crop, over one billion bushels having been produced in 1910. Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa produce together over 50 per cent of the total yield. Oats are distinctly a Northern crop, over 95 per cent being grown north of the thirty-sixth parallel. Barley is another largely Northern crop; a staple of some of the northern countries of Europe and Asia, although such a hardy cereal. Almost three fourths of the total production in the United States comes from California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa; the production of these states may be roughly estimated as 86,000,000 bushels. In this country, it is largely used for making malt in the manufacture of beer.

Rye is the most important cereal crop of northern Europe, Russia, Germany, and Austro-Hungary producing over 50 per cent of the world's supply. It makes the principal food for probably one third the people of Europe, being made into "black bread." It is of relatively less importance as a crop now in the United States than in former years.

Perhaps one of the most important grain crops for the world (although relatively unimportant in the United States) is rice. A grasslike plant, its fruit, after thrashing, screening, and milling, forms the principal food of one third of the human race. Moreover, its stems furnish straw, its husks make a bran used as food for cattle, and the grain, when distilled, is rich in alcohol. Nearly related to the grains are our grasses. There is a total forage crop (exclusive of corn stalks) of nearly 100,000,000 tons, valued at over $600,000,000. The best hay in the eastern part of the United States comes from dry timothy grass and clover, the stems and leaves as well as the fruits forming the so-called hay. In some parts of the West a kind of clover called alfalfa is much grown, it being adapted to the semiarid conditions of that part of the country.

Cotton. Among our fruits cotton is probably that of the most importance to the outside world. Over eleven million bales of five hundred pounds each are raised annually. Of this amount a large amount is exported, the United States producing over three fourths of the world's cotton supply. The relation of source and distribution of the cotton crop can be seen by a glance at the accompanying diagram.

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The cotton plant is essentially a warmth-loving plant. Its commercial importance is gained because the seeds of the fruit have long filaments attached to them. Bunches of these filaments, after treatment, are easily twisted into threads from which are manufactured cotton cloth, muslin, calico, and cambric. In addition to the fiber, cottonseed oil, a substitute for olive oil, is made from the seeds, and the refuse remaining makes an excellent cattle fodder.

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Cotton Boll Weevil. The cotton crop of the United States has rather recently been threatened with destruction by a beetle called the cotton boll weevil. This insect, which bores into the young pod of the cotton, develops there, stunting the growth of the fruit to such an extent seeds are not produced. The loss in Texas alone is

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Map showing spread of the cotton boll weevil. It was introduced from Mexico about 1894. What proportion of the cotton-raising belt was infected in 1908?

estimated at over $10,000,000 a year. The boll weevil, because of the protection offered by the cotton boll, is very difficult to exterminate. The weevils are destroyed by birds, the infected bolls and stalks are burnt, millions are killed each winter by cold, other insects prey on them, but at the present time they are one of the greatest pests the South knows and no sure method of extermination has been found.

Garden Fruits. - Green plants and especially vegetables have come to play an important part in the dietary of man. The dis

eases known as scurvy and beri-beri,

the latter the curse of the far Eastern navies, have been largely prevented by adding vegetables and fruit juices to the dietary of the sailors. People in this country are beginning to find that more vegetables and less meat are better than the meat diet so often used. Market gardening forms the lucrative business of many thousands of people near our great cities. Some of the most important fleshy fruits-squash, cucumbers, pumpkins, and melons

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Cross section of a cucumber, a реро. Note the number of locules or spaces in the ovary. How and where are the seeds attached?

are examples of the pepo type of fruit; tomatoes and peppers are types of berries in botanical language (for a berry is any soft

Cross section of a green pepper, a berry. How many locules has the ovary? Note the arrangement of the seeds.

or juicy fruit containing small seeds).
The berries-strawberries, raspberries,
and blackberries-of our gardens bring
in an annual income of $25,000,000 to
our fruit raisers. Beans and peas are
important as foods because of their
relatively large amount of proteid.
Peanuts, rather curiously, are true leg-
umes, like peas and beans, but develop
underground. Canning green corn,
peas, beans, and tomatoes has become an
important business.

Orchard and Other
Fruits. In the United

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States over one hundred and seventy-five million bushels of apples are grown every year.

Pears,

plums, apricots, peaches, and nectarines also form

large orchards, especially in California. Nuts The blackberry, a

form one of our important articles of food, largely because of the large amount of proteid contained in them.

fruit made up of

many separate ripe carpels.

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