INDUSTRIAL STUDIES UNITED STATES ALLEN GINN AND COMPANY Fb 2 r. LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY , OF CALIFORNIA. GIFT OF Class INDUSTRIAL STUDIES UNITED STATES BY NELLIE B. ALLEN II STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, FITCHBURG, MASS. GINN AND COMPANY BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO LONDON COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY NELLIE B. ALLEN ALL BIGHTS RESERVED 810.10 fltftenceum GINN AND COMPANY PRO- PRIETORS BOSTON U.S.A. PKEFACE This is an industrial era. The nations which lead indus- trially are the controlling nations of the world. Nine tenths of the pupils in our schools will enter some form of indus- trial life. We are dependent for our food, clothing, and shelter on the great industries in our own and other coun- tries. The whole world is united by" a network of industrial and commercial chains. A practical knowledge of the United States can be gained largely through a study of its industries. In this way the pupil is brought into direct touch with practical life and with that form of human effort which has, to a great ex- tent, determined the rank and position of this country among nations. In these Studies each industry is dealt with as a type, in order that the pupil meeting with the same subject in later work will understand its essential features. The physical geography treated of in the early chapters is closely connected with the industries dealt with in later portions of the book. Such topics as soil, surface, climate, drainage, etc., will assume a definite, concrete form in the child's mind if studied not as detached subjects but as underlying causes of the success of certain great industries. If pupils learn to look for some of the causes of our indus- trial life in the physiography of the country, they will be better able, in studying other continents, to trace the con- nection between physical features and the industries which depend upon them. iii 208257 iv INDUSTRIAL STUDIES Though the emphasis in these pages is laid upon indus- tries as carried on in the United States, reference is made to their existence in other countries in order that the pupil may think of great world belts of production and not of areas limited by political boundaries. Location of places should not be neglected. The lists given at the end of the chapters include all the places of importance mentioned in the text, and will be of help in reviewing location. If the pupils can locate each and give certain facts showing its industrial importance, they will have, in addition to their fund of information concerning the industrial life of the country, a definite, concrete knowl- edge of cities, states, rivers, mountains, etc. Many places are mentioned in more than one chapter. By keeping in mind the different industries connected with each, a broad knowl- edge of our great cities will be built up in the child's mind. In the Topics for Study, given at the close of each chap- ter, much hand work is suggested. This is done with the firm conviction that motor activity is of the greatest aid to memory. Maps sketched, places located upon them, routes indicated, etc., will remain much more firmly fixed in the mind than if only orally described. In this connection the use of hectographed outlines, cut-up maps, railroad guides, and other material is strongly recommended. The pictures and maps have been selected with much care and will be found of great help. Both should be studied as thoughtfully as the text itself. The industries here presented have been studied witli children for several years. The added interest and value that this work has given to the geography lessons is the reason for putting the material into more permanent NELLIE B. ALLEN CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. POSITION AND SIZE 6 III. SURFACE AND DRAINAGE 11 IV. CLIMATE AND Son 32 V. WATERWAYS AND RAILROADS 43 VI. COTTON 51 VII. SUGAR 66 VIII. FRUIT . 81 IX. WHEAT 107 X. CORN 125 XI. COAL 138 XII. IRON 166 XIII. GOLD AND SILVER 184 XIV. THE CATTLE AND BEEF INDUSTRY 209 XV. THE SHEEP AND WOOL INDUSTRY . 233 XVI. LUMBERING AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 253 XVII. FISHERIES 287 INDEX 321 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FIGURE PAGE 1. Trade Routes and Ocean Currents 7 2. Harvesting Wheat 9 3. Divisions of the Appalachian Highland 12 4. The Fall Line 14 5. Delaware Water Gap 17 6. A Few Miles from Oranges to Snow 19 7. " Old Faithful" Geyser 20 8. Divisions of the Great Western Highland 22 9. Mt. Shasta 24 10. Railroads often follow River Valleys 27 11. Winter in Southern California 33 12. Niagara Falls in Winter ... 34 13. Annual Rainfall of the United States 36 14. Varieties of Cactus under Cultivation 38 15. Natural Bridge, Virginia 39 16. Glaciated Area of the United States 40 17. View of Lock in " Soo " Canal 44 18. "Soo" Canal 45 19. Some of the Great Railroads of the United States 48 20. Cotton on Wharf at New Orleans 52 21. Cultivating Cotton, Dallas, Texas 53 22. Picking Cotton 54 23. Weighing Cotton 55 24. Shipping Cotton 56 25. Planting Cane 68 26. Cutting Cane on a Cuban Sugar Plantation 69 27. Pickaninnies' Candy Store 73 28. Tapping a Sugar-Maple Tree 76 29. Gathering Sap in a Maple-Sugar Camp 77 30. Making Sirup in the Good Old-fashioned Way 78 31. One of Luther Burbank's Productions 82 32. Ten Thousand Acres of Orange Groves in California .... 85 33. Irrigating an Orange Grove in California 87 vii viii INDUSTRIAL STUDIES FIGURE PAGE 34. Grapes Drying, Fresno, California 93 35. Grapes for the Winery, Fresno, California 95 36. Prune Grader 100 37. Prune Drier, California 101 38. Plowing the Wheat Field 108 39. Replowing with Steam Outfit in Valley of California .... 109 40. Harvesting on a Big Farm 110 41. Wheat Stacks Ill 42. Grain Elevator, Duluth, Minnesota 112 43. Steam Harvesting Outfit 114 44. Harvesting Wheat with a Cradle . . 115 45. Native Women Grinding Wheat in Palestine 116 46. Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad 118 47. An Illinois Cornfield 127 48. Corn from Good and from Poor Seed 129 49. Cutting Corn by Machinery 131 50. Hogs in Kansas 132 51; Miners' Wives searching for Coal on Culm Pile 139 52. Miners' Children and Houses in Pennsylvania 140 53. Miners starting to go down the Shaft 142 54. Slope Mining 146 55. Miners going into Slope 147 56. One Mile Underground in Pennsylvania 151 57. Setting Props 153 58. Largest Coal Breakers in the United States 155 59. Coal Barges on the Ohio River 159 60. Coke Ovens and their Smoke Consumers, Pi ttsburg, Pennsylvania 163 61. Iron Mines, Ironwood, Michigan 169 62. Steam Shovel at Work, Burt Mine, Mesabi Range 170 63. Overlooking the Ore Docks, Two Harbors, Minnesota . . . 171 64. Loading a Ship, Two Harbors, Minnesota 173 65. Blast Furnaces, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania 177 66. Ladle pouring Molten Iron into Pig Iron Molds 178 67. Route to the Klondike Region 185 68. Prospectors and their Packs, Chilkoot Pass 187 69. Pack Train on the Way to the Klondike 188 70. Washing out Gold with Pans 190 71. Miners at Lunch on the Beach, Cape Nome 192 72. Placer Mining, Idaho City 197 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix FIGURE PAGE 73. Gold King Mine 199 74. A Mining Town, Georgetown, Colorado 203 75. Cattle Ranch on the Cimarron 210 76. The Round-up 213 77. Branding the Calves 214 78. Cowboys' Camp on a Texas Cattle Ranch 217 79. Shipping Beef to the Chicago Market, Montana 219 80. Bird's-eye View of the Union Stockyards, Chicago .... 221 81. Cooling Room in a Large Chicago Packing House .... 222 82. Milking Cows, Briarcliif Farms, near New York City . . . 227 83. Churning Butter with Old-fashioned Dasher Churn .... 228 84. The Great Churn which churns Eight Hundred Pounds of Butter at a Time 229 85. The Separator at Work, Briarcliff Farms ....... 230 86. Sheep grazing on the Plains 235 87. The Lone Montana Shepherd and his Best Friend .... 236 88. Coyotes 238 89. Three Thousand Sheep astray on a Mountain Range . . . 240 90. Sheep Pens, Montana 243 91. Alpacas in Peru, South America 249 92. Shearing Camels in Egypt 250 93. The Lumbermen's Camp 254 94. Felling with Axes 255 95. Felling Fir Trees in Oregon 256 96. A Holiday among the Fallen Monarchs 257 97. Sledding 258 98. A Big Load 259 99. The Log Pile . . . ' 260 100. A Log Jam 261 101. The River House 262 102. The Boom 263 103. Lumber at Paper Mill at Millinocket 266 104. Fluming Lumber from the Mountains in Oregon 269 105. The Tunnel Tree 271 106. Port Blakely Mills, the Largest in the World, Washington . 275 107. Chippers on Turpentine Farm, Georgia 277 108. Pouring Turpentine in Georgia 278 109. Twenty Thousand Resin Barrels on Savannah Wharf . . . 279 110. Drying Fish in Gloucester 288 x INDUSTRIAL STUDIES FIGURE PAGE 111. Salmon leaping over Falls 295 112. A Fish Trap 296 113. Fish Wheels in the Columbia River, Oregon 297 114. Salmon at Cannery . . 298 115. Butchering Salmon 299 116. Filling Cans , 300 117. Shipping Department of a Salmon-Canning Establishment . 301 118. Oyster Tonger fishing from Side of Boat, Chesapeake Bay . 302 119. " Boarding " Tongs in Chesapeake Bay 303 120. Dredgers used in Sailing Craft, Baltimore, Maryland . . . 304 121. "Shucking" Oysters, Oyster House, Baltimore, Maryland . 305 122. Waste-Shell Piles at Oyster House, Baltimore, Maryland . . 306 123. Capture of a Sperm Whale 308 124. Sperm Whaling off the Hawaiian Islands . 309 125. Arctic Whalebone ready for Market 310 SONG OF LABOR I love the plowman's whistle, The reaper's cheerful song, The drover's oft repeated shout Spurring his stock along ; The bustle of the market man As he hies him to the town ; The halloo from the tree top As the ripened fruit comes down. The busy sound of threshers As they clean the ripened grain, The huskers' joke and catch of glee 'Neath the moonlight on the plain. The kind voice of the drayman, The shepherd's gentle call, These sounds of pleasant industry I love I love them all. Oh, there 's a good in labor, If we labor but aright, That gives vigor to the daytime, A sweeter sleep at night ; A good that bringeth pleasure Even to the toiling hours, For duty cheers the spirit, As dew revives the flowers. Then say not that our Father Gave labor as a doom, No ! 't is the richest blessing From the cradle to the tomb. xii INDUSTRIAL STUDIES CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Our smoky cities, ablaze with light from blast furnaces or alive with the noise and whir of factories in which thousands of' operatives spend their days, would seem strange and almost frightful to the people who lived a hundred years ago. The streets filled with swift cars, the hundreds of locomotives puffing and wheezing, and the crowded stores are as different as can be imagined from the quiet villages in which our ancestors lived, where they made their own clothes and shoes, and raised on the farm nearly all their food. If a trip to a near-by town was planned, they walked thither, or jogged along behind the sober farm horse, instead of flying along in steam or electric cars. To-day factories, furnaces, foundries, street cars, and railway stations are familiar sights. Indeed, we should miss them if they were dropped out of our lives. It would seem hard to us to have to spin and weave our own dull-colored clothes, instead of going to the store and selecting from the product of a thousand looms the pretty colors which we like best. We should find it inconvenient to wait for the village cobbler to come and measure our foot, and then make for 1 2 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES us, in his own little shop, a pair of clumsy shoes. How much better it is to step into a store and buy a pair of well-fitting shoes, the work of some great factory in which thousands of pairs are turned out each day. It would be an interesting experiment, but not an easy one, to try for a time to live an entirely independent life, and to do for ourselves everything necessary. In order to have flour, milk, butter, and meat, we should have to live on a farm, where we could have land for raising grain, and pasture for cattle. We should need sheep, for their wool would be necessary to furnish material for our winter clothing. There must also be cotton or flax fields to supply the fiber for thin summer clothes. A vegetable garden and fruit orchard would be necessary if we were to have these wholesome foods. Think, too, of the things which seem necessary in our everyday life that we have not mentioned, and of the work which would need to be done in order to obtain these necessities, if indeed we could get them at all. Lumber for the house, glass for windows, dishes to eat from, stoves to cook with, lamps by which to see and the oil to use in them, and many other things which seem so necessary to us must all be provided. When we think of the things not absolutely necessary but which help to make our lives pleasant and comfortable, there are so many that I am sure you would not like to try the experiment of getting or making enough for your own use. Think of tea, coffee, chocolate, salt, oranges, bananas, olives, medicines, silk, ribbons, feathers, and watches or clocks. What a great variety of things there are which one cannot possibly make for one's self, or get INTRODUCTION 3 by one's own unaided efforts. To supply all these things our farm would have to be of enormous dimensions, large enough to stretch from the torrid zone to the cool tem- perate zone. Even if it were possible to raise all necessary products on one farm, the hours would be so fully occupied in mak- ing them ready for use that little or no time would be left for books, music, and games. But stop a moment ! If you are to depend entirely on yourself, you will have no inter- esting books unless you write them, no beautiful music unless you compose it, no amusing games unless you in- vent them. Is not the division of labor, in which each one does a few things well, better than if each one lived inde- pendently and tried to do everything for himself ? How is it possible that the many comforts of life are brought to our doors and are to be had at such small cost ? The story is long if one were to tell it all, and as wonderful as a fairy tale. Indeed, the riches and gems that Aladdin found in that mysterious cave are no more wonderful nor precious than the riches we have found in the soil and rocks of our country. The comforts which we enjoy to-day are made possible largely because of the fertility of soil and the wealth of our mineral resources. Wherever there is a fertile soil and a favorable climate, people are certain to settle, sure of find- ing a comfortable living. In a new settlement, trade with other localities soon be- gins, for the pioneers must exchange the home products for necessities and comforts from distant places. In order to carry the merchandise, railroads and ships are built. As communication becomes easy and freight charges become 4 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES low, more people are attracted to the place, and the settle- ment grows. The opening up of our great West is a good illustration of the dependence of people upon the land and its products, and the help which railroads furnish in the development of a country. Attracted to the far West first by the discovery of gold, people soon learned what a wonderful country stretches from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. They found that the soil might yield them even greater profits than the mineral wealth which men were flocking to obtain. The raising of cattle, grain, and fruit was started in a small way at first, but was gradually enlarged as the railroads grew in number and extent, and out-of-the-way places were brought into touch with civilization and commerce. New land was settled as the people were made sure of markets hi which to sell their produce. The cities sent clothing, tools, machinery, furniture, and food to the small towns and farms and ranches. Cattle and wool, grains of vari- ous kinds, fruit, and cotton began to come to the cities in greater and greater quantities, until the question of ho\v to transport these products, what was the easiest and quickest way to get them to the manufacturing centers, became all-important. Irrigation, new and improved methods of farming, and discoveries of great mineral wealth have so increased our products that to-day the amount of production is limited not 1)\ the soil but, strange to say, by the railroads and other means of transportation. Immense quantities of live stock, beef, wool, grain, fruits, copper, gold, and silver are sent from the West to the Hast. Thousands of carloads of manufactured goods, such as clothing, boots and si iocs. INTRODUCTION 5 tools and machinery, must be sent in return by the East to the newer West. China and Japan are awakening to the fact that we are their near neighbors, and trade with both countries is grow- ing rapidly. Formerly goods for Asiatic countries were sent on the long voyage around South America, or by train to our Pacific ports, to be there reloaded for the ocean voyage. A third route lay by water to the Isthmus of Pan- ama, by train across the isthmus, and then by. vessel across the Pacific Ocean. It is always more expensive to send goods by land than by water, and the time and labor spent in unloading and reloading freight add to the cost. If goods can be sent across the Pacific without unloading, you can see what an advantage it would be ; and this will be possible from the Atlantic as well as from the Pacific ports, when the Panama Canal is completed. You will learn in another chapter more about this and other canals, and also about the great railroads which cross our country, and which have made our trade and therefore our wealth and development possible. Much of the wealth of the West lies in the products of which we have already spoken, the gold, silver, copper, cattle, sheep, grain, fruit, and lumber. Cotton and sugar, lumber and iron, have enabled the South to grow to her present state of development. The Great Plain finds its gold in the yellow corn and its silver in the snowy flour. Our mountain products are well balanced : coal and iron in the Appalachians, and gold and silver in the great Western highland. The following chapters describe these products, the physical conditions upon which they depend, and the industries connected with them. CHAPTER II POSITION AND SIZE Most of the chapters hi this book describe great industries which are carried on in the United States. The growth and development of the country, its rank among other nations, and its wealth and power are due largely to these industries. They in turn depend on certain causes. The position, sur- face, coast line, climate, drainage, and soil have been the factors which have determined to a great extent just what varieties of work the people shall engage in. Therefore be- fore studying the industries themselves let us look at some of these underlying causes. The position of the United States is very favorable. It lies in the path of the westerly winds, which bring to certain sections the moisture and even temperature of the Pacific Ocean. The wonderful effect of these winds on temperature, rainfall, and therefore on vegetation, will be told in the chap- ter on Climate. It lies not too far north, where little vege- tation is possible ; nor too far south, where the climate is so warm that people have little ambition to work, and where there is little necessity for it, as nature produces abundantly without man's aid. The country stretches through more than twenty degrees of latitude, extending from the warm temperate belt in which cotton and sugar cane flourish, through cooler regions where corn and tobacco grow, to a cool temperate climate well suited to the production of wheat. POSITION AND SIZE 8 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES Let us think of our position with reference to other nations. To the north of us is Canada and to the south Mexico, friendly countries both, and because of their posi- tion able to furnish us with some products which are not found to any great extent in our own country. Our eastern border is about three thousand miles from Europe, a great distance in the early colonial days when but few vessels, and those slow ones, crossed the ocean. The colonists were obliged to depend on themselves for many articles which, had they lived nearer Europe, would have been supplied by the mother country, and thus manu- facturing soon became an important industry. As more and larger vessels have been built, the Atlantic seems to have grown smaller, for to-day we are less than a five days' journey from England. Hundreds of vessels cross this ocean, carrying our exports to European countries and bring- ing to us their products. The great ocean mass in the midst of which North and South America lie stretches away to the west of us for five thousand miles. For many years after the Atlantic was crossed the Pacific was still unexplored. But to-day many steamships plow its waters, connecting ns with Japan, China, and the neighboring islands; and great cables, over which messages may be sent, lie in its depths. Thus the United States is so situated that we are con- nected by these ocean highways with Europe on the east and Asia on the west. Can you imagine our country a great eagle with one outspread wing touching Europe and the other stretching over the Pacific Ocean toward Asia? That is just what; our wings of commerce are doing, connecting us with both eastern and western nations. POSITION AM) SIZE 9 You have probably repeated, or have heard others repeat, that stirring oath of fidelity, " I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the republic for which it stands ; one nation in- divisible, with liberty and justice for all." Have you ever thought what an immense territory is the home of that re- public ? The United States is but little smaller than Europe, yet in that continent there are more than a dozen nations, FIG. 2. HARVESTING WHEAT Notice size of field each with its own flag, its government, its laws. Each country is surrounded by others which may or may not contain friendly peoples. Each nation must therefore main- tain a large army and be prepared at any time to defend itself. All this costs an immense amount of money which must be furnished by heavy taxation of the people. Thou- sands of men serve in the army whose labor is needed in fields and factories. What an advantage it is to us that we are separated by the ocean from all these nations, that we have few troublesome neighbors, and that we are all one big family with one ruler and one Mag! 10 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES Our great wheat section embraces seven hundred and fifty thousand square miles, nearly one fourth of the area of the whole country, and our corn lands are even larger. We can ride for miles and miles over cattle and sheep ranches, or spend days in traveling through our cotton belt. You can easily see that the amount of our products depends somewhat on the great size of the country. TOPICS FOR STUDY 1. Find the latitude and longitude of the United States. 2. Name the advantages of its position. 3. Are there any disadvantages ? 4. Compare its size with that of large countries on other continents. 5. What is its area? How does Europe compare in area? 6. Leaving out which country of Europe would make them about equal ? 7. To how many of the following questions can you find the answers? 8. Name some of the important European steamship lines. Trace the routes they follow and find the destinations. What is the name of the largest steamer? How fast can she travel? How many pas- sengers can she carry ? How many men are in her crew ? How much coal does she use on one trip? What forms a large amount of the freight carried from the United States to Europe? from Europe to the United States? CHAPTER III SURFACE AND DRAINAGE You have read in the preceding chapter how the position and size of the United States aid in determining the kind and amount of its products. These depend also on other causes, among which are the surface and drainage conditions. The United States consists of several great surface divi- sions. The low, level Coastal Plain extends along the At- lantic and Gulf coasts. Then comes the old Appalachian Highland, its peaks worn down through long ages by frost, rain, streams, and other agents into rounded, domelike ele- vations. The great Rocky Mountain Highland stretches through the West. This is a much younger system with higher peaks of sharp, jagged outline. Between these two highlands lies the Great Central Plain, through which flows the " Father of Waters," the Mississippi River, and its branches. The Coastal Plain extends from New York the length of the Atlantic coast, and along the Gulf coast into Mexico. The part bordering on the Atlantic Ocean was for more than one hundred years the home of the early colonists, to whom the mountainous region to the west was an impassable barrier. Much of the soil of which it is composed is the wash from the highlands farther inland. This was deposited under the ocean waters, and by the accumulation of the soil itself, and by the slow, upward movement of the earth's crust, in time the land rose above the surface of the water. ll 12 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES Copyright, IS'.'S, by A. E. Fryc Fi<;. 8. DIVISIONS OF THE APPALACHIAN HK.III.ANI> SURFACE AND DRAINAGE 13 A later sinking of the earth's crust along the Atlantic coast carried some of the outer edge of the plain under the ocean again. The drowning of the rivers in the lower part of their courses made their mouths broader and deeper. Conse- quently we find in these " drowned valleys " good bays and harbors, which have had great influence in developing the commerce in the eastern section of the country. In the soil of the Coastal Plain there is much sand and clay, and in some places this is utilized in the making of glass and bricks. . On the Carolina and Georgia plains are pine forests which furnish tar and turpentine. You will read of these products in another chapter. The low, moist sections near the coasts are the most favorable regions for the raising of rice ; and you will find, when studying the chapters on Cotton and Sugar, that on this level area is grown all the sugar and much of the cotton which the country produces. Passing from the Atlantic Coastal Plain westward we come to the Piedmont Belt. This name, which means " foot- hills," is given to the strip of hilly land about twenty-five miles wide which stretches between the true mountain region on the west and the plain on the east. This hilly sec- tion is the worn-down remnant of very ancient mountains. Much of the soil of which they were composed now helps to form the Coastal Plain. The rocky remnant consists of very hard material. The rivers cut their way much more easily through the softer strata of the plain than through the hard rock of the Piedmont Belt. Therefore where these two sections meet there are falls or rapids in the rivers. Find the names of some rivers of which you think this is true. These falls mark the head of navigation, and also Fi<;. 4. THE FALL LINK Notice the trend of the rivers across the mountains 14 SURFACE AND DRAINAGE 15 furnish water power for manufacturing. You will find on the map on page 14 some of the important cities which are situated upon the fall line. They owe their importance to their manufactures and to the fact that they serve as distrib- uting centers for the surrounding region. Can you explain how both of these industries are due to the location ? The soil of the Piedmont Belt is for the most part fertile. In many towns situated near large cities the people are engaged in raising fruits and vegetables for the city supply. The important tobacco-growing area of Virginia and North Carolina lies chiefly in this section, and much of the up- land cotton is grown in the Piedmont Belt. When you read the chapter on Fruit, notice what fruits are mentioned as being raised there. Crossing the Piedmont Belt we come to the. true Appa- lachian Mountains. These extend in several ridges and ranges from New England to Alabama. The Blue Ridge, which you will find given on tlio map, Fig. 3, LS the principal chain. Mt. Mitchell in North Carolina is the highest peak of the Appalachians. Look at the pictures and you will see how rounded are the summits of these mountains, and how broad the valleys. Contrast this pic- ture with the one which shows the sharp peaks of the Rockies. The Green Mountains in Vermont, the White Mountains in New Hampshire, and the Adironclacks in New York are each a part of the Appalachian System, but are separated from the rest of the highland by the valleys of the Hudson and Mohawk rivers. This is the most important opening through the mountains, and from early colonial times it has served as a highway to the interior of the country. 16 INDUSTRIAL STUDIED The next division of the Appalachian Highland is the Great Valley. Although this name is given to the whole section, it is really a succession of valleys separated by low ridges of mountains. The Shenandoah Valley in Virginia and the Tennessee Valley in Tennessee are very fertile sections. The most westerly division of the whole highland is the Allegheny Plateau. This is called a plateau because the strata lie horizontally instead of being wrinkled and crum- pled as in true mountain formation. The rivers have worn down and intersected this plateau until to the 'eye of the ordinary observer it appears like a mountainous region. The Catskill Mountains in New York are a part of the plateau, though from their appearance they are commonly called mountains. This great Appalachian Highland, consisting of moun- tains, valleys, and plateau region, was the barrier which confined the colonists to the narrow Coastal Plain. The height (though not great compared with that of the Rock- ies), the wild animals, the Indians, and the dense forest growth all served for a long time to keep even the most daring from venturing far. Stories told by the Indians of the rich lands to the west finally incited the hardy pioneers to brave the dangers. Rivers and smaller streams were then the only highways. Following these the settlers came, after weeks of hard travel, into the rich lands west of the moun- tains, in Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee. If we search for these routes which the pioneers took, and which the railroads to-day follow, we must know some- tliing of the rivers of the. region. If you look at a relief map you will see that most of the streams flow aeross the mountains at right angles to the direction of the highland. SURFACE AND DRAINAGE 17 Notice, for example, the Susquehanna, the Potomac, the James, and the Rappahannock. The rivers, which have thus cut their way through the Appalachians, are older than the highland and flowed in a southeasterly direction toward the Atlantic Ocean before the mountains were FIG. 5. DELAWARE WATER GAP formed. The growth of these mountains was so very grad- ual that the streams were able to cut down their channels as fast as the mountains were upheaved. As a consequence some of the rivers flow through narrow passes or gaps. The Delaware at Delaware Gap, and the Potomac at Har- pers Ferry are perhaps the best known examples. 18 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES There are five great natural highways from the Atlantic Plain to the Mississippi Valley. Beginning at the north we find the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes. This was the route followed by the French in their explorations. Next comes the Hudson-Mohawk Valley, which was one of the chief highways both in the French and Indian War and in the Revolutionary War. Farther south we find a route which takes us up the Potomac River, through the historic Harpers Ferry and thence by the Ohio and its branches to the fertile West. In A r irginia a familiar route for the colonists lay through the gap of the James River into the long valley west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Thence by following some stream they found their way over the Allegheny Plateau and to the West through Cumberland Gap, made famous by Daniel Hoone, who traveled through this pass on his first journey to the- unsettled regions of eastern Kentucky. A fifth route lay south of the mountains through north- ern Georgia. Though comparatively easy, it was little used by the colonists on account of the Cherokee Indians who, under Spanish influence, barred the way. Find these routes on the accompanying map. Trace and sketch them until you are perfectly familiar with their location. This is important, for these natural highways, caused by the drainage system of this section of the United States, were the chief roads of the Indians and later of the pioneers. Arid what is more important to us, they have be- come in more recent years the routes followed by the rail- roads which connect the coast with the interior. And the railroad which has found the lowest pass through the moun- tains, and the easiest grade over which to draw its freight, SURFACE AND DRAINAGE 19 has a great advantage over its rivals. Can you find out which one that is ? It is in these old, worn -down Appalachian Mountains that most of our coal and much of our iron are found. The fact that these valuable minerals are found there in such Copyright, Keystone View Co'. FIG. 6. A FEW MILES FROM ORANGES TO SNOW great quantities and so near together has determined the position of many manufacturing cities, of which more will be said in the following chapters. The highland in the western part of the United States is a great contrast to the one in the East. In the Appalachian 20 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES Mountains we find beautiful wooded summits rounded and worn down through long ages, fertile valleys green with the crops of small farms thickly set, and rivers winding their way through broad valleys between sloping mountain sides. Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 7. "OLD FAITHFUL" GEYSER How different are the wonders of the Rockies ! There can be found some of the highest elevations of the country, tow- ering peaks ten to fifteen thousand feet high. There also are the lowest depressions, three hundred feet below the level of the sea; there are the greatest deserts and the SURFACE AND DRAINAGE 21 richest farm lands. In that western area can be found the hottest place in the United States, and while suffering from the intense heat one can see the glistening snows on the heights far above. In those snow-clad mountains are the sources of our longest rivers, yet there are hundreds of square miles traversed by no rivers at all. There are regions where one gazes in wonder at the largest trees in the world, and vast areas where no green tree or shrub relieves the gray surface of the desert. There, also, more than in any other area of equal extent in the world, can be found the most wonderful collection of glaciers, volcanoes, geysers, hot springs, salt lakes, and carious. Let us look at the arrangement of the mountains, valleys, and deserts which make up the western third of the United States. As one travels westward through the great Central Plain the land rises gradually during the thousand-mile journey which separates the Mississippi River from the high- land. This gradual ascent terminates in a plateau more than a mile in height and a thousand miles wide. From its surface rise ranges of mountains extending north and south. Along the eastern edge of the plateau, highest of all, are the Rocky Mountains, stretching from the cold lands of the far North to the tropical region of Central America. Though reduced to low hills in the Isthmus of Panama, the moun- tains rise again in even greater grandeur in the Andes Mountains of South America, and continue uninterruptedly to the southern extremity of that continent. In the United States they extend through Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. On the western edge of the plateau region rises the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Range. The Sierra Nevada, or " Snowy 99 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES Fi<;. b. DIVISIONS OF THK GREAT WMSTKKN HKJHLA SrilFACK AXI) DRAINA(JK 23 Range," as the name indicates, has been and is of the great- est importance to the country. It was in these mountains that gold was first discovered in California ; and it was to find the hidden riches that the great rush to the West, which is described in the chapter on Gold, was begun in '49. Many, however, who went to find gold, remained because of the riches yielded by the fertile soil. Many cities and towns which nestle close to the mountains owe their birth to the mineral resources, but their wealth to-day comes not so much from the gold which is mined as from the rich farms where fruit, wheat, and cattle are raised. North of Mt. Shasta in northern California the range takes the name of the Cascade Mountains from the numer- ous cascades and falls in the Columbia River where it works its way through the highland. This range consists chiefly of extinct volcanoes, of which Mt. Shasta is the most noted. It is a grand sight as it rises tall and snow-capped from the dark forest area which surrounds it. Between the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountains on the west and the Rocky Mountains on the east lies the Great Basin, so named because it is hemmed in by great ridges on either side. The name must not deceive one, how- ever, for the Great Basin is not a lowland, though. parts of it lie below the sea level. The greater portion of it is a high plateau crossed by ranges of mountains. The Great Salt Lake and many smaller lakes lie within its boundaries. There are also vast gray stretches of barren land, where one may ride for miles without seeing a shrub or a tree ; there the rivers never flow to the ocean, but lose them- selves in depressions or " sinks," the remains of much larger lakes. 24 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES Travel through the Great Basin is very unpleasant. In summer the heat is intense, ranging from one hundred ten to one hundred twenty degrees. But the air is pure and dry, and even in the great heat sunstrokes are almost unknown. From Stereograph Copyright, Underwood & Underwood, N.Y. Fi(i. 9. MT. SHASTA If a traveler should try to quench his thirst with water from the rivers, he would find it brackish and disagreeable. Indeed, it is doubtful if he could find water, even it' the river l>e people is perhaps as great as that of the balmy Japan Current to California, for in its cold depths great numbers of codfish, herring, and mackerel find food and temperature suited to their development. The cold Arctic stream is as necessary to the life of these fish as rain and sunshine are to the crops of the farmer. Without this current the fishing industry of New England would not be possible. Nowhere in the coastal regions do we find the extremes of temperature to which the inland states are subject. In summer people like to go to the beaches and ocean resorts, for in the hot season the water is cooler than the land and so lowers the temperature of places near it. In winter the opposite is true, and snowstorms of inland regions often become rainstorms near the coast. The amount of rainfall in the United States is as varied as the temperature, as you will see if you examine the accompanying map. The westerly winds, full of moisture obtained in their journey over the Pacific Ocean, blow upon the western borders of the country. You know that air when cooled cannot hold so much moisture as when warm. When the hot air from the nose of a teakettle is suddenly chilled by holding a cold plate before it, much of the mois- ture it contains is deposited upon the plate. In winter the land is cooler than the air from over the ocean, and the mois- ture is condensed into rain near the coast. In summer the prevailing westerlies have moved farther north, and little or no moisture falls in the southern part of this coast region. Thus in parts of California two seasons prevail, the dry summer and the wet winter. The Sierra Nevada Mountains, with their cold, lofty peaks, condense much moisture on their western slopes and 3G INDUSTRIAL STUDIES the winds that blow over the Great Basin are dry, carrying no refreshing rains to the parched soil. The eastern slopes of the mountains are comparatively bare, while on the west- ern sides we find great forests of the largest trees in the world and fertile valleys green with wheat or yellow with fruit. What little moisture remains in the air after passing over the lofty Sierras is condensed upon the upper western FIG. 13. ANNUAL RAINFALL OF THE UNITED STATES Darkest shade, over 80 inches. Lighter vertical lines, from 40 inches to 80 inches. Horizontal lines, from 20 inches to 40 inches. Blank, from 10 inches to 20 inches. Dotted, less than 10 inches slopes of the Rockies. The regions to the east of these moun- tains receive no rain from the westerly winds, though they continue their course over the country. In New England pleasant weather is expected when the wind is from the west, while rain is brought by the damp, east winds. The Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Great Lakes furnish most of the moisture for the eastern and southern states. CLIMATE AND SOIL 37 The greater portion of the country, except the Great Basin region and the plains east of the Rockies, receives sufficient rainfall for agriculture. In the semi-arid regions, where there is a little rain but not sufficient for raising crops, are the great cattle and sheep ranches of the country. In the spring the grass comes up fresh and green, but withers in the dry heat of summer. Its nourishment, how- ever, still remains in the dry stalks and blades. So, although the country looks barren, the cattle find much of their food in the brown grass. In the arid and semi-arid sections little vegetation is pos- sible without irrigation. Great areas that were formerly parched, barren wastes have been irrigated so that now they are yielding crops of fruit and grain. Hundreds of square miles have already been reclaimed from the desert, and the government of the United States has further plans which will make productive more than ten thousand square miles now practically useless. This is more than is contained in the whole state of Massachusetts. How many farms do you think can be made from this great area ? When the snow melts in the mountains, the rivers, which perhaps later in the year may be wholly or partly dry, are rushing torrents, and great quantities of water run to waste. By building dams this water is stored in reservoirs. It can then be taken great distances through canals and pipes, and used when the dry season comes. How to obtain a sufficient water supply is a much greater problem in Western cities than for those in the East, for it must in many cases be brought from great distances. The supply must be larger than in the East, for it is used for irrigating as well as for other purposes. In many Western 38 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES cities no grass will grow on the lawns and no trees shade the sidewalks without artificial watering, and streams trick- ling along the sides of the streets are familiar sights there. Los Angeles has made plans to bring water to the city from the western slopes of the Sierras, two hundred forty miles away. Think of an aqueduct ten feet wide and four- teen feet high, long enough to reach from New York to FIG. 14. VARIETIES OF CACTUS UNDER CULTIVATION Pittsburg or halfway from Chicago to Buffalo, passing through deserts and cations and tunnels to bring water to a thirsty city. Though we often speak of the great deserts in the west- ern part of the United Stales, very little land is unproduc- tive beeanse of lack of fertility in the soil itself. Deserts are caused chiefly in three ways: by lack of heat, lack of rainfall, and lack of good soil. The great fiw.en areas of Of TH UNIVERSITY ^-WsBBftWrK AND SOIL 39 the polar regions are examples of the first kind. More land is made unproductive by lack of heat than in any other way. Lack of rainfall has caused great areas to be unfruitful which, if supplied with water, would yield abundant crops. Many such desert wastes are disappearing under the hand Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 15. NATURAL BRIDGE, VIRGINIA o f science. The largest barren areas in our own country are deserts of this type. Comparatively little land in the United States belongs to the third class, though some such areas can be found in the Dakotas and in the Great Basin. In the northwestern part of the country the soil is made 40 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES from the lava which overspread the land to a great depth. The soil is fertile and the rainfall abundant, and as a result great crops are produced. There are navigable rivers and deep, safe harbors, so we should expect that much com- merce would be carried on. Can you tell what are the chief products and to what countries they are sent ? Much of the fine, dark, rich soil of the Mississippi Valley is the gift of the streams of that region. Its original home FIG. 16. GLACIATED AREA OF THE UNITED STATES was in the mountains to the east and west. The rivers have ground it fine and carried it many miles from its mountain home, to lay it down year after year in a thin covering over the plain. All the great crops of wheat and corn, of cotton and sugar, are made possible because of the fertility of this soil. In the eastern part of the Central Plain, in Kentucky mid Tennessee and extending into Virginia, is a limestone CLIMATE AND SOIL 41 region. The soil is composed largely of lime, obtained through centuries from shells of vast numbers of small animals that lived in the waters which then extended from the Gulf to the Arctic Ocean. Water easily dissolves lime- stone, and therefore many caves and curious formations are found in this region. The soil of these states is very pro- ductive, and the Blue Grass region of Kentucky is famous for the fine breed of horses which is raised there. All through the northern part of the United States the soil has been affected by the great ice sheet which ages ago overspread this region as far south as the Ohio River and New York City. Much of the soil was scraped along by the glacier, and deposited perhaps many miles from the place where it had lain, and other soil brought from the north to take its place. Sometimes the rock fragments brought by the glacier were soft and easily worn away. In that case we find a smooth, fine soil, as in the north central part of the United States. Sometimes the material carried by the moving ice was very hard and not easily affected, in which case farmers have to struggle with a rocky soil, such as is found on many New England farms. TOPICS FOR STUDY 1. In what ways does the position of the United States affect its temperature ? its rainfall ? Name all the crops you have read of so far. Tell the causes that affect them. 2. Imagine the United States in the position of Mexico and tell what changes would result to climate, soil, and industries. In the position of Canada. 