M S'li''- ! '-| lis book is DUF ^ 9 1925 ped below '^ ' ] 793? took is DUE on the i )elc MAR 1 o 2 7 19.. STATE Normal s<;hool. LOS ANGELES, CAU \ t.'^-'- ELEMENTARY ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY BY CHARLES REDWAY DRYER. F.G.S.A.. F.R^G.S. FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF CEOCJRAI'HY AND GEOLOGY, INDIANA STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. AUTHOR OK "LESSONS IN PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY" "HIGH SCHOOL GEOGRAPHY" AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY NEW YORK CINCINNATI CHICAGO N 2 '17 Copyright, 1916, by CHARLES REDWAY DRYER All rights reserzied ELEM. ECON. GKOG. E. P. I n PREFACE There is a growing demand from the schools for textbooks deahng with commerce and industry. The difficulties which lie in the way of presenting these subjects to 'immature pupils are many: 1. The facts to be presented are found largely in the form of tables of statistics which change from year to year. The mean- ing and trend of these changing figures must be seized and stated in the form of safe generalizations. 2. The facts and principles involved must be organized according to their physical relations, which are geographic, and their human relations, which are economic. 3. Clear and impressive pictures must be drawn of natural conditions and human occupations, as they exist in well-defined regions and among peoples of various degrees of culture. 4. The whole must be made sufificiently interesting to attract a large proportion of schoolboys and schoolgirls. In this book the facts and principles of industry and com- merce are organized upon a geographic basis. The limits im- plied in the term couuiicrcial geography are expanded into the broader and more significant conception of economic geography, or a study of the ways in w/iic/i different peoples in different {/^ regions get a living. Part I, Hitman Economies and their Natiwal Foicndations^ forms a general introduction to a science which takes a point of view not yet famiUar to the student. The meaning of economy and economic geography is illustrated by detailed stories about seven of the simpler peoples, whose natural environments differ as widely as possible. A plan is then outlined by which the 5 6 PRKI ACI': pupil may undertake a study of the economic geogra[)hy of his own community. While material for this is bcin<; collected outside the textbook, and largely outside the schoolroom, the natural foundations upon which all human economics are based and the general principles of economic geography may be learned from the text. An attempt to cover the whole world in an elementary book would result in a treatment meager, scrappy, and confusing. Therefore Part II is confined to the Economic Geography of the United States. In area, in extent and variety of resources, and in complexity of economic conditions, this country is equivalent to the whole of Europe. To treat it as one economic unit would seem almost as objectionable as to treat Europe as a unit. The United States is, therefore, divided into five natural economic regions, or groups of states, each having a marked individuality of its own, which can be compared and contrasted with the others. Frequent comparisons with other leading countries are used to give an outline of the economic geography of the world. Special pains have been taken to make the book sufficiently elementary for Grades 7 to 9, to make it as interesting as the subject matter permits, and to present a series of graphic pic- tures of economic life in many phases. With few exceptions, the latest authentic data have been used and arranged in tables convenient for comparison. The aim has been to make the burden of statistics as light as possible and to show the pupil what statistics mean. To this end the statements in the text are usually given in round numbers or in percentages of some standard quantity. Distributions are shown by numerous maps and graphs. Cities, regarded as the final and characteristic product of modern economic forces acting under geographic influences, are treated with unusual fullness. More than 100 pictures have been carefully selected to illustrate the text. It is hoped that this book, while meeting the usual demands for a commercial geography, may prove nothing less than geo- graphical and something more than commercial. CONTENTS PART I. HUMAN ECONOMIES AND THEIR NATURAL FOUNDATIONS CHAPTER ' PAGE I. Introduction. Economy 9 II. Economic Relations 13 III. The Studv of Home Economies 46 IV. The Natural Foundations of Human Economy . . 50 V. Plant Regions and Resources 55 VI. Mineral and Marine Resources 71 VII. Industry and Trade 80 VIII. Economies and Economic Societies 87 PART II. ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY OF THE UNITED STATES IX. Natural Economic Regions of the United States . 95 X. The Middle West: Agriculture 106 XI. The Middle West: Stock Raising 123 XII. The Middle West: Manufactures 132 XIII. The Middle West: Commerce and Transportation . 149 XIV. The Middle West: Cities 162 XV. The Eastern States 182 XVI. The Eastern States: Mineral and Forest Products . 190 XVII. The Eastern States: Manufactures .... 206 XVIII. The Eastern States: Commerce and Transportation 233 XIX. The Eastern States: Agriculture and Fisheries . 239 XX. The Eastern States: Cities 245 XXI. The Southern States 269 XXII. The Southern States: Agriculture .... 