OCR Text |
Show 46 BASIS OP AMERICAN HISTORY [ 1900 Canada, in many of the northern states, and in California, in which state the fruit industry reaches its greatest development, extremely large quantities being annually shipped to the east, both in a fresh condition and preserved.\ Also of high economic importance are the pear, the cherries, and plums, with a northern preference, the peach, almond, quince, prune, olive, fig, and apricot, which require a warmer climate. The orange and the lemon are very largely grown in southern California and to a less extent in Florida, where also some West Indian products, such as the pineapple, are coming into cultivation. sFrom the economic stand- point the cereals are of supreme interest, as they furnish a very high percentage of the world's food supply. ^ These include wheat, maize, or Indian- corn, rice, oats, rye, barley, and buckwheat, which have a variable comparative importance in different countries. In the United States corn is the greatest of all crops,^ the yield for 1902l the greatest yet recorded, being over two billion five hundred million bushels, grown pn the vast area of ninety- four million acres. 2 The plant is in all probability a native of Central America, and was generally in use among the Indians on the arrival of the whitesj who found it in cultivation, and saw it employed tor a vari- 1The year 1902 has, for purposes of convenience, been chosen for such comparisons as are made in the following pages. 2 U. S. Dept. Agric, Year- Book, 190a, pp. 760 ff. |