3. Imagine the Rocky Mountain Highland extending from east to west across the southern part of the country, and tell what changes would result. 42 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES 4. Prepare a paper to convince a European that the United States is more favorably situated than any other country, and has more advantages. 5. Locate Mammoth Cave and the Natural Bridge. See if you can find descriptions or pictures of these wonderful formations. 6. Make a fine map for your school collection by painting white, on an outline map of the United States, the area covered by the glacier. 7. Do you know of any famous summer resorts near the ocean? Make a list of such and locate them. 8. Sketch a map of the United States showing the Japan Current, the Labrador Current, and the Gulf Stream. Can you tell why the warm air over the Gulf Stream affects the climate of our country less than that of Europe ? 9. On the same map, write in the part of the country where they are raised the names of all products mentioned in the chapter. Locate also all places mentioned. Make a statement about each one. 10. Explain the lack of rain in the Great Basin ; on the plains east of the Rocky Mountains. Which of these places receives less rain ? Can you think why this is so ? CHAPTER V WATERWAYS AND RAILROADS The United States is well supplied with navigable rivers, and railroads are very numerous. Yet so rapidly have our products and manufactures increased that there is much delay in transporting them. Manufacturers complain that they cannot get the material for their factories on time. Dealers in the West receive only after long delay the man- ufactured goods they have bought in the East. Wheat farmers see their grain, which they have raised with much care and expense, lie rotting on the ground. The great rail- roads of the country now own more than two million cars for carrying freight. One of the largest roads built in one year more than twenty-five thousand freight cars, and all railroads of importance add to their equipment from live to ten thousand freight cars annually. Yet all these are not nearly sufficient to move the products raised and manu- factured each year. Our navigable waterways are of great help in transporting goods, and many million dollars 1 worth is carried each year over lakes, through canals, and on rivers. Many plans are on foot to make these water routes more valuable as high- ways', and much money will be spent in the near future in adding new ones. New York has appropriated the immense sum of one hundred million dollars to improve the Erie Canal, which extends between Buffalo and Albany, so that it will accommodate larer and moiv modern boats. This 44 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES canal and the Hudson River connect the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. As you read the following chapters you will find out what goods are carried over this route. A canal in which you will be interested when reading the chapters on Wheat, Coal, and Iron is the "Soo," between lakes Superior and Huron, built to avoid the rapids in St. Mary River. This is at present the most important canal in the world. Several times as much freight passes through FIG. 17. VIEW OF LOCK IN "Soo" CANAL it as through the famous Suez Canal, and the traffic is rapidly increasing. There are three locks in the " Soo," one on the Canadian and two on the American side, and plans are being made for still another, so that there may be less delay for vessels. At the present time the lock on the Canadian side is the longest in the world. Another canal connecting with the Great Lakes will run from Pittsburg to Lake Erie at Ashtabula, Millions of tons of coal are sent through the (iivat Lakes .from Pittsbur^, WATERWAYS AND RAILROADS 45 and a greater quantity of iron comes over the same route to the city. It costs by water less than a tenth of a cent per ton to carry the mineral one mile. For the short journey by rail between the lake and Pittsburg the cost is more than one half of a cent per mile. No wonder that the people of the city have worked long and hard to get such a canal started. A canal in Massachusetts has been begun, connecting the ocean at Sandwich with Buzzards Bay. In the future a FIG. 18. " Soo " CANAL Notice gates to the lock series of canals may make it possible to go most of the way from Boston to the Gulf of Mexico by inland waterways. It will probably be many years before they are all completed, but let us imagine them already finished and take a trip to the Gulf. The new canal in Massachusetts is the most north- erly one. Then a trip through Long Island Sound takes us to New York City, and from there we will go by canal across New Jersey to the Delaware River and into Delaware Bay. A waterway cut across the state of Delaware will take 46 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES us to the head of Chesapeake Bay. We will sail down the bay to Norfolk, thence by a series of canals through Pamlico Sound and behind the fringe of islands along the Carolina coasts. Florida can be crossed by a waterway connecting the St. Johns and Suwanee rivers. What an advantage it will be for the United States when all these connections are completed so that vessels can take this shorter, safer route from Boston to the Gulf. The greatest undertaking of the times is the building of the Panama Canal, which will cut the Western Hemisphere in two. Look at a map of the world and see how much shorter the distance is from the cities on our Atlantic coast to Asia and the Pacific islands if vessels sail through the canal instead of going by the long, stormy route around South America. Since we have come into possession of the Philippine and Hawaiian islands our trade in the Pacific has increased immensely. As you study the following chap- ters notice what are the chief prodticts which we get from these islands. Can you think what the United States will send them in return ? A great quantity of freight comes from the interior of our country, from the broad, fertile Mississippi Valley. Animal products, grains and flour, and much cotton come from this part of the United States. To reach the great cities' on either the Atlantic or the Pacific coast a journey of several hundred miles is necessary before the produce is started on the ocean voyage to foreign markets. Much more trade could be carried over the Mississippi than at present if the water during many months of the year were not so shallow. This river and its many naviga- ble branches lie in the heart of the fertile West, and before WATERWAYS AND RAILROADS 47 the building of the great railroads which cross the country from east to west this water route was the chief highway of trade for that section. Plans are on foot to control the waters of the Mississippi and keep them at a higher level, and also to connect them with the Great Lakes. How is this to be done ? Chicago is the largest city of the great Central Plain, indeed, next to New York, the largest city in our country. Many railroads radiate from it, but they alone are unable to handle the millions of tons of freight sent out from the city. The trade through the Great Lakes is very important, but we must remember that these are closed by ice during several months of the year. This throws even more work upon the already overcrowded rail- roads. If Chicago could ship goods from her very doors down the Mississippi, and out through the Panama Canal to Asia and the Pacific islands, what a fine thing for our country's trade it would be. And this is just exactly what the people of the Middle West are determined shall be done. Chicago has built a canal connecting Lake Michigan and the Illinois River, to drain the city and carry off the sewage. By making certain improvements in this canal, and by per- fecting the plans for making the Illinois and the Mississippi rivers navigable at all times of the year, a fine waterway will be established through the most productive area of the United States. When our government has done this, the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico will be directly con- nected, and much of the commerce of the Middle West will be directed through the Gulf and the Panama Canal. ( )ur railroads, however, will probably always be the most important carrying agents. There are great lines of road which lead from the Atlantic coast to the Central Plain, o a o 48 WATERWAYS AND HAILROAIXS 49 and other important ones which connect the large cities of the Middle West with the Pacific ports. The New York Central, the Pennsylvania, the Baltimore and Ohio, and the Chesapeake and Ohio are some of the roads which lead from the Atlantic coast cities to Chicago and St. Louis, the great centers of the Mississippi Valley. Compare the accompany- ing map, on which these roads are shown, with the map showing the rivers, and see what river valley each railroad follows in its route over the mountains. These railroads carry millions of tons of iron and coal, beef, pork, grain, lumber, salt, and many other products. These are distrib- uted through the coast region or sent across the ocean to European countries. By these same railroads manufactured and imported goods are taken from the cities near the coast to the Mississippi Valley. The Great Northern, the Northern Pacific, the Union Pacific, the Southern Pacific, and the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe are among the most noted of the railroads which take freight and thousands of tourists from the Mississippi Valley to the Pacific coast, and bring back the gold, silver, fruit, salmon, lumber, cattle, and other products from California and other Pacific states. TOPICS FOR STUDY 1. Name all the rivers that have been mentioned that belong to the Atlantic system ; to the Pacific system ; to the Gulf system. Put them into an outline map. 2. Find the terminal cities and the states that each railroad men- tioned passes through. Indicate the railroads and mark the termini on an outline map. 3. What railroad would you take to go from where you live to Chicago? to Harpers Ferry? to St. Louis? to San Francisco ? Plan a trip to some city in which you are interested. 50 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES 4. If you owned a copper mine in Arizona, over what route; would you ship your product ? Suppose your copper mine to be in Montana, what route would you use ? What railroad might you use if you mined iron in Minnesota? If you mined coal in Pennsylvania? 5. Sketch the Great Lakes and show the route to the ocean via the Erie Canal and the Hudson River. 6. Show the route to Pennsylvania via canal to Pittsburg. Show the route to the Gulf of Mexico via Chicago. 7. Show existing and proposed canals along the Atlantic coast and the Mississippi River. 8. Name the animal products obtained from the Mississippi Valley. CHAPTER VI COTTON A visit to the country of King Cotton will take us to the southern part of the United States, where the warm climate, the abundant rainfall, and the fertile soil are most favorable for its production. Though we should find cotton growing all through the South, Texas, our largest state, produces more than any other. There one can ride for hours between immense fields of cotton stretching as far as the eye can see. The dark green leaves of the plant and the snowy bolls of the fiber make a pleasing contrast. In the summer and autumn many colored pickers are scattered through the fields busily engaged in filling bags and baskets with the fluffy balls. Cotton is the most important crop of the Southern farm- ers, and early in the spring they are busy with their prepara- tions for planting, which begins as soon as the danger from frost is over. In North Carolina farmers sometimes have to wait until May, but in Texas they usually begin in March. The seeds are planted in rows about four feet apart. When the shoots are two or three inches high, the plants are thinned out, the distance between them being regulated according to the variety, as some plants grow much larger than others. In former years a negro with his mule and plow first prepared the ground and opened the furrow for the seed ; then he trudged over the .field again to drop the seed, and 61 52 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES a third time to cover it. On some modern plantations all this work is done by one machine, which goes over the field but once, opening the furrow, dropping the seed and the fertilizer, and covering them. Much of the later work Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 20. COTTON ON WHARF AT NEW ORLEANS necessary for the care of the plants may also be done by machinery, though on very many farms all the work is still done by hand. The two chief kinds of cotton raised in the United States are the sea-island and the upland or short-staple variety. The first mentioned receives its name from the fact that it COTTON is raised on the islands near the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. It is considered the best cotton in the world. Much of it is shipped to Europe and is there made into muslins and other high-grade goods. Most of the American Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 21. CULTIVATING COTTON, DALLAS, TEXAS manufacturing is done from the upland or short-staple variety, which is raised in the greater part of the South. If we were to walk through a cotton field eight or ten weeks after the planting, we should see, peeping out from among the green leaves, the creamy white blossoms, "the lotus flowers of the South." These turn to a pinkish or 54 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES reddish tinge and soon drop off. The seed pods, which soon form, are about the size of an English walnut. When ripe they burst open, showing the snowy balls of cotton within. It is at this stage that the field presents its most beautiful appearance. You see, in the picture, the colored pickers, each with his bag or basket crowded full of the soft, white fiber. The owners of plantations in Texas often begin the pick- ing of cotton about the middle of July. The farmers of FIG. 22. PICKING COTTON the more northerly cotton states do not begin picking until the middle of August or later. No machine has yet been invented which can do this work successfully. Such a machine would be of great value to the Southern farmers, for the picking of cotton is by far the most expensive work done on a plantation. The pickers are usually paid accord- ing to the amount picked, the price varying from thirty to fifty cents or more for a hundred pounds. The work is hard and tiresome. Think of spending the long, hot, COTTON 55 summer days in the open field under the fierce rays of the sun ! The negroes seem able to stand the heat better than white people, perhaps because that part of Africa which was the original home of the black race is very hot. Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 23. WEIGHING COTTON The cotton does not all ripen at once, so a field has to be picked many times, even until the frost destroys what is left. The last picking is sometimes done as late as Decem- ber. It is better to gather the cotton in this way than to let it stand until all is ripe, for it is liable to injury from sand and dust, and from rains and dew. 56 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES In walking through the cotton field, we find some bolls in which the fiber is not pure and white, and we notice many of the little cases (called squares), which contain the young buds, lying on the ground. These indicate the presence of Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 24. SHIPPING COTTON Notice size and shape of bale the cotton plant's greatest enemy, the cotton-boll weevil. The damage done by this insect in the state of Texas alone has amounted! to millions of dollars. The weevil is a small, gray beetle, about one fourth of an inch long. It spreads very rapidly, for the young develop COTTON 57 in three or four weeks and it is possible for several genera- tions to breed in a single season. The United States govern- ment, through the Department of Agriculture, has realized the great menace to the cotton crop and has appropriated large sums of money to remedy the evil. Many experts have been at work on the problem, but so far no real remedy seems to have been found. The white fiber of the cotton boll is filled with small, dark seeds nearly twice the size of an apple seed. For many years these had to be picked out by hand. This was a long, slow process, for hurry as fast as he might, a workman could not clean more than a pound in a day. This limited the amount of cotton produced, for only as much was raised as could be cleaned. All this was changed, however, when Eli Whitney invented the cotton engine or " cotton gin," as it is usually called, by which the seeds are easily and quickly removed from the fiber. The story of the invention is very interesting, but is too long to be told here. The machine is simple and does its work effectually. It consists of a revolving cylinder on which are rows of saw teeth about one half inch apart. As the cylinder revolves, these teeth catch the fiber and draw it through screens of wire netting, while the seeds drop on the other side. The cotton is swept by brushes from the saw teeth to which it clings, and is blown by a blast of air into a room where it lies white and clean, freed from its seeds and from all dust. The clean, fluffy cotton is next blown into the pressroom where it is made up into bales to be sent away. These bales standing on end are about as tall as you are and large enough to weigh five hundred pounds. They are worth from thirty to forty dollars each. At the shipping cities 58 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES they are put under more powerful presses and reduced to smaller bulk. In this form they take up less room and are not so inflammable, a matter to be carefully looked after, as more than half of all our raw cotton goes on a long voyage across the ocean to European countries, while much of the remainder is sent north to be manufactured. A more recent method of shipping raw cotton is in round bales about three feet long. This method of baling is carried on at the gin- house itself, and thus saves trouble and expense. In time, doubtless, all cotton will be baled in this way. The cotton from the outlying plantations is sent to the village and is there ginned and baled. Most of the Texas product is then shipped to Galveston, the commercial center of the state. The city has a fine harbor and an immense trade. Vessels of many nations find anchorage there, and cotton may be shipped to any of the ports in our own country or in Europe. Before we embark with our load of cotton, let us go back to the plantation and see what is done with the seeds which were separated from the fiber in the ginning room. The seeds were formerly considered rather a nuisance to dispose of, and were thrown away as waste matter. Now, however, they are considered of much value and are carefully saved. There is an immense quantity of them, as from every pound of lint two pounds of seed on the average are removed. When we speak of the value of the cotton crop, we think usually only of the millions of yards of cloth and lace and thread which are made every year from the fiber. But to-day the seeds increase the value of the crop by millions of dollars. In many Southern towns and cities, side by side with the ginning plant and the cotton factory, stands the cottonseed COTTON' 59 mill. There are several hundred of these mills in the South. In them the seed is crushed, and the oil which is extracted and purified is sold in large quantities for various purposes. One of the important uses is as a substitute for lard or an ingredient of it. Nearly one third of the cottonseed oil now manufactured we are told is bought by packing houses and used in this way. Great quantities of it are shipped abroad and are used in the manufacture of butterine. This is a substitute for butter which is much used in Holland, Bel- gium, France, and other European countries. Pure cottonseed oil is said to be colorless and odorless and to have an agreeable taste, and because of these and other qualities it is every year being used more and more in place of olive oil. Much is shipped to the Mediterranean countries, and, mixed with olive oil, makes a cheaper food for the peasants. On the coast of Maine great numbers of small fish are caught and packed in this oil and sold as sardines. The inferior product which is left after the best quality of cottonseed oil is manufactured is used chiefly in the making of soap. After the crusher has extracted the oil from the seed, the residue is made into meal. This is useful as a food for cattle, and in the South has largely taken the place of corn. The Southern farmer can now feed his cattle on the product of his cotton fields, and thus save much that was formerly expended for grain. It is said that what is left of a bushel of cottonseed after the oil has been extracted has as much food value as a bushel of corn. The Western cattlemen are calling more and more on the South for cottonseed meal to fatten their cattle for market and to tide them over the years when the corn crop 60 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES is smaller than usual. The meal is valuable also as an in- gredient of fertilizers, and many hundred tons are sold each year for this purpose. But not all the uses of cottonseed have been mentioned yet, for the hulls, which were removed before the oil was extracted, are still to be disposed of. There is a great quan- tity of them, for they comprise nearly one half the total weight of the seed. They are used as cattle food and also for fuel in the factories, two and one half tons of hulls being equal to a cord of wood for heating purposes. And even the ashes are sold for fertilizer; they are considered especially good in the raising of tobacco. Statistics show that all our exports of flour, wheat, and corn since 1880 have not equaled the value of the cotton, cotton goods, and cottonseed products which have been sent out of the country in the same time. We do not wonder so much at this remarkable statement now that we understand how every part of the fruit of the cotton plant is utilized. No other plant raised in any part of the world is so valu- able to mankind as cotton. We have many fruits, but the loss of any one of them might be easily made good by another ; the same is to a degree true in regard to grains ; but for cotton there is no substitute which can be raised on so large a scale and manufactured so cheaply. It is the wealth of the South, and a failure of this crop is more widespread and disastrous in its effects than that of any other product. Not only men interested in the crop suffer, but also the thousands and thousands of mill hands scattered through the North and South. No other plant has figured so largely in the history of our country. It was due chiefly to the cotton industry that COTTON 61 slavery became a settled institution in the South, and the Civil War grew out of the industrial conditions there. " Cotton is King ! " was the cry then, and it is truer now than it was in the stirring days of the sixties. It is the principal crop of ten states, and in large areas of these it is the only crop of any importance. The cotton belt stretches from Kentucky to the Gulf of Mexico, and from North Carolina on the east through eastern Texas on the west, being limited in its western extension by the light rainfall. Of all the states included in this section Texas produces the most, gins the most, exports the most cotton, and manufactures the most oil and meal. Mississippi conies next, and then Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina. The cotton raised in Arkansas, Tennessee, and northern Mississippi and Alabama finds a market at Memphis and goes thence to New Orleans, which is the largest cotton- exporting city in the world. The crop of Texas is exported largely by way of Galveston, which ranks next to New Orleans in the shipping of cotton. On the eastern coast the principal ports are Charleston and Savannah. Much cotton is shipped also from Norfolk and New York. More than ten million bales are distributed annually through these and other cities to European countries and to different parts of the United States. About one half of all this immense quantity is manufactured abroad. But think of the many mills and factories which are necessary in our own country to manufacture the millions of bales remaining ! In Fall River, Massachusetts, the largest cotton manu- facturing city in the United States, there are used each week more than one and one half million pounds of cotton. 62 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES Enough cloth is made in this city every year to carpet its entire area several thicknesses deep. Large quantities of cotton are used also in the four or five hundred cotton mills in the other cities and towns of New England. Chief among these manufacturing centers are Lowell and Lawrence in Massachusetts, and Manchester in New Hampshire. It seems strange to find so many cotton mills so far from the place of production. But through most of our history New England has been the manufacturing center of our country. The front of the great glacier, which so many years ago spread over the northern United States, long re- mained stationary near the New England coast, and depos- ited, as the ice melted back, great masses of gravel and clay. These deposits were often sufficient to turn the rivers out of their courses, and the efforts of the streams to make new channels have resulted in many rapids and falls. In early days water power was used exclusively for the running of mills and factories, and thus New England soon became engaged in manufacturing even those products which were brought from a great distance. All this is rapidly changing, however, since other motive power has been developed, and manufacturing is now mov- ing rapidly westward and southward. Several hundred cotton mills are running to-day in the Southern states, Georgia having the most ; and nearly as much cotton is now manufactured in the South as in the North. Here the raw product is close at hand, thus saving the expense of transportation. Labor is cheaper and the mills may be run for longer hours. Many of the operatives are women and children, the latter often entering the mill at eight years of age or even younger. COTTON 63 The manufacture of cotton cloth is a long, intricate proc- ess, and the only way really to understand it is to visit a factory and see the work done. There are more than forty processes before the fiber is transformed into cloth. First the cotton is cleaned and carded, and then placed in ma- chines where all the fibers which we saw so tangled in the bolls are laid nearly parallel. Similar processes are repeated several times until the fibers have been laid straight and smooth. In the spinning process the overlapping fibers are drawn out into finer threads and twisted evenly and tightly. The thread is then wound smoothly on spindles. One spinning machine holds several hundred spindles, yet so smoothly does it work that it is tended by only one girl. After being dyed the thread is ready for weaving. Take a piece of cloth and unravel it. You can see the long warp threads running lengthwise of the cloth, and, woven in and out, in and out, over and back, over and back, the cross- wise or woof threads which make the cloth firm and solid. It is of little use to describe the looms which do this work, for unless you have actually seen the operation a written description cannot mean much. Many people in other countries besides our own are engaged in the raising and manufacturing of cotton, for, although the United States raises three fourths or more of all the cotton grown in the world, India and Egypt are noted also for their production. Both of these countries are under the control of England, and with the cotton which she imports from them, together with the greater quantity sent her from the United States, she has become the largest cotton manufacturing country in the world. Manchester, the center of the industry, is connected with Liverpool by 64 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES a ship canal which aids her commerce immensely. All Eu- ropean countries would be glad to be able to raise in their own colonies the cotton they need for manufacturing, and not be dependent for this staple upon a foreign country like the United States. When we enter a large cotton factory, with its many hun- dreds of operatives, and listen to the noise and clatter of the machinery, we cannot but contrast it with the days long ago when cotton was cleaned, spun, and woven in the home by the use of the fingers only. But this is only another illustration of the fact spoken of in the opening chapter, that it is no longer possible for one person, or family, or city, or even country to live independently, supplying all needs at home and furnishing nothing for the outside world. We do not know how long it is since people first began the raising and weaving of cotton. It was probably many years after both linen and wool were used.' The plant is supposed to be a native of India, though of that fact we are not sure. When the cloth was first used, it was considered very fine indeed ; history tells us of a king who at his coronation wore a beautiful cotton robe. TOPICS FOR STUDY 1. A trip to Texas. 9. Uses of cottonseed. 2. A cotton plantation. 10. Value of cotton crop. 3. Raising cotton. 11. United States cotton belt. 4. Kinds of cotton. 12. Exporting cities. 5. Picking cotton. 13. Manufacturing of cotton. 6. Dangers to crop. 14. Cotton belt of the world. 7. Cotton ginning. 15. History of cotton. 8. Shipping cotton. COTTON 65 II 1. Write a description of the raising, picking, and ginning of cotton. 2. Make a list of all the things you can think of which are made from any part of the cotton plant. 3. Mount on a large card samples showing the uses of cotton. See which row of the class can get the greatest number of articles and mount them in the neatest way. 4. On a map of the world, color the countries producing cotton. Write the names of all the bodies of water on which a vessel would sail, carrying cotton from India or Egypt to England. 5. Describe clearly how the cloth in any cotton garment you have on has been made. 6. Trace a map of the United States and locate all cities men- tioned in this chapter. 7. Sketch the states included in the cotton belt. Number each in its importance in the production of cotton. 8. What are some of the sights you would wish to see in a visit to New Orleans? Ill Be able to spell and pronounce the following names. Locate each place and tell what was said about it in this chapter. New York Kentucky New Orleans Mississippi Galveston Georgia Memphis Alabama Charleston South Carolina Savannah Arkansas Norfolk Tennessee Lowell New England Lawrence Southern states Fall River Cotton region. Manchester, N. H. Africa Manchester, England. Asia Texas India North Carolina Egypt Massachusetts All water routes mentioned. CHAPTER VII SUGAR How much sugar do you suppose a person eats in a year in his food and drink and in his candy and other sweet- meats ? Statistics show that in the United States every man, woman, and child eats on the average more than seventy pounds a year. This is much more than is eaten by any other nation. Consequently, although we produce great quantities of it every year, we import more sugar than any other product. All the wheat we sell annually to foreign countries would not pay for the sugar we import in the same time. Sugar cane, which is the best known of sugar-producing plants, was introduced into America by the Spaniards in their earliest voyages. It is a cousin of the Indian corn and closely resembles it. Sorghum, from which some of our molasses is made, is another cousin. Most of the sugar im- ported into the United States comes from islands of the warm belt where cane sugar is the only kind produced. Therefore we use more of that kind ; but we are the only nation of importance of which this is true. Can you name some islands from which we receive large quantities of cane sugar ? The raising of beets for sugar is a development of recent times. This industry has grown so rapidly that now much more sugar is made from beets than from cane. 66 SUGAR 67 A third variety is the delicious maple sugar which we all like so much. The amount made is, however, so small as to be of very little importance compared with either of the other two kinds. These three varieties, cane, beet, and maple sugar, are all made from the sap or juice of vegetable growths in practi- cally the same way, that is, by boiling down and purifying the liquid. The methods differ, but the underlying principle is the same in each. Still another product which we might class with the vari- eties of sugar is the honey made by bees from the nectar of flowers. This is probably the earliest form- of sugar used by man, the bees thus furnishing the sweetmeat .before man had developed sufficient intellect to make it for himself. Glucose is a liquid sugar made from cornstarch in the United States and from potato starch in France and Ger- many. It is used for confectionery and preserves and for mixing with molasses. To see a typical modern sugar plantation let us go to Louisiana, for most of the cane grown in the United States is raised in that state. The plantation whicn we will visit is larger than the average, and is well equipped with the latest machinery for cultivating the plant and with the most recent inventions for converting the juice into sugar. Our trip will take us into the same part of the country where cotton is grown, for sugar cane requires for its growth a tropical or warm temperate climate. Taking a train from New Orleans, we are carried farther and farther northward into the heart of Louisiana. For much of the way, on both sides of the track, we see only the fields of waving cane. In places it is so tall that a person on horseback would be 68 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES completely hidden from sight. We might think we were in the Kansas cornfields were it not that the cane is nearly twice as tall. Mr. Blank's plantation, at which we finally arrive, consists of several thousand acres, the most of which is devoted to Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 25. PLANTING CANE sugar cane. Some parts of the farm stretch so far away from the sugarhouse that a private railway several miles long has been built, over which the stalks are carried to the factory ; we can also follow good wagon roads for miles through the forests of waving cane. SUGAR (39 From the overseer we learn something of the methods of planting. The land is first plowed and thrown into ridges from six to eight feet apart. Then a small trench is made in the top of each ridge, and in each trench two or three rows of cuttings from the main stalk are laid end to end. A machine has been invented for covering the cuttings, Copyright, Detroit Pub. Co. FIG. 26. CUTTING CANE ON A CUBAN SUGAR PLANTATION though on the smaller plantations this is still done by hand. The expense of planting a large plantation is great, for from four to six tons of cane are required for each acre. The new shoots spring from the joints of the cuttings, and soon the rich, dark fields are covered with waving, green leaves. The plant grows rapidly under the heat of the southern sun, and by harvest time has attained a height 70 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES of perhaps fifteen feet. For several years the cane will spring up from the same roots, but it will gradually become of a poorer quality. Then the old roots are plowed up and new cuttings planted. Where cane and labor are plentiful this is done every year, although in Louisiana the stubble is capable of producing a good crop a second and even a third year. Harvesting begins usually in October. It is better to let the cane grow just as late as possible, as it is in the latter part of its life that the sugar forms most rapidly ; but it must be cut before frost comes to injure it. Colored workmen, using a large knife made for the purpose, go through the fields cutting the stalks very close to the ground. The lower part of the stalk yields the most sugar, so the plant is cut as near the roots as possible. The leaves and tops are trimmed off, and the stalks are laid in piles as the cutteX' proceeds. On this large, modern plantation the cane is loaded by machinery and quickly carried to the factory where the juice is to be extracted. From wagons or cars the stalks are thrown upon a moving belt which carries them to the top of the mill. They are first cut or shredded into small pieces and then crushed between heavy rollers. The crushed stalks from which the juice has been removed are used in the furnace, thus saving the cost of fuel. The juice which has been squeezed out is carried by pipes to large screens through which it is strained. After this it H'oes through several processes, one of the most important of which is the boiling in large tanks with milk of lime. Boiling causes the impurities to separate from the clear sirup, which is drawn off by pipes into large pans. Here SUGAR 71 it is boiled down and crystallized into a brownish mass known as crude or raw sugar. The sirup or molasses which is left still contains a great deal of sugar, so it is boiled again, and often a third time, in order to obtain from it the greatest possible quantity of sugar. Each boiling results in a poorer quality of both sugar and molasses. The molasses which we use in our homes is that obtained from the first boiling of cane juice, from sorghum, or from a glucose mixture. The molasses which is finally left after the rebelling is considered of little value and is looked upon by Southern plantation owners as a waste product. The raw sugar is next sent to the refinery, where it goes through many processes of boiling, purifying, and filtering, until it finally drops into huge bins. From here it slides down through shutes or spouts into hogsheads, in which it is shipped away for distribution. The difference in price between raw sugar and the pure, white product after it is refined is less than a cent a pound. The machinery for refining is expensive and the process complicated, so it is done only in very large quantities. Consequently, instead of many small refineries scattered through the South, there are a comparatively few mammoth plants centered in cities to which immense quantities can be shipped from our own sugar area and from foreign sugar-producing countries. Refineries will accordingly be found in our great seaports. The most important ones are situated in Brooklyn, Jersey City, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, New Orleans, and San Francisco. These cities import raw beet and cane sugar from all over the world, and send out the refined product to the distributing cities. 72 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES Can you name some of these cities, and find on your map the routes over which much of the sugar will pass ? Louisiana produces the greater part of the sugar crop of the United States. The lowlands of the flood plains and delta of the Mississippi River are especially adapted to this crop. Other lowlands in adjoining states are used for the same purpose ; Texas especially is increasing her output year by year. Nearly all the sugar produced in the country is furnished by these two states. A great deal of cane sugar comes to the United States from our island dependencies to be refined. Sugar raising is the chief industry both in Cuba and in the Hawaiian Islands, and is of great importance in the Philippines. Of all places where sugar is produced, Cuba holds first rank, though it finds a close rival in Java, in the East Indies. Not only Cuba and Java but the other East and West India Islands raise sugar in great quantities ; in fact, it is their most important crop. Most of the work is done by hand, and the amount raised could be largely increased by the introduction of modern machinery. The industry has suffered because of the rapid development of beet sugar and its competition in the market. Much of the molasses produced in the West Indies is used in the manufacture of rum. This industry has been carried to such an extent in Jamaica, that Jamaica rum is noted the world over. It is impossible to tell, either by appearance or by taste, whether sugar is made from cane or from beets. If we could test the raw sugar, we could distinguish that which comes from the beet very easily, for it has a disagreeable odor and taste, which arc removed by refining. SUGAR 73 The history of beet sugar is interesting. It was not dis- covered by accident, as so many of our useful products have been. It was made after years of painstaking, unsuc- cessful, and costly experiments. A German apothecary first discovered the presence of sugar in beets in 1747, and soon Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 27. PICKANINNIES' CANDY STORE both French and German chemists were at work trying to devise some method by which it could be extracted cheaply enough to be commercially profitable. The problem offered great difficulties, for it is hard to get rid of certain impuri- ties which are found in the juice of the beet. The chemists 74 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES attained no great success in their researches until after the beginning of the nineteenth century, when a new impetus was given to the work. England and France were at war at this time, and as ports were blockaded by the hostile fleets prices of all products were greatly increased. Sugar was sold at a dollar or two a pound. Knowing that the sugar beet would grow well in French soil, Napoleon offered a prize to any one who would successfully demonstrate how sugar could be profit- ably made from its juice. The result was that before the close of the first half of the century the beet-sugar industry grew to be of great importance in both France and Germany. Its growth hi the United States has been more recent but during the past few years very rapid indeed. This rapid development has been largely due to the aid given by the Department of Agriculture of ow' federal government and by the various state governments. They have established experiment stations where crops of beets have been raised and sugar extracted by the best and cheapest methods. They have sent seed to the farmers and have otherwise aided in familiarizing the people with this new crop. Germany is at present the foremost country in the manu- facture of beet sugar, producing one fourth of the world's supply. It is the largest- industrial staple of that empire, although the German people consume per head only one third as much sugar as we do in the United States. The industry is well developed in Austria, France, and Russia. These four European countries all manufacture more sugar than they use, and therefore export much of the prodiu i. The beets require more care and labor Ln the raising than- some other crops, but the income from them is also greater. SUGAR 75 The plowing of the land must be deep in order to supply a uniform amount of moisture to the plant during its growth. Furrows are laid out and the seed dropped by a machine which will sow and cover several rows at once. After this the land must be thoroughly rolled. Soon the plants appear, and must be thinned out by hand, weeded, cultivated, and tended very carefully during their growth. Harvesting is delayed as late as possible, for, as in the case of the cane, the sugar forms most rapidly as the plant approaches matu- rity. The beets are plowed loose, and then pulled by hand. Boys are employed to " top " them, after which they are sent to the factory. If that is too full to receive them, they are piled up and covered with the tops or with a layer of soil. Arriving at the factory, the beets are washed and then dropped upon sharp knives which cut them in pieces. They are then soaked in warm water and pressed. This extracts "the juice, which, while being boiled down and converted into sugar, goes through many complicated processes to remove the impurities. There are more than sixty factories in the United States where this work is done, and more are being built each year. The states which are the foremost in the manufacture of beet sugar are California, Michigan, Colorado, Utah, and Nebraska, and the industry is growing rapidly both in these and in other states. In Michigan large beet farms may be seen to-day on lands formerly covered by timber. As the forests were cut off, it was found that the soil was suitable for the raising of beets, and the lumber mills and sawmills are being replaced by beet farms and sugar factories. As it is cheaper to raise the beets near the factories, you would see in the vicinity large fields devoted to that industry. 