p reckoned at
$1,200,000; while in Idaho alone of this group of states did the wheat
crop exceed in value the output of the mines.

[Illustration: _Photograph from Underwood and Underwood, N.Y._

LOGGING]

=Timber Resources.=--The forests of the great West, unlike those of the
Ohio Valley, proved a boon to the pioneers rather than a foe to be
attacked. In Ohio and Indiana, for example, the frontier line of
homemakers had to cut, roll, and burn thousands of trees before they
could put out a crop of any size. Beyond the Mississippi, however,
there were all ready for the breaking plow great reaches of almost
treeless prairie, where every stick of timber was precious. In the other
parts, often rough and mountainous, where stood primeval forests of the
finest woods, the railroads made good use of the timber. They consumed
acres of forests themselves in making ties, bridge timbers, and
telegraph poles, and they laid a heavy tribute upon the forests for
their annual upkeep. The surplus trees, such as had burdened the
pioneers of the Northwest Territory a hundred years before, they carried
off to markets on the east and west coasts.

=Western Industries.=--The peculiar conditions of the Far West
stimulated a rise of industries more rapid than is usual in new country.
The mining activities which in many sections preceded agriculture called
for sawmills to furnish timber for the mines and smelters to reduce and
refine ores. The ranches supplied sheep and cattle for the packing
houses of Kansas City as well as Chicago. The waters of the Northwest
afforded salmon for 4000 cases in 1866 and for 1,400,000 cases in 1916.
The fruits and vegetables of California brought into existence
innumerable canneries. The lumber industry, starting with crude sawmills
to furnish rough timbers for railways and mines, ended in specialized
factories for paper, boxes, and furniture. As the railways preceded
settlement and furnished a ready outlet for local manufactures, so they
encouraged the early establishment of varied industries, thus creating a
state of affairs quite unlike that which obtained in the Ohio Valley in
the early days before the opening of the Erie Canal.

=Social Effects of Economic Activities.=--In many respects the social
life of the Far West also differed from that of the Ohio Valley. The
treeless prairies, though open to homesteads, favored the great estate
tilled in part by tenant labor and in part by migratory seasonal labo