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of 4 feet in the same time.

An acre-foot, or the quantity required to cover an acre of ground to a depth of one foot, has the merit of definiteness, but its practical use is very limited. The quantity of water it represents is 43,560 cubic feet, or 325,851.4512 gallons, weighing 1,213 tons 2,113 pounds, at 2,240 pounds to the ton.

The unit of measurement that is really the most satisfactory, by reason of its definiteness, its relation to flowing water, and its applicability, either to large or relatively small quantities, is the secondfoot, which is rapidly superseding the miner's inch. It is the quantity represented by a stream 1 foot wide and I foot deep flowing at the average rate of 1 foot per second. It is, accordingly, I cubic foot per second, 60 cubic feet per minute, 3,600 cubic feet per hour, and 86,400 cubic feet, or 646,316.928 gallons, per day of 24 hours. This last-mentioned quantity would cover 1 119-121, or say 2, acres to a depth of 1 foot. The secondfoot is used by the United States government in the gauging of rivers and streams, and that its use in the measurement of water for irrigation will speedily become general admits of no doubt. Of the 8,097 artesian wells on farms, averaging 210.41 feet in depth, $245.58 in cost, and 54.43 gallons per minute in discharge, 3,930 were used for irrigating purposes, the total area thus irrigated being 51,896 acres, or an average of 13.21 acres per well. Of these, 2,060 were in California, 1,224 in Utah, and 345 in Colorado, leaving only 301 for the remainder of the arid region.

Relations of the Government and

Stations to the Farmer

What the farmer cannot

its Agricultural individually or by coöperation do for himself, the government may properly do for him. It therefore systematically observes, records, and, as far as may be, forecasts the weather; it ascertains, from time to time, the total production and disposition of the principal crops of the country, and the number and general condition of the different farm-animals; it maintains experts to investigate the nature of soils, the adaptability of plants to different environments, the diseases of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and the ravages of destructive birds and insects. All these investigations, with others of a subordinate character, but directed to a similar

end, are systematically and continuously carried on by the United States government at Washington and elsewhere, and some of them also by the different state agricultural experiment stations subsidized by Congress.

The results of these investigations, and of the work of the best scientists and experimentalists everywhere, are from time to time placed within the reach of the farmer, either free or at a merely nominal cost. So long, moreover, as the products of American agriculture continue to be so greatly in excess of the requirements of our own population, and their prices to be so largely governed by prices abroad, as has been the case throughout almost the entire history of the country, it is proper that the government should keep itself informed as to the condition of foreign markets and the nature and origin of the food-supplies of the world to the end that new or improved outlets may be found for the surplus products of the country. It may also strive to effect the removal of irksome restrictions imposed by foreign governments upon the importation of particular products. Here, however, its proper function in this regard comes to an end, and individual effort must once more be relied upon. The government cannot compel a purchaser to accept an inferior article or to pay a higher price than is fixed by the law of supply and demand, and it certainly is not its duty to make up to the producer for the deficiencies of an unprofitable market.

Present Trend of American Agriculture

Reference has been made in the foregoing pages to the fact that American agriculture has during the last few years been passing through a period of transition, or of readjustment to new conditions, due to the increasingly rapid westward movement of the agricultural centre of gravity and to the unprecedentedly low prices of the two principal money crops, wheat and cotton, for the surplus portions of which the American farmer and planter has been accustomed to receive from his foreign customers from $300,000,000 to $500,000,000 per annum. For the first time in its history, American agriculture is suffering somewhat seriously from the competition of other countries in the great markets of the world. That competition is not a

as

mere accident of the moment: it is a phase of the struggle for existence between nations; and so long American farms are annually producing from $500,000,000 to $800,000,000 worth of products over and above what the American people themselves can consume, it will have to be reckoned with.