76 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES From three to five thousand acres of beets are necessary to insure product enough for one factory. The sugar-mak- ing season comes after the harvesting and lasts for three months or more. At the end of this time the factory is idle Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 28. TAPPING A SUGAR-MAPLE TREE save for necessary repairs or improvements. The workmen can usually find employment on the neighboring farms. In this industry, as in so many others, the waste prod- ucts are utilized. The pulp of the beet, after the juice has been extracted, has been found to be a good cattle food, tu id dairies arc now bcin<' run in connection with sonic SUGAR 77 factories. The beet tops are fed to cattle to some extent, but are more valuable as a fertilizer, giving back to the soil some of the elements taken from it in the growth of the plant, and thus helping to prevent soil exhaustion. The cane and beet sugar we have all the year round. There is no time when we look forward to a fresh supply, Copyright, Detroit Pub. Co. FIG. 29. GATHERING SAP IN A MAPLE-SUGAR CAMP as we do in the spring for the first maple sugar of the season. How delicious that must have seemed to those early New England settlers when they first learned, perhaps from the Indians, how to make it ! Maple sugar is made from the sap of the rock, or sugar, maple, and wherever this tree grows maple sugar can be made. At present Vermont, New York, and Pennsylvania 78 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES are the states which produce the most. The trees are tapped in the early spring when the sap begins to flow. A hole from one and one half to two inches deep is bored into the Copyright, Detroit Pub. Co. FKI. 30. MAKING SIRUP IN THE GOOD OLD-FASHION KD WAV tree, and a spout is inserted ; a bucket is hung below, and the sap which collects is emptied every day and carried to the sugarlmusc. Here it is strained and boiled down into SI (iAR 79 sirup or sugar. In the early days of our history the " sugar- ing off " was a social event of the year. Young and old gathered around the kettles and mingled much fun and frolic with the work of tending the fire and stirring and testing the sirup. TOPICS FOR STUDY I 1. History of sugar. 2. Kinds of sugar. 3. A trip to Louisiana. 4. Cane sugar : the plant ; a sugar plantation ; manufacture ; sugar belt. 5. Beet sugar : history ; methods of raising sugar beets ; manu- facture ; area of production. 6. Maple sugar : area of production ; manufacture. II 1. Take the trip from your homo town to New Orleans. If your journey is by land, over what railroads will you go? If by water, name the bodies sailed upon and the states passed through or by. 2. On a map of the world, paste pictures of beets or sugar cane on islands or countries where each is grown. 3. Trace a map of the United States and draw a picture of beets, or cane, or a maple tree in the states noted for sugar. Color the states in each section. 4. Locate all cities containing great sugar refineries. Trace routes from islands and foreign countries from which sugar is sent. Try to find railroads over which raw sugar from cities in the United States is sent. Find the railroads by which sugar may be sent from the refining cities to other distributing centers. 5. Compare methods of sugar raising in our own country and in Cuba or Java. 6. Tell all the likenesses and differences you can think of in the beet, cane, and maple sugar industries. 80 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES III Be able to spell and pronounce the following names. Locate each place and tell what was said about it in this and in the previous chapter. \f\v Orleans Austria Nebraska New York France Vermont Brooklyn Russia New York Jersey City England Cuba Philadelphia Louisiana Hawaiian Islands Boston Kansas Philippine Islands Baltimore California West Indies San Francisco Michigan East Indies India Colorado Jamaica Italy Utah Java Germany CHAPTER VIII FRUIT If the people of one hundred years ago could visit the earth to-day, they would find many things of which they never dreamed : instruments by means of which people one hundred miles or more apart can converse, messages sent thousands of miles in a minute, floating palaces for ocean travel, luxurious parlor cars in which we may ride at ease over plains and mountains, valuable crops grown where no rain falls, and other changes that would seem to them miraculous. Could we come back to earth in some future century, we should, no doubt, find things as strange to us. Could we enjoy a dinner with the people of the future, we should be much surprised at some of the food set before us. We should find ourselves ignorant of the names of some of the fruits and perhaps unfamiliar with the flowers decorating the room. For our dessert we might partake of white black- berries picked from thornless bushes, plums with no stones, or apples without seeds. We might taste of a plum and from the flavor think we were eating a pear. You may smile at the thought, yet some of these strange fruits have already been produced. Experiments are constantly going on by which men are trying to improve the common fruits and to make them capable of yielding more abundantly, to make them hardier and better able to stand frost, to adapt them to many kinds of soil and climate, and, more wonder- ful than all, to make them produce new varieties. 81 82 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES Of these wonder-workers, the man who is the most noted is Luther Burbank, of Santa Rosa, California. For years he has patiently toiled among his trees and shrubs, carefully transferring the pollen of one flower to the seed vessel of another, and grafting scions on staid, respectable trees, so that one apple tree may bear at the same time many varieties. FIG. 31. ONE OF LUTHER BURBANK'S PRODUCTIONS The large plum has been raised from the small one (Courtesy of Mr. Luther Burbank) In this chapter we shall study some of the principal fruits raised in our country to-day ; yet in a comparatively few years there may be many others of which we are no\v ignorant. In the. United States immense quantities of fruit arc raised, and there are very few parts of tlic country \\licre FRUIT 83 some variety will not grow. In the desert land the cactus flourishes, bearing its little dried-up fruit. By its sharp spines and thorns the plant is rendered useless to the cattle that would feed upon it. But the wizard of horti- culture, Luther Burbank, has developed a thornless cactus with large, juicy, nourishing fruit, so that even these waste portions of our country may be capable in the future of supporting life. What kind of fruit farm shall we visit first ? Out of all the variety which our country affords, we have a wide choice. If we go to the Coastal Plain and the Piedmont Belt of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, we shall find many farms where grapes, strawberries, apples, peaches, and other fruits are raised and shipped to the large cities for distribution. What cities in this region would you select as the great distributing centers ? The canning of fruits and vegetables is an important industry, and in Baltimore and Wilmington there are great factories where this work is carried on. See if you can find the names of these or other cities on the cans which your mother buys. If we go farther south to Florida, we shall probably select an orange grove for our first visit, though we shall wish to see also the farms where pineapples, bananas, and lemons are raised. If we decide to remain in the North, we shall find im- mense peach orchards in the vicinity of the Great Lakes, on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan and on the southern shores of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. The water tempers the climate of this region, and the peaches flourish as well here as farther south in Delaware and Maryland. 84 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES Just south of Lake Erie is the Chautauqua grape belt, lying partly in New York and extending into Ohio. From this region alone more than five thousand carloads are shipped each year, most of which are the well-known Con- cords. The original vine, from which millions have sprung, is still living near Concord, Massachusetts, where that grape was first developed from a wild variety found near at hand. Although we see such quantities of the Concord grape every year, we must remember that it is only one of a thou- sand varieties grown in our country to-day. The most wonderful place by far to visit, if we wish to see fruit farms, is California. We can hardly imagine the acres and acres of orange and lemon groves, peach, plum, and olive orchards, and the millions of grapevines which we can find in the fertile valleys of the state. There are besides vast fields given over to almonds, walnuts, figs, apricots, and many other varieties of fruit. A strange sight to Eastern eyes are the great fields, sometimes containing hundreds of acres, covered with trays filled with apricots, peaches, and figs drying in the sun, plums changing into prunes, and grapes into raisins. Such industries are not possible in other parts of the United States, but in southern California no rain falls from May until late October, and in the hot, dry air the fruit dries without decaying. Thou- sands of pounds of dried fruit, including great quantities of raisins, are shipped every year to other parts of the country. Perhaps the most wonderful fact connected with this busy industrial life is that many of these fertile farms, f ra- in -ant with blossoms, green with grass and shrubs, and with cooling shade trees, were but a few years ago dry, desert wastes. The only tiling needed to work the miracle, by FRUIT 85 which a desert was changed into a garden, was water. By canals and ditches the life-giving streams are brought from the mountains near by, and presto, change ! the desert gives place to fertile farms and pleasant homes. Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 32. TEN THOUSAND ACRES OF ORANGE GROVES IN CALIFORNIA San Francisco is the great shipping port for many of these fruits and vegetables, which are sent over the ocean or across the continent. Many vessels loaded with fruits, fresh, canned, and dried, sail from her harbor, and many trains loaded with similar freight leave daily for the East. 86 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES ORANGES Let us first of all visit an orange farm, and see how this fruit, of which we are so fond, is raised and prepared for market. There are three principal areas in the United States where we might find orange groves : in Florida, Louisiana, and California. We will choose California be- cause that state contains more and larger groves than either of the other two. Thirty thousand carloads of oranges have been sent out of the state in one year. What an immense quantity ! What large farms and what great numbers of them there must be to produce such an amount. Redlands is a typical, thriving orange town and con- tains fifteen factories where the fruit is packed for market, besides a large marmalade factory which makes nearly two hundred . and fifty thousand jars of marmalade each season. When we know that nearly four thousand car- loads of oranges are shipped each year from this one town, we realize what a large number of groves must lie all around it. The orange trees are very beautiful with their dark, glossy, evergreen leaves, fragrant blossoms, and balls of yellow fruit. As far as one can see, there are acres and acres of just such trees. When we notice how thickly the fruit hangs on some of them, we are not surprised to learn that one tree has been known to bear ten thousand oranges in a single year. That is not usual, however, for the average tree yields annually only from five hundred to two thou- sand. The trees begin to bear when about five years old, and continue to produce fruit until fifty years of age and even longer. FRUIT 87 From Stereograph Copyright, Underwood & Underwood, N.Y. FIG. 33. IRRIGATING AN ORANGE GROVE IN CALIFORNIA They are usually planted twenty or more feet apart, in rows, with furrows between for the water, which is let in from time to time to moisten the soil. In southern California the trees grow rapidly and bear early and well, for the 88 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES climate is uniform, the average temperature in some places not varying more than eight or ten degrees between winter and summer. There is plenty of sunshine also, for there are usually more than three hundred sunny days each year. The trees are grown with short trunks, so that the lowest branches hang near the ground. The fruit is picked by reaching from the ground or from stepladders. The picking is carried on chiefly during the winter months, from Novem- ber to February or March. It is done very carefully, in order that the oranges may not be bruised, for in that case they decay rapidly. Not all the fruit is picked at once, as it does not all ripen at the same time. The picked fruit is taken to a factory, where it is cleaned, sorted, and packed by machinery, read)' to be shipped away. Los Angeles is situated in the center of a region well adapted to the raising of this fruit, and the industry has contributed much to the growth of the city. The oranges which were exported in one year were worth one and one fourth million dollars. The income from this one year's product would be sufficient to give about seven dollars to each man, woman, and child in the " City of the Angels." Florida used to raise many more oranges than she does tq-day ; but in 1895 there came a cold wave which extended much farther south than usual and destroyed thousands and thousands of trees. The fragrant white blossoms were turned black, the fruit was spoiled, and even the sap in the trees was so chilled that many died. Thousands of dollars were lost, and the fanners decided to raise in the future crops which would not be so easily injured by frost. Con- sequently, at the present time Florida is raising a greater variety of fruits and vegetables than ever before. Peaches, FRUIT 89 pears, lettuce, tomatoes, celery, potatoes, and other prod- ucts of the temperate climate are sent out from the state in great quantities. Quick transportation by express and fast freight enables the Florida farmer to send to the North many early spring delicacies, which are now sold more cheaply than ever before. The orange industry has moved to the southern part of the state, where the more tropical productions bananas, pineapples, and grapefruit are also grown. LEMONS One of the newest industries in California is lemon cul- ture. The raising of this fruit has long been an important industry in the Mediterranean countries, and in the closing years of the last century we imported from that region several million dollars' worth. Since the cultivation of lemons has been introduced into the United States, we have reduced our importations more than one third, with a future outlook of much greater reduction. Lemon culture in Florida was given a setback by the freeze of 1895, but many groves in the southern part of the state are still flourishing. The lemon grows most success- fully, however, in southern California near the coast. The region is in nearly the same latitude as the southern parts of the Mediterranean countries, and like them receives from the ocean the winds which modify the temperature. Frosts are infrequent, but when they do come are very injurious, and much money is spent in preventing damage from this cause. The lemon tree is a perpetual bearer, and the fragrant blossoms, the small, green fruit, and the larger lemons 90 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES ready for picking can all be found on the tree at the same time. The gathering of the fruit is an interesting process. Every picker has, hanging from his shoulder, a canvas bag with a wire bottom, into which the fruit is dropped. In one hand he carries a knife and in the other, attached to his thumb, he has a steel ring about two and one fourth inches in diameter. Before a lemon is cut from the tree it is meas- ured by this ring, and if it is too small it is allowed to remain until it grows to a proper size. Many of the pickers in California are Japanese. They are well paid for their work, their wages varying from one to two dollars per day. The pay in the Mediterranean countries is much less. The native pickers of Sicily, for example, receive less than fifty cents for a day's work, while the women sometimes receive as little as ten or fifteen cents. This difference in wages increases the cost of the California lemon, and it must prove itself a superior fruit in order to induce people to buy it. Lemons are usually taken from the tree before they are fully ripe. They are carefully washed by means of a wheel on the edges of which brushes are fixed. As the wheel revolves, these brushes dip into troughs of water containing the lemons, and thoroughly clean them. All this is done in so careful a way that if the lemons were as fragile as eggs few would be broken. Great care is also necessary in pick- ing and packing, as the slightest bruise causes the lemon to decay much more quickly than if perfectly sound. After they are washed, they are sorted and dried, and then laid in trays about two feet long and three feet wide but only three inches in depth. These trays are stacked in the curing house, one above the otluT, allowing air FRUIT 91 between. In these the lemons are left until yellow and fit for shipping. The fruit is sold in much greater quantity in summer than in winter ; therefore much of the crop which is picked during the winter months is left in the curing house until the hot season creates a demand. Then the lemons are shipped to all parts of the country, and we enjoy the refreshing lemonade and cooling ices made from their juice. The California lemon is larger, smoother, and perhaps rather more juicy than its European cousin, and is conse- quently growing in popularity. The two thousand carloads of this fruit which are shipped annually from the state may seem a small amount compared with the greater quantities of other fruits, but we must remember that the lemon industry is still in its infancy. Its future, however, seems promising, for the climate and soil of California are well adapted to its development. GRAPES Scarcely less interesting than the orange and lemon cul- ture is that of the grape, and here again we have a choice of location ft we wish to visit large vineyards. As in the orange industry, we find three chief regions in our country where the grape is cultivated. We have already spoken of the Chautauqua grape belt in New York and Ohio, where the Concord grape is raised almost exclusively, and where we might drive for miles between vineyards fragrant with blossoms or loaded with the luscious fruit. If we prefer the small Delaware grape, then we must go to the Atlantic states, Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey. But if we wish to see great vineyards loaded with huge clusters of white grapes, to visit the fields where tons of these are 92 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES being changed by the dry air and bright sunshine into sweet, brown raisins, or to learn about the great quan- tities of wine which our country is making, then we must stay in California. The largest grapevine in the world is growing in Cali- fornia. It covers one half an acre, and several hundred people might enjoy its shade at the same time. The main trunk is seven and one half feet in circumference. Think of that, you who think of the grape as a slender, clinging vine. Most wonderful of all, this immense vine bears ten tons of grapes every year ! There is one raisin vineyard in Los Angeles County which covers five thousand acres or nearly eight square miles. This is the largest vineyard in the world, and be- longed to Leland Stanford, the founder of the Leland Stan- ford Junior University. If we reckon three tons of grapes to an acre, which is a modest estimate, think of the immense quantity which is raised on this one farm. Fifteen thou- sand tons ! Now if I tell you that three or four pounds of grapes will yield one pound of raisins, perhaps you can find out how many pounds or tons of raisins come from this one vineyard. And when we think that this is only one farm of all the thousands in California devoted to the raising of grapes and the manufacture of raisins, we can understand better the importance of this industry. From the pictures of these Western vineyards you will notice how low the vines are. They are trained in this way as it is thought that the fruit grows better near the ground. It is also picked much more easily and quickly if it can be reached without the use of ladders. This manner of growth is not natural to the vine, which, if left to itself, is a great FRUIT 98 climber. We read of vines in Italy, which, a - historian tells us, grew so high in the trees that the grape gatherer often inserted a clause in the contract which he made with the master of the vineyard, to the effect that, in case of FIG. 34. GRAPES DRYING, FRESNO, CALIFORNIA accidents in climbing to such heights, the master should pay for his funeral and tomb. Vines are now pruned closely every year, and the harvest of grapes is gathered from the new shoots. The fruit ripens in August, when it is cut with knives made for the purpose. 94 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES Only about one sixth of all the great harvest from the million vines grown in California is shipped as fresh fruit ; all the rest is made into raisins, wine, or grape juice. On the Leland Stanford ranch six acres are covered by the wineries in which two and one half to three million gallons of wine are made each year. In these buildings are presses which in one day can squeeze the juice out of four to eight hundred tons of grapes, If the grapes are to be made into raisins, they are laid carefully in shallow trays about one inch high and nearly a yard square. They are turned from time to time by put- ting an empty tray upside down over a full one, and then tipping them over. The drying takes from ten days to three weeks, depending on the weather. We must remember that no rain falls from May to November, and much of that time there is not even dew. If it were not for this, grapes could not be made into raisins there, for if the air were damp, or the grapes should be wet, they would decay instead of drying. The fruit which is picked late in the season is sometimes not entirely cured when the rains begin in November. If rain seems probable, there is a great demand for laborers, to re-turn or to cover the trays. Many children are excused from school at these- times and work in the fields, thus saving their fathers many dollars. Some firms which cure raisins on a large scale have dryirtg houses, and so escape the danger which comes to the farmer whose, trays are in the open field. After the grapes are dried, they are carried to the pack- ing house and stored in great cases. The little moisture left in them causes them to "sweat," which softens the skin and gives them a better appearance. If they are t<> l>e FRUIT 95 sold as seeded raisins, they are put through machines which take out the seeds. The fruit is then packed, labeled, and made ready for shipping. California produces one hundred million pounds of raisins annually, and we import about six million pounds more. Of this great quantity we use in our own country about eighty million pounds, enough to give every person in the United States one pound each year. But that is very little compared with the amount used in some European countries ; Great Britain, for ex- ample, consumes annually five pounds for each inhabitant. FIG. 35. GRAPES FOR THE WINERY, FRESNO, CALIFORNIA In the making of wine the grapes are first crushed and the juice is allowed to ferment, after which it is strained and made ready for market. The fruit and juice pass through several complicated processes, but the crushing of the fruit, the fermentation, and the straining are the most important. The thirty million gallons of wine made in this country annually seems an immense quantity, but if we com- pare it with the product of European countries it is very little, for this is only one fiftieth of the amount produced by France. When we consider that the area in California 96 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES which might be devoted to the cultivation of the grape is equal to that in France, we can understand the future possibilities of this industry. Though at the present time England gets the larger part of her wine supply from the Mediterranean countries, in the future she may be able to depend on her own colonies to furnish her with what she may need. Cape Colony is becoming more and more interested in the production of grapes and makes several million gallons of wine each year. England also imports many fresh grapes, as well as peaches and plums, from her South African colony. I wonder if you have ever noticed the grapes as they come to us from Spain. You have probably seen boxes of them at the fruit store, packed in what looks at first sight something like sawdust, but which is really the powdered bark of the cork tree. Perhaps some one of you may be wondering if the little dried currant which we use in cuke and puddings is also a dried grape, or really a currant as the name implies. It is really a grape and not a currant at all. It gets its name from Corinth, a city of Greece, where the fruit was origin- ally prepared for market. For this reason they were first called "Corinths," which, as the years went by, became changed by careless pronunciation into the more familiar word " currants." These grapes grew originally on islands in the Ionian Sea east of Greece, and they are prepared for market in much the same way that currants are. If you put one into water, you can see it swell out into something of the shape of a grape though it is much smaller. Cur- rants form one of the principal exports of Greece and great quantities are shipped annually from that country. FRUIT 97 OLIVES Those who do not like olives and seldom if ever eat one will be surprised at the quantity of that fruit which is raised and eaten in the pickled form or used for the manufacture of oil. Olive oil is used largely in salads, in the packing of sardines, in the manufacture of soap, and in medicine. The original home of the olive tree is in the Mediterra- nean countries, and Italy and Spain lead the world in the production of olive oil. At a little distance the olive tree somewhat resembles the apple tree. It has, however, a much longer life, for it is not unusual for one to live and bear for several centuries. The olive industry in our country is confined almost entirely to California, and there we shall find the largest orchard in the world, situated about twenty miles south of Los An- geles. This great orchard covers twelve hundred acres, with about a hundred olive trees to each acre, making, as you see, more than one hundred thousand trees on this single farm. As each tree yields two hundred pounds of fruit in a season, you can easily find out how many tons of olives are produced annually. About eight or nine pounds of the fruit will yield one quart of oil, and now you can figure out how much olive oil may be made each year from this one orchard. If you go a step farther, and find out how much this oil is worth at one and one half dollars a gallon, you will have a fair estimate of the income of the owner of the ranch. We must not forget, however, that he has a large outgo in expenses. The olives to be used for pickling are gathered when quite green. This work is done carefully, to avoid bruising 98 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES the fruit. The green olives are very bitter, and in order to remove this flavor they are put into large vats where they are soaked for some days in lye. They are then put into fresh water, which is changed every day for more than a week. This removes all taste of the lye. The fruit is next put into casks of brine, and afterward packed in bottles or kegs for shipping. If the harvest from an olive orchard is to be used for oil, the fruit is not picked until fully ripe. It is then loaded on wagons and taken to the factory, where it is fanned free from sticks, straws, or dirt. The fruit is next dried in the sun for a week or two, after which it is crushed between two rollers, care being taken not to break the stone, for that would spoil the flavor of the oil. The pulp is then put into presses similar to those in a cider mill. The oil which is squeezed out is strained to free it from impurities, and then drawn off to remain in a cool, dark place until bottled. The fruit pulp is pressed several times before the oil is all extracted, the best product coming from the first pressing, and a lower grade from the second and third. Very little olive oil is sold which does not contain other oil mixed with it. That of the cotton seed is used for this adulteration more than any other; sometimes one half or more of the so-called olive oil is really that extracted from the seed of the cotton plant. This is pure and nourishing, and its flavor is not disagreeable ; it is also much cheaper than the oil made from the olive, and there would be little objection to the mixture if the compound were properly labeled. People like to know exactly what they are buying, and to decide for themselves whether or not they want it. The Pure Food and Drugs Act recently passed by Congress FRUIT 99 now makes this possible by requiring that all foods and drugs shall be truthfully labeled. California manufactures half a million gallons of olive oil each year, enough to fill sixteen thousand barrels. It would need a tube one foot in diameter and nineteen miles long to hold it all. Imagine such a tube extending from your home city. What place would it reach ? This immense quantity is really very little when we compare it with the product of Italy and Spain, for each of those countries manufactures thirty to forty times as much. France manu- factures a great deal of oil, but the French people are so fond of it that still more is imported from the other Medi- terranean countries. Perhaps we ought to learn to like it better, for it is considered very nourishing and healthful. There are many advantages connected with the olive industry, and each year more people in California are en- gaging in it. As the trees live to be so old, they do not have to be set out and cared for every few years. After they are well started they need very little attention. The olives ripen in November, at a time when few other crops demand attention; and there is little danger of any one robbing the trees of any of their load, for unless perfectly ripe the fruit is so bitter that not even the birds will eat it. Perhaps you have seen small articles made from olive wood. It is much prized by cabinetmakers, for it is hard and takes a fine polish, but of course is very expensive, as the trees are much more valuable for their fruit than for their lumber. PRUNES Before leaving California we will visit San Jose, a city of about thirty thousand inhabitants, many of whom are 100 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES dependent on one industry, the cultivation of plums and curing of prunes. It is hard to realize that the tough, dry prune as it comes to us from the store was once the fat. juicy plum. Perhaps it is still harder to realize that more than one hundred million pounds are consumed in the United States annually, making, on an average, more than FIG. 36. PRUNE GRADER a pound of prunes each year for every inhabitant. The majority of these are furnished by California orchards. The Pacific Northwest, including Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, is becoming an important prune-growing region and ranks next to France in the amount produced. Before this industry was developed in our own country, \vr obtained our supply largely from France and (lie Danube valley, but FRUIT 101 now we are able not only to furnish prunes enough for home markets but also to ship some abroad. The plums ripen in the early fall, and if you were to visit an orchard at that time you would see the busy farmers shaking the fruit upon large sheets spread underneath the heavily laden trees. Loads of plums are taken to the fac- tories, where they are first washed and graded according to FIG. 37. PRUNE DRIER, CALIFORNIA size ; then, after being dipped in boiling lye to soften the skins, they are spread out in the sun to dry. Thousands of trays filled with the fruit may be seen in a single field. The drying requires about a week, though the time depends somewhat on the weather. The dried plums are then stored in the factory, where they lie in large bins for two or three weeks, until they begin to " sweat," which softens and 102 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES moistens the skin. Then they are packed in boxes for the market by women and girls, who become very skillful in this work. There are many different grades of prunes, from the smallest, one hundred forty to the pound, to the largest size, thirty-five or forty to the pound. PEACHES Though many peaches are raised in California, the greater part of the crop comes from more eastern states. The region near the Great Lakes is favorable to their growth, and they are raised in large quantities there. Another area lies on the Atlantic seaboard from Connecticut to the southern boundary of Chesapeake Bay. A third lies in the southern Atlantic region in the higher land of Georgia, Alabama, and adjacent states. A mildly temperate climate seems best suited to this fruit, and as it is so perishable it is necessary that the orchards be not too far distant from the markets. If we would receive the peaches fresh and sound for table use, they need to be packed quickly and closely, and sent by fast freight to the cities which serve as distributing centers. What large cities in or near each of the peach areas would you select as such centers ? The peaches are usually picked before they are fully ripe, in order that they may reach the market in good con- dition. They are sorted according to size, and then go to the hands of the packer. Unless we examine a basket of peaches very carefully, the packing of the fruit would seem to be a simple process. But if we should attempt it we should find it very difficult for our inexperienced hands to arrange the fruit so that it would not loosen and become FRUIT 103 damaged by rubbing. The price paid for packing is about two cents a basket, and an expert workman can pack one hundred a day, but we should find that one half or one fourth of that number would be a hard day's work at first. There are systematic ways of packing the fruit, the one best suited to the peaches and to the basket being decided on by the packer. Many girls and women find employment during the peach season, preparing the fruit for market, and often prove more expert than the men. In the height of the season refrigerator cars are kept at the stations in the peach districts or at the large orchards. These are filled as quickly as possible and started off. On one large peach farm in the South, sidetracks allow cars to be loaded directly from the orchard, and two and some- times three cars are packed, sealed up, and started for mar- ket before eight o'clock in the morning. APPLES Of all the fruits that have been mentioned in this chapter none equals the apple in importance - The sweet, juicy apple, The luscious, red apple, The old Baldwin apple, That grew on the farm. The early home of this fruit was in southeastern Europe and in the adjoining parts of Asia, and from there it has been carried to every part of the temperate zone. An apple orchard would be a familiar sight in whatever country we might travel, but more fruit is raised in our country than in any other. Next in rank comes Canada, then Austria- Hungary, Russia, and Germany in the order named. Forty 104 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES or more million barrels are produced each year in the United States, an average of half a barrel to every one of its eighty million inhabitants. Large quantities of these are shipped to other countries. What European country do you think would import the most from the United States and Canada ? The province of Ontario is the garden of Canada, and one third of all the apples imported by Great Britain comes from that province and from Nova Scotia. In our own country, New England, New York, and the region spread- ing west and south from these states is the great apple- producing section, though apple orchards are found in every state. A great industry in New York is that of raising young trees for sale, and famous nurseries are found in many parts of the state. There are fewer disadvantages connected with the apple industry than with the raising of any other fruit. The tree is hardy, requires little care, and is not easily injured ; there are many varieties of the fruit and all keep well ; the marketing, therefore, is not attended with so much expense as the shipping of more perishable articles. Apples may be put to many uses ; they can be eaten raw, or cooked in a variety of ways ; they can be dried, or evaporated, or made into jelly, and so kept for an indefinite period of time. In large factories for the drying of apples there is little waste, for the cores and skins are used for jelly or cider. There would be less material to be used in this way if the apple had no core, for in removing it a large part of the fruit is wasted. Since we can have seedless oranges, why not coreless apples? For many years men have been experimenting to breed an apple without the eore. These experiments now seem likely to prove successful, for such FRUIT 105 an apple has really been developed, and the trees have been tested by several years of bearing. Nurseries now supply these young trees for planting, and this variety will prob- ably be grown in great quantities in the future. Besides the advantage that there is less waste to the fruit, it is thought that insects will be much less likely to injure it, for some species live in the core itself. TOPICS FOR STUDY I 1. Modern inventions and experiments. 2. Luther Burbank and his work. 3. Fruit areas of the United States. 4. California as a fruit state. 5. Orange culture. 6. Lemon groves. 7. The grape and its products. 8. Olives and olive oil. 9. Plums and prunes. 10. Peach packing. 11. Apple orchards. II 1. Write the names of all fruits mentioned in the chapter, and beside each one the name of the states and countries most noted for its production. 2. Make a collection of labels from cans and preserved fruits. Locate on an outline map all cities mentioned on such labels. Locate also on the map all cities mentioned in this chapter. 3. On a map of the United States, color the grape belt, the peach belt, the apple belt, and the orange belt. Make a list of states pro- ducing each fruit. 4. On a map of Europe, write names of fruits in the countries producing them. 106 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES 5. Re-read Chapter IV. Tell cause of arid and semiarid sections of the United States. Tell of the government's plans for irrigation. Tell where fruit may be raised when these plans are carried out. 6. On an outline map of the United States, trace the railroads over which fruit may be shipped to the East from San Francisco. 