=229. The Grain that Feeds the Nation.= From the days of the early colonists, wheat has been one of the most valuable crops produced in this country. In the states east of the Mississippi River the farmers have long raised it in connection with a variety of other crops. But as the newer lands west of this river were taken up, the settlers discovered that in that region wheat yielded more abundantly than any other crop. From Kansas northward to Minnesota and western Canada lies a broad stretch of land which has cool spring weather and a light rainfall. This is the climate best suited to wheat, and here has developed the great wheat belt of America. [Sidenote: =Traction engines=] In this region there are vast wheat fields almost everywhere, stretching farther than the eye can see over the level surface. Most of the farms are very large, some of them including many thousands of acres. The work on these places is done with the most modern machines. Traction engines are used to pull the great plows, the largest of which turn fifty furrows at a time. In harvest time an army of reaping and binding machines harvests the golden grain. The harvesting machine and the thresher have also been combined. On some of the greatest farms a huge complex machine makes its way through the standing grain, leaving behind it rows of bags, filled with threshed grain ready for the market. [Sidenote: =Grain elevators=] With the aid of such machinery a few people can cultivate a great many acres. As a result, the country is thinly settled. The towns are few and far between. In most of them the principal building is the grain elevator, which holds the grain until it is ready to be shipped. [Sidenote: =Flour mills=] From the elevators the wheat goes to the flour mills. The largest of these are in Minneapolis, in the eastern part of the wheat belt. The flour in its turn goes to feed the many millions of people in all parts of the country. [Sidenote: =Grain exports decrease=] For many years this country grew much more wheat than we needed, and we shipped great quantities to Europe. But each year our growing population needs more food, and our exports of this grain decrease steadily. Even now our farms grow but little more of this grain than is needed at home, and the time is almost at hand when we shall no longer send any of it abroad. [Illustration: THE STEAM PLOW AT WORK ON A PRAIRIE FARM _From a photograph_] [Sidenote: =Texas and Iowa lead=] =230. Cattle Raising and Meat Packing.= Cattle raising, like wheat farming, is principally an industry of the West. As late as 1850 the states which raised the most cattle lay along the Atlantic coast. But to-day Texas and Iowa are in the lead, and Kansas and Nebraska follow closely. [Sidenote: =Cattle ranches of the West=]