277 7 CONTENTS CHAPTER XXIII. The Southern States: Minerals, Forests, Manufac- tures. Commerce, and Cities ..... XXIV. The Interior States XXV. The Interior States: Herdinc; and Agriculture XXVI. The Interior States: Mininc; . . . . XXVII. The Interior States: Transportation and Cities . XXVIII. The Pacific States XXIX. The Pacific States: Collective and Productive Industries XXX. The Pacific States: Manufactures, Commerce, and Cities XXXI. The Outlying Territories and Dependencies of the United States XXXII. Foreign Commerce of the United States . XXXIII. The Economic Work of the Government . STATISTICAL APPENDIX INDEX ... 303 312 326 333 343 349 361 370 382 392 395 407 ^/o ■! SS^ PART I HUMAN ECONOMIES AND THEIR NATURAL FOUNDATIONS CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION. ECONOMY Housekeeping. — Probably every family of your acquaintance, including your own, does some kind of work for a living. Out of the 20,000,000 families in the United States, very few are rich enough to live in idleness. A group of persons, mostly related by birth, who occupy the same house or home at least to eat and sleep in, form a family or household. Different members con- tribute in different ways, by service or money earned outside, to the support of the family. The welfare of these people de- pends largely upon the amount earned, the way in which the income is spent, the kind of service rendered and the general management of the household. The ancient Greeks called housekeeping occonomia, meaning household management, a word which appears in the English economy, economic, economical. All the people in a community, city, state, or country work together on a large scale and in a complex way to maintain and increase their common wealth and prosperity. In that sense they may be regarded as forming one household practicing the same economy. The whole human species may be thought of as one great family occupying the earth as a home. This con- ception may be enlarged to include our brethren, the animals and plants, for they share with us the opportunities of getting a living, and our welfare is bound up with theirs. Thus there comes to be plant economy, animal economy, family economy, 9 lO INTRODUCTION. ECONOMY civic economy, national economy, and perhaps world economy, all closely related and worth studying together. Economy in its broadest sense has come to mean the way in which living creatures get a living. It is the " bread and butter " side of life. Environment. — A stalk of corn or an oak tree must depend for its living upon the resources and conditions around it. If the soil is rich and is kept moist by frequent rains, if the air is warm and the sun shines through a sufficiently long season, the plant will grow, flourish, and produce fruit and seed. Deer can live and multiply only where they find grass and water the year around and where there are not too many enemies to kill them off. Lions can live only where deer and other defenseless animals are numerous enough to supply them with food. So men must depend upon the natural resources around them for materials from which to make a living. The coal miner works only where there is coal, the lumberman in the forest, the fisherman along the coast. The farmer must adapt his crops to the soil and climate of his farm, the merchant his goods to the wants of his community, the manufacturer his products to the demands of his market. Men may reach out over a large territory and make use of things brought from the ends of the earth, but they must produce something at home with which to buy the foreign goods. The relief of the land around a man's home and its position in relation to rivers and the sea determine to what extent he can procure foreign goods and what they will cost. The climate and the materials available determine the kind and style of clothing he wears and the houses he builds. The work men- do and the lives they lead are strongly influenced by the environment in which they live, each man^s environment being that part of the face of the earth with which he is closely related. Geography. — Geography is still what it has always claimed to be, a description of the earth. But the geographers of to-day are not satisfied with knowing simply where mountains, rivers, NATURAL RESOURCES II forests, deserts, peoples, and cities are ; they want to know how they have come to be where and what they are, and why those of one region are so dijjcrent from those of another. Few plants, animals, or men can live in the polar regions on account of cold and darkness, and few in the desert on account of lack of water. Dense forests flourish near the equator because of continuous heat and moisture, but men are more numerous and highly civilized in temperate grasslands than in deserts or equatorial forests. Plants, animals, and men differ in different parts of the world largely because of their different environments. Modern geography undertakes to make a scientific study of all sorts of environments and to learn how i)lants, animals, and men are influenced by them and adapted to live in them. Economic geography is a study of the different kinds of environ- ments as they affect the different ways in which men get a living, and deals with natural resources^ industries, and the distribution of useful products. Natural Resources. — • A natural resource is anything provided by nature which men can use to satisfy their wants. It may be (i) mineral, like, soil, coal, and iron from the earth crust, salt from the sea, or nitrogen from the air ; (2) vegetable, like wood and wheat ; (3) animal, like meat and wool ; or (4) energy, like sunshine and water power. Some resources can be used directly in their natural state, as fruits and water for food ; but in most cases men must expend labor, not only in procuring them, but in making them more fit for use by some process of manufacture. In other