7. Ask your grocer for some powdered cork for the school collec- tion. 8. Trace a voyage from Cape Colony to England. How far is it ? How long do you think such a journey would take ? Ill Be able to spell and pronounce the following names. Locate each place and tell what was said about it in this and in the previous chapters. Connecticut Georgia Alabama New York New England Philadelphia Boston New York City Jersey City Baltimore Concord, Mass. Redlands Santa Rosa San Francisco Los Angeles San Jose* Chicago Buffalo Great Desert Corinth Coastal Plain Japan Piedmont Belt Cape Colony Chesapeake Bay Canada Chautauqua County Ontario Great Lakes Nova Scotia Mediterranean Sea* Ionian Sea California Danube River New Jersey Sicily Delaware Italy Maryland France Virginia Spain Florida England Ohio Great Britain Louisiana Russia Massachusetts Germany Oregon Austria-Hungary Washington Greece Idaho CHAPTER IX WHEAT History tells us of a speech made by an Indian chief to his people, which is interesting because it shows that even the Indians appreciated the tremendous advantage held by the white people because of their knowledge of the cultivation of wheat. The speech runs as follows : Do you not see the whites living upon seeds, while we eat flesh ? That each of the wonderful seeds they sow in the earth returns to them a hundredfold ? The flesh on which we subsist has four legs on which to escape, while we have but two with which to pursue and capture it. The grain remains where the white men plant it and grows. With them winter is a period of rest, while with us it is a time of laborious hunting. I say, therefore, unto every one that will hear me, that before the cedars of your village shall have died down with age, and the maple trees of the valley have ceased to give us sugar, the race of the little seed eaters will exterminate the race of the flesh eaters, provided their huntsmen do not become sowers. Nearly every one of the states raises wheat to some ex- tent. Among those in which it is a leading industry, North Dakota holds high rank, and we shall find a visit to one of its extensive wheat farms very interesting. There are large areas in the state where we can see but little else, for there are no high hills, no stone walls, no large maple and elm or other trees to shade the dusty road which winds through the fields of grain. If we come to Dakota in July or August, we can see, stretching for miles on either side, fields of waving wheat. The farm which we will visit raises little 107 108 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES else on its ten thousand acres ; its broad iields join those of the next farm, and then beyond that come the acres of yellow wheat of the one next adjoining, and so on, until the expanse of waving grain reminds us of the ocean in its limitless area and constant movement. The land is plowed in the fall by a machine which can turn six furrows at once. Early in the following spring it is harrowed to smooth and pulverize the soil, and then it is ready for the seeding, which is done by a drill. Such a FIG. 38. PLOWING THE WHEAT FIELD machine will seed from ten to twelve acres a day, with an average of a bushel of seed to the acre. How many bushels will be required for this farm of ten thousand acres ? When the wheat is ripe, there is a great demand for men and machinery, since every one wants the crop harvested at about the same time. After coming to maturity the grain ripens (piickly, in from three to six days, and a delay of a few days in harvesting might cause damage to the extent of thousands of dollars. WHEAT 109 Think how long it would take one man with a cradle like that in the picture 011 p. 115 to cut all those aer^s and acres of wheat. With the development of these great Western farms, many changes have taken place in farm machinery. One ma- chine, which is used for harvesting the wheat, is wonderful indeed. It cuts the grain, lays it even, and ties up the sheaf. Men follow to stack the bundles in such a way that the rains will run off instead of soaking in and wetting the grain. On FIG. REPLOWING WITH STEAM OUTFIT IN VALLEY OF CALIFORNIA some of the great California farms the combined harvester and thresher is used. This single machine cuts the grain, threshes out the seed, winnows it, and puts it into sacks. In Dakota the grain has to remain in the field for some time before it is threshed. In a good season this .drying process takes about three weeks. The seed is then threshed out and cleaned by steam threshers. Twelve hundred to fifteen hundred bushels of wheat can be prepared in a day by one of them. 110 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES The harvest period is the time to appreciate the magni- tude and importance of the wheat industry. It is the great " rush season " of the West. Men of all classes tramps, clerks, business men, and college students flock there by thousands. Many railroads running into the wheat belt carry laborers for half fare, and sometimes, when the de- mand is very great, they are carried free, so important is it that the grain which supplies the bread of the nation shall be safely garnered. The failure of one wheat crop means FIG. 40. HARVESTING ON A BIG FARM (Courtesy of the Holt Manufacturing Company, Stockton, California) debts and mortgages for the farmer, while a successful year brings happiness and plenty. The housewives in the wheat belt are kept busy provid- ing for this hungry crowd. The harvesting machinery is in full swing. Soon the railroads are crowded with freight. Granaries are filled, awaiting the time when wheat shall be sent to the elevators to be stored until it can be made into flour. The mills in the large flour-manufacturing cities are running at full speed, for millions and millions WHEAT 111 of bushels of wheat are waiting for room in the snugly filled elevators. Some of these grain elevators are immense steel structures holding three or four million bushels. The grain is run into the lower part of the building in freight cars. It is taken from them by huge shovels which need only a few minutes to unload a whole car. It is then lifted to the top of the elevator by means of basketlike arrangements attached to FIG. 41. WHEAT STACKS an endless chain. As the chain runs over the wheel in the very highest part of the building, the baskets are turned upside down, and the grain falls into a long chute which carries it to the desired bin. There are openings in the bottoms of these huge bins, from which the grain may be taken when needed. The machinery of some of the great elevators in Buffalo is operated by electricity from Niagara Falls. Can you tell why such large elevators are located in that city ? 112 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES From the elevator the grain is taken to the flour mills, where it is first examined by inspectors. The men look for dust, oats, and other foreign matter, test the quality by feeling, weigh a portion to see that it is up to grade, and, by means of a long tube thrust deep down into the wheat in the car, find whether or not the lower layers are of as good a quality as those which are near the surface. EifKORTHERH ELEVATOR. Copy right, Detroit Photographic Co. FIG. 42. GRAIN ELEVATOR, DULUTH, MINNESOTA In a large flour mill the grain is taken from the train by great steam shovels, which can empty a car of one thousand bushels in a few minutes. The wheat is then cleaned and crushed slightly between rollers, after which it is carried to lai-jire sieves, where the undesirable parts are separated fnmi those containing the food elements. The rolling and sifting takes place many times, as the grain is crushed liner WHEAT 113 and liner. There is a final sifting in which any dust or dirt that may still linger in the flour is caught in a dust collec- tor made of a series of flannel tubes, and the flour is at last ready for packing and shipping. Before this stage is reached, it has been raised to the top of the building ten or twelve times, and as many times has poured down through chutes or tubes to just the right place to continue its transforma- tion into flour. Finally, as a result of all these processes, we have the flour made of the most nourishing parts of the seed. People who have studied the grains of wheat carefully through powerful microscopes have discovered that the white center is nearly all starch, while outside of this is a yellowish coating of gluten. The starch and the gluten are the nourishing elements, and the parts containing these are used for the best flour. The outer coverings or husks are made into bran or shorts. How different is the wheat harvesting of the present, with the great steam threshers and harvesters, from that of ancient days, when the grain was cut with reaping hooks ! What a contrast between our immense mills filled with their noisy machinery, and the methods used in the olden times when women ground the kernels between two stones ! What would the reaper and the grinder of those early days think if they could stand for a few moments in a Dakota harvest field, or follow the grain into a Minneapolis flour mill? There are six hundred flour mills in Minnesota, beside many others in adjacent states. Duluth, St. Louis, and other cities are noted for this industry, but Minneapolis is the largest flour-producing center of the world. The city 114 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES is situated upon the Mississippi River, just where the Falls of St. Anthony furnish power for this and other manufac- turing. There are many railroads radiating in every direc- tion, over which the wheat comes pouring into the city, and by which the flour is distributed to a hungry world. In Minneapolis is the largest flour mill in the world, in which fifteen thousand barrels can be manufactured in one day. FIG. 43. STEAM HARVESTING OUTFIT The same company which owns this also owns and runs four other large flour mills, three of which are in Min- neapolis. The total daily capacity of all these mills is more than thirty thousand barrels. Think of all the other com- panies engaged in the same business in Minneapolis and other cities, and you will be astonished at the quantity of flour produced every day. Think of the immense number of cars and boats which are needed to distribute through WHEAT 115 our own country and Europe all the flour which is manu- factured. Think, too, of the great area of land which must be used for the cultivation of this one product. All the states engaged in this industry do not raise the same variety. Winter and spring wheat are the two great Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 44. HARVESTING WHEAT WITH A CRADLE classes into which this grain is divided. The winter variety is planted in the fall and harvested in the early summer. Spring wheat is planted in the spring and harvested in the autumn. Winter wheat requires a mild climate and is consequently raised in the middle and southern sections of 116 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES the United States. When the spring wheat was found to be valuable, the industry spread farther north beyond the boundaries of the United States into Canada. To-day twenty-live states and territories raise winter wheat, nine- teen produce spring wheat, while some states raise both. Copyright; Keystone View Co. FIG. 45. NATIVE WOMEN GRINDING WHEAT IN PALESTINE The leading crop producers of the winter variety are Kansas, California, Texas, Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, and Tennes- see. Of the spring wheat list, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Washington, Wisconsin, and Iowa mv the most important. WHEAT 117 It has been found that the spring wheat requires for its ripening, not so great intensity of heat for a short period, but length of daylight and a milder warmth. As one goes north in summer the days grow longer ; consequently the production of wheat has been carried farther and farther northward. Southern Canada is now one of the greatest wheat-producing regions of the world. Thousands of farmers from the United States have sold their farms at good prices and gone to Canada, where they have taken up undeveloped land which can be bought at a low figure. In Manitoba and provinces farther westward, conditions favor the raising of a very fine quality of the grain. And there in western Canada lies one of the greatest wheat- producing regions of the future. Compared with the United States, few railroads are found in this part of Canada. In fact the wheat is now carried to the East almost wholly by one road, the Canadian Pacific and its branches. The new trans-Canadian railroad is to extend all the way north of the Canadian Pacific, and will be of immense importance in the development of western Canada. Starting from Mont- real and Quebec, it will run directly west through the wheat and timber land south of James Bay, cross the rich grain lands of the Peace River valley farther west, and ter- minate at Port Simpson in British Columbia, one of the very best harbors on the Pacific Ocean. During its whole course it lies within the wheat area and entirely in Canadian territory. You have perhaps heard of the peasants of Russia, of their hard life on the great plains of that country, and of the terrible famines when their crop fails. Their hardships are not caused by lack of fertility in the land, for the " black 118 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES WHEAT 119 earth region " of southern Russia comprises a vast area, level, fertile, and, under better management, capable of producing enormous quantities of wheat. But the peasants know nothing of modern machinery. Everything is done by hand in the most primitive way. The ground is never fer- tilized, and the crops are much smaller than might be pro- duced if modern methods of agriculture prevailed. In spite of all this, Russia raises great quantities of wheat, ranking next to the United States. She sends a great deal to other European countries, much of which should be kept for home use, for the peasants do not have enough to nourish them- selves properly. Odessa, on the Black Sea, is one of the largest wheat ports in the world. We shall have to go to a very different part of the world to visit the third great wheat-exporting country to far- away Argentina in South America. We shall find there Spanish, Indians, and half-breeds, whose customs and lan- guage will no doubt seem very strange to us. We shall find also the temperate climate, level land, and rich soil on which wheat flourishes so well. The plains in Argentina are called the " pampas." Per- haps you have seen for sale in some city store the tall, feathery, pampas grass. There are many millions of acres in the pampas, over some of which roam vast herds of wild horses, cattle, and sheep. And there are also vast regions covered with waving wheat. As this country is not developed, land is cheap, and people have made for- tunes by buying large areas for little money and devel- oping them into successful ranches or wheat farms. In some cases the farming is not so carefully or so scientifi- cally done as in the United States, and consequently the 120 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES returns per acre are not so large. Many of the Argentine farmers are Indians or half -breeds, who are not very ambi- tious. They do not plow deeply or use good seed, and consequently raise light crops. They sometimes prefer to store their wheat on the ground in sacks, and run the risk of its being spoilt by the weather, rather than pay the ele- vator charges. Argentina is perhaps better supplied with railroads than any other South American country. The Parana and Uru- guay rivers penetrate the wheat region and by their junc- tion form the La Plata, on which is situated Buenos Aires, which is one of the largest ports on the continent. The United States is interested in the development of the Argentine wheat fields, for, as the production increases, more and more of our agricultural machinery and tools are needed there. Like the United States, Argentina ships large quantities of her wheat to Great Britain and the continent of Europe. Because of this fact, some of our statesmen already see in Argentina a powerful future rival in European trade. Wheat is also raised in India and in Australia, and from these places some is exported to England. France, Austria- Hungary, and Germany also raise large quantities, but not one of them produces enough to supply the home demand. Therefore we must think of the United States, Canada, Russia, and Argentina as the great exporting countries. In the best of years Europe never produces enough, even in- cluding the crops from the vast fields of Russia, to supply her own needs. She is therefore absolutely dependent on the United States, Canada, Argentina, India, and Australia. If an open conflict between the United States and Europe WHEAT 121 should ever come, the American might go far toward win- ning his victory by a mere stoppage of the tide of food. It is then no wonder that the question of the food supply is constantly before the parliaments of Europe, and to a degree that the American who produces enough cannot understand. There are about fifteen hundred million people living to-day in this great world of ours. More than one third of them, or five hundred fifty million, use wheat for food, and this number is constantly and rapidly increasing. Each man, woman, and child of the great wheat-consuming population eats on the average a barrel of flour annually. Therefore each year there must be raised nearly twenty -five hundred million bushels of wheat to supply the demand. It is hard to realize what an immense quantity this is. It would make a pile as high as a mountain, literally, a whole mountain of wheat; for, if heaped in the shape of a cone, the pile would extend two miles into the air, and be so large at the base that, if you started to walk around it, you would have to go nearly sixteen miles before you returned to your starting point. Suppose, instead of heap- ing the wheat into one huge mound, we pile it up into four smaller mountains of equal base with the large one, but only half a mile in height. One of these piles would be made entirely of wheat from the United States, for we raise one quarter of the world's production. Let us divide the pile made of our crop into four smaller ones, each one eighth of a mile high but nearly sixteen miles around the base. It is indeed very hard to believe that such a heap could be made entirely from the wheat which is raised in only two of our states, Kansas and Minnesota. 122 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES If the wheat crop is a good one, there is plenty and pros- perity the world over. If the crop fails, there is suffering and starvation. Not only in Russia, but in India also, great famines, in which thousands die, often occur because of the failure of the wheat harvest. It is an interesting fact that wheat is being harvested somewhere in the world all the year round. South of the equator the seasons are the opposite of ours ; therefore those countries harvest their crops in our winter months, Novem- ber, December, and January, and later as we go farther south. In April and May the harvesting season comes to Mexico, and shortly afterwards to Texas and other southern states. Through the succeeding months the reaping and harvesting moves northward, until in September and Octo- ber the harvests are gathered in Canada, where the north- ernmost wheat grows. An important and interesting work going on in our country is the breeding of new wheats. Any improvement which will increase the yield by only a bushel per acre will add millions of dollars to the value of the crop. The mak- ing of a new variety of grain is slow, painstaking work, for the pollen from the flower of one plant must be transferred by hand to the flower of another plant, and from the first harvest only a few kernels will result. But the Minnesota State Experiment Station has already done important work along these lines and has succeeded in creating a hardy grain which will withstand disease and extremes of climate. It is also rich in food qualities and will produce more wheat to the acre than any one of the old varieties* The govern- ments of other states and the Department of Agriculture at Washington are also working in the same direction. WHEAT 123 TOPICS FOR STUDY 1. A trip to Dakota. 2. A typical wheat field. 3. Harvesting wheat. 4. Milling of wheat. 5. Kinds of wheat. 6. Wheat area of the United States. 7. Wheat regions of the world. 8. Importance of the wheat industry. II 1. On a map of the world, stick kernels of wheat on the countries noted for its production. Write on each country the name of the month in which its wheat is harvested. 2. Trace route from Odessa to London. 3. Trace route from Buenos Aires to London. 4. Trace route from New York to Buenos Aires. 5. Trace route from Asia Minor to some port in Germany. 6. Trace route from some port in Germany to Brazil. 7. What will form the cargo in each of these journeys ? 8. On an outline map, trace a journey from the home town to Dakota. Write the names of the railroads used, bodies of water sailed on, states passed through, and important cities on the way. 9. On an outline map of the United States, color the wheat area and locate all cities mentioned in the chapter. 10. From the station agent in your town, from railway guides, and from maps in your books find the names of railroads entering Minneapolis. 11. Make a collection of the labels on flour bags and barrels. Learn the names of the different kinds of flour and the cities where they are manufactured. 12. Debate on the question : Which country of the world possesses the greatest advantages for the production of wheat ? 13. Sketch a map of Canada showing the two great railroads. 124 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES III Be able to spell and pronounce the following names. Locate each place and tell what was said about it in this and in the previous chapters. Dakota Kansas California Ohio Indiana Illinois Missouri Pennsylvania Oklahoma. Oregon Michigan Maryland Tennessee Minnesota Nebraska Washington Wisconsin Iowa Manitoba British Columbia Turkey Asia Minor Russia Brazil Argentina South Africa India France Austria-Hungary Germany The pampas Dulnth Buffalo Minneapolis St. Paul Chicago St. Louis Montreal Quebec Port Simpson Odessa London Liverpool Hamburg Buenos Aires James Bay Peace River Red River Black Sea Strait of Bosphorus Sea of Marmora Strait of Dardanelles Mediterranean Sea Strait of Gibraltar La Plata River Parana River Uruguay River Atlantic Ocean English Channel Dover Strait CHAPTER X CORN If we were to ask different people to name the most val- uable product of our country, no doubt the answers would vary widely. Some, thinking of the bread of the nation, would answer wheat ; others, with the clothing material in mind, would say cotton ; while still others, thinking of our mineral wealth, would mention gold, silver, coal, or iron. But all would be wrong, for our corn crop exceeds in value any one of these, or, in fact, several of them put together. It is worth more than both our wheat and cotton crops, and seven or eight times as much as our gold and silver. If to the value of the annual gold and silver output we add that of coal and iron, even then the total value is not so great as that of the corn. This seems hard to believe, but Uncle Sam's figures are not to be contradicted. The value of the annual corn crop is about eight hundred fifty million dollars. Eighty million people live in the United States ; so, if this money could be divided equally, each one would receive each year about ten and one half dollars. Perhaps we can better appreciate the amount of corn raised in this country if we think of it in another way. The annual product of the United States is twenty -five hundred million bushels. An immense quantity, is it not ? It cer- tainly will seem so when we try to put all of it into bushel boxes. Let us set them side by side and begin to fill them from our pile of corn. We fill one row of boxes long enough 125 126 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES to extend entirely around the world, but the great mountain of corn still seems as large as ever. Ten rows of boxes com- pletely encircling the world are filled with the golden grain, but two thirds of our pile is yet untouched. To use it all in this way, we should need more than thirty rows of boxes side by side encircling the earth. No wonder Uncle Sam is proud of his corn crop, for although this cereal is raised in many other countries, by far the larger part of the world's crop is grown in the United States. And, what is equally wonderful, we use nearly all of it right here in our own country. Let us see where all this immense crop comes from. If we wish to visit the great corn belt, we must leave the hills of New England, the forest-covered lands of the North, and the fragrant fields of the South, though to be sure corn is raised to some extent in all these places. We will go, however, to the fertile prairies and level plains of the Mis- sissippi Valley where millions of acres of rich soil are covered with the long, waving leaves and yellow tassels of the corn forests. We niay well call them forests, for they are much taller than you are, and in the great fields you might walk for hours without getting from under the tall, rustling blades which seem to whisper together over your heads. Such great fields can be seen in Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, Ohio, Indiana, and Texas. In other states also corn is raised, but the eight mentioned produce the greater part of the twenty-five hundred million bushels which we raise every year. Illinois alone produces nearly one sixth of it all, and Iowa nearly as much. Other industries of which we have read have taken us into the same section of our country, the wonderful Mis- sissippi Valley. Here we find the cotton plantations and CORN 127 the great wheat and stock farms. Many other products of lesser importance are raised, such as fruit, tobacco, rye, oats, and barley. The level country, the rich soil, the favorable climate, the inland waterways, the great railroads, all com- bine to make this valley the most productive of its size in the world. Suppose we select a corn farm in Illinois and see how the great crops are raised. We might visit many which FIG. 47. AN ILLINOIS CORNFIELD United States Department of Agriculture cover several thousand acres, but you will be more inter- ested in one which is carried on by a boy of only fourteen years of age. John's father owns a farm of more than twenty thousand acres, a large part of which is devoted to the raising of corn. John has helped his father so much that he under- stands as well or better than many a man how to do the necessary work. He was very much pleased when his father gave him ten acres of good land and the corn with which to plant it. The first year his crop averaged thirty 128 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES bushels to the acre, nearly the same as his father's. He sold his three hundred bushels for forty cents a bushel, which was a fairly good price, and realized from the sale one hundred twenty dollars. One day at school, John's teacher took the class to hear a lecture by a man from the State Agricultural College, on the importance of using good seed corn. He told them how easily the yield of the land might be doubled if farm- ers would only select with more care the seed which they planted. The boys, most of whom were sons of corn planters, were much interested in the lecturer's description of experi- ments carried on at the college and on certain farms in the state. In these places, great care was exercised in selecting the ears of corn that were to be used for seed. The fine, large ears were carefully saved, and the next year a row was planted with the very best kernels from these ears. It was found that the crop produced was much better than that grown from seed not carefully selected. The corn from the experimental row was gathered the second year, and the very best selected for planting the next spring, with better results than before. This had been continued for several years until the crop had been increased from twenty-five bushels to fifty, seventy-five, and, in some cases, even to one hundred bushels per acre. The lecturer went oh to tell of prizes that were offered in the state for the best crop produced on a boy's farm. There was great excitement in the school, for most of the boys, like John, had some of their fathers' land to till. The next year many of the boys bought some of this im- proved seed corn for at least a part of the land they were CORN 129 cultivating, and found that the lecturer had spoken truly when he said it would increase the yield. The following year John planted his ten acres with seed which he had carefully selected from the very best of the last year's crop. He tended it carefully and cultivated it often, and in September, when the judges awarded the prizes, John received the one for that district. His crop averaged seventy-five bushels per acre, more than double the yield of many of the farms around. The enthusiasm of the boys and the excellent crops ob- tained proved a stimulus to the older farmers, and this is FIG. 48. CORN FROM GOOD AND FROM POOR SEED one of the many ways in which our yield of corn has been greatly increased. The state agricultural colleges, the United States Department of Agriculture, the corn breed- ers' associations which have been formed in many states, are all helping in this great work. You can see how impor- tant it is when I tell you that there are one hundred million acres in the United States devoted to corn culture. If the yield is increased only five bushels per acre, that would mean five hundred million more bushels in the whole country. This, at forty cents a bushel, would amount to two hundred million dollars. All this can be brought about 130 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES without increasing the cost of raising corn or the amount of land devoted to it. No wonder the Western farmers are beginning to appreciate the importance of using good seed, when an increase of only two bushels per acre on a farm of two thousand acres means a thousand or two more dollars in the farmer's pocket. Wonderful things have been accomplished in many of the agricultural experiment stations in the United States. Corn with wide blades and corn with narrow blades, corn of great height or corn of small stature, has been produced simply by careful selection of seed. The ears have been made to grow higher on the plant or nearer the ground. The kernels have been made to increase their food values or their starchy elements according as the crop is to be vised for cattle food or cornstarch. The quantity of oil or sirup which the corn contains has been made to vary. All this work has required much study and experiment, extending over many years. These Western farmers cannot gather their crops by hand. Wonderful machines have been invented to do this work for them. One such machine cuts the stalks and binds them into bundles. Another breaks the ears off and, what seems more wonderful, tears the husks from them at the rate of thirty bushels per hour. Attached to the machine is a fanlike arrangement which blows the stalks through a tube to the place in the barn where they are to be stored. A steam sheller takes the kernels from the cob at the rate of a bushel a minute. It would take a man between one and two hours to shellthe same amount by hand. If the whole population of the United States were set to work, it would take more than three months for the crop to be all si id led. CORN 131 After shelling, the corn is either sent directly to the mill, if it is to be ground into .meal, or stored in. elevators to await shipment. Hundreds and hundreds of freight trains are busy carrying it to the great centers, and although most of the important railroads which enter or cross the Missis- sippi Valley have thousands of cars in which the grain may be carried, each year there is a demand for more. FIG. 49. CUTTING CORN BY MACHINERY We have talked so long about the quantity of corn which we raise, and the care of it, that I am sure you are wonder- ing what can be done with it all, for very little of it is shipped to other countries. The first and greatest use is as a food for animals. The hog farms of the country, on which sixty million hogs are raised, are situated principally in or near the corn belt, where the animals may be fattened for market upon the grain raised near at hand. The cattle 132 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES raised in the West are fed on corn for some months previ- ous to slaughtering, so you see that much of our corn and meal is shipped abroad in the form of beef and pork. This is one of the reasons why so many of the great packing houses of the country are located in or near the corn belt. Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 50. HOGS IN KANSAS Here is a good illustration of the fact that no industry can exist independently, but that each one depends on others. If our corn lands did not exist, it would not be profitable for many of the hog and cattle farms to be car- ried on where they are at present. If these were removed, some of the great packing houses would have to go out of business. Remove the corn lands, some of the dependent CORN 133 live stock, and the slaughtering firms, and many railroads wonld find their freight decreased so much that it would not pay to run to some towns which they now enter. People as well as animals like food made from corn and corn meal, for it is nourishing and agreeable to the taste. In the South, " hoe cake " and hominy are common dishes ; and in the North, corn cake, or " Johnny cake," mush, and hulled corn are well-known articles of diet. Some of the breakfast foods so popular at the present time are made from this cereal. The kernels of corn contain much starch, and cornstarch is an important product of this useful grain ; there are great factories for its manufacture in New York and surrounding states. Glucose is a sirup made from corn and serves as a substitute for sugar, though it possesses less sweetening power. It is the chief ingredient in cheap candies and is used in large quantities in preserving, as it is said to keep the fruit in good form and color. It is used also in large quantities for mixing with molasses and other sirups. The stalks and leaves of corn, if green and tender, make good food for cattle and are much used for fodder. They are sweet and juicy, and come at a time when the grass in the pasture is apt to be dry. Great fields of corn are planted for this purpose, particularly in the dairy regions, and are fed to cattle during the summer. Sometimes the stalks are cut when green, and are put into tall, air-tight bins called silos, where they are kept until winter and then fed to cows. But beside its value as a food product, corn has other uses which may not be so familiar to you. The dry cobs are used for fuel in the corn-raising regions. Three tons of cobs are said to be equal, for heating purposes, to one ton of coal. Large quantities of corn are used in the manufacture of 134 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES whisky, alcohol, and other spirits, and distilleries are found in Louisville, Peoria, and other cities in the corn belt. An oil is made from the grain which is used in diluting olive oil, in the manufacture of soaps, as a lubricator, and for other purposes. The corn stalks are sometimes used for thatching roofs. Stalks, leaves, husks, and pith are being used more and more in the manufacture of paper. Most paper to-day i& made from wood pulp, and, as the forests are fast disappearing, many people are wondering what will be the future source of supply for paper manufacture. Some people think our cornfields will supply it. The husks are used for mats and mattresses. The pith has a peculiar use. It is compressed into sheets and is put between the steel plates of battleships. If a small quantity of this compressed pith is put into a glass and water added, the pith will swell very quickly and fill the glass. So, if a cannon ball pierces the side of a battleship which is covered with this material, the moment the water touches it, it will swell sufficiently to fill the hole. It seems that with corn, as with other products of which we have spoken, there is no waste portion, but every part cob, kernels, husks, leaves, pith, and stalk finds a use. So far we have been speaking chiefly of one kind of corn, Indian corn, or maize, as it is called in this country. The Europeans had never seen it until they found it growing in the fields of the Indians. Although it was one of the chief articles of food to the red man, all their cornfields put together would not produce what is raised to-day in one county of Illinois. We do not know certainly just where corn was first grown, but we do know that Columbus carried some of tin- strange food back to Spain, where it CORN 135 was afterwards raised, and from there it spread through the countries of Europe and Asia. To-day it is cultivated to some extent in nearly every country of the world where the climate is not too cold, but nowhere in such large quan- tities as in the United States. Austria-Hungary is the next greatest producer, and Mexico and India depend on it to a considerable extent for a food product. Indian corn has some near relatives which you probably like better to eat. You are all familiar with pop corn and know its use. Sweet corn is one of our appetizing summer foods, and quantities of it are canned so that we can enjoy it in the winter season also. Did you ever think what an immense number of cans must be filled each year to supply the demand ? Most of the sweet corn is grown in New England, par- ticularly in Maine. The valley of the Kennebec River is a very productive area, and many of the large canneries are in this region. Sweet corn is planted and tended much as Indian corn is, and, when it is nearly ripe, inspectors are sent by the canners into the fields to tell the farmers when to gather the ears, so that they will be at their best. After the crop is gathered and sent to the canneries, it is husked by hand, and, for the few weeks that the industry lasts, whole families find employment in husking the corn or in some other part of the work. The corn is shelled by machinery and then partially cooked. The cans are then filled and the cooking completed. The sealing, labeling, and shipping keep many hands busy until the last of September, when the canning is finished for the year. Maine has more than fifty canneries, some of which pre- pare daily from fifty to seventy thousand cans, though most 136 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES of them are much smaller. From five hundred thousand to a million cases (the number depending on the crop of corn) are often sent out of the state in one year. Much of this is shipped from Portland, which is the center of the industry. There are other members of the corn family which have important and interesting uses. As you sweep the floors of your house, did you ever wonder where the stiff straws, of which your broom is made, come from ? They are obtained from a cousin of the Indian corn, which, from the use to which the tassels are put, is called broom corn. This vari- ety is raised in some of the states of the corn belt, chiefly in Illinois, which produces one half of the crop. It is raised also to some extent in Kansas, Ohio, and Missouri. Its cultivation is similar to that of Indian corn, but farmers find more difficulty in producing a successful crop. One ton will yield brush enough to make one hundred dozen brooms. Another relative of the maize is the Kafir corn, now cul- tivated in many parts of the West. It takes its name from the Kafirs, a native tribe of South Africa, who have raised this corn for many years. It furnishes a good food for cattle and is being introduced into the United States, as it will grow successfully in places where, because of the lack of rain, other varieties cannot be raised. The crops of Kansas and Oklahoma have been much increased since the introduction of Kafir corn. The corn family has still other members. Sorghum, from which molasses is made, and the common sugar cane of the South also belong to this family, and all these bear a much stronger resemblance to one another than relatives in the human family often do. CORN 137 Topics FOR STUDY I 1. Value and importance of the corn product. 2. Corn area of the United States. 3. Trip from the home town to a farm in the corn belt. 4. An Illinois boy's farm. 5. Breeding new corn. 6. Uses of corn. 7. History of corn. 8. Corn in other countries. 9. The corn family. ,.,. 1. Review Chapter IV and explain why such great corn crops can be grown in the Mississippi Valley. 2. Make a list of the waterways of the Mississippi Valley ; also of all the railroads you know that enter it. 3. On a map of the United States, color the corn belt and write the names of the states included. 4. Find the large cities in this belt to which you think corn is sent for distribution. Find some of the railroads which carry it; some of the rivers. 5. Name some parts of the corn which were formerly waste prod- ucts. Of what use is each ? 6. How does the United States government aid in the corn in- dustry ? In what other industries have you read of help given to the people by the government? 7. How has the size and surface of the United States influenced the kind of machinery used? Ill Be able to spell and pronounce the following names. Locate each place and tell what was said about it in this and in previous chapters. Illinois Texas Great Lake route Iowa New York Chicago Kansas Oklahoma St. Louis Nebraska New England Louisville Missouri Mexico Kansas City Ohio India Peoria Indiana Kennebec River Portland CHAPTER XI COAL What should we do without coal, that hard, black rock which warms our houses, runs our locomotives, and which yields us many useful products, gas for lighting and heat- ing, dyes, medicines, and oils ? The industrial world of the present could not exist without coal, yet before its dis- covery people managed to live comfortably, though they could not carry on the commerce, the manufacturing, or the many other industries which make our world to-day very different from that in which our great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers lived. A story is told of a hunter who went to sleep one night by his camp fire, only to be awakened later because he was so warm. To his astonishment he discovered that the heat came, not from the wood he had gathered the night before, for that had entirely burned out, but from the black rock in the earth, which had taken fire. And this hard rock, the burning of which seemed so wonderful to him, is the com- mon coal with which we are so familiar. This story, if it is true, is a striking illustration of the fact that many of our most useful products have been discovered by accident. A visit to a deep coal mine is 'wonderfully interesting, for the life and surroundings there are so different from those to which we are accustomed that it seems as if we were in another world. There are many states to which we might go for a visit, but we will choose Pennsylvania, for that 138 COAL 139 state mines more coal than any other in the United States. Rich fields of soft, or bituminous, coal are found in the western part, while in the eastern section is the most im- portant hard-coal area of the world. Wilkesbarre is a typical mining city, and deep in the earth Copyright, Krystone View Co. FIG. 51. MINERS' WIVES SEARCHING FOR COAL ON CULM PILE under it we shall find the mine which we are to explore. As we approach the city by train, the cars become more and more dusty, and when we finally alight, we find our- selves covered with coal dust, so that collars and cuffs, faces and hands, are anything but clean. 