The purpose for which this article is written is such that its statements must be as true and have as practical an application ten years hence as to-day. It is in the full appreciation of this fact that the writer pronounces the secret of the future prosperity of American agriculture to lie chiefly in its adaptations to the world's needs. The ready adaptability of the American to new conditions is proverbial all the world over, and in nothing is it more conspicuous than in agriculture. When the farmers of New England found themselves unable to compete with the Northwest in what had been their principal agricultural products for five generations, they did not throw up their hands in despair, but sought out and ap

plied themselves to what they could do best, with the result that they got larger returns on their capital and labor than ever before. Notwithstanding the unprecedentedly low prices of all kinds of farm produce, the farmers of Rhode Island increased the value of their products between 1879 and 1889 from $12.29 to $15.37 per acre, and the farmers of Massachusetts increased theirs from $11.35 to $16.94 per acre. If American farmers and exporters will study and cater to the tastes and requirements of their foreign customers, they need not fear being left in the race. A notable characteristic of the present time, and one that is scarcely likely to become an evil, is the tendency to a greater diversification of the products of the individual farm. This tendency is just as marked in the states that a few years ago were growing nothing but cotton as in those which were almost exclusively devoted to wheat. It is in strict accord with both the soundest principles and the most successful practice, and is a gratifying and encouraging sign of the times.

AMERICA TO-DAY -SOME SIGNS OF THE TIMES

W

HILE political parties are wrangling over the currency, and doleful pessimists are wondering if "good times will ever come again," a little common sense reflection on the condition of our country at the present time may help us to understand the hard, cold facts, and enable us to adjust ourselves personally to them.

The United States are not "played out" as a money-making country, we may be quite certain. Vast mineral resources, vast tracts of land, vast possibilities of business enterprise are still waiting the efforts of steady, hard work. But all the pay ore on the top of the ground has been raked off." Stock-watering railroad enterprises are exhausted. The opportunity to buy land for a small price, and become rich by holding it for a few years, has passed away forever.

The

days of eight and ten per cent. interest for money for starting new and quickpaying enterprises are already far behind us. In the natural development of a new country these things always do pass away,

as in the whole course of history we have seen that they have passed away. Rome, enriched by conquest, one day discovered that she had conquered everybody worth plundering, and that thenceforth she must turn her attention to other things. When the Normans conquered England they took their pick of the land and formed for themselves large estates; but already the middle classes have driven them out; landed properties in England are comparatively valueless. And so in a smaller way in our own country: the railroad barons have grabbed all there is to grab, and all the little grabbers (that is, we common folk), have exhausted the temporary advantages which we had over the rest of the world.

More than this, the markets of Europe have been largely closed to our agricultural products. Russia and India have come in to compete with us in England; Germany has become a manufacturing nation; Africa has been opened and is to-day the world's El Dorado. Not many years ago the deficit in Europe had to be supplied from America, and America

alone. Now we must compete with all the world or go out of business. At present it seems as if we had decided to go out of business rather than "buckle down;" and in the meantime all our fine chances are being seized by others, and we are losing the great advantages we had secured, even more rapidly than we had gained them.

One is astonished to read of the vast sums given annually in England for charities, the vast sums that are saved and are available for any laudable public enterprise. The Indian famine fund will reach several million dollars, and the Prince of Wales has asked for a sum to endow the hospitals of London that will yield half a million dollars annually as interest, and England is cheerfully setting to work to raise the money, as if she expected to do it. In the matter of investments, the people of Manchester were asked for $75,000,000 for their shipcanal, though interest on the investment could not be expected for twenty-five or thirty years, and the people- the poor as well as the rich furnished it out of their savings.

In America we managed to raise five millions to guarantee the expenses of the World's Fair at Chicago; but that was regarded as a first-rate advertising venture and we went into it as such. In America it would be simply impossible to raise such vast sums for charity, mere charity, as are annually procured in England. But it is not because we are less generous-minded, or large-spirited; it is simply because we feel that we can't afford it. We have got into the habit of living at a higher rate than we can comfortably manage, and it comes hard to reduce our expenses; we have set a higher value on our land than it was worth, and we are very loth to admit the facts and own that the land is not and never was worth what we had hoped it would be; we have always been hoping that an opportunity might arise for us to become millionaires like any one else, why not? — and we have yet to realize that we never can hope for anything so reckless as that.

As a people we have grown reckless, almost criminally so. Nowhere in the world are there so many robberies and murders as in the United States to-day; nowhere do so large a proportion of men in bank positions and other high offices betray their trusts; nowhere in the world

Yet

are all railroad enterprises so universally bankrupt as with us; and no people in the world are obliged to pay such high interest on their debts as we pay. it is all our own fault; nobody deceived us; we considered ourselves as sharp as anybody, and acted with our eyes open.

