Modern business geography

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1830562916

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-217337

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Huntington, Ellsworth http://d-nb.info/gnd/117070092; Cushing, Sumner W.

Title:: Modern business geography

Place of publication:: New York [usw.]

Publisher:: World Book Company

Year of publication:: 1930

Scope:: VIII, 352 S.; Ill., graph. Darst.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part one. The field of primary production

Collection:: Economics Books

4 4 Modern Business Geography WHEAT In the four years of the World War, all the civilized people of the world were made to realize the importance of wheat. Because many millions of farmers had become soldiers, the production of all food- stuffs fell off greatly. But it was the falling off in the production of wheat that caused the greatest distress. The substitutes for wheat, such as corn, rye, barley, and potatoes, were not equally appetizing and satisfying. People longed for the return of wheat bread. For a time it seemed that the side that could get the most wheat and make it go farthest would gain the victory. ‘‘ Wheat will win the war,” was a common assertion. Where our wheat is grown. Although wheat is grown in every state in the Union, two regions are most important: (1) the north- eastern United States, from Maryland, Pennsylvania, and western New York, westward to the Dakotasand Kansas; and (2) eastern Wash- ington and Oregon (Fig. 28). The wheat belt, where production is greatest, extends northward across Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota into Canada, and projects into Minnesota. In this region wheat is always an important subject of conversation and has a prominent place in the newspapers, for prosperity depends largely upon the wheat crop. Conditions for raising wheat in the wheat belt. Let us see what conditions cause wheat to be so important in this belt. In the first place, a relief map of North America shows that the region where wheat is most abundant is part of the Great Plains. As in most plains, the soil here is fine and fertile. Furthermore, on rolling plains it is easy to use large machines for plowing, harrowing, and reaping. Rainfall is even more important than relief. As Figure 6 shows, from 15 to 80 inches of rain fall annually in the wheat belt. For- tunately much of this comes in the fall and early spring, when the wheat most needs it. But the skies are usually cloudless for a few weeks before the harvest, and the resulting dry weather ripens the seeds. - Temperature is quite as important as rainfall. Wheat growing 1s restricted to the cool temperate zone; the southern states, for in- stance, have practically none. Even within the region favorable to wheat, extensive crops are obtained only by cultivating the particu- lar kind of wheat suited to the temperature. There are two kinds: one, planted in the fall, is called winter wheat, while the other, planted in the spring, is called spring wheat.

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