140 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES The first sights which impress us in a drive about the city are the great hills of broken stone. These are " culm heaps," the accumulation of slate and other refuse which is picked out of the coal after it is taken from the mines. Little use has been found for the culm, and the huge piles Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 52. MINERS' CHILDREN AND HOUSES IN PENNSYLVANIA are accumulating so rapidly that the disposal of them is becoming a serious question. Poor, ragged women and children are often seen on them picking up stray pieces of coal, or bending under the weight of heavy pailfuls which they are carrying to their homes. COAL 141 As we drive by one large field, we notice a valley, or depression, in the middle of it, different from anything we have ever seen. The driver informs us that a mine under- neath once caved in, and the ground has sunk into this curious shape. It seems strange to think that there are mines under the ground on which we are riding, and stranger still that the whole city of Wilkesbarre is undermined to within one block of the central square, and that many hun- dreds of people and animals are living and working beneath the ground. But we must hasten to the mine which we have come to visit. First, however, we must obtain permission to descend, a privilege not always, and in some mines never, granted to visitors. Then we must put on our oldest clothes and a cap which will cover our hair, for a coal mine is not the cleanest place in the world. Just before starting, the " boss " who is to accompany us gives us some long-handled tin lamps to carry, and we make our way toward the shaft, or opening in the ground, which leads down to the levels where the coal is obtained. There are four divisions in this great opening, two for the elevators which hoist and lower the coal and the workmen, one for ventilating the mine, and the fourth for pumping out the water which constantly accumu- lates underground. The shaft in this particular mine is about eight hundred feet in depth, a little less than a sixth of a mile. Some mines are much deeper than this. In some countries the coal miners go nearly a mile below the sur- face of the earth for their day's work. The elevator which takes us down into the mine is much like a common freight elevator, consisting of a floor with a rail along two sides, to which we cling as we think of the 142 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES dark journey we are to take. Strong cables from each cor- ner join into one very large one, and we are somewhat reas- sured when we are told that no miner is allowed to descend FIG. 53. MINERS STARTING TO GO DOWN THE SHAFT into the mine in the morning until after this cable has been carefully inspected. The drop of eight hundred feet is not so fearful as we had imagined ; indeed it is over so quickly that we have COAL 143 little time to be frightened. But what a strange world greets our eyes as we step from the elevator at the foot of the shaft ! A long gangway, with walls and floor and ceil- ing all of shining black coal, stretches out into the darkness. This gangway is from ten to fourteen feet wide and per- haps ten feet high, and for some distance from the shaft is lighted by electricity. The first thing our conductor does as we step from the elevator is to telephone to the engineer at the surface. Yes, telephones and electric lights are in many of the modern mines, and in some the cars which bring the coal to the shaft are run by electricity also. Those in the mine we are visiting are drawn by mules. There are eighty sleek, fat, well-kept mules, some of which have never been up to the surface of the earth since they were first taken down nine years before. Their stables are neat and clean, and their feed troughs are supplied with running water. They are given a good breakfast and supper, but are not taken from their work for dinner. The animals are intelligent and soon know without a command when to start with their loads, and when and where to stop. Our guide tells us that there are twenty-two miles of railroad track in this mine, which covers an. area of three quarters of a square mile ; and although we spend the whole forenoon in visiting different portions, we really see only a very small part of it. Finally our guide is ready, and we start out to see the miners actually at work. We travel beyond the electric lights and must light our lamps. They burn with bright flames which flare and blow to and fro in the currents of air which strike them now and then. We see, coming toward us out of the deep blackness, some waving lights, 144 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES which remind us of wandering will-o'-the-wisps, but as they come nearer we see that they are only the lamps burning in the caps of a group of workmen. This mine is considered very safe, as it is free from the gases which sometimes cause the terrible explosions of which we will speak later. So here we do not have to carry the safety lamp in which the flame is inclosed by wire gauze. Presently we see that there are openings leading off from either side of the main gallery in which we are walking. These are called "pockets," or chambers, and in each of them a miner with his two laborers is at work. These pockets are of different lengths and, as they are worked farther and farther, will become galleries connecting with other gangways parallel with the main one. So you see that the mine is a network of passages in which one might easily get lost; but the miners find their way as readily as we do upon the streets of the busy city overhead. A man is not allowed to mine anthracite coal until he has passed an examination, in which he must prove himself to be of some intelligence and acquainted with the use of ex- plosives, which are much used in hard-coal mining. If his examination proves satisfactory, he is given a certificate and becomes a " certified miner." He usually receives about five dollars a day, out of which he must provide his own tools and explosives and pay his own laborers. Each of these workmen receives from ninety cents to a dollar and a quarter per day, so you see that the amount left for the miner himself is not great. While our guide is giving us this information, we hear a shout and see two Bashing lights coming rapidly toward us out of the darkness. We are in- clined to run but are assured that we are safe where we are. COAL 145 The lights, which are in the caps of two miners, approach no nearer. Soon a dull, heavy roar is heard, and the two men start back to their work. Our guide tells us that the noise was caused by the miner in the nearest pocket blasting to loosen the coal. When we reach the place we see a huge mass which has fallen, and find the miner using his pickax and hammer to break off more of the loosened pieces from the wall. While we are looking, he finishes his work and starts for home, though it is not yet noontime. A miner is able to mine in a few hours all that his two laborers can break up, load, and get to the shaft in the whole day, so that by noontime most of the certified miners have left the mine. As we wander on through the dark galleries, we are astonished at the quantity of lumber used to support the walls and roof. In some places they are entirely sheathed over with plank upheld by strong joists, so that no black, rocky wall can be seen. Every little while we come to large doors which bar our way, and in many cases boys who are sitting beside them open them for us. What a monoto- nous life this must be, to sit alone in the dark all day long, and open these doors for the mules and cars to pass through ! The doors help in the ventilation of the mine, for they direct currents of fresh air into passages where otherwise the miners would not be able to work. The machinery which pumps out the foul air, and thus allows the fresh air to rush in, is the most important of all that is used in mines, for without fresh air no miner could live long in these underground passages. The air seems to us pure and not disagreeable, as we had expected to find it. Our guide tells us that the workmen are usually healthy, and are long-lived unless cut off by some accident. 146 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES All coal is not mined in the way we have described, for in some cases the seams are so near the surface that a deep shaft is not necessary. As shown in the pictures, a tunnel is dug into the hillside where the outcropping of the coal has been discovered, tracks are laid in this passageway, and the coal is brought out on cars run by a stationary engine FIG. 54. SLOPE MINING Bringing coal to the surface or drawn by mules. As this mining is carried farther and farther into the earth, a shaft becomes necessary to reach the lower levels. This stripping of the coal from where it lies near the surface is called drift- or slope-mining or tun- neling, and often precedes mining by a shaft. As we look at the glistening walls around us, we wonder what this black rock really is, and why it will burn so COAL 147 steadily and with such heat when other rocks put our fires out. It is an interesting story, one of the chapters in Na- ture's book, which, to those who can read it, reveals most wonderful secrets. In the story of coal, Mother Nature bids us go back in the history of the world many, many Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 55. MINERS GOING INTO SLOPE years, to a time when the climate was much warmer than at present and when there was no frigid zone. There was no man as yet upon the earth. Perhaps he could not have lived here then because of the gases with which, some geologists tell us, the air was filled. But carbonic acid gas, 148 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES of which there was probably much in the atmosphere, is just the food that plants like best, so they grew to immense size. These were curious plants which grew in the Carbon- iferous age. We should think them very queer indeed. We should miss the flowers which make our earth so beau- tiful, for there were none then, except a few so small and dull and so much like leaves and buds that they would have been hard to find. Imagine ferns, somewhat like those which wave in our swamps, grown to huge trees, or the little club moss as large as our big oaks and elms, and you will have some idea of the wonderful vegetation of that far-away time. There were thick forests of these giant ferns and mosses mingled with hundreds of other trees. These had all grown to a great size and to a good old age ; some had fallen and decayed, and others had taken their places, when Nature began her work of mountain-building. As the earth cooled, the crust or surface contracted and wrinkled, much as the skin of a baked apple does when taken from the oven. The crust sank in some places and was pushed up in others. These sunken regions were cov- ered by water which flowed in over them, and in these places, as the years went on, were spread out great quanti- ties of soil which had been worn from the upraised portions of land. As the movements of the crust continued through the cen- turies, these submerged regions were raised above the waters, and another forest grew and flourished above the sunken one. This in turn was submerged and covered with silt, and from heat and pressure both vegetation and soil grad- ually Inmlcned into rock. This happened many times, and COAL 149 the buried forests gradually became changed into the hard, black substance we know as coal. The lower layers, you can see, would be harder and less like wood than those buried later, because the heat and the pressure were much greater as the distance from the surface increased. This hardest variety, which burns with 110 smoke and gives a great heat, is what is known as anthracite coal. The softer kind is called bituminous and is found in much greater quantities than the anthracite. Then there is a kind formed under less heat and pressure, in which wood, leaves, and twigs can be seen partially changed into coal ; this is called lignite. And last of all is the peat, which you can find for yourselves to-day in swamps. For a long time the grasses and leaves and plants have grown and died and de- cayed, so that if you were to dig down for some distance you would find the soil made of this vegetable matter called peat. Now suppose the swamps should sink, or for some reason be covered with water. For many years the rivers and brooks would carry down and spread their loads of silt over the bottom of the pond or lake formed in the de- pression, and the peat would in time harden into coal some- thing like that which is mined to-day. Peat is found in large quantities in the bogs and swamps of Ireland, and is used to a great extent for fuel by the people of that coun- try. It is also found in considerable quantity in the United States. Perhaps when our forests have vanished under the hand of the lumberman, and our coal beds are exhausted, peat may come into greater use with us as a fuel. The softer coal burns much more easily than the anthra- cite. Curious stories are told of the difficulty which the discoverers of hard coal had in persuading people to use it. 150 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES When they could not make it burn in their stoves, they were sure they had been cheated, and that a black rock had been sold them instead of coal. If the coal "seams," as they are called, had remained where they were formed, you can readily see that they would be so deep in the earth that we might never have known anything about them. But the movements of the earth's crust which are continually going on have lifted and folded and bent these layers, until they are far above the places where they were changed into coal. The rivers and brooks, and the frosts and snows have all helped in wearing away the land, and in many places have lowered it enough so that the coal layers are near the surface, and sometimes even crop out. You know how disagreeable and unhealthful it is to have any decaying vegetable matter around our houses, because of the gases which are given off. The wind scatters these gases and brings us purer air to breathe. Now as the woody matter, which forms the coal, decayed, it was covered with soil and water. This prevented the gases escaping, and it is because of their presence that coal burns so readily. But it is the gases also which make the miner's life such a dan- gerous one. The two that are most dreaded are called fire damp and choke damp. Fire damp is a gas that explodes with great violence when fire comes in contact with it. Sometimes the force of the explosion is sufficient to dislodge great masses of rock and coal, which block up the passages so that the miners cannot make their way back to the shaft. Even though the imprisoned miners are unhurt, it is neces- sary to rescue them quickly, for, following the explosion of fire damp conies the more fearful choke damp, which quickly COAL 151 suffocates them. The terrible accident in a French mine, in 1906, in which more than a thousand miners lost their lives, was caused by an explosion of gas. In mines where these FIG. 56. ONE MILE UNDERGROUND IN PENNSYLVANIA gases are known to exist in great quantity, many precau- tions are taken for the miners' safety. Lamps with open flames are not allowed; the kind known as the safety lamp is the only one used. This lamp was invented by 152 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES Sir Humphry Davy, and is called the Davy lamp. In it the flame is inclosed by wire gauze so that it cannot come in contact with the gas. In most mines a fire boss is employed whose duty it is, every morning before the first workmen go down, to inspect those parts of the mine which the miners will enter. But in spite of all these precautions, accidents happen, and we often read in the daily papers of some awful mine disaster caused by the explosion of gas or dust. There are other dangers which a miner has to face besides the presence of gases. A great quantity of water enters the mine and has to be pumped out. Sometimes more water than coal is taken out of a mine. Where do you suppose so much comes from ? The blast of a miner may loosen the rock which incloses some underground stream, and the water will pour in so suddenly as to flood the passage before the men can escape. Abandoned mines will usually fill with water, and, if another mine is worked too near a flooded one, the walls sometimes break under the pressure, and the water pours through. Miners are sometimes careless in their use of explosives, and supports are torn away by the force of the shock. In these ways many lives are lost. One of the greatest dangers to the workmen is the caving in of the mine. This may come from several causes, some of which have been mentioned. " Robbing the mine " is the chief cause of its caving in. The amount of coal which has to be left in a mine as a support for the weight of earth above is much greater than that taken out. In the first min- ing the workmen do not take out much coal, only enough to open and connect the passages, leaving large quantities untouched. The second mining is a little more dangerous, COAL 153 as the mine is worked again for more of the supporting coal, and the partitions and pillars are made smaller. Some- times the mine is worked a third time and even more coal is taken from the sides and walls of the passages. This is "robbing the mine." Such mining, indeed, robs it of its safety, for the weight of earth above is often too great for the reduced pillars to support, even though they are FIG. 57. SETTING PROPS. strengthened by huge timbers. Caving in often follows mine robbing. The life of a miner is attended by so many dangers that laws for his protection have been passed in the different states where mining is carried on. In Pennsylvania there is a law which requires two hundred cubic feet of fresh air per minute for every man in the mines. One way of securing this is by immense fan wheels with great blades something 154 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES like those of a windmill, which revolve at tremendous speed. These wheels are built at the mouths of the air shafts to pump out the foul air, and the pure air rushes in through the other openings. The law provides also that the doors which direct the currents of air in the passages must be tended by keepers. In each mine there is a room bricked off, warmed, and provided with medicines, blankets, and bandages, so that injured workmen may not have to wait to be taken above- ground before anything can be done for their relief. The superintendent of the mine and some of the bosses receive instructions from a physician as to the proper treatment in case of sickness or injury. Another law provides that no coal breaker nor any other building, except such as are absolutely necessary to hoist the coal, to provide air, and to pump out the water, shall be erected over the shaft. Before this law was made, some serious accidents occurred from fires, when the falling timber and machinery blocked up the shaft, so that the men were imprisoned in the mine. These are only a few of the many laws which have been made to protect the min- ers in their dangerous underground Me. There is much to be done to the anthracite coal after it is taken from the ground, before it is ready to burn in our stoves. It comes from the mine in huge lumps, some as large as, or larger than, a bushel basket, and it must be broken up into suitable sizes before it can be used. This is done in a coal breaker. On arriving at the breaker the coal is taken on an endless-chain arrangement to the highest part of the building, whence it falls from floor to floor, until it finally drops into the cars waiting to receive it. COAL 155 As the coal reaches the top of the breaker, it falls upon an inclined moving floor, on either side of which men stand with pickaxes or huge hammers and break up the largest pieces. It then passes upon great screens, which shake continually back and forth, making a deafening noise and Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 58. LARGEST COAL BREAKERS IN THE UNITED STATES shaking the smaller pieces into screens below. These great screens are inclined, and the shaking moves the coal which is too large to go through the meshes to the lower edges, where it falls to other screens with coarser meshes. This process goes on until the coal is sorted into various sizes. 156 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES These have different names by which buyers can order. Some of the more common kinds are broken coal, egg, stove, chestnut, and a still finer variety called pea coal. After the coal is thus sorted there is much slate and other rock fragments mixed with it, and these must be picked out by hand. No machine has yet been made which will successfully separate the slate from the coal, though men are constantly working to invent one. Every breaker has a large room, or several rooms, filled with wooden shutes lined with sheet iron, down which the coal slides in endless streams from the screen rooms. Boys are stationed at in- tervals along the shutes to pick the slate from the coal. The " green " hands are near the top and the more experi- enced workmen below, and by the time the coal reaches the last boy, little slate is left in it. All day long the boys sit at their work beside the continuous stream of coal, but no matter how fast their fingers may fly, they can never succeed in emptying the trough before them. It is a hard, miserable life. You know how much noise a little coal can make when it is shoveled into your cellar. Think how noisy this room must be where there are many, many shutes all filled with the moving coal. There can be no talking even if the boys could spare time for it. On account of the dust, the coal has been wet in the screens above, and in winter the handling of this cold, wet rock chaps the boy's hands so that they often bleed, and the finger nails are worn down to the quick. It is no wonder that the great ambition of all breaker boys is to get a position as door- keeper or mule driver in the mine. That seems a hard life to us, but it is much to be preferred to the work in the breaker. COAL 157 The coal, after being cleaned by the breaker boys, falls into cars waiting to receive it, and is run out to tracks, whence it may be moved to the great shipping ports. The slate which has been picked out accumulates in the hills of culm which are familiar sights in all anthracite coal regions. You can imagine how large these piles must be and how fast they grow, for about one sixth of all the coal taken from the mines is waste material. Before the coal leaves the grounds, it is tested by gov- ernment officials, and if too much slate is found in it, it is sent back to the breaker to be recleaned. These noisy, dusty coal breakers are found only in the anthracite region, for this is the only kind of coal which needs to go through the process. Coal is mined in twenty-eight of our states and territories, and it exists also in many places where the deposits are not thick enough to pay to work. The seams may vary in thick- ness all the way from a few inches to fifty or sixty feet, although the latter are rare. In the United States where the mineral is abundant, little is mined where the layers are less than three feet thick, but this is not usually true of other countries. It seems queer that, considering the great coal area in the United States, the anthracite deposits should occupy a region not half so large as the little state of Delaware. Yet comparatively small as this area is, it is the largest, richest field of anthracite coal found anywhere in the world. There are three great regions of bituminous coal in the United States, making a combined area nearly as large as Texas. The eastern field is found along the Appalachian Moun- tains, from Pennsylvania to Alabama. The central section 158 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES includes parts of Indiana and Kentucky and nearly two thirds of Illinois. The third region lies farther west, including parts of Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas, and extending into adjacent states. We think of these states as being in a fertile region and yielding rich crops of wheat, corn, hay, and other prod- ucts, and are apt to forget that from beneath the surface, as well as from above, a rich harvest is being reaped. Notice that the great coal areas lie chiefly in the eastern half of the country, while the so-called precious metals, gold and silver, lie in the great western highland. Of the three, coal areas which we have located, the east- ern one is the most important ; for of all the three hundred million tons of coal which we mine in one year, Pennsyl- vania produces nearly one half, and more than one third of all her output comes from her rich anthracite fields. But what an enormous amount ! Three hundred million tons of coal every year ! This is more than one third of the whole world's supply. If this were all piled into a great mass, we could build a solid wall forty feet high, and wide enough to afford a street and sidewalks along the top, on which we might go from Boston to Denver. If this great pile of coal were put to a different use, it would feed for more than twelve million years a fire in a furnace which consumes eighteen tons a year, and few house furnaces burn as much. When we read of all the coal which is taken out of the ground each year, we begin to wonder what is done with it. Near the coal regions there are great cities, in which the product is used for manufactures and from which it is shipped. These cities have become large and important mainly because of their location near the mining regions. COAL 159 There are also many railroads having thousands and thou- sands of cars which carry only coal ; and there are steamboats plying on river and lake and ocean, loaded entirely with this useful black rock. The Pennsylvania Railroad has a network of tracks extending all through the state of Pennsylvania and pene- trating its many coal fields. The Delaware, Lackawanna and FIG. 59. COAL BARGES ON THE OHIO RIVER (Courtesy of the Cincinnati Industrial Bureau) Western, the New York Central, and other railroads are much interested in freighting coal. Some railroads own the mines whose product they carry. One of these railroads has seventy-five thousand cars for carrying coal, with more than a thousand engines to haul them. Hundreds of boats and barges loaded with coal may be seen on the Great Lakes and on the Ohio and adjacent rivers. 160 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES From the anthracite region, quantities of coal are sent to New York and Philadelphia, where much is used in the great manufacturing industries, while some is shipped thence to other eastern cities. Very little of our coal is sent abroad. It does not pay to carry it far because it is so bulky, and coal deposits are so widely distributed over the earth that other nations can get theirs near at hand. The coal mined in western Pennsylvania is used largely in Pittsburg, Buffalo, Cincinnati, and other cities in .that vicinity. From the central area, most of the coal goes to Chicago. From the western coal field, St. Louis receives a greater amount than any other city. In what other indus- tries have these cities been mentioned ? Our iron and steel manufactures are greater in amount, less in cost, and finer in quality than those of any other country in the world. One reason for this is because the rich fields of coal and of iron lie near each other. All along the Appalachian Mountains there are vast deposits of iron, and even richer fields have been found around Lake Supe- rior. You can see how easily and cheaply this iron ore can be brought by the Great Lake route to the manufacturing cities in Pennsylvania and vicinity. No wonder that Penn- sylvania leads the world in her steel products when the two materials necessary for such manufactures lie so near to- gether or are connected by such a splendid transportation route. If you will look at the map you will see that coal and iron deposits are found near each other at the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains. The city of Birmingham in Alabama is situated near the center of these southern fields, making it the "Pittsburg of the South," the industrial COAL 161 center of the country between Atlanta and New Orleans. The city is built in a region where cotton was formerly the chief product, but the riches under the soil have proved greater than those on the surface. Now the cotton planta- tions have given way to mines, and the trains leaving the city carry more iron and steel than bales of cotton. But we must not confine our study of coal to our own country, for deposits are widely distributed over the earth. Many of these are being mined, but many others are as yet untouched and will be a source of future wealth to the countries in which they are situated. Such beds are found in the Chinese and Russian empires and in other Eastern countries. Nearly all the countries of Europe mine coal, chief among them England, Germany, France, and Belgium. The prod- uct is chiefly of the bituminous variety, for little anthra- cite is found in that continent. Until recent years England led the world in the amount mined, but the United States has finally outstripped her. We have many advantages over her which explain our supremacy in the race. Eng- land's coal has been mined for centuries, and was one of her chief sources of wealth when nothing was known of the vast deposits in the New World. So her mines are deeper and harder to work than ours. Many of the seams of coal also are much thinner than we think worth working here. London, however, still holds its place as the largest coal market of the world, though New York City and the neigh- boring New Jersey ports are not far behind. A story is told of the opposition to coal when first intro- duced into London furnaces. It was bituminous coal, which, as you know, burns with much smoke. People thought 162 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES London would become very unhealthful in consequence. So much was said on the subject that Parliament was forced to pass a law forbidding the use of coal in furnaces, making it a crime punishable by death. This law was in force for nearly fifty years, when it was repealed by the efforts of a king who was wise enough to see in the use of coal the great benefit to manufacturing. What should we do without coal ? Our factories would stand idle, our steamers could not leave their wharves, our train service would be paralyzed. Such power lies in this strange, black rock ! In many factories, particularly in those of iron and steel, coke is used instead of coal because it gives more heat. Coke is made from soft coal by burning it in ovens from which most of the air is excluded. The gases pass off and the purer carbon remains. Nearly all of the iron in the United States is smelted with coke, as it not only makes a hotter fire, but is free from the sulphur sometimes found in coal, which is injurious to the steel product. The great coke ovens of the United States are near Pittsburg, and three fourths of all the coke made in our country comes from this region. But if we would know all the uses of this wonderful black rock, we must consider some very different substances from the dull-gray coke. The gas used for lighting and heating purposes is made from coal. In the early days of gas manufacture, the coal-tar waste, which was left after making the gas, was a great nuisance. If carried off in streams or rivers, it polluted the waters so that they were useless for other purposes. People living farther down the streams made such a protest, because they were deprived COAL 163 of the use of the water, that laws were passed prohibiting the disposal of the waste in this way. Then it was con- sumed at great expense in furnaces, until finally science announced a wonderful discovery. From this black, dirty- looking coal tar wonderful things might be made. And then Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 60. COKE OVENS AND THEIR SMOKE CONSUMERS PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA came the manufacture of benzine and other oils which are used in considerable quantities in manufacturing and the arts. But the scientists believed that there were still other useful substances left in this waste matter. They kept on 164 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES with their experiments, and, sure enough, by mixing strange compounds with some of the substances left in the coal tar, these wise men finally brought to light beautiful colors red, purple, blue, green, and many others. Almost a miracle, is it not, that the brilliant coloring matter that made your dress and necktie just the bright, pretty colors you like so much came from the black, dirty coal ? These aniline dyes, as they are called, have almost entirely supplanted the vege- table and animal substances which were formerly used, for the mineral dyes are more brilliant and can be produced much more cheaply. TOPICS FOR STUDY I 1. Trip to a coal mine. 2. Description of mine. 3. Methods of mining. 4. Formation of coal. 5. Dangers of mining. 6. Laws for the protection of miners. 7. The coal breaker. 8. Coal areas in the United States. 9. Manufacturing and shipping centers. 10. Coal deposits in other countries. 11. Uses of coal. II 1. Imagine yourself a " breaker boy " and write a story concerning your life and work. 2. Color a map of the United States to show the three areas of bitu- minous coal production and the anthracite area. Mark on the map the names of the states included and the principal shipping port from each area. Trace also the length of the pile of coal that might be made from our annual coal production. Indicate by dotted lines the coal-carrying railroads. Where do they carry it? What cities men- tioned in the coal industry have been mentioned in other industries ? COAL 165 3. Ship a cargo of coal from each of the following cities : Pitts- burg, Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, and Birmingham. Tell in each case to what city the cargo will be sent and by what route. 4. What canals are used to aid in the transportation of coal ? What rivers ? 5. Great coal-producing countries are as a rule manufacturing centers. Find in your textbook what are the chief manufactures of the countries mentioned in this chapter. Ill Be able to spell and pronounce the following names. Locate each place and tell what was said about it in this and in previous chapters. Middle Atlantic States Pennsylvania Alabama Illinois Kentucky Indiana Iowa Missouri Kansas Siberia China England Germany France Belgium Boston Denver New York Philadelphia Pittsburg Cleveland Buffalo Chicago St. Louis Birmingham London Susquehanna River Allegheny River Monongahela River Delaware River Mississippi River Missouri River Ohio River Detroit River St. Clair River Niagara River Delaware Bay Chesapeake Bay Lake Superior Lake Michigan Lake Huron Lake Erie Lake Ontario Lake St. Clair " Soo " Canal Strait of Mackinac CHAPTER XII IRON Iron vessels cross the ocean, Iron engines give them motion ; Iron needles northward veering, Iron tillers vessels steering. Iron pipe our gas delivers, Iron bridges span our rivers. Iron pens are used for writing, Iron ink our thoughts inditing. Iron stoves for cooking victuals, Iron ovens, pots, and kettles. Iron horses draw our loads, Iron rails compose our roads. Iron anchors hold in sands. Iron bolts, and rods, and bands. Iron houses, iron walls, Iron cannon, iron balls, Iron axes, knives, and chains, Iron augers, saws, and planes, Iron globules in our blood, Iron particles in food, Iron lightning rods on spires, Iron telegraphic wires, Iron hammers, nails, and screws, Iron everything we use. Did you ever think that the nations which produce the most coal and iron are the strongest and most civilized ? A nation's advance may be measured by its use of iron ; it is the metal of civilization, For, since the birth of time, throughout all ages and nations, Has the craft of the smith been held in repute by the people. 166 IRON 167 Iron is the most widespread of all metals, as well as the most useful. It can be cast into any shape, rolled into sheets, drawn out into fine wire capable of supporting great weights, sharpened into sword blades, and fashioned into plowshares. Frames for buildings, steamships, rails, cars, engines ; pipes for water, gas, and oil ; medicine to make us strong ; nails, locks, hinges, horseshoes, tools of all sorts ; machinery for every industry, all testify to the great vari- ety of uses to which iron can be put. We should have to go far back in history to find the period when iron was not known. The Egyptians used it as long ago as when the great pyramids were built. In the Bible its use is spoken of in connection with early He- brew history. Moses speaks of furnaces for melting iron, and we even have given us in these ancient records the name of one of the first workers in iron and brass, Tubal-Cain. More than thirty million tons of iron ore are mined in the United States each year, which is worth at the mine about sixty million dollars. After being separated from the impurities with which it is found, this ore yields rather more than half as much pig iron, or about eighteen million tons. It is hard to form an idea of what these figures mean. Perhaps an illustration may serve to make us better able to appreciate this amount. Suppose we construct a sidewalk, two inches thick and six feet wide, out of the iron which is taken from our mines in one year. Such a sidewalk would reach more than halfway around the world. Remember this sidewalk is to be made of the iron which is mined in one year in the United States alone. If it were to be built of all the iron mined annually in the world, it would stretch 168 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES nearly three times as far, or completely around the world and nearly one half that great distance again. Where does all this iron come from ? It is widely dis- tributed in our country and is actually mined in more than half of our states. It is found, however, in the greatest quantity in only a few of these. Around Lake Superior in Minnesota and Michigan are the richest deposits in the world, from which we get three fourths of all our vast output. The Appalachian Mountains also contain rich beds in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Alabama, Tennessee, and other states. There are other places where iron mining is profitable, as in the Adirondack Mountains and in Missouri. In the latter state there are two low mountains, Pilot Knob and Iron Mountain, which are largely composed of rich deposits of this ore.' All of the mines in the Appalachian Mountains and some of those in the lake region, especially in Michigan, afe deep mines reached by a shaft through which the iron ore is hoisted in much the same way that coal is taken out. But many of the mines in the Mesabi Range in Minnesota are of a very different kind, and at first glance you would hardly recognize them as mines at all, for there is no hard rock to be blasted, nor are any of the methods practiced which are associated in our minds with mining. No iron was mined in the Mesabi Range before 1892. To-day in this one range alone there are mines enough in operation to produce all the iron and steel manufactured in all Great Britain. If you were to purchase a mine in this locality, you would buy an area of land very much as you would pur- chase a farm. The forests, if any, must first be stripped off, IRON 169 and then perhaps several feet of surface soil. In many places this has already been done by the great prehistoric glacier. When the overlying strata have been removed you will begin to wonder where the iron is, for all that is visible to the eye is loose, reddish-black soil. This is the FIG. 61. IRON MINES, IRONWOOD, MICHIGAN iron itself. Here spread out in thick horizontal layers is the ore which is revolutionizing the world's iron and steel industry. Great steam shovels are at work lifting loads of this loose soil on to cars, for which miles of railroads have been built in these mines. These steam shovels are wonder- ful machines. One can lift four or five tons at a scoop and 170 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES can be operated by only four or five men. So rapidly do the shovels work that a car holding fifty tons can be loaded in five or ten minutes. Five hundred men working hard all day could not accomplish so much as one of these machines. In less than three hours a fifty-car train can be loaded and Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 62. STEAM SHOVEL AT WORK, BURT MINE, MESABI RANGE made ready to start to some shipping center. To get this amount of ore from a shaft mine would require two or three days. From one mine in the Mesabi Range two million tons of ore have been taken in one year. This is as much as the IRON 171 iron product of the whole country of Sweden. Five mines in the same range are producing more iron every year than is mined in the whole of France, which is the fifth in rank of all the iron-producing countries. In some of the mines the ore has been removed to the depth of from fifty to two Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 63. OVERLOOKING THE ORE DOCKS, Two HARBORS, MINNESOTA hundred feet, and a seemingly inexhaustible supply remains, while new mines are being opened every year. All iron must first be separated from the other substances with which it is found in the earth before it is ready for manufacture. To do this great heat is necessary, and 172 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES consequently much coal is required. The iron is therefore transported from the mines to the coal regions to be smelted. Let us follow it in its journey to the smelting furnaces. Our fifty-car train leaves the mine bound for Duluth, one of the iron-shipping ports at the western end of Lake Su- perior. We might go to Two Harbors or to the town of Superior instead, for in each of these places there are im- mense ore docks, stretching out perhaps a half mile into the lakes ; the largest iron-ore docks in the world are situated in these three cities. The train runs out on these docks, and the iron falls from the cars into huge pockets beneath. Only a few minutes are required for the unloading, and the train is soon ready to start back to the mines. In the meantime, on the large boats fastened to the docks shutes are opened, and the ore slides down into the vessels. In less than an hour six thousand tons have been loaded on one vessel, and she is ready to start on her voyage of nearly a week through the Lakes. Between the iron region of Lake Superior and the coal area of the Appalachian Mountains is a great natural waterway, on which the iron can be carried much more cheaply than on land. This chain of lakes con- tains more than half of all the fresh water on the earth. If the lake coast line which borders on the United States could be stretched out straight, it would reach from New York to San Francisco. Once out on the Lakes, rightly named " The Great Lakes," there is nothing to indicate that we are not on the wide ocean itself, for part of the time we can see no land on either side. We find indications of the wheat industry in the huge grain elevators near the water in nearly every city at which we stop. We see curiously built boats, called IRON 173 " whalebacks," laden with wheat and flour. Many others are seen also, with cargoes of iron, lumber, or beef. The eastward moving boats are more heavily laden than those going west, and as we study the different industries, we Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 64. LOADING A SHIP, Two HARBORS, MINNESOTA shall find the reason for this. Cargoes are often taken west at very cheap rates, rather than have the boats return empty. Perhaps the most interesting part of our journey is through the famous " Soo " Canal, described and illustrated in the chapter on Waterways and Railroads. It is a thrilling 174 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES experience to go through one of the wonderful locks in this canal, and to feel our boat gradually sink as the water is low- ered until we are nearly on a level with that in Lake Huron. On this journey we pass many places where we might dispose of our cargo, for all the cities on the southern shores of the Lakes, near the coal fields, are engaged in the iron and steel industry. But our boat glides by Detroit and Toledo, and finally stops at Cleveland. Great machines quickly transfer the iron from the vessel to the cars wait- ing to carry it to its destination at Pittsburg. All this lake region has changed and grown very rapidly in the past few years, and comparatively few people realize the immense trade and vast industries which are carried on in this part of the country. Here in the Cleveland district more ships are built than anywhere else in the world, except on the Clyde River in Scotland ; more cargo tonnage passes through the Detroit River than through any other river in the world ; the machinery for moving ore on these great bodies of water is the best that can be found anywhere ; and more ore is moved longer distances and deposited at the receiving ports more cheaply than in any other country. Until the ore is laid down in Pittsburg at the door of the smelter, you notice that it has been handled entirely by machinery, and it will continue to be so handled until it is turned out in the finished articles of iron and steel. Little handwork is needed. This reduces the cost materially and is one of the reasons why we are able to manufacture fine products of iron and steel more cheaply than any other country. But while we have been telling of the wonders of the Great Lakes, and of their industries and commerce, our IRON 175 iron has been unloaded at Pittsburg, and we must now see what becomes of it. Pittsburg, the Iron City ! Pittsburg, the Smoky City ! Surely both of these names are appropriate, for as we ap- proach, we see dozens and dozens of tall chimneys pouring forth their clouds of smoke ; and iron is everywhere, un- loaded at the docks, carried through the streets, and going through all sorts of processes in hundreds of manufactories. The finished products are being shipped away in trains that go in all directions, and in boats that ply on the Great Lakes and on the Ohio River. Pittsburg, the Steel City! More iron and steel are manufactured here than in any other city in the world, and it is for these manufactures that such great quantities of raw material are needed. Situated at the junction of the Allegheny and Mononga- hela rivers, and near Lake Erie, Pittsburgh water connec- tions make it possible for the manufacturing supplies to be laid down at her doors quickly and cheaply. By the Mo- nongahela River she has access to the rich coal fields of West Virginia, and the Allegheny River brings her the coal and oil from western Pennsylvania. The Ohio affords entrance to thousands of miles of navigable waters, border- ing on twenty states, and finally reaching the ocean itself through the Gulf of Mexico. From the Lake Superior iron mines thousands of tons of ore and pig iron are brought to her very door through the Great Lake route, and it is to aid in this traffic that the canal, of which you read in Chapter V, has been planned. Great as is the trade of Pittsburg by water, we must not lose sight of the importance of her railway communication. Fourteen railroads enter the city, and by these, goods are 176 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES sent east and west and north and south. The commerce in iron and steel in which Pittsbnrg excels the whole world would not be possible without her railroads. With all these advantages, is it any wonder that