The United States as a Farming Country 37 
| UNITED STAT™ 
ARID AND SWAMP! © 
71 ARID REGIONS 
- WA 
_w~I TERED SWAMPS 
Lo 
Fig. 22. Arid lands and swamp lands are not available for agriculture. Much of the arid region 
is mountain land that will never be productive. The swamps that need to be drained are small 
compared with the arid regions, and are located in a different part of the country. The draining 
of swamps is usually undertaken by the governments of the states concerned, not by the Federal 
zovernment. Lovers of wild life tell us that some swamp areas should be left as refuges for birds 
and wild animals, for many species will become extinct when the last of the swamps are drained. 
6. The average value of the crops per acre of improved land for the whole 
country in 1919 was about $36.33. How do you account for the 
difference between this crop value and that mentioned in Question 5? 
Explain how the reclamation of arid land benefits you. 
Frame a brief statement to tell how these examples of reclaiming waste 
land by irrigation illustrate the importance of rainfall to agriculture. 
B. Alaska as a farming country. 
1. Compare Figures 3 and 4 with Figures 20 and 21. What parts of Alaska 
might we expect to be productive? 
In what other parts of the United States are the summer temperatures 
like those of Alaska? The winter temperatures ? 
C. Why some countries carry on intensive farming. 
l. A farmer in Shantung, China, had a wife and ten children. He supported 
them all on two and a half acres of land, where he kept one cow, one don- 
key, and two pigs, and grew millet, wheat, sweet potatoes, and beans. 
In the United States there are about three and a half acres of cultivated 
land for each man, woman, and child. How many acres would an 
American farmer need, with his high standard of living, to support a 
family of the same size as the Chinese farmer's ?