Turbulence and discontent reign on every hand, and in every class of society; the restraint of a steady public opinion is nowhere felt, as it was in New England, for instance, not fifty years ago. Crimes are committed and nobody rebukes them; reckless folly is indulged, and no one cries "Halt!" We imagine that it is the currency that is deranged; we believed that if McKinley were elected all would be well; now we believe, or some of us do, that it should have been Bryan. The fact is, we are not looking at the real cause of the trouble. We are very slow to comprehend that the voluptuous days of sudden wealth are past, that the great good times we knew when the West was being opened are over and gone forever. We can no longer make fortunes out of railroad stock, for all the stock has been watered into bankruptcy; we can no longer purchase rich lands from the Indians for three cents an acre and sell them for three dollars, and in a few years see choice plots sold for thousands of dollars a foot. It is hard to adjust our minds to the new condition of things, to realize the fact that we must now come down to competing in the markets of the world for the world's legitimate business, that if we make fortunes we must to so by shrewd and patient labor.

But there may be advantages in this after all; when wealth is less attractive, perhaps some of our bright intellects will turn to literature, a thing we are in need of; our people will have time for culture, time to read and think. We may be able to turn our attention a little more earnestly toward the great problem of our self-government, and send statesmen to Congress instead of politicians; we will have time to watch our public men and hold them in check; time to suppress robbers and murderers; time to purify our city municipalities; time to save a little money for a rainy day.

The development of American journalism well represents the restless and reckless condition of the whole people. Daily papers have been started in New York during the past five or six years,

and without exception they have grown more sensational, until it is believed in journalistic circles that sensationalism alone has any opportunity to-day. The great personality, like Horace Greeley or the elder Bennett or McCullagh, has passed away, and instead we have millionaires ready to manufacture great newspapers out of fortunes, but unable to produce reliable or useful journals for the people. The papers of "solid" standing are all the remains of other times.

In the magazine world we find the same tendency. The great exploiter of great names builds up a fabulous circulation for his magazine; and Mr. Howells gives up writing fiction and criticism in order to turn out mildly amusing articles of the persons he has met, the story of his boyhood, a column of literary gossip. We have no literary critical weekly that will command respect abroad. Our Sunday newspapers and our voluminous magazines have everything under the sun but the thing one wishes to read or the article that will profit one by reading. If we consider it we shall see that our literature is as thin as are our railroad shares.

There are three classes of people in the United States, two of which are always in evidence. The two we are most likely to think of at first blush are the out-and-out foreigner, and the out-and-out American

money-maker, with his violent methods, his superficial information, his breezy manner. The third class is so quiet that in these noisy days, when everybody has to shout in order to be heard at all, they have been almost forgotten. They come of the old England and New England, Dutch, Swedish, French and German stock, the old settlers whose brains and grit and love of liberty and devotion to justice made our country what it is. Some would have us believe that this class has died out; but it is not so. When any great occasion arises it is they who come to the front and preserve the country. country. To take a large instance, it was they who in the face of civil war preserved the Union; and to take a smaller and very recent instance, it was they who went to the polls and overthrew Tammany Hall three years ago. When the noise quiets down a little, it is these people who will restore prosperity, who will give us culture and good literature and sound criticism and honest journalism. They have been waiting their day; most of them have been employed in quietly accumulating comfortable forWhen they discover that the day of fortune-making is past, they will turn to literature-making, statesmen-making, and the high duty and beneficent work of self-civilizing.

tunes.

SHERWIN CODY.

NANSEN'S EXPLORATION IN THE NORTH POLAR SEA

A

CORNER of the veil which for so many centuries concealed from man the NorthPolar area has at last been lifted by the Nansen-Sverdrup expedition.* All that we formerly knew of the vast realm of ice was its borderlands only; but the bold Norwegians have deeply penetrated into its heart, beyond the eighty-sixth degree of latitude, and the whole aspect of our hypothetical knowledge about these dreary regions is already modified. The vague name of a "North-Polar area can be abandoned, and henceforward we can speak of a "North-Polar basin."

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*Abridged from a paper on "Recent Science, contributed by Prince Kropotkin, the Russian scientist, traveller and revolutionist, to the February (1896) issue of THE NINETEENTH CENTURY ED.