no other city can compare with her in iron and steel manufacturing ? Cars, engines, building material, armor plate for ships, cables, wires for telephone and telegraph lines, tools, and machin- ery of all kinds are manufactured here. The work is so extensive that some of the manufactories run night and day. At one steel plant five tons of material are required for the blast furnaces every minute, and there are hundreds and hundreds of such furnaces in the city. Blast furnaces are iron structures from forty to one hun- dred feet high, lined with a material called " fire brick " because it can endure great heat without injury. In these furnaces the iron is melted to separate it from the impurities with which it is always found. This process is called smelt- ing. Into the furnace through a door part way to the top the workmen put, from time to time, coke, ore, and limestone. Coke is used instead of coal because it gives a much hotter fire. The limestone, or some other material which serves equally well, is added because it collects the impurities as they separate from the melting iron. These impurities and the limestone together form an upper layer known as slag, which flows out through a door in the furnace made for that purpose. During the process of melting the iron, a blast or current of air is forced into the furnace. You know when you open the drafts to your stove how much more brightly the fire burns, and you can imagine what a high temperature is created by a strong current of air, which is sometimes IRON 177 intensely heated before being forced into the furnace. It is from this method of using blasts that the blast furnace gets its name. The melted iron, on account of its weight, falls to the bottom of the furnace, and when it is ready, workmen open Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 65. BLAST FURNACES, PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA a lower door and with long poles push away the iron which has hardened around the opening. With a shower of sparks, like a display of Fourth-of-July fireworks, out pours the molten iron in a stream of liquid fire. Busy workmen by means of poles direct its course into long parallel trenches, 178 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES connected with many shorter ones called pigs. Here the iron cools in round bars two or three feet long and three or four inches in diameter. This is called pig iron and is the foundation of all our iron and steel manufactures. In FIG. i Copyright, Keystone View Co. LADLE POURING MOLTEN IRON INTO FIG IRON MOLDS this form it is shipped to other cities engaged in similar industries. The smelting is kept up in the large smelting works night and day ; the fire in the blast furnace is not allowed to go out until the furnace needs repairing or relining, which sometimes does not happen for months. IRON 179 In an iron foundry the pig iron is melted again. The purer metal which results from this process is run into molds made of earth, where the iron takes the shape of the article to be made, much as jelly takes the shape of the dish in which it cools. This cast iron, as it is called, is brittle and will break easily. Articles made of it cannot be easily mended. Stoves, machinery, tools, posts, hydrants, and many other things are made in an iron foundry from cast iron. Wrought iron is a still purer product, softer and easily mended, out of which nails and wire are made. Many things formerly made of wrought iron are now made of steel, which is manufactured to-day much more easily and cheaply than was thought possible a few years ago. The making of steel used to be a slow, difficult process. In its manufacture, air must be admitted in just the right quantity, with the proper force, and for exactly the time that will cause it to drive away the undesirable elements in the iron, for these would injure the quality of the steel. Within a comparatively few years an Englishman invented a method by which this could all be quickly and easily done. The Bessemer process has revolutionized the indus- try. Work which before this invention would have re- quired days or even weeks to accomplish can now be done in a few minutes. From what we have said of the immense quantity of iron taken every year from the mines of our country, and the great usefulness of the metal, you know that there must be many cities in the United States where iron manufacturing is carried on. So widespread is this industry that there are few cities of any size which have no manufactory connected 180 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES with iron. Pittsburg, of course, ranks first in the list. Then comes Chicago, for it is situated in the soft coal region of Illinois and is connected by water with the famous iron region around Lake Superior. Birmingham, Alabama, ranks third in iron and steel manufactures, for this city lies in the center of the rich coal and iron fields of the South, with limestone deposits near at hand. These are our three great- est iron manufacturing cities, but there are many others in which this industry is of great importance. The Ohio River is filled with boats and barges carrying thousands and thousands of tons of coal, coke, and iron from Pittsburg to the river ports. These distribute the products to inland cities and also use them in their own manufactories. Thus Cincinnati has come to be the greatest market in the United States for pig iron, and Louisville is an important iron manufacturing city. Both of these cities owe their growth and importance in this direction to their location on the river. On the Great Lakes, Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Erie, and Buffalo are all engaged in iron manufacturing. Cleve- land is the second city in size of all the lake ports. As it lies near the iron, coal, and oil deposits of western Penn- sylvania and northern Ohio, near the copper fields of Michi- gan, and in direct water connection with the iron mines of Minnesota and Michigan, we are not surprised to learn, that the Cleveland district is the greatest ore market in the world. Its own manufactures of iron and steel are immense, and in the making of wire and nails it holds first rank in our country. The cities mentioned, together with Baltimore, Wheeling, New York, and others in the vicinity of the coal and iron IRON 181 areas, manufacture everything one can possibly think of which is made of iron and steel. Philadelphia is near enough to these raw materials to be an important manufac- turing city, while its position as an ocean port makes it a commercial center as well. Many vessels sail from here every year carrying the manufactured products of the city as well as those from other cities. There are two great manufacturing plants in Philadel- phia which I am sure you would like to visit. One of these is the Cramp Ship Yard where the finest steel ships are made, not only for use in our own country but in foreign lands as well. The other great manufactory is the Baldwin Locomotive Works, a corporation which makes more loco- motives than any other in the world. You could find its engines drawing long trains in Japan, Africa, South Amer- . ica, and in many European countries. More than fifteen thousand men are employed there, and the works run day and night. In one year more than two thousand locomotives are made, an average of more than six each day, besides the repairing of hundreds of others. After all that we have said concerning the wealth of our iron and coal deposits, and their position with regard to each other, you will not be surprised to learn that our country ranks higher than any others in her iron and steel manufactures. Great Britain comes next, and then Ger- many, while in Norway and Sweden iron of an excellent quality is found. Germany is a military country. It has forts and strong defenses. Its army is large and splendidly trained. So it is no surprise to find in that country the largest and most famous gun works in the world. Here are made cannon 182 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES and guns, material for ships and railroads, as well as ma- chinery of various kinds. Austria-Hungary, Russia, Italy, and other European countries are furnished with all kinds of defensive supplies from these famous factories. The industry has been carried on by the Krupp family for three generations, and all have shown the same pride in their work, the same honesty, the same thoroughness in detail and finish, and the same interest in their employees. TOPICS FOE, STUDY I 1. Uses of iron. 2. History. 3. Amount mined. 4. Iron areas in the United States. 5. Methods of mining. 6. Trip to a mine in the Great Lakes region. 7. The Mesabi mines. 8. The Great Lakes and their commerce. 9. Pittsburg. 10. Manufacturing of iron and steel. 11. Cities connected with the. iron industry. 12. Iron in other countries. II 1. Name all manufactures in your home town, or in neighboring towns or cities, connected with the iron industry. 2. Notice the names of firms or of cities on any iron article which you may see. 3. Locate fifteen cities connected with the iron industry. 4. Complete the following sentences : Pittsburg is the - Two great manufacturing plants in Philadelphia are . Chicago ranks in iron and steel manufactures. Birmingham is the city in the South. Cleveland is the of the lake ports. Germany is a country. The manufactory is there. IRON 183 5. Make a list of twenty things which are made of iron. 6. Sketch a map of the Great Lakes, to show the water route from Duluth to Buffalo. Add New York, to show the route via Erie Canal and Hudson River to New York City. Add Massachusetts, to show transportation lines from Albany to Boston. Add Pennsylvania, to show trade routes, both water and rail, between Lake Erie and Pitts- burg. Add the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, to show the trade route to the Gulf. 7. Write at least six facts showing the importance of the Great Lakes route. 8. Write at least six facts showing advantages of the location of Pittsburg. 9. Name at least twelve different things manufactured in Pitts- burg. 10. Describe methods of mining in the Mesabi mines. 11. Describe the manufacture of pig iron, cast iron, steel. Ill Be able to spell and pronounce the following names. Locate each place and tell what was said about it in this and in previous chapters. Appalachian Pligh lands Adirondack Mountains Pilot Knob Iron Mountain Mesabi Range Suez Canal Lake route Great Britain Norway Sweden Germany France Scotland Clyde River Ohio River Allegheny River Monongahela River Minnesota Michigan Wisconsin West Virginia Pennsylvania Alabama Tennessee Missouri Illinois Ohio Kentucky Duluth Two Harbors Philadelphia Superior Detroit Cleveland Erie Buffalo Pittsburg Chicago Birmingham Cincinnati Louisville Baltimore Wheeling New York CHAPTER XIII GOLD AND SILVER GOLD Gold ! Gold ! Gold ! Gold ! Bright and yellow, hard and cold, Molten, graven, hammered, and rolled ; Heavy to get and light to hold ; Hoarded, bartered, bought, and sold, Stolen, borrowed, squandered, doled ; Spurned by the young, but hugged by the old To the very verge of the churchyard mold ; Gold ! Gold ! Gold ! Gold ! THOMAS HOOD Probably no gift of the earth has been the source of so much happiness and misery, so great joy and sorrow, as the yellow metal, gold. Because of the power it brings, men have fought and died to obtain it ; with this aim in view, no sacrifice has been too great, no hardships too terrible, to endure. The discoveries of gold in California, in Aus- tralia, and later in Alaska and Canada have furnished stories of daring, of endurance, of perils, fit to rank with those of Sindbad the Sailor, and "Aladdin or The Won- derful Lamp." The most thrilling of these tales are connected with the Klondike, for here Nature presented to the daring explorers her most forbidding aspect. The fight was not against heat and thirst, as in the pioneer journeys to California, but against cold, snow, and starvation in this lonely arctic 184 GOLD AND SILVER 185 world, where in the silence, the gloom, the utter isolation, it seemed to the lone prospector that even God was lost. To-day we can ride at ease in comfortable steamers and railway cars to the very region and over the very trail \G U L F 0\F Li L A Long 170 East 180 West S K U A\N ALASKA SCALE OF MILES 100 200 300 FIG. 67. ROUTE TO THE KLONDIKE REGION which in 1897 and 1898 was the scene of terrible suffering and loss of life. Crossing the country to Seattle, Washing- ton, we can there take a steamer for the Alaskan coast. If we follow the same route which many of the gold hunters took in the first great rush to the Klondike, we shall stop 186 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES at Skagway, which is situated upon Dyea Inlet, about twelve hundred miles from Seattle. Here we will take the White Pass and Yukon Railroad, in many respects the most won- derful one in the world. It extends nearer the pole and cost more dollars and more suffering per mile than any other road ever built. Men of almost every walk in life, college graduates, lawyers, doctors, and other professional men, as well as those who could not write their own names, were on its pay rolls. In its construction whole mountain sides were torn away and deep gulches were filled. Much of this work was done when the thermometer was from ten to forty degrees below zero. Disappointed gold seekers of all classes in life found here work with excellent pay ; yet if a rumor reached them of a new find of gold, scores would shoulder the company's picks and, with little provision for facing the deadly cold or for satisfying their hunger, depart for the place where the treasures were reported to have been found. The first few miles of the railroad over the mountains through White Pass, twenty-four hundred feet above the sea, were the most difficult and expensive to construct; some sections cost at the rate of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars per mile. But no railroad ever paid any such interest on the investment during the first few years of its existence as this did. It was the one way over which the necessities of life could be carried to hungry miners, or by which they could get back from the desolate north to friends and civilization. Consequently fares were very high, sometimes as much as twenty cents a mile. Freight charges were in proportion, one hundred dollars a ton not being an exceptional price at the time of the greatest rush. GOLD AND SILVER 187 Continuing our journey, we leave Skagway and follow the old trail over the dreaded White Pass to Lake Bennett. This takes four hours by rail, but for the gold seekers of the nineties, hampered by provisions and mining equipment, it was a four days' journey. On the way to Lake Bennett we pass through Dead Horse Trail, so called because of the hundreds of horses which fell here never to rise again. It FIG. 68. PROSPECTORS AND THEIR PACKS, CHILKOOT PASS is said that after the great rush of thousands of prospectors over this trail, it was possible for one to travel for some distance, treading only upon the hides of the horses which had perished. Before the railroad could be built, thousands of the carcasses of these animals had to be removed. We leave the railroad at White Horse Rapids, where many luckless adventurers lost their goods and often their lives by the swamping of the heavily laden boats, and continue 188 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES our way to Dawson by steamer. The whole trip from New York to Dawson can now be made in two weeks, a small fraction of the time that it took the early prospector with his pack on his back, or with his loaded sledge, to make the trip from Skagway. The word " Klondike " comes from the Eskimo language and is the name of a small Canadian stream which flows FIG. 69. PACK TRAIN ON THE WAY TO THE KLONDIKE from the north into the Yukon River about fifty miles east of the Alaskan boundary. Strangely enough, though we hear so much of the discovery of gold in the Klondike, but little has been found in this river itself or on its banks. The creeks and rivers which flow into it, and some of the other branches of the Yukon, are rich in the precious metal. It is found scattered through the sands and gravels, and GOLD AND SILVER 189 the only work necessary is to free the grains of nearly pure gold from the soil in which they are held. No great companies or syndicates opened up this region by operations on a large scale. The only equipment that a miner needed was a pick, a pan, and a strong back. All of the thousands who rushed to the Klondike in the two years after the discovery of gold began operations in the same way. One or two men prospected, that is, examined the " dirt " where no one had made a claim, until they found some which seemed likely to pay. If two were working to- gether, one man broke the soil and shoveled it into the pan ; the other added water and shook the pan with a peculiar twisting motion, until water and gravel were well mixed. The pans were then carefully emptied, and the grains of gold, being heavier, were found at the bottom. After the best claims, where gold was at or near the surface, were taken up, the less favorable ones were worked. Sometimes the gold-bearing gravels were covered for two or three feet or more with moss or clay or other soil, which had to be removed. In the winter this was frozen so hard that fires were lighted upon the ground in order to soften it. In the richest claims gold worth hundreds of dollars was washed out in this way in a single day. But in most cases it was slow, hard work ; and in order to accomplish more, the pan was discarded for the " rocker." This was an oblong-shaped box with a raised screen at one end, on to which the gravel was thrown. The larger stones were held upon the screen, while the finer gravel, with which the gold was mixed, was allowed to drop through. Water was added as in the pan, and the box was moved back and forth, or rocked, as its name indicates, by means of handles. The 190 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES GOLD AND SILVER 191 water and gravel were then allowed to flow out, leaving the gold in the bottom of the rocker,, The " Long Tom," and then the sluice, were the next enlargements. These were inclined runways, with cleats called riffles, fastened from side to side across the bottom, to catch the gold. The gravel and water were turned in at the upper end, and the trough was inclined just enough to make the water carry the gravel down and out at the lower end, while the gold was caught in the riffles. Later, because all of it was not saved by this method, the bottom of the sluice was paved with rock or copper to resemble the un- evenness of the bottom of a stream. Mercury also was used to some extent, as gold will stick to it, and thus more of the shining metal was saved. A great excitement prevailed when, soon after the dis- coveries in the Klondike region, gold was found in the sands at Cape Nome. The easiest route from Dawson to Nome is by way of the Yukon River and thence across Norton Sound. The sail down the Yukon, a distance of nearly two thousand miles, is a trip to be remembered. Few realize that away in this comparatively unknown country flows such a wonderful stream, the fourth largest river in North America. Imagine sailing on one river from Boston to Denver, for the distance in a straight line be- tween these two cities is about equal to the navigable length of the Yukon. The river is free from ice only three months during the year, and at the present time nearly forty steamers sail on its waters during the open season. Nome is the largest city of its age in the world. Until 1899, when gold was discovered in the sand on the beach, there were only a few Eskimo huts in the place. Before a 192 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES month had elapsed after the discovery, two thousand men were digging on the beach and were taking out, on the average, more than thirty thousand dollars per day. Before the end of the year the town contained between five thou- sand and six thousand people searching for gold with vary- ing results. Some " struck it rich," making thousands of dollars in a few days, while many others suffered miserably FIG. 71. MINERS AT LUNCH ON THE BEACH, CAPE NOME from cold, hunger, and disappointment. Every available steamer from Seattle was loaded to its fullest capacity, and many were unable to find passage or to pay the exorbitant fare charged for transportation. To-day Nome is a city of twelve thousand or fifteen thou- sand people. It is equipped with telegraphs, telephones, electric lights, hotels, stores, banks, and many other modern GOLD AND SILVER 193 conveniences, for, swiftly following the miner, have gone railroad builders, telegraph linemen and operators, capital- ists, surveyors, bankers, and teachers. The city will even- tually become the terminus of railroads which will bring it into close touch with the northwestern United States. At the present time the water trip from Seattle takes more than a week. The future of this mushroom city depends almost entirely on the amount of gold to be found in its vicinity. Around this metal centers all its interests. The supply on the beach is nearly exhausted, and miners are going farther and farther inland. Experts tell us that plenty of gold will be found in the deeper rock, and if this prove true, the future of Nome is assured. During the first years after the settlement of Dawson and Nome, life in these places was extremely primitive. The houses were mere shacks of rough boards, while some of the less fortunate people were obliged to get along as best they could in tents. The sleeping bag lined with fur was indispensable, as blankets and quilts were unknown luxuries. Food was very simple and required little prepa- ration. It consisted chiefly of canned beans, bacon, and beef, supplemented by coffee without cream or sugar. News from the outside world was slow in reaching these northern cities, and when, in the course of a month or six weeks, the mail arrived, a great holiday was held, while let- ters and papers from home were read over and over again. But you are wondering what all these miners from the Klondike and Nome did with their bags and boxes of pre- cious gold dust. In July, 1898, the United States government established an assay office in Seattle. You have noticed in reading 194 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES these pages how often the government steps in and helps any new enterprise. In an assay office the officials receive the metal, determine its value, give the depositor a receipt for it, or its value in money, and finally send it in the form of bars to the mints to be coined. When the assay office in Seattle was opened, its doors were besieged all day by miners from the Klondike, each with his bag or box of precious dust representing months of suffering and hard labor in the past and years of ease and comfort in the future. In three months more than five million dollars was received at the Seattle office from the homeward bound miners ; and this did not include all of the gold mined in the Klondike, for some was still stored in the North and some was taken to assay offices situated elsewhere. In 1867, when we purchased Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000, it was thought to be a bleak Arctic country, " of more square miles than square meals," and of little use except for the fish and furs which it might yield. The money derived from these have paid for it many times over, to say nothing of the millions of dollars yielded by the gold discoveries. And, bleak and frigid though it is, it is possible, in the more favored portions, to raise the hardier grams and vegetables twelve hundred miles nearer the north pole than on the eastern border of our continent. With its great wealth of fish and furs and its rich mineral deposits, including copper and coal as well as gold, Alaska will become one of the most important portions of our country. President Roosevelt said of it, when addressing an audi- ence at Seattle, Washington : GOLD AND SILVER 195 The men of my age who are in this great audience will not be old men before they see one of the greatest and most populous states of the Union in Alaska. ... I predict that Alaska within the next century will support as large a population as does the Scandinavian peninsula of Europe, the people of which by their brains and ener- gies have left their mark on the face of Europe. I predict that you will see Alaska, with her enormous resources of mineral wealth, her fisheries, and her possibilities which almost exceed belief, produce as hardy and vigorous a race as any part of America. The excitement of the great rush to the Klondike and to Cape Nome in 1897 and 1898 brings vividly to our minds the different conditions under which the hardy pioneers found their way to the Pacific coast in 1849, when the cry of the discovery of gold in California was raised. The Klondike prospector suffered from cold and hunger, and the California miner from heat and thirst in crossing the then unknown deserts of the West. Death Valley, in south- ern California, takes its name from the fact that a whole party of emigrants perished miserably in this desolate re- gion while on their way to the gold fields. Some avoided the dangers of desert, and mountains, and Indian attack by a trip across the isthmus, or by a long, stormy voyage around Cape Horn. But through hardships and perils the travelers struggled on, cheered by the news of lucky finds and by songs and refrains like the following, which were sung by the enthusiastic pioneers : Ho, boys, ho ! To California go ! There 's plenty of gold, so we are told On the banks of the Sacramento ! The fact that California was rich in gold was discovered quite by accident. A sawmill had been built on one of the branches of the upper Sacramento, and the water in the 196 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES raceway washed loose some grains of yellow metal which proved upon examination to be pure gold. When the news that gold had been found in California reached the outside world, more excitement was aroused than at any previous discovery, and the effects were in proportion. Two and one half centuries had been necessary to open up the eastern half of our country, but in one year after the discovery of gold in California the western half was crossed by thou- sands. So many men left the Eastern states that wages became higher in consequence, immigration from Europe increased rapidly, prices rose, and business of all kinds was stimulated. Commerce across the Pacific soon began, and a few years later Commodore Perry opened the ports of Japan to the world. The development of California and other parts of the West brought across the Pacific large numbers of Chinese, who found many kinds of employment. They worked not only in the mines, but as house servants and as field hands on the farms which were soon cultivated ; for many of the emigrants found that more wealth was to be gained from the fertile soil than from the mines, and large numbers who came intending to be miners remained as farmers. The pick, the pan, the rocker, and later the " Long Tom " and the sluice followed each other in quick succession, as half a century later in Alaska and Canada. To all of the devices by which gold is obtained from the soil by the use of water,. the name "placer mining" is given. The early de- vices were simple, as for example the washing of the gravel in the pan. To-day more complicated and expensive ma- chinery is used, and the industry is carried on on a larger scale by a method known as hydraulic mining. Sometimes GOLD AND SILVER 197 gold is found many feet under ground in old river beds which formerly lay upon the surface. To remove the over- lying earth a tremendous force of water is needed. By the hydraulic process a powerful stream is directed against the bank or hill which overlies the gold. This washes clown the rock and soil into an inclined trough or sluice, where FIG. 72. PLACER MINING, IDAHO CITY the gravel is mixed with water. The sluices are paved or furnished with riffles to catch the gold, and mercury is also used in large quantities for the same purpose. The force with which the water used in this hydraulic process is hurled against the hillside or bank is something tremendous. The pipe which conveys it starts from a higher level and grows smaller at the lower end. The nozzle of s 198 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES the pipe is oftentimes nine inches in diameter, and the water escapes from this smaller opening with such force that a man struck by it might be instantly killed. Some one has spoken of this powerful stream as " an elongated con- tinuous cannon ball.*' Sometimes the water has to be brought in flumes or canals for many miles, in which case capital is necessary to make the costly preparation. The Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and their branches drain the gold-bearing region of California, and their swift currents from the steep slopes of the Sierras have furnished much of the water needed for hydraulic mining. Whole rivers have been diverted from their bed:- in order to work the gravel which underlies them. Where hydraulic mining has been conducted on a large scale, fer- tile farm lands have been covered with sand and gravel. One river has had one hundred million cubic .yards of gravel washed from its banks into its bed, raising it seventy feet; in this river valley fifteen .thousand acres of fertile farm lands have been buried under loose soil. Laws have finally been passed in the state to protect more effectually the property of the farmers, and the hy- draulic method is no longer used on so large a scale. All the gold mined in our own and in other countries is not found in sand and gravel. It is also buried hundivds and even thousands of feet deep in the hard quartz veins in the rock. Some of the gold in California and most of that in the Rocky Mountains is found in these quartz seams. Deep mining, or quartz mining as it is called, is much more expensive than placer mining, for large sums of money are necessary to get into the depths of the earth where the gold is, and to free it from the rock after it is mined. A GOLD AND SILVER 199 shaft is sunk and at its foot tunnels are laid out, which follow the veins containing the gold, much the same as in coal mines. Most of the gold mines in California and in other states are now of this kind. After the gold is taken from the mine, it must be sepa- rated from the rock a much harder process than simply washing it free, as in placer mining. The ore comes to the surface in lumps of gray rock varying in size from pieces FIG. 73. GOLD KING MINE as large as one's fist to those larger than a peck measure. The larger pieces are broken by machinery into smaller bits before being run between crushers which grind the ore to gravel. This is pounded into a fine gray powder by the stamps, great bars of steel which fall upon the crushed ore with terrific force and a tremendous noise. In some stamp mills the workmen have to stuff their ears with cotton to prevent the din from making them deaf. In the smelter the powdered ore goes through several complicated proc- esses, one of the most important of which is the mixing 200 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES with mercury. The ore is carried by water over tables cov- ered with mercury. This collects the gold and allows the sand to flow on. All the gold, however, is not saved by this process, and, in order to make the separation more com- plete, the refuse is usually treated with chemicals by a method known as the cyanide process. The pure metal obtained is melted and run into molds, and in this form it is known as bullion. There is probably much mineral wealth in the Great Western Highland still undiscovered and unworked, al- though the richest deposits, the bonanzas, the El Dorados, by means of which a man can become rich in a night, have prob- ably all been found. There is much public land in the West which belongs to the government of the United States. Prospectors are always hunting in these areas, not only for gold but for silver and copper, hoping for a rich find which shall belong wholly to them after paying the small sum which the government demands Avhen any one "stakes a claim." How is it that gold is found on or near the surface in the loose sands or gravels of the river beds, and also is thousands of feet deep in veins of quartz ? Originally all the gold which is now found free, that is, in sand or gravel, was deep in the earth in veins or beds in the hard rock. But by upheaval or by slow wrinkling of the earth's crust, the gold-bearing strata have been exposed to the rains and the frosts, the brooks and the rivers, and these and other agents have been at work for thousands of years breaking up and wearing away the solid rock. When it has been worn and broken into sufficiently small pieces, the rivers have been the carrying agents, sometimes transporting the GOLD AND SILVER 201 rock and the gold which it contains for thousands of miles from the place where it was originally deposited. And this is why all placer mining is carried on in or near river beds. Miners soon learned to look in the deeper rocks, of which the river gravel is the wash, for the source of the golden sands. Our own country is not the only one in which gold is deposited, for it is found in some amount in every country in the world. Before the discovery of gold in Alaska, Aus- tralia ranked first in the amount mined, and that country has the honor of producing the largest gold nugget ever found. It weighed several hundred pounds and was of suf- ficient value to make its possessor a rich man, for it was worth many hundred thousand dollars. To-day, however, the United States stands first in its output of gold, fol- lowed by Australia, while next in importance is South Africa. This English colony owes much of its importance to these mines and to its diamond fields. Fourth in rank comes our northern neighbor, Canada, raised to this place by the deposits of the Klondike region. The Russian Em- pire comes next, her supply of gold, like her other mineral wealth, coming largely from her Asiatic possessions. All together, the countries of the world produce annually more than three hundred million dollars' worth of gold, a sum sufficient to pay our president's salary for six thousand years. But the whole great sum is not large enough to pay for all the wheat or the corn raised in our country in a year ; for gold and silver are not the most valuable things in the world, though many people seem to think so. There is little value in gold itself, only as it has the power to purchase necessary or desirable things. One might starve 202 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES with a pocket full of gold. A story is told of some miners returning from the gold fields, each with his bag of yellow dust, which meant freedom from work, and riches for the rest of his days. But in a severe storm, as the vessel was going down, each miner tore his bag from his belt, and cast it from him, knowing that gold, which is almost twenty times heavier than water, would cause him to sink imme- diately. Of all on board no one was drowned except an ignorant servant who secreted in his clothing as many as possible of the discarded bags. Government statistics show that Colorado holds first rank in the United States as a gold producer, her annual output amounting to nearly thirty million dollars, or one third of all that mined in the whole United States. Cripple Creek, Leadville, and Denver owe their growth largely to the rich deposits of gold and silver in their vicinity. California ranks second to-day, but her total output since gold was first dis- covered there far exceeds that of any other state. It is said that the amount of gold mined in the United States since the discovery up to 1848 was twelve million dollars. In the five years following California produced more than twenty times that amount. Third in rank comes Alaska, raised to that place by the recent discoveries there. Then follow South Dakota, Mon- tana, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, and Oregon. Indeed there is no state in all our Great Western Highland where gold is not mined to some extent. Gold and silver in untold riches in the West, and coal and iron in the East. Black, dirty coal and brown, rusty iron ! They seem hardly to be compared with the glitter- ing gold mid shining silver, yet their value in practical GOLD AND SILVER 203 From Stereograph. Copyright, Underwood & Underwood, N.Y. FIG. 74. A MINING TOWN, GEORGETOWN, COLORADO uses is far above that of the so-called precious metals. What would run our furnaces, propel our engines, warm our houses, furnish locomotives to draw the cars of ore, and machinery for the gold and silver mines themselves, were it not for the rich deposits of coal and iron scattered through 204 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES the eastern portion of our country ! We could do without gold and silver, even though its lack might inconvenience us, much more easily than we could give up coal and iron. It seems queer, with all the mineral wealth buried deep in the earth, that gold is the only yellow metal. Probably its attractive color is one of the qualities for which it has always been valued so highly. We know that all nations, ancient and modern, have usually looked upon gold as valu- able and desirable. We find it buried with Egyptian kings, and, though four thousand years have passed since the orna- ments found in the tombs were worn by living monarchs, the gold is as fresh and pure as if taken yesterday from a Klondike stream or from the sands of Nome. It was to ob- tain the gold and other riches of India that Columbus set out upon his voyage and discovered instead a new world ! For jewelry, ornamentation, statues, even for medicine, gold is used, for it yields itself readily to many forms. It is soft and easily hammered, easily drawn out into thread or worked into other shapes. The hammering of gold is an interesting process. It is so malleable that it can be beaten into sheets so thin that it would take more than two hun- dred thousand of them laid one upon another to make an inch in thickness. It is then several hundred times thinner than the paper upon which this is printed. But the chief value of gold is as a medium of exchange, or money, and in this way it has been used from earliest times. Gold is so soft that it is necessary, in the manu- facture of coins, to mix it with some harder metal, in order that they may be more durable. The other metals used are called alloys. Silver and copper are used in the making of our gold coins, nine parts pure metal to one part alloy. GOLD AND SILVER 205 Silver alone would give a lighter color, so copper also is used to preserve the tone. When we became free from England, we did not wish to use her pounds, shillings, and pence, but preferred to have a coinage system of our own, and soon after the Revolution- ary War we began supplying our own money. This was made in the mint which was established in Philadelphia and which for some years was the only one in the country. To-day there are mints in three other cities, New Orleans, Denver, and San Francisco. The San Francisco mint is the largest in the world. It is an interesting sight to see, in these mints, the cru- cibles of melted gold, and then the long yellow ribbons into which it is rolled, ribbons several feet in length but of just the right thickness to be made into coin. These long rolls are cut into blank coins which are tested to see if they are of the proper weight. This is done in a room where a number of women are seated at long tables, each with a file and weighing machine before her. If the coin proves to be too light, it is remelted ; if too heavy, it is filed down to the required weight. The gold dust which accumulates from this and other processes is carefully saved, for in the course of a year it amounts to hundreds of dollars. The edges of the coins are next rolled as we find them, and the faces are stamped with the proper die, after which they are stored, ready for use, in the vaults of the mint. SILVER Silver is usually found in connection with the other min- erals. To-day the largest part of the world's supply conies from mines not worked for silver alone although there are 206 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES such mines but from those in which gold, copper, or lead is the most important mineral, the silver being only a by- product. The largest silver producer in the United States at present is probably the Amalgamated Copper Company, which owns half the mines in Butte, Montana. Silver is used for much the same purposes as gold, and is subjected to similar treatment to extract it from the ores. While most gold is found on the western slope of the Si- erras, the most silver is found on the eastern side, in Nevada. The output of this state has been largely increased by the recent discovery of rich deposits. The center of the silver district is around Virginia City, six thousand feet high on the slopes of the mountains. Rich veins are found also in Colorado near Leadville. One might say that Leadville is a city built on silver, for the silver-bearing ore is not only all around it but beneath it as well. Although there may be more silver in Nevada than in Colorado, more is mined in the latter state. One reason for this is that in Colorado the veins containing silver run more nearly horizontal, while in Nevada they tip toward the vertical and are therefore necessarily deeper. This makes the mining not only more expensive but more diffi- cult, for the heat is so great in the lower levels of the mine that it is very hard to work there, and some rich mines have had to be abandoned on this account. You have probably heard of the Comstock Lode in Ne- vada, at one time the richest silver mine in the world. It was owned by a man called " Pancake Comstock," because, before his wonderful discovery, when he was only a poor prospector, he lived chiefly on pancakes. 'Flic Comstock Lode was one of the first to make Nevada famous. It GOLD AND SILVER 207 yielded two parts of gold to three parts silver, and since its discovery more than three hundred fifty million dollars' worth has been taken out of it. It contains one hundred ninety miles of shafts and galleries, many of which are not worked to-day on account of the heat or the thin veins of ore. Colorado is the banner state in the production of silver as well as of gold, mining each year eight million dollars' worth. Montana rank* second and Utah third. Mexico and the United States supply the most of the world's silver, each producing annually about thirty million dollars' worth. Most of the smelting of ore for Mexico, and for Canada as well, is done in the United States. TOPICS FOR STUDY 1. Introduction. 2. A trip to the Klondike. 3. Mining in the Klondike. 4. Cape Nome gold fields. 5. Seattle assay office. 6. Wealth and future of Alaska. 7. Gold in California. 8. Effects of the discovery. 9. Hydraulic mining. 10. Deep or quartz mining. 11. Gold in other countries. 12. Rank of different states in the United States. 13. Comparisons of gold and silver, and coal and iron 14. History of gold, 15. Uses of gold, 16. Money. 17. Silver. 208 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES II 1. On a map of North America, trace a route from Boston to Dawson City, Canada. Name the railroads and the waters on which you would go. Make a list of all states passed through, and interest- ing or important cities visited. On the map of Alaska, locate all places spoken of in that country. 2. Make a list of and locate the five largest rivers of North America. 3. Why can grains be raised in Alaska twelve hundred miles nearer the pole than on the east coast of North America? (See Chapter IV.) 4. On an outline map, locate all cities of the United States spoken of in this chapter. Color the gold-producing states yellow, and those yielding silver, gray. 5. Write the autobiography of a gold coin. 6. Find in your textbook what fish and furs are found in Alaska. 