4. What proportion of the arable land above measured should you consider suitable to the production of wheat under general conditions such as are given in the text, say, a stable price of one dollar per bushel in London?
5. To what extent, in your judgment, is wheat becoming the cash or surplus crop of a varied system of agriculture as distinct from the methods which prevail in the opening of new lands of cropping with wheat for a term of years?
What further remarks can you add which will enable me to elucidate this case, to complete the article and to convey a true impression of the facts to English readers?
| Your assistance in this matter will be gratefully received. |
| Respectfully submitted, |
| Edward Atkinson. |
To this circular I received twenty-four detailed replies, containing statistics mostly very complete; also many suggestive letters, in every case giving full support to the general views which I had submitted in the proof sheets. It has been impossible for me to give individual credit within the limits of a magazine article to the gentlemen who have so fully supplied the data. Space will only permit me to submit a digest of the more important facts in a table derived from these replies:
| Name. | from returns made to my inquiry. | From United States report in wheat, 1897. | ||
| Area of State. | Arable. | Suitable to wheat. | ||
| Minnesota | 84,287 | 66,000 | 50,000 | 7,189 |
| South Dakota | 76,000 | 42,500 | 40,000 | 4,187 |
| North Dakota | 74,312 | 50,000 | 50,000 | 4,300 |
| Illinois | 56,000 | 54,000 | 20,000 | 2,292 |
| Missouri | 68,000 | 64,000 | 64,000 | 2,448 |
| Wisconsin | 56,000 | 35,000 | 35,000 | 961 |
| 414,599 | 311,500 | 259,000 | 21,372 | |
| Texas | 269,694 | 200,000 | 100,000 | 700 |
| California | 158,360 | 54,000 | 30,000 | 5,062 |
| Montana | 145,310 | 30,000 | 25,000 | 109 |
| Idaho | 87,000 | 30,000 | 15,000 | 192 |
| 660,364 | 314,000 | 170,000 | 6,063 | |
| Total | 1,074,963 | 625,500 | 429,000 | 27,435 |