This basin is often referred to as if it were a circle, the centre of which is the North Pole; but it has not that circular shape. If we look at it, keeping the Greenwich meridian before us, we see, first, a broad channel, 900 miles wide, between Greenland and Norway, inclined to the north-east and leading from the Atlantic into the Arctic Ocean. From that wide entrance a long and wide gulf stretches, in a slightly crescent-shaped form, between the shores of Russia and Siberia on the right, and the NorthAmerican archipelagoes and Alaska on the left. It widens as it crosses the Pole, and it ends in a wide semi-circle, from which the Bering Strait is the only outlet. This narrow issue being however of little importance, we may neglect it, as well as several wide indentations of the two coasts, and we may say that the

Arctic basin is a broad, pear-shaped gulf, 2,500 miles long, 900 miles broad at its entrance, widening to 2,000 miles at its nearly blind Bering Strait end.

Warm water enters it, and cold water, laden with ice, issues from it- the former originating from, and the latter returning to, the Atlantic. The "rule of the road" for oceanic currents is to keep to the right, and the two currents obey it. The warm water of the Atlantic which is drifted northwards, and can be considered as a continuation of the Gulf Stream, flows past the coasts of Norway, and, before reaching North Cape, divides into two branches. One of them takes a northern course; it reaches the western coasts of Spitzbergen and flows along them as far as their north end, occasionally bringing to these coasts the glass balls that are used by Norwegian fishermen, as well as the big beans of the West Indian plant, Entada gigalobium, which are carried by the Gulf Stream across the Atlantic. The other branch bends eastwards. It flows past North Cape and for some distance along the coast of the Kola Peninsula; it crosses next the Barents's Sea and reaches the Russian island of Novaya Zemlya [Nova Zembla] to the frozen shores of which it also carries the same glass balls and the same West Indian beans. A sub-branch of the latter seems even to enter the Kara Sea in summer. Of course, the severe cold which reigns in those latitudes cools down the superficial layers of the warm current; but the thermometer still detects its presence, and its bluish waters are distinguishable, even at sight, from the greenish and cooler waters of the polar currents. And, inhospitable as these regions are, they would be still more inhospitable and inaccessible if the heat stored by water in lower latitudes were not carried by this current to the north. Owing to it, the Barents's Sea is free from ice for a few months every year, the western shores of Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya are of easy access, and, besides the lichens and the mosses which grow on these islands, the traveller finds there, in better protected nooks, a flora similar to the flora of the high Alps.

A considerable quantity of warm water thus enters the Arctic Gulf from the south. Consequently, a no less considerable quantity of cold water issues

from it in the shape of a mighty ice current, nearly 300 miles wide, which also keeps the rule of the road and enters the North Atlantic between Spitzbergen and Greenland. Thence it flows southwards, along the eastern coast of Greenland, pressing itself to its crags and cliffs, and piling up ice-floes upon ice-floes as it forces its way through Danemark Strait (the passage left between Iceland and Greenland). When it has reached the southern extremity of Greenland (Cape Farewell) it also divides. A small branch of it bends round the cape and enters Baffin Bay, while the main body continues its southern course, meeting the Atlantic steamers as they approach the coasts of America. But the icebergs which these steamers meet with are only taken in by the mighty current as it flows past some East Greenland glaciers; in higher latitudes it consists only of thick floe-ice many years old, which grew thick as it was drifted in the Arctic Gulf.

It is this current which renders the eastern coast of Greenland so difficult of access. Many times whalers have been caught in it and drifted with it, and it nearly proved fatal to the crew of the second ship of the German expedition, the Hansa. The small schooner was firmly beset in ice in latitude 74°, and was drifted southwards. Eventually, she was crushed under the pressure of the thick ice-floes, and sank, while the brave crew, who took refuge on the floe-ice, were carried with it along the coast, until they succeeded, after a seven months' imprisonment, in escaping from it to their three boats. boats. Making their way past Cape Farewell, they reached at last a Danish colony on the south-western extremity of Greenland; but their floe followed them, and the Eskimos subsequently found on it many valuable things which were left behind by the Hansa men.

Nansen and Sverdrup were also caught in the same current in 1888, as they were making their way in a boat to the coast, and although they were quite near to it when they left the whaler which had brought them thither, they were drifted with the ice for fourteen days southwards before they reached the land. One might almost think that the two friends conceived the bold plan of the Fram expedition during the drift, had not Nansen spoken of it before he undertook that journey.

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