7. In connection with what other industry have you read of South Africa? Ill Be able to spell and pronounce the following names. Locate each place and tell what was said about it in this and in previous chapters. Dyea Inlet White Pass Lake Bennett Cape Nome Death Valley Isthmus of Panama Cape Horn Sierra Nevada Moun- tains Rocky Mountains Appalachian Moun- tains Australia Alaska Canada Russia Japan France South Africa Siberia Egypt India Mexico Arizona Oregon Nevada Idaho Yukon River Sacramento River San Joaquin River Missouri River Klondike River California Colorado South Dakota Montana Utah Washington Virginia Seattle Skagway Dawson New York Nome Boston Salt Lake City Cripple Creek Leadville Denver Philadelphia San Francisco New Orleans Virginia City CHAPTER XIV THE CATTLE AND BEEF INDUSTRY Would you like to visit the greatest cattle ranch in the world? Then let us go to Texas, the most fitting state because of its size to contain this wonderful ranch. On the great plains in that part of Texas which, from its shape, is known as the "Panhandle," three or four thousand feet above the sea, we shall find the Farwell Ranch. It is hard to imagine a farm larger than a whole state, but this one, with an area of five thousand square miles, is larger than Connecticut. It is now being divided into smaller sections and sold, but originally it was two hundred miles long and twenty-five miles wide, shut in and divided by more than fifteen hundred miles of wire fencing, enough if stretched out in a straight line to reach halfway across the United States. Two towns are situated within the boundaries of the ranch, and telephone connections from .them extend to its farthest boundaries. The upper wire of the fence serves as a telephone wire. This is raised on posts at the gateways, so that teams and high loads can pass underneath. The hundred thousand cattle which live on this farm are cared for by one hundred and fifty cowboys. This seems a small number to look after so many cattle, but a few men can care for a large number of animals. Think how many cattle we must raise to supply enough beef to feed the eighty million inhabitants of the United 209 210 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES States and to export more than all other countries put together. There must be millions of cattle raised each year, and acres upon acres of grassy plains for them to feed on. The United States leads the world in the production of all live stock except sheep. This could not be true, did we not have our fertile farmlands of juicy corn and our great plains of nourishing grass. These plains lie chiefly east of FIG. 75. CATTLE RANCH ON THE CIMARRON the Rocky Mountains, stretching from Texas through Da- kota and into Canada, covering an area of more than four hundred and fifty million acres. If all this great area of land upon which the cattle feed were to be divided among the people of the whole country, each man, woman, and child would have a farm of about six acres, quite enough for a large lawn and a vegetable garden, with land still left to pasture a cow; for if till the cattle of the country CATTLE AND BEEF INDUSTRY 211 were to be equally distributed, nearly every person in the United States might own one. On the Western grazing area, as you know, little rain falls, and the coarse grass, though nourishing, is so thin that each animal requires a great deal of land in order to get sufficient food. It is said that ranchmen allow twenty to twenty-five acres to each animal, if it is to find its food winter and summer in the coarse grass. Twenty acres to each animal ! Then for one thousand cattle and many ranches have more than this number a ranch owner would need the use of twenty thousand acres. Many towns are no larger. You see that the area, the number of cattle, everything on these ranches, is on a large scale. Formerly nearly all of this vast region was unf enced and open to the herds to wander upon at will, finding their food, winter and summer, on the open range. Now the public land is becoming less each year, for new areas are opened to settlement as irrigation makes it possible to raise good crops. Much land has been worn out, that is, too 1 many cattle have lived upon it, and have nearly destroyed the grass by close feeding and hard trampling. Many ranches, particularly in the southern states, are now in-, closed by fences, which shut in also the only available water supply for miles around, so that the open range which is left is practically useless except to the one who controls the water. In the open country the cattle feed on the lower plains during the winter, but as the hot weather comes they wander higher on the slopes of the mountains, where they find not only more food but trees to shelter them from the hot sun. When the cowboys round them up in the fall, 212 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES they are found many miles from their home ranch. In the winter they can wander even farther, for it is not so nec- essary for them to remain near their water supply, as they can quench their thirst by eating snow, and at the time of the spring round-up they are sometimes one hundred miles from home. Twice a year all the cattle of the region are gathered together in one place. This is called the round-up. It is perhaps the hardest as well as the most interesting work of the cowboy, and is done chiefly for two reasons. The ani- mals suited for beef must be separated from the rest and shipped to market. This is usually done in the fall, as the cattle are in better condition then than they are after the long, hard winter. In the spring round-up the calves are branded with the owner's name or mark. This is the busiest time of the year for the cowboys, and great prep- aration is made for it. Wagons furnished with camping outfit and provisions are driven to the gathering place. All the herders of the region unite for the event, for where the animals roam on the open, unfenced ranges, and wander many miles away from the ranches, the cattle of many owners are mixed in the various herds. The cowboys are awakened in the morning at what seems to us a very early hour. They eat their breakfast of bacon, beans, and coffee, feed their ponies, and by four o'clock or a little later are in the saddle ready for a long, hard day's work. They divide into small groups, and ride away toward all points of the compass over the broad plains, where for miles no cow or steer can be seen. When they are beyond where the cattle are feeding, they begin to drive them in from all sides toward the camping ground. CATTLE AND BEEF INDUSTRY 213 As the herds of cattle come nearer and nearer together, the dust is raised in clouds. The bellowing of the cows, the shouts of the cowboys, and the racing of the ponies make a scene of great excitement. When the cattle are massed together, the work of cutting out the calves for branding begins. For this work the cow- boys are very particular which ponies they choose. Each Fie THE ROUND-UP rider has brought several with him, and the intelligence of the horse counts for almost as much as that of the cowboy himself. A mother and an unbranded calf are selected from the midst of the herd, and the pony, by urging and pushing and jostling, drives them to the edge of the herd or rather the mother is driven and the calf follows. When they reach the open, the wild dash for liberty which is usually made by 214 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES the calf is suddenly checked. Seizing just the right mo- ment, the cowboy, with a skillful hand, throws his lasso around the hind legs of the animal. The knowing horse braces himself for the shock, and, when the rope tightens, Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 77. BRANDING THE CALVES A busy day on the Paloduro Ranch, Texas the calf is suddenly thrown to the ground. Irons have been heating and the brander presses the hot iron on the side or flank of the frightened calf. Of course the branding is painful, but it takes hardly a minute, and it seems to be CATTLE AND BEEF INDUSTRY 215 the only way by which the cattle can be marked so that each owner can always tell his own. Sometimes cattle are marked with the initials of the owner's name. Signs that cannot be easily changed are often used instead of initials. Cattle thieves have acquired large herds without buying them, by simply changing a brand. For instance, a man whose cattle were marked with his initials, V. O., began to find that his herds were decreasing in numbers. A dishonest neighbor had added a line to the V, and with the extra letter, A, had changed the brand to his own initials, N. O. A. A circle brand, O, could be easily changed, as you see, by the addition of straight lines, ,0. Because of this dishonesty, the brands have become more complicated than they were originally, as the more lines they contain the less easily they can be changed. In some states the laws concerning brands are very strict. In Denver, Colorado, a record is kept of all those used in the state. No one can be like another, and each cattle owner must register his brand as soon as selected. If he purchases cattle already marked, he must add his brand to that which the cattle already bear. The spring round-up sometimes lasts for weeks. After it is over, the cattle of the different ranches are driven to their summer feeding grounds on the nearer ranges. As the season advances and the dry, hot weather comes, they wander farther and farther for food and water. When the time comes for the fall round-up, when the animals fit for market are selected, the herds are scattered for miles over the plains and on the slopes of the mountains. The life of the cowboys is monotonous and lonesome. It is a healthful one, however, as most of the time is spent in 216 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES the open air. They must watch stray cattle, look out for the young calves, and in cold winter storms drive the herd to sheltered places. The winter work is hard and dangerous. They spend long days in the saddle in all kinds of weather, exposed to severe cold and terrible blizzards, when they are in danger of losing their way and their lives as well. There are many enemies of the cattle which the cowboy must guard against. Wolves sometimes attack the herd, and the little prairie dogs often cause much trouble. They destroy the grass over large areas, and so prevent the cattle from find- ing food. Their holes also are often a source of danger, for cattle sometimes break their legs in them. Rattlesnakes often make their homes there, and many cattle are bitten by them. As in the case of the sheep, there are poisonous grasses on which cattle may feed, and the cowboy must see that they avoid the places where these grow. There are also many diseases which attack the cattle and which must be guarded against. In the early years of ranching, the cattle suffered much during the winter. If the season was severe, there was great loss to the owners, for it sometimes happened that one half of the stock perished from cold and starvation. After the hard, exhausting winter, the cattle which sur- vived were thin and poor, and unfit for market, and the loss by death was often sufficient to eat up all the profits. To-day, however, there are few ranches where provision is not made for winter food. Alfalfa is raised and stacked in the field to be used during the cold months. This grass has done much to influence farmers to settle in those por- tions of the West which receive little rainfall. There is no other grass fit for hay which can be grown so successfully CATTLE AND BEEF INDUSTRY 217 in dry regions. Its roots are very long, and in their efforts to find moisture often reach twenty or thirty feet. Alfalfa will grow almost anywhere from sea level .to heights of several thousand feet. It does not exhaust the soil, and more than double an ordinary hay crop is often realized from a field of it. Though it has been raised in our country Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 78. COWBOYS' CAMP ON A TEXAS CATTLE RANCH for rather less than half a century, it is now cultivated in every stock-raising state. The farmer in the rich corn belt has a great advantage over the ranchman in the more arid region, for the farmer raises the corn which he can use to fatten his cattle and hogs. If corn is high and meat cheap, it is sometimes more profitable for him to sell his corn and let his cattle get along as best they can without it, or wait another year 218 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES before fattening them for market. Great numbers of cattle from the Southern states are sent north to be fattened on Kansas corn, though many Southern farmers are to-day fattening their stock on cottonseed meal. Because of the difference in climate, the ranches in the northern grazing area are not conducted in just the same way as those in the southern. The winter is too severe in the central and northern areas for the raising of young calves, so this is done mostly on the Southern ranches. After a year or two on a Southern ranch, the steers are sent north to feed, and, being strong and well grown, they get through the hard winter in good condition. Herds of cattle were formerly driven on foot to the northern feeding grounds and to market, but they are now carried by rail. Special cattle cars are used, in which only a limited number are carried, and at many points men inspect the cars to see that the animals are transported in a humane manner. Short-horned or dehorned animals are taking the place of the long-horned variety, which was formerly raised on the ranches, and there is therefore much less danger from injury on the long trip east. Food and water must be supplied regularly, and many of the cars are fitted with troughs for this purpose. If the journey is a very long one, the cattle must be unloaded on the way, and the exercise thus gained rests their tired muscles, which have stiffened from remaining so long in a cramped position. In the hot season as many as possible of the trains move in the night. This makes it much more com- fortable for the living freight, and at the same time pre- vents interference with passenger traffic. Many hundreds of these cattle trains come From the smaller Western towns, CATTLE AND BEEF INDUSTRY 219 and deliver their tired, stiffened, bewildered load in the stockyards of Kansas City, Omaha, St. Lonis, St. Joseph, Sioux City, and at Chicago. Do you suppose cattle ever think ? If so, what must be their thoughts when they first arrive at the stockyards in Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 79. SHIPPING BEEF TO THE CHICAGO MARKET, MONTANA Chicago, the greatest cattle and beef center of the whole world ? More than one hundred and fifty thousand cattle, sheep, and hogs live here for a day, and then are changed into beef, mutton, or pork, and so give place to others, which enjoy the comforts of the animal city for the same 220 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES brief time. The streets are long and straight, and one might wander in them for twenty-five or thirty miles ; the pens on either side are well built, some with roofs, some open, and all provided with food and water troughs. Fifty miles of food troughs ! It is hard to believe, but it is really true. The stockyards are honeycombed with railroads, and every twenty-four hours, chiefly in the night or early morn- ing, many trains roll in, to -the very doors of the pens, and unload their thousands of living freight. During the day hundreds of trains depart for the East, loaded with beef or live stock. After the cattle are unloaded in the stockyards, they are allowed to eat, drink, and rest a few hours. Soon, however, they are taken from their pens for their last jour- ney. The crack of the whip, the cries of the drovers, the bellowing of cattle, the bleating of sheep, the squealing of hogs, the buyers and sellers rushing excitedly back and forth, make up a scene of indescribable confusion. After the sale, the weighing and other matters are attended to, and the cattle are taken in charge by the buyers, and are driven off to the various slaughterhouses in the yards. By the end of the day few of the squealing, bellowing, bleat- ing crowd are left to welcome newcomers from the plains. The slaughtering of the animals has been reduced to a science, and it is quickly and painlessly done at a rate which seems almost beyond belief. Some firms slaughter four thousand cattle a day, an average of eight or more a minute. This is quicker than you could slice steak for your dinner, or peel the potatoes to eat with it. In about half an hour the body of the animal, cleaned, skinned, and ready for quartering, is in the cold-storage room, where it remains CATTLE AND BEEF INDUSTRY 221 for forty-eight hours. Then the quartering is done, and the fresh beef is loaded on refrigerator cars ready to be shipped to various parts of our country or to Europe. Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 80. BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE UNION STOCKYARDS, CHICAGO There are many noted packing houses, some of which do business on an immense scale. The largest ones have estab- lishments in several of the shipping centers, and employ thousands of men in each city. One company, for instance, employs six thousand hands in Chicago alone, and has plants in Omaha, Kansas City, and other places. The 222 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES buildings used by these packing firms are immense ; those of one company occupy nearly one hundred acres, and one could tramp several miles in the various passages. We wonder sometimes what becomes of the quantities of meat which are prepared in these packing houses and daily sent Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 81. COOLING ROOM IN A LARGE CHICAGO PACKING HOUSE away from Chicago and other great packing centers, but you must remember that we are the greatest meat-eating people in the world, and that every person in the United States consumes on the average one hundred and fifty pounds a year. This is much more than is eaten by any CATTLE AND BEEF INDUSTRY 223 other people, some of the nations of Europe, for instance, consuming less than thirty pounds a year to a person. More than three million tons of beef are produced annually in our country, and though this seems an immense quantity, yet it is only one third of all the beef which the world eats. In the Chicago stockyards alone there are one hundred firms doing business, and many packing companies are located in other great cities. We export each year, chiefly to England, France, and Germany, one hundred million pounds of beef. This would be enough to last one person more than one hundred and twenty-five thousand years if he ate two pounds of meat a day. It would be sufficient to supply all the people of Chicago with one pound every day for three months. Great quantities of beef are sent away in other forms than these large, fresh quarters, for there are canned meats of various kinds, corned beef, beef extracts, and the mince- meat which is sold in large quantities for mince pies. The making of beef extract is an interesting process, and much care is exercised to have it pure and wholesome. Many women are employed in this department of the pack- ing houses, sealing cans and putting on labels and wrappers. They work very rapidly, and their fingers must fly indeed, for one girl is able to label and wrap nearly three thousand cans a day. The large establishments have their own plants for making cans, labels, and much of the other material necessary in their work. After the meat is disposed of, the rest of the body of the animal is used for many purposes. Indeed we may truth- fully say that to-day nothing is wasted. Some one has said that after passing through the packing establishment 224 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES nothing is left of the pig but his squeal. And after seeing the many things which are made from the different parts of the bodies of the cattle, one would certainly think that nothing could be left but the bellow. Butterine and oleo- margarine are made from the fat ; buttons from the bones and blood ; combs from the horns and hoofs ; glue from the sinews, bones, and hide trimmings; and other useful articles from the parts of the animal which were formerly thought of no use. Twelve million pounds of glue were turned out in " Packingtown " in one year, besides vast quantities of other manufactures. Leather is made from the hides and is used chiefly in the making of boots and shoes, an industry of great im- portance in the United States. Cowhide is used chiefly for the soles of shoes and for the making of patent leather. The largest tanneries are in Milwaukee, though some are found in many other cities and towns. Not all the skins used in this country are native. We import many goat- skins from South America and India, and colt- and calf- skins from Russia. But our great cattle and sheep ranches have made it possible for the United States to lead in shoe manufacture. We make more than two hundred and fifty million dollars' worth of boots and shoes each year, Massa- chusetts contributing nearly one half of this amount. Brockton is the largest shoe-manufacturing city in the world, followed by Lynn, which in former years held first place. Recently the largest shoe factory in existence has been erected in Lynn, the output of which is estimated at fifty thousand pairs a day. Haverhill, Massachusetts, and St. Louis, Missouri, are very important "shoe cities." A great cattle industry is carried on in South America CATTLE AND BEEF INDUSTRY 225 on the plains through which the La Plata River and its branches flow. Here is America's great future rival. Here we might ride for hundreds of miles and see only herds of cattle, immense flocks of sheep, and droves of wild horses. The horses are valued chiefly for their hides and hair, and it is interesting to know that the hide is as valuable with- out the animal inside as with it. The duties of the gaucho, as the cowboy is called in South America, are much the same as in the United States, for the round-up and branding are carried on in a similar manner. The climate is somewhat warmer than in our great West, and all through the year the cattle find plenty of food on the Pampas, so that no special food provision for the winter needs to be made. After the marketable steers are " cut out " at the round- up, they are sent to Buenos Aires, the largest city in South America, where they are prepared for market in much the same way as they are in Chicago or in any great packing center in the United States. Before 1880, cattle were valued chiefly for the hides and tallow, but now great quantities of beef are sent from Buenos Aires to England, France, and Germany. By tracing the voyage on the map you will see what a long, hot trip it must be, for the vessel must cross the equatorial regions on its journey north. But the meat is frozen and packed in refrigerator ships, and so reaches Europe in good condition. You have probably tasted some extract of beef, or have seen different brands advertised in papers and magazines. The great works where one variety is prepared are situated in a town called Fray Bentos, in Uruguay. If you look on a map of South America, you will find this town near the 226 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES La Plata River, and therefore in the great cattle region, for the Pampas include much of Uruguay, as well as Argentina and Paraguay. In this establishment, or saladero, as slaugh- tering houses are called in the musical Spanish language, six thousand men are employed, and a thousand animals are killed every day. Some of the European countries produce more beef than Argentina, but they contain so many people that it is all consumed at home, and more has to be imported. On ac- count of her scanty population, Argentina is able to export more beef than any other country except the United States. We have not yet spoken of the dairy products, the milk, butter, and cheese, for dairying is carried on chiefly in a different section of the United States, and in a very different manner, from the cattle industry in the West. Most of the dairy farms are farther east than the cattle ranches. The best land for them is in the fertile region near the Mississippi River, toward the northern part of the United States. From here the dairying area stretches east- ward through Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, through the three northern Middle Atlantic States, and through New England, Vermont being especially noted for her product. In recent years the industry has made a great advance west of the Mississippi River in the Dakotas, Kan- sas, Missouri, and in the Pacific States. Perhaps you have never thought of dairying as an important occupation, but you may think differently when you know that our dairy products are worth more than our wheat crop. In every state of our country some cattle are raised for dairy products, but nowhere else to the same extent, as in CATTLE AND BEEF INDUSTRY 227 the areas named. In the Mississippi Valley quantities of corn and alfalfa are grown, arid make excellent food for cows which give rich milk and yellow butter. Those which wander on the great plains of the West can thrive on the coarse brown grass, but their milk is thin and blue, and the butter made from it is of a poor quality. The cattle which Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 82. MILKING Cows, BRIARCLIFF FARMS, NEAR NEW YORK CITY make the best beef are not those which produce the most or the richest milk. Shorthorns, Heref ords, and several other breeds are well suited for the production of beef, while for dairy purposes the gentle Jersey, the black and white Holstein, the belted Dutch, and the red and white Ayrshire are in greatest favor. 228 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES As you ate your breakfast this morning, did you think how many million pounds of butter must be made in order that every boy and girl may be able to eat it on bread? We make annually nearly one billion five hundred million pounds. This is enough to give every inhabitant of the Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 83. CHURNING BUTTER WITH OLD-FASHIONED DASHER CHURN EAST AURORA, NEW YORK United States nearly twenty pounds a year, and most of it is really eaten in this country, for we cannot spare much to be exported. Have you seen pictures of an old-fashioned New England kitchen, where the housewife is standing beside the churn CATTLE AND BEEF INDUSTRY 229 moving the handle up and down to "make the butter come " ? At the present time, most of our butter is made in large creameries, though in some towns you may still find the old-fashioned churning by hand carried on. Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 84. THE GREAT CHURN WHICH CHURNS EIGHT HUNDRED POUNDS OF BUTTER AT A TIME, EAST AURORA, NEW YORK A creamery receives great quantities of milk, which is poured into a machine called a separator. This is made to revolve at a high rate of speed, and the cream, being lighter than the milk, comes to the top and flows out through a tube, while the skimmed milk comes out through another 230 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES tube below. The cream is churned so as to collect the fat globules of which the butter is composed. This solid por- tion is then kneaded, either by hand or by machinery, to re- move all the liquid possible. It is then salted and packed. Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 85. THE SEPARATOR AT WORK. BRIARCLJ^F FARMS, NEAR NEW YORK CITY There are more than three thousand cheese factories in the United States, which every year manufacture more than three hundred million pounds of cheese. A small amount is made by hand on the farms, but nearly all our product is made by machinery in the factories. Cheese is the curd CATTLE AND BEEF INDUSTRY 231 which forms when milk sours. In the factories the souring is hastened by the addition of rennet. The whey or liquid portion is drawn off, and the curd is cooked, drained, salted, and pressed. It is then cured in a cool ro'om. The process called ripening takes place in the curing room, determining the particular flavor of the cheese. Though we produce annually enough cheese to give about four pounds to each person in the United States, we import from Switzerland and other European countries several million pounds more. Our country is not yet so famous for dairy products as Holland, Switzerland, and Denmark. Their butter and particularly their cheese are considered much better than ours. Denmark exports more butter than any other country in the world. Milk is such a nourishing food that we find it used in many countries, though it is not always obtained from the same kind of animal. The Laplander has his reindeer, the Arab his camel, the people of India their buffaloes, and mountain peoples their different varieties of sheep and goats. TOPICS FOR STUDY I 1. Journey to Texas. 2. Description of the Farwell Ranch. 3. Area of cattle ranching. 4. The round-up. 5. Branding. 6. Ranch life. 7. Shipping to market. 8. The packing houses. 9. Cattle products. 10. The industry in other countries. 11. Dairying. 232 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES II 1. Reread Chapter IV and tell the cause of the lack of rain in the grazing area. 2. Color a map showing arid, semi-arid, and humid areas. 3. Color a map showing the grazing area. Make a list of all states wholly or partly included in this area. Locate cities connected with the cattle industry. Find the railroads over which cattle are shipped to these cities from the ranches. Name the railroads by which beef is distributed. 4. Describe a route from Chicago to London. From Buenos Aires to London. Of what other products, besides meat, have you read which might be shipped over these routes? 5. Make a collection of labels from canned-meat preparations. Learn the names of some of the important packing companies and the cities where the meat was prepared. 6. In an outline or hectographed map, locate the " shoe cities." Trace the railroads by which the raw material may be taken to Mil- waukee for tanning, and thence carried to cities for manufacturing into shoes. 7. In connection with what industries has South America been mentioned in this book ? In what two industries may Argentina rival us in the future ? Trace a route from Buenos Aires to Liverpool. Ill Be able to spell and pronounce the following names. Locate each place and tell what was said about it in this and in previous chapters. Texas England New York Dakota France Denver Colorado Germany Austin Kansas Holland Kansas City Iowa Switzerland Omaha Wisconsin Lapland St. Louis Minnesota Arabia St. Joseph Illinois India Sioux City Nebraska Argentina Buenos Aires Ohio The Pampas New York Paraguay Mississippi River New England Uruguay La Plata River Canada Chicago CHAPTER XV THE SHEEP AND WOOL INDUSTRY Have you ever thought, as you put on your heavy winter coat, or pulled the warm blankets around you, of the animal that yields the wool of which they are made, or of the work which is necessary to change the wool into cloth ? Great quantities of fiber are needed for cloth, blankets, carpets, and other articles, and millions of sheep must be raised to furnish it, for one animal yields only from five to ten pounds at a shearing. It has taken many years of careful tending, feeding, and breeding to change the thin, coarse-haired sheep which roamed over the mountains of central Asia into the heavy, long-wooled sheep of to-day. The wild sheep of Asia were covered with short, fine wool which kept them warm, and also with a growth of long, coarse hair which served for a raincoat. Sheep were domesticated in very early times, for we read in the Bible that story, with its tragic ending, which tells of Joseph being sent on the long journey to his brethren as they tended their flocks at Shechem. On this lonely walk he wore his " coat of many colors," which was probably made of wool, for this material was used by ancient peoples long before cotton was known, or before the flax fiber was spun into linen. As civilization spread, these Asiatic sheep were intro- duced into the Mediterranean countries. On the high, dry 233 234 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES plateaus of Spain they fared well, and with care and breed- ing gradually developed into the famous Merino sheep, which produce the finest wool for manufacturing purposes. The early explorers brought with them to America the animals which had been useful to them in their European homes, and the sheep, which gave them food and clothing, would not of course be left behind. From the animals which Columbus on his second voyage brought to America the first great flocks of the Southwest were probably de- scended. The English settlers also brought sheep with them from the farms at home, that they might not lack warm, serviceable garments in their hard pioneer life. Many of the sheep raised in the early colonial days lived a comfortable life, for they were tended and petted by the quaint little Puritan children. The sheep on the ranches of our great Western plains, and those on the smaller farms east of the Mississippi River, live a very different life. On these farms at least a thousand are usually kept, while on the great ranches farther west it is not uncommon to find from twenty-five to fifty thousand owned by one man. Can you imagine what a sight this must be, to see all these thousands of sheep crowded together into one flock ? On a great sheep ranch it is customary to divide the animals into flocks of one or two. thousand or even more, and to send them off to feed under the care of a herder. One man with a dog, without which a sheep herder is of little value, can easily care for two thousand or more. If he is on horseback, the number may be increased to five or six thousand. The herder makes his camp near some stream of water or a lake, or sometimes by a well. Here he stays at night with his flock. During the day he drives THE SHEEP AND WOOL INDUSTRY 235 them off on the plains to feed. When the grass is all eaten in that vicinity, he moves his camp to some other place where water may be found. In the summer the herder and the flock wander higher and higher on the mountains, but with the approach of autumn Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 86. SHEEP GRAZING ON THE PLAINS they come down to the plains again. During the winter they stay near the ranch, where in many cases a rough shelter for the animals and some food, usually alfalfa, are furnished. " In the early days of ranching, when no provision was made for the long, cold winter, vast numbers of sheep 236 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES perished, and the only return the owner realized from them was from the sale of the skins. To-day it is considered more economical, as well as more kind, to see that they do not suffer so much during the cold weather. Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 87. THE LONE MONTANA SHEPHERD AND HIS BEST FRIEND If the herders are to take the sheep many miles away, and stay for a long time, a camp wagon is sometimes provided. This is built with a high canvas top and is packed full of things by the use of which the herder can make himself comfortable. There is a stove in one end where he can cook his food, which consists largely of canned goods, THE SHEEP AND WOOL INDUSTRY 237 varied occasionally by a tender lamb from his flock. There is also a folding shelf wJiich can be let down and used for a bed, and in this narrow bunk, warmly wrapped in his blankets, a herder can lie safely through a severe storm, for the wagon is so wide that even the strongest winds do not tip it over. The herder's hardest work comes in the spring, when the lambs are born, for they are feeble and need much care. A severe storm coming at this time is very unfortunate, for the little lambs, cold, wet, and helpless, die by hun- dreds. Some ranches provide a " lambing van." This is a large wagon which is driven from herd to herd, gathering up the lambs and taking them to the ranch, where they are cared for and given food and shelter. The herder has many other duties beside those of which we have spoken. A sheep or a lamb makes a dainty meal for the mountain lion or the wolf, and such intruders must be guarded against, especially at night. The coyote, or prairie wolf, is both wise and sly, and knows well that he must keep out of reach of the herder's rifle and out of sight of the dog. But if a single sheep wanders off by itself, it is pretty sure to become the prey of the coyote. At night on the lonely plain, his howling cry is often heard in the still air, and bonfires, lanterns, flags, rockets, and other means are used -to keep him away from the sheep. Another duty of the herder is to keep a close watch for poisonous grasses, and, if these are found, to drive the sheep to some other feeding ground. Certain diseases also must be guarded against, and an eye kept on the water supply, which must be unfailing. Rattlesnakes kill many sheep, particularly just after shearing. When the heavy wool is 011, the poison rarely 238 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES penetrates the skin. There is perhaps more danger from these reptiles to the herder himself than to his flock. If bitten while off on the range, far from any habitation, he may die from ibhe effects of the poison before help can be obtained. Either the shepherd dog or the herder must keep careful watch of the sheep at night, for they are nervous, timid FIG. 88. COYOTES animals, and a sudden noise may cause a stampede. In that case the coyotes of the vicinity are sure of a good breakfast of fresh lamb or mutton. For days at a time the herder is alone, and sees and hears no one but his dog and the sheep. He receives good pay, however, and unless this money is spent in drink and gam- bling on his infrequent visits to town, he can soon save enough to start a farm of his own. His dog is the shepherd's most faithful friend. He tends the flock, rounds them up THE SHEEP AND WOOL INDUSTRY 239 when straying, watches them at night, and guards against the fierce mountain lion which would attack them. With- out the shepherd dog it would be impossible to carry on sheep raising on the large scale that is common in the West. These dogs are often finely trained by their masters, and obey not only their voices and spoken directions, but in some cases even signals given by the hands or arms. The large sheep ranches in the United States and Canada are on the great plains east of the Rocky Mountains and in the valleys between the ranges, in much the same area as the cattle-grazing grounds. Many sheep are also raised on the smaller farms east of the Mississippi River. Ohio ranks second as a wool-producing state. Montana is first, for more than six million sheep are raised within her boundaries. Six million sheep ! An immense number. If they could be gathered into one great flock and made to pass in front of you, one by one, while you counted steadily day after day at the rate of one sheep per second, from six o'clock in the morning till six at night, you would not finish counting all the sheep in Montana for nearly five months. More than fifty million sheep and lambs are raised in our whole country, and they must all be cared for and herded, for they do not wander at will on the great plains as the cattle are sometimes allowed to do. Formerly the sheep grazed over many miles of public land and found plenty of food, but as these lands are being taken up by settlers or leased to cattlemen, the movements of the flock are more restricted. They are often fed on the home ranch, though their life is still spent partly on the open range. There has been much conflict and hard feeling between the cattle and sheep owners, for cattle will not feed well on 240 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES land occupied by sheep. Sheep eat the grass very close to the roots, so that other animals cannot find sufficient nour- ishment there. They also leave a peculiar odor which cattle do not like. The trampling of the ground by their hard Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 89. " BAA ! BAA ! BAA ! " THREE THOUSAND SHEEP ASTRAY ON A MOUNTAIN RANGE hoofs and the close cropping of the grass prevent it from growing again for a long time. It is no wonder, therefore, that the cattlemen have fought hard and long to keep sheep off the ranges formerly devoted to cattle only. THE SHEEP AND WOOL INDUSTRY 241 Men have learned that there is great profit in sheep rais- ing, for the animal not only gives his owner several coats of wool, but yields him an additional income from the carcass which is finally sold as mutton. So the sheep owner has encroached more and more upon the area for- merly devoted to cattle, until to-day vast stretches of land are occupied by flocks of sheep where formerly cattle roamed. In the chapter on the cattle industry, you remember, it was stated that the same kinds of animals are not raised for beef as for dairy purposes, for the flesh of a cow which gives rich milk does not make the best meat. A similar thing is true in regard to sheep. Those that yield the most or the finest wool are not those which, when slaughtered, make the best mutton. The Merino sheep has the finest wool in the world, while the Southdowns, which yield wool of an inferior grade, are the best for food. Sheep owners are trying to breed an animal equally valuable for mutton and for wool, and both are being constantly im- proved by their efforts. The shearing was done formerly on the ranch, but now the sheep are often driven to some other place near the railroad station, as it is thought cheaper to drive the sheep than to pay for moving the wool. Except in some of the more southerly states, sheep are usually sheared but once a year, in late spring or early summer. June is considered the best month, as the wool is then in good condition, and there is less danger of the animal taking cold after losing his warm, heavy coat, though much care has to be exercised to prevent this. From the windows of the car in which I was traveling through the West, there could be seen, over the plain, 242 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES skeletons of thousands of sheep. They had perished in a long, cold rainstorm which had unfortunately come just after they had been sheared. Shearing used to be done by hand, with peculiar shears made for the purpose. It was slow, hard work, though not painful to the animal, for a sheep was very seldom cut by a skillful shearer. But hand work in almost any industry is considered too slow for these busy times, and machines are fast taking the place of fingers. So in the sheep in- dustry a machine has been invented to do the shearing. The shears are fastened to a rod which is moved by power. The sheep come in, one by one, through a narrow alley, and in a few minutes the poor, bewildered animal is released, shorn of his woolly coat, which lies heaped in a pile on the ground. Before going off to feed again on the range, the sheep are made to swim through a trough containing a cleansing, wholesome bath. It is not very agreeable, but is necessary to check or cure certain skin diseases to which they are subject. Though the bath is sometimes taken at other times of the year, it does more good if given just after shear- ing for then the liquid can more easily penetrate the skin. The wool is packed into bags or bales holding from three hundred to one thousand pounds apiece. Much of this is sent to the East for manufacturing. More than half of all the woolen cloth made in the United States is woven in New England. Consequently great quantities of wool are sent to Boston for distribution. Boston ranks next to London as a wool market. From what you have studied about cotton manufacturing you can easily select some of the cities where wool is made THE SHEEP AND WOOL INDUSTRY 243 into cloth. Lawrence and Lowell in Massachusetts, Provi- dence in Rhode Island, Manchester in New Hampshire, and New York City are all especially noted, but Philadelphia leads them all. Most of the wool produced in the United States is of a medium grade. We import some of excellent quality, from Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 90. SHEEP PENS, MONTANA which we manufacture our finest cloths, and also much which is coarse and heavy, to use in. making carpets. Between three and four hundred million dollars' worth of woolen cloth is made in the United States every year, and although this se^ms a tremendous amount, yet England manufactures a still greater quantity. We do not compete 244 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES with other countries in the manufacture of very fine cloth, but our heavier goods, flannels and blankets, are unsur- passed. Ours is the greatest carpet-manufacturing country in the world, making a greater quantity and a larger vari- ety than any other nation. The carpets made by hand in some of the Eastern countries, Turkey, Persia, or India, are more beautiful in color and texture than anything that can be made by machinery. But next to the Oriental rugs come those of American manufacture. Philadelphia, and Yonkers, New York, are particularly interested in- this branch of manufacture. Many different kinds of goods are made in the great woolen mills. Chief among them is cloth for men's suits and ladies' coats and dresses. Think of all the different kinds of woolen cloth which are made up into such wearing apparel, and you will have some idea of the great variety which is manufactured. Then there are the carpet mills, the yarn mills, and those which make all kinds of felting for floor and table coverings, linings, hats, and many other purposes. In the making of felt, the wool is wet and heated in order to mat it closely together. Great quantities of it were formerly used for felt hats, but of late years this use of wool has declined, because the finer felt hats of to-day are made of the fur of the rabbit, raccoon, and other animals. When the fiber arrives at the factory, it is packed as it came from the sheep, good, medium, and poor wool all mixed in the same bale. The first thing to be done is to pick it over and sort it, putting the different qualities in different piles. Then, as it is all very dirty, it is washed <>r scoured, as this process is called in the mill. So much THE SHEEP AND WOOL INDUSTRY 245 dirt and foreign matter are mixed with the wool that when it has passed through the various cleansing solutions it has lost about one half of its weight. After drying upon frames of wire netting, it is carded by a machine which lays the fibers straight and even. Passing through other processes, it is soon ready for spinning. Won- derful machines twist the fiber into long threads, which are then twisted with other threads, until the .desired number and strength are obtained. It is interesting to unravel a piece of yarn and find the fibers of which it is composed. After spinning, the yarn or thread is wound on huge spools and on bobbins, or done up in large skeins. In these forms it is shipped to the woolen and worsted mills. There it is dyed and made ready for weaving, which is similar to the weaving of cotton. After the cloth is woven come the washing, the steam- ing, the shrinking, the pressing, the measuring, the folding, and finally the packing in neat papers such as you see in the stores. The cloth is ready to start on its journey to the wholesale dealer, then to the retail dealer, and then perhaps to your mother, who goes to the store to purchase a suit of clothes or material for a winter dress. Our great woolen mills need so much material that we use not only all of the three hundred million pounds obtained from sheep raised in the United States, but we have to import half as much more from other countries. Australia, Argentina, and China all send us wool, which we get largely by way of London, for that city, you remember, is the largest wool market in the world- Have you any idea how many yards of cloth can be manufactured from such a great quantity of wool ? If we 246 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES estimate half a pound of wool to a square yard of cloth, we shall have a heavier material than most of us wear; some of the boys' clothes would take more, and most of the girls' dresses less, so perhaps half a pound is a fair estimate. Then of our four hundred and fifty million pounds of wool, were it all manufactured into cloth of this weight, we could make nine hundred million yards. How many miles of cloth does this equal ? You will hardly believe it when I tell you that it is enough to extend more than twenty times around the earth. There are other products besides wool, which come from the sheep. To learn about these we must leave the factories, interesting though they are, and visit the Chicago stock- yards, or those of some other packing center. The flesh of the sheep is worth about one half as much as the wool. The animals are usually sold for slaughtering in the summer after shearing is over. They have borne for their owner four or five coats of wool, and now their flesh will become mutton, their bones be made into fertilizer, the tallow into candles, and the skins of the intestines into cases for sausages, or strings for musical instruments. We have not mentioned a very important part of the sheep, the skin. This is made into leather and used principally in the manufacture of boots and shoes, in which the United States holds first rank. The largest sheepskin tanneries in the world are situated in Peabody, Massachusetts. When we talk about the great industries in our own country, we are apt to think that they are carried on to a greater extent here than anywhere, else. This is sometimes true, but not so in the case of sheep raising, for more are raised in the far-away island of Australia than in any other THE SHEEP AND WOOL INDUSTRY 247 place in the world. Some of the finest wool comes from the sheep which graze on the dry plateau lands of the Island Continent. The climate is very healthful there, and the winters are so mild that the animals find plenty of nourish- ing food on the open plain all the year round. All these things combine to give New South Wales, which is the division of Australia most noted for sheep raising, first rank as a wool exporter. The greatest enemy of the sheep owner in Australia is the rabbit. It seems queer to call such a harmless little animal an enemy of anything. But there are millions of them there, and they eat all the grass in large areas of the country, so that the poor sheep find little food. Sheep owners have built miles of fence to keep the rabbits out of their grazing lands. Other islands near Australia are also engaged in sheep raising. In New Zealand it is the chief industry, and one third as many sheep are raised in that one island as in our own country, though it is only one thirtieth its size Millions of sheep also roam with the horses and cattle on the grassy plains of Argentina, where they are tended by a herder and his dog much the same as in the United States. The climate is not severe enough to make winter feeding by the ranchmen necessary, and the food found on the plains is nourishing and abundant, so the sheep industry is very successful there. Still we are astonished at learning that Argentina exports annually four hundred and fifty million pounds of wool, as much as we use in the same time in all our factories. Most of the Argentina wool is sent to Europe, where it is made into cloth, a part of which is sent back to South 248 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES America. Jt seems odd that the wool must be sent on such a long journey to be manufactured. How much better it will be for the South American people when they have their own mills and factories. In former years the flesh of the sheep in South America, like that of their cattle, was considered of little value ; but now the meat from two hundred thousand sheep is exported every month. What a tremendous amount ! No wonder that Buenos Aires, the city from which most of it is shipped, has the largest frozen-meat plant in the world. The mutton as well as the beef must be frozen and packed in refrig- erator ships for the long ocean trip, so that it may be- received in good condition. Most of the European countries raise many sheep, Russia more than all the rest ; but all the wool which is produced, and much more besides, is needed for the clothing of the people at home, so that little or none is exported. The great mutton and wool exporting countries are those which have vast unpopulated areas where the sheep may roam. Chief among these are Australia, Argentina, and South Africa. In South Africa the industry is important and fur- nishes work for many people, for there is found the dry, healthful climate and the salty food which the sheep like so much. Most of the wool from South Africa is sent to England for use in her great factories. Two of her largest, most important colonies, South Africa and Australia, are noted for the amount and the excellent quality of the wool they produce, and both send immense quantities to the mother country. But we must not think that all woolen cloth is made from the covering of the sheep; that of other animals is THE SHEEP AND WOOL INDUSTRY 249 also used, though in much smaller quantities. The wool from which cashmere dresses and shawls are made comes from an animal whose coat has furnished material for cloth since very early times. The Cashmere goat lives in the principality of Cashmere, in India ; hence its name. It is Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 91. ALPACAS IN PERU, SOUTH AMERICA found also in Tibet. Cloth made entirely of the wool of this goat is very expensive. Most of that which we call cashmere cloth is a combination of wool and cotton. The alpaca, another kind of goat which lives on the Andes Mountains in South America, yields material from 250 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES which a cloth of the same name is made. A comparatively new cloth is mohair. This is made from the covering of the Angora goats, which are raised in great numbers in South Africa. Other countries are attempting, with some Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 92. SHEARING CAMELS IN EGYPT success, to raise this goat, but at present it is chiefly found in South Africa. Even the gaunt, ungainly camel is used to help furnish us with yet another kind of dress goods. Camel's-hair cloth is easily distinguished by the long hairs left scattered over the surface. This cloth is, however, rare, most of the THE SHEEP AND WOOL INDUSTRY 251 so-called camel's-hair cloth being made from the hair of the cow and other animals. You notice in the picture that the shearing of the camels is done by hand. Modern machinery finds its way but slowly into Eastern countries, and most work is still done in the same way that it was hundreds of years ago. TOPICS FOR STUDY I 1. History. 2. Introduction of sheep into the United States. 3. Sheep herding. 4. Area of sheep raising in the United States. 5. Number of sheep raised in the United States. 6. Conflict between cattle and sheep owners. 7. Kinds of sheep raised. 8. Sheep shearing. 9. Woolen manufacturing. 10. Slaughtering and packing. 11. Other uses of sheep. 12. Sheep raising in other countries. II 1. Compare the cities and countries spoken of in this chapter with those mentioned in the cattle industry. How many do you find men- tioned in both ? 2. Name four products of South Africa and four of Argentina. To what countries are they shipped ? 3. Name six products obtained from the sheep. 4. Tell the story of a piece of wool from the time it leaves the sheep until it is woven into cloth. 5. Add to your interesting collection of school maps by pasting on the proper country a picture of the animal from which wool is obtained there. 6. Read the description of the shearing in " Ramona," by Helen Hunt Jackson. 252 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES III Be able to spell and pronounce the following names. Locate each place and tell what was said about it in this and in any previous chapter. Asia Russia Lawrence Australia Mississippi River Lowell New Zealand Great Plains Providence Argentina Pampas Manchester South Africa Rocky Mountains New York India Andes Mountains Philadelphia Canada Ohio Chicago England Montana Buenos Aires France New England San Francisco Germany Boston CHAPTER XVI LUMBERING AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES Large forest areas are found in many parts of the United States, and three hundred thousand out of our whole popu- lation of eighty million people are engaged in the lumber industry. As the forests of Wisconsin are yielding to-day large quantities of lumber, let us see what life in the woods there is like. The foreman of a lumber camp, who is to have charge of the winter work, is usually busy in the late summer looking up his men, arranging for his teams, and laying in provisions. Taking with him some of the men he has engaged, he starts in the early fall for that part of the forest where the felling is to be done. As they leave the beaten track, the " tote-road " has to be made. This is a rough way opened through the woods by the felling of trees, and through this passage the teams find their way to the spot where the camp is to be located. All the horses and wagons soon make their appearance, bringing a variety of goods. There are provisions of many kinds, as well as tools for the workmen, mattresses, blankets, stoves, and perhaps lumber for the camp, if they are to build other than a temporary one. If it is only for the winter, it will probably be made of rough logs cut down near the spot. After the men and provisions arrive, of course the first thing to be done is to get the camp in readiness. To pro- vide a winter home for fifty or sixty men and many horses 253 254 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES means a great deal of work. A comfortable barn for the hard-working animals must be built, with a blacksmith's shop near at hand. The horses will need to be kept well shod, in order that they may pull the heavy loads over the icy ground. There are chains to be mended, tools to be FIG. 93. THE LUMBERMEN'S CAMP sharpened, and so many things to be done that the black- smith is usually one of the busiest men in the place. More important than all, perhaps, is the men's camp, a long building with a huge stove in the center and double tiers of bunks around the sides. In the old days these bnuks were filled with boughs or straw, but now thin mattresses are usually provided. We might not like them as well as those to which we are accustomed, but the mm, after a LUMBERING AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 255 long day's work in the cold, frosty air, find their beds warm and comfortable, and sleep well. The cook's camp is very important, and the cook, like the blacksmith, is one of the hardest-worked men in the camp. The workmen make long days in the woods, and the toot of the horn calling them to meals is a welcome FIG. 94. FELLING WITH AXES sound. The food is hearty and nourishing ; potatoes, pork, beans, canned vegetables, mince pie, soup, and tea make up the usual bill of fare, but there has to be an immense quantity of each prepared to satisfy the appetites of the hungry woodsmen. The evenings are short, for the men are tired with their day's work and go to bed early. Stories, games, songs, with occasionally a rough dance, if one of the men is fortunate enough to possess a fiddle, fill the 256 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES time between supper and bed. The men are called in the early morning and after a hearty breakfast start for the woods. They usually work in pairs, using, not axes as in the olden days, but crosscut saws. These are several feet long, with handles at each end. The men stand on either side of the tree, and each alternately pulls the saw toward FIG. 95. FELLING FIR TREES IN OREGON him. By means of wedges put into the cut, the tree can be made to fall in any desired direction. So expert do these men become that they can determine within a very few inches exactly where the tree will come crashing down. While some of the men are thus engaged, others find plenty of work of a different kind. Some are assigned to the task of making the " log-road." This is the path over LUMBERING AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 257 which the logs are to be drawn to the river or railroacL Great pains are taken to make it as smooth as possible, in order that very heavy loads may be drawn over it. The trees and stumps are first cleared away, after which the road is sometimes plowed, scraped, and shoveled to make it even. Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 96. A HOLIDAY AMONG THE FALLEN MONARCHS It is usually made lower than the ground on either side, in- stead of higher, as our ordinary roads are. This is done in order that there may be no opportunity for the loads to slue. After the first snowfall, the road is rolled hard and smooth, and sometimes a sprinkling cart is run over it to give it a 258 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES coating of ice. On such a road a team of four horses can haul many tons. Another piece of work that has to be attended to in the fall before freezing weather comes is the clearing of the river down which the logs are to be floated in the spring. All stumps, snags, and everything else which might obstruct the way must be removed in order to make the work of driving the logs as easy as possible for the rivermen. FIG. 97. SLEDDING Now that the camp is finished, the river cleared, and the road to it built, let us go into the forest where the men are at work. After the trees are felled and the limbs cut off, the trunks are sawed into logs of the desired length. This varies from ten to one hundred feet, depending somewhat, of course, on the height of the tree, though the average length is less than thirty feet. The logs must then be taken from the spot where they lie, to the log-road, where they LUMBERING AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 259 are piled upon the " skidway." This consists of two large logs, several feet apart, fastened at right angles to the road. Here they remain until they are loaded upon sleds to be drawn to the river. The different skidways are piled high with logs before the teaming begins, for this is usually postponed until the ground is covered with snow. FIG. 98. A BIG LOAD Loading is an art in itself. It is no easy task to make the load as heavy as the horses can draw, and yet have every log stay securely in its place until the strong chains can be fastened around them. If a log should slip, it might mean the breaking of a man's leg or back, or even his death if he should be caught under it, so the men who do this work need to become very skillful. The picture shows how 260 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES many logs can be drawn at one time over these roads, and the skill of the men who load them. In early days lumber was considered comparatively worthless unless it was near some stream. At the present time it is often necessary to go a long way into the woods after it, so far indeed that in some regions railroads are FIG. 99. THE LOG PILE built to carry the logs to the mills instead of using rivers at all. In Wisconsin there are many streams penetrating the forest region, the most important of which are the Chippewa, Black, and Wisconsin rivers. These and their branches furnish waterways down which each year many thousand logs are floated to the mills. LUMBERING AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 261 We have followed the loaded sled through the icy road in the woods to the river. There we find great numbers of logs resting on its surface, waiting for the warm weather to break up the ice. When the stream is open, the river drivers will start the logs on their voyage down the Yellow River into the Chippewa, and down this into the Mississippi and to the city of Winona, which, like most places along the upper Mississippi, is noted for its lumber products. FIG. 100. A LOG JAM The journey of the logs down the river is often exciting, for some of them are sure to get caught on stump, rock, or snag, and the others pile up higher and higher until the whole river is obstructed. This means hard work for the river drivers, for a " jam," as they call it, is one of the things they most dread. It is dangerous work climbing out on the slippery logs to loosen the " key log," which is the one that has caused all the trouble. If it gives way sud- denly, the driver has to jump for his life out of the way 262 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES of the moving mass. It is often weeks before the drivers arrive at their destination. During this time they live on a house boat or raft which usually accompanies the logs. The cook is as important a character here as he is in the lumber camp, for the men are cold and wet and hungry, and long for some appetizing food and a few minutes' rest and warmth. FIG. 101. THE RIVER HOUSE Many different companies use the same river. Each log is marked with the name or sign of the owner, but all float down together until they come to the end of the voyage, where the booms are located. A boom is a water yard with a log fence. Lines of logs are fastened together end to end, and are stretched out into the river to form a sort of inclos- ure. Here the logs are separated and each one is driven into the boom where it belongs. LUMBERING AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 263 The logs pass from the boom to the sawmill, where the scream of the swiftly flying saws is deafening. If some staid old Puritan could visit a modern sawmill, he would surely think that we had in these days witches more power- ful than any of the olden times. For it seems nothing less than miraculous to see log after log snatched up from the water, fastened upon a table, and quickly sliced up. The FIG. 102. THE BOOM pieces are as quickly carried off to be made into boards of various sizes and kinds, shingles or laths. In the modern mills all this is done by the aid of saws and other machin- ery without the touch of the human hand. Such wonder- ful saws as there are, and so many kinds ! Circular saws as large as your dining-room table, gang saws all moving to- gether, and band saws which fly so fast that they look like a plain, straight piece of steel, all whizzing and screaming 264 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES for more. No wonder that forests are fast disappearing, when men are hustling to feed the thirty thousand greedy sawmills of the United States, in which thousands of logs are changed each day into material for houses, furniture, boats, carriages, and many other things. It is said that more than for,ty square miles of forest land are cut off every year to supply this great demand. How different our lives would be if there were no forests to supply our many needs. As we look at chair, desk, table, picture frames, pencils, boxes, penholders, churches, school houses, wooden tools, and wagons, and think of all the many ways in which wood serves us, we begin to realize something of the importance of our forests. The value of the lumber cut in the United States each year is equal to that of all the iron, gold, and silver mined here in the same time. It is such an immense quantity that from it we could make a pile a mile long and a mile wide and higher than a five-story building. If it were possible to construct a sidewalk to the moon, the lumber cut in our country in one year would be sufficient to make, out of plank two inches thick, a walk five feet wide, with plenty of material for the supporting crosspieces. But you are asking, Where in this country of ours do trees grow large enough and in sufficient number to yield this enormous quantity? Of course, trees, and many of them, grow in every state, but if we wish to visit the great lumber districts we must go to one of five regions. The oldest lumber area, that is, the one where lumber has been obtained for the greatest number of years, is in the northeastern part of the United States and includes the northern half of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. LUMBERING AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 265 It reaches westward into New York and northward into Canada, where lumbering is one of the most important in- dustries. Stretching eastward from the White Mountains through Maine is a forested region larger than the state of Massachusetts, Fifty years ago, from this New England area, one half of all the lumber used in the country was cut. Now it furnishes less than one seventh. The industry here is diminishing year by year, for as the lumber grows scarcer it cannot be prepared for market in large enough quantities to make it pay. This is the region of yesterday, and the lumber industry, like so many others, has moved westward and southward. You may infer from its name, the Pine Tree State, that the forests in Maine are made up largely of pine trees. More white pine than any other kind of wood is used in the United States for building purposes. So much has been taken from the forests of Maine, that not enough is left to induce men to carry on lumbering on a large scale. Many spruce trees are found here, however, and although it is a poor kind of timber for building purposes, it is very useful for making paper. Most of the paper manufactured to-day, except the finest grades, is made from wood pulp, chiefly spruce, instead of from rags, as was formerly the case. The pulp is shipped in great quantities from Maine to other states, but large paper mills have lately been erected near the forests themselves. One of the largest paper mills ever built is situated at Millinocket, where, but a few years ago, the songs of the birds and the whispering of the breeze in the tree tops were the only sounds to be heard. Now the buzz of machinery drowns all other sounds, and a busy town of three or four thousand inhabitants is engaged in 266 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES making paper. Nearly all the people are dependent on this one industry, and the great mill turns out daily one hun- dred and fifty tons of newspaper. At Rumford Falls is another concern which may develop into the world's greatest producer of book paper. Here also postal cards for the United States government have been FIG. 103. LUMBER AT PAPER MILL AT MILLINOCKET (Courtesy of the United States Department of Forestry) made at the rate of three million per day. A large paper- bag mill and an envelope factory, employing hundreds of hands, are near by. With all these paper factories and others like them using such enormous quantities of wood, it seems as if the spruce forests must soon disappear entirely, as indeed they have in many localities. But the proprietors of these mills, LUMBERING AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 267 who have spent millions of dollars in buildings and ma- chinery, are not so unwise as to use all the material which makes their business such a profitable one. Experts direct the men who fell the trees, and none are cut which are less than nine inches in diameter. By the time the smaller ones have reached this size, young trees have sprung up which in turn will replenish the forests, and so a continual growth is assured. Another region which is fast becoming one of yesterday is the one we have described in the vicinity of the Great Lakes, embracing the states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota. Here also the great pine forests are disappear- ing before the work of the woodsman. As this industry moves northward through these states, the lumbermen with their rough camps, buzzing saws, and ringing axes, are suc- ceeded by farmers, who settle upon the cleared land and earn a comfortable living by raising sugar beets, grain, pota- toes, and sleek, fat cows. Millions and millions of feet of pine timber have been taken from these lake states. Thousands of pioneers went out into the treeless plains to plant fields of wheat and corn, or to raise cattle, sheep, and hogs. What would they have done for lumber to build their houses and barns, and to make their furniture, if there had been no forests near? The opening up of Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, and other states would have been a much greater problem if the wealth of pine in the lake region had been lacking. No other forest area has been, perhaps, of so much value in the settling and developing of our country. It has served its chief purpose, however, and never again will such enor- mous quantities of lumber come from this area as in the 268 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES early nineties. The supremacy in this industry has passed to other fields ; and to visit the greatest lumber region of to-day we must go to the South, the land of the tall South- ern pine. All the way from the Carolinas to Texas are great for- ests of pine, of a different variety from that in the North and of a harder wood. More men find work in the forests and sawmills of this section than in any other lumber region of the country, with the result that from this great forest belt comes one third of all the lumber which is produced. In the South, logging is carried on all the year round. Lumbermen do not depend on rivers, but have built many hundreds of miles of railroad to carry the logs from the woods to the mill. At the mills, the logs are kept in water storehouses, reservoirs, or artificial ponds until they can be sawed, because in the water they are not so quickly attacked by bugs of various sorts'. The water also soaks out the sap and prevents discoloration of the wood. But years are required for the growth of a tree, and too many lumbermen care little for the future supply, if they can but line their pockets with money by to-day's toil. So these Southern forests are fast disappearing, and, if the fell- ing goes on at the present rate, very few of any great extent will be standing by the middle of the century. Of course lumbering will be carried on in this southern region, as well as in the other areas named, for many years to come, but it will be in a smaller way, and the output will not go far toward supplying the enormous amount which we use every year. Now let us go to the area of the future, which lies in the West, that wonderful West of ours, where everything is LUMBERING AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 269 conducted on such a large scale : where acres are counted in hundreds instead of tens, where cattle and sheep are owned by thousands instead of hundreds, and where trees grow that overtop all others in any country. In Oregon there is a greater area covered by forests than in any other Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 104. PLUMING LUMBER FROM THE MOUNTAINS IN OREGON state. In Washington and Oregon are the pines and firs, tall and straight as a church spire, light and strong, the best timber in the world for the masts of vessels. With all this wealth of wood, no wonder that some of the streets in Tacoma and other Western cities are paved 270 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES with this material. No wonder that hundreds of ships loaded with timber sail every year from Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco, to China, Japan, South America, the Philippines, and the Hawaiian Islands. No wonder that many rafts, containing from fifty thousand to one hundred thousand dollars' worth of lumber, and large enough to re- quire from seventy-five to one hundred tons of chains to hold the logs in place, are towed from the Columbia River to San Francisco. But to see the very largest and oldest trees in the whole world we must go to California. Trees are growing there, strong and vigorous, which were in their youth when the wise men from the East journeyed to Bethlehem to see the Christ-child. If Columbus, when he discovered the new world, could have penetrated to the depths of these forests, he would have found them in the prime of their life. Some of them can even look back to a birthday four thousand years ago and more. They have stood there, strong and silent in the sunlight and in the pale moonlight, while a hundred generations of men have been born, lived, and died ; while a hundred wars have been waged ; while kingdoms have risen and decayed. It fills us with awe and wonder to think of any living thing so old. Most of these giants are still perfect, showing no signs of decay. Some, which have fallen and lain for hundreds of years, are still as sound as when they first came crashing to the ground. There were probably once upon the earth many of these trees, but the only living representatives are found in California, chiefly in two groves. One of these, the Mariposa, is situated on the western slopes of the Coast Mountains, and the other, the Calaveras, which LUMBERING AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 271 contains the very largest trees, is located on the western side of the Sierras. In the Mariposa Grove are one hundred and twenty-five of the giants, besides many others which, anywhere else, we should call very large indeed. One of these trees would yield sufficient lumber to build a house. Some have bark two or three feet thick. A schoolroom could be built, or a dance held, upon a single stump. Many FIG. 105. THE TUNNEL TREE of the largest of these trees have been named for some noted person. The General Fremont received its name from the pioneer who, in the early forties, explored California and the surrounding country. Finding no better place, he used for his camp its hollow trunk. In visiting the Mari- posa Grove, thirty-one of us stood inside this tree at one time ; and it could have accommodated several others, without more crowding than one often finds on a street car. 272 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES California contains large areas covered with the redwood, to which these giant trees are related. Much timber, valu- able for its lasting qualities and its polish, is taken yearly from these forests. It is said that before the earthquake in San Francisco nine tenths of the city was built of redwood. Shingles made from it are excellent, and are sold all over the United States. All the trees of which we have spoken thus far are of soft wood, which, though good for houses, shingles, and low-priced wooden articles,* is not suitable for fine furniture and the things which require a high polish and excellent finish. So we must look for one other area in our country, the hard-wood region, where walnut, oak, cherry, chestnut, birch, beech, and other deciduous trees grow. These trees, which lose their leaves in winter, are usually of harder wood than the evergreens. The hard-wood varieties are found scattered through our country in many different places, but the region which has yielded the greatest quantity is in the vicinity of the Ohio valley. Though great areas have been cleared and given over to farming, there is still much lumber near the Ohio River, in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, West Virginia, and Ken- tucky. If you will find on the map the five lumber regions which have been described, you will notice the advantage which they all possess in being on or near great bodies of water. The New England area lies near the ocean, with the good harbors of our north Atlantic coast close at hand. The north central region has an increased value because of its location near that wonderful inland water route through the Great Lakes. The Pacific forests border the western UN1VER5MT OF 1f?a LUMBERING AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 273 ocean, while the Southern-pine region lies near the Gulf and the Atlantic ports. The hard-wood region is in the Ohio valley, where transportation is afforded by the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Besides these lumber regions in the United States there are other countries where we may find this industry carried on. You have probably read stories of the great, dark for- ests of Russia, and the danger to travelers from the wolves which live in them in great numbers. Most of the animals from which Russia obtains her valuable furs the wolf, fox, squirrel, sable, ermine, and marten live in these woods ; and the wisdom of the Russian government, in pre- serving her forests and in carrying on lumbering carefully, serves to protect the fur industry as well. Our northern neighbor, Canada, has a larger forest area than any other country and exports to the United States immense quantities of lumber and pulp. England also buys largely from this colony of hers. Having located the most important forest areas of the world, you can easily find some of the cities which are engaged in the shipping and manufacturing of lumber. Ban- gor is the largest lumber market in the eastern area of the United States. It is situated on the Penobscot River, just where the tide of the ocean and the current of the river meet. Here the tide checks the current so that it is difficult to float the logs much farther down the river. Consequently an immense lumber industry has grown up there. You will find many lumber markets on the Maine coast and on the Penobscot, Kennebec, and Androscoggin rivers, at Port- land, Bath, Augusta, Lewiston, Auburn, and other places. If you look for information about Maine in cyclopedia or 274 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES geography, you will notice how many of its cities are en- gaged in some form of the lumber industry. Some make fur- niture, some ships, some paper pulp, while in some the logs are simply changed into boards and shipped away in that form. In the Great Lake region there are many cities, especially in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, where sawmills are humming, and furniture, carriage, match, and other factories are busily engaged in making articles of everyday use. Chicago is the largest lumber market in the world, for it is very favorably situated for receiving and distribut- ing the product. Grand Rapids is surpassed only by Chicago in furniture manufactures. Detroit, another lake city, is noted for its manufactures of railway and street cars. You have doubtless often seen on the cars the name of some Detroit company. Could we take a trip down the Mississippi, we should find, in nearly every city of importance as far south as St. Louis, some manufacturing which has been made possible by the northern forests of pine. This is particularly true of cities located where there are falls in the river, or near the mouths of smaller streams, down which the logs can be easily floated. At Minneapolis the lumber industry is very important. The Falls of St. Anthony furnish the city with power, and the forests around supply the wood, so that the city has been able to send to Western settlers materials for homes, and tools to work with. In return, the wheat raised on the western plains has been sent eastward and made into flour, so that Minneapolis has rapidly grown into a great lumber and flour center. Going down the river, past Red Wing, Winona, Dubuque, Davenport, Quincy, and St. Louis, we should see rafts and LUMBERING AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 275 booms of lumber, sawmills, and factories turning out all sorts of wooden articles. You will notice that St. Louis is so situ- ated that it can receive by water pine from the lake region, hard wood from the Ohio valley, and yellow pine from the South. Street cars are made there in great numbers, the sales in one year amounting to fifteen million dollars. FIG. 106. PORT BLAKELY MILLS, THE LARGEST IN THE WORLD WASHINGTON We have said that one third of all our lumber product comes from the South, and we find there many cities manu- facturing and shipping this article. Pensacola and Mobile rank in this respect higher than all other Southern cities, each of them sending vessels laden with wood or manufac- tured wooden articles to more than one hundred ports in 276 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES our own country and Europe. Charleston, Savannah, New Orleans, and Jacksonville also ship great quantities. Fur- niture, doors, and blinds are made in large quantities in Macon, Montgomery, and Atlanta. As Washington and Oregon are so largely covered with forests, you would expect to find there much shipping and manufacturing of lumber. In Tacoma, Seattle, and Port- land these manufactures are of greater value than any other, and immense quantities of lumber in the rough as well as the finished products are shipped from these cities. More than eighty million dollars' worth of furniture is manufactured in the United States every year. One would think that this would be enough to furnish all the houses that might be built in a long time, but next year we shall need just as much more. The railroads are the largest con- sumers of hard wood, for they use great quantities for ties and cars. Some railway and telegraph companies have pur- chased large areas of land on which they have planted young trees, in order to be sure of a future supply of lumber for ties, cars, poles, and other equipments. As you look at the shoes which you have on, you may not think of any use of lumber connected with them ; yet the hard, stiff hides of which they are made were probably changed into soft leather by the use of an acid which comes from the bark of the hemlock tree. Some of the greatest tanneries of the United States are in Pennsylvania, where tliis tree grows in great abundance. An artificial extract, which may in the future take the place of the hemlock bark, is already used to some extent in tanning leather. Did you ever hear of "naval stores" -tar, pitch, resin, ami turpentine for which North and South Carolina and LUMBERING AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 277 Georgia are noted ? These also are a product of the forests. They are called naval stores because they are used so largely in shipyards. Tar is a dark-colored liquid obtained from the pines of these southern states. It is used for Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 107. CHIPPERS ON TURPENTINE FARM, GEORGIA coating and preserving wood which is exposed to the water, and also in medicines and in soap making. North Carolina is sometimes called the Turpentine State, because so much of that article is obtained from the sap of her pine trees. It is used largely in medicine and in the making of paints and varnishes. Resin is a by-product 278 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES obtained in the preparation of turpentine, and enters into the composition of sealing wax, varnish, cement, and soap. Pitch, which is obtained from tar, is useful in calking ves- sels, filling cracks and seams in the boards so that they Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 108. POURING TURPENTINE IN GEORGIA shall be water-tight. These naval stores were more impor- tant when only wooden vessels were made than they are now in the days of steel ships. The southern states furnish nine tenths of the world's supply. Savannah ships more from her harbor than any other city in the world. Some trees that do not grow in our country furnish LUMBERING AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES 279 products which we should find it very hard to do without. Chief among these is rubber, which is made from the sap of a tree which grows in great numbers in the Amazon valley in South America. Formerly the sap was obtained from the trees of the uncultivated forest, but now there are many plantations in both South America and Mexico where Copyright, Keystone View Co. FIG. 109. TWENTY THOUSAND RESIN BARRELS ON SAVANNAH WHARF GEORGIA the trees are set out and cared for. We buy one half of all the rubber which is produced in Brazil, for we make six times as many rubber boots and shoes as are made in all Europe. In the United States all classes of people, whether they are rich or poor, think rubbers are a necessity and buy great numbers of them, but in Europe few of the lower or 280 INDUSTRIAL STUDIES peasant classes can afford them. Besides being used for clothing, an immense quantity of rubber is made into tires and belting, for to-day rubber is being used largely on car- riages, automobiles, and bicycles. Another curious product, though not a sap, which comes from a South American tree, is that bitter medicine, quinine. It is obtained from the bark of the cinchona tree, which grows in the mountainous regions of Peru and Ecuador. Cork is another product obtained from the bark of a tree, the cork tree of Spain. As the duty on manufactured articles is usually greater than on raw materials, most of the cork is imported in the rough state and is made in this country into stoppers for bottles and into other articles. You have probably seen powdered cork, for grapes imported from Spain are often packed in it. The camphor tree of Japan yields a fragrant oil which we use in our homes and which enters into the manufacture of gunpowder. When Russia was at war with Japan, little cam- phor was exported from the latter country, as she needed it in the gunpowder which she was then making in immense quantities. Because of this, camphor became very expensive. The tree that is perhaps most useful to the most people in a variety of ways is the bamboo, which grows in China and Japan. One could build a house and furnish it almost entirely with articles made from this wood alone. It is used for the framework of houses, furniture, tools, boats, rafts, and many other things. It is not easy to think of any article which serves in so many ways as the bamboo does the Chinese and Japanese. Mahogany, ebony, and rosewood are all tropical woods and are valuable because they are so hard au