words, men must work for a living. Timber must be felled and cut into useful shapes, iron must be extracted from the ore and made into tools and machines, wheat must be ground into flour and baked into bread, wool must be sheared, spun, and woven into cloth, and water power must be harnessed to drive machinery and furnish heat and light. Civilized men use very few things which are not changed and made more valu- able in some way by human labor. All but the most primitive and uncivilized men satisfy some 12 INTRODUCTION. IXONOMY of their wants by trade or the exchange of ])r()(lucts with their neighbors. This makes it necessary to carry or transport goods from one place to another. The degree of civihzation of any people may be measured by the quantity and value of the goods which they obtain by trade and transportation. That part of economic geography which deals with the work involved in obtaining and manufacturing useful products is called industrial geography. That part of economic geography which deals with the trans- portation and exchange of goods is called commercial geography. The problem of economic geography may be stated in a sort of mathematical formula, thus : Home = Work = People or Environment = Industries = Human Life The sign = means here, not equals, but influences or controls. QUESTIONS 1. What other meaning than "household management" has the word " economy "? 2. What is the difference between a man's environment and his home? 3. How can the study of economic geography help people to get a better living ? 4. Which is the larger subject, economic geography or commercial geography ? 5. If you were planning to migrate to some other farm, town, or country, what would you want to know about the environment before you moved? CHAPTER II ECONOMIC RELATIONS If any of us were turned out to shift for ourselves in an unin- habited country Hke the northeastern part of the United States, we might quiet the first pangs of hunger by eating clay, as some people do, but we could not live long on that. We might find grass, wild carrots, huckleberries, strawberries, blackberries, and beech, hickory, walnut, and chestnut trees growing on the clay soil, and they would supply roots, fruit, and nuts which would keep us from starvation. We might lind rabbits, musk- rats, squirrels, deer, and buffaloes plentiful, because they can multiply and grow fat on grass, nuts, and roots. If we could catch and kill them, raw or roasted rabbit, venison, or bufifalo beef would be welcome additions to our dinner. Our diet might be varied by the flesh and eggs of wild turkeys and other birds which feed upon seeds, insects, and worms, by mussels and fish from the streams, and by bread made from wild rice and pond lily heads growing in the marshes (Fig. 2). Even the luxury of honey might be provided by wild bees, or sugar might be obtained from maple sap. Daubing our bodies with mud would furnish some protection from heat, cold, and mosquitoes, but better clothing could be made from grass, leaves, and bark, and best of all from the skins of muskrats, rabbits, and deer, or of foxes and wolves which might prey upon them. Shelter from storms, protection from wolves and bears, and a hiding place to sleep in might be found in a thicket, in a hollow tree, under a cliff, in a rocky cavern, or in a hole dug out of a bank. A hut built of sticks, bark, or rushes, or a tent of skins would be generally more comfortable. 13 14 ECONOMIC RELATIONS In this simj)le life we could use sharp sticks for spears, sharp stones for knives and axes, bone fishhooks and bark Hnes and nets, or even invent bows and arrows with flint heads. In the course of time we might become expert runners, archers, and hunters ; but, however ingenious we might be in making use of the resources of the country, we could not live at all with- out the help of plants and animals , and the animals all depend upon the plants. Plants need only earth, water, air, and sunshine to cover the ground with a carpet, which may grow into a forest hundreds of feet high. Roots, stems, leaves, fruits, and seeds, all furnish food Fig. 2. — Wild rice and pond lilies. for many species of animals, and these in turn are preyed upon by other animals. Men draw upon all these sources to supply their innumerable wants, and so human life and welfare are bound up with the lives and welfare of all other creatures. Life, every- where and always, means living together, and it often makes strange bedfellows. This imaginary picture is not unlike the life of the North THE YAHGANS OR CHANNEL INDIANS 1 5 American Indians before white men discovered the country. Many similar instances of actual human life may be found in various parts of the world, differing in details according to the environment, but all illustrating the same economic relations. The Yahgans or Channel Indians. — The southern end of South America looks on. the map as if it had been broken into a thousand pieces. It is a tangled chain of islands, peninsulas, capes, and promontories, separated by a maze of channels, in- lets, bays, and coves. The rugged ridges and spurs of a mountain range rise steeply from the water's edge. Stormy west winds from the Pacific bring almost constant clouds, which drench the slopes with rain. It is neverjvarm or very cold, although snow falls even in midsummer. ^ There is an alternation of summer and winter every week. The land is covered with a forest so dense that few animals can penetrate or live in it. The native people are Indians who live along the shore, more on water than on land. They move about from cove to cove in canoes made of slabs of bark sewed together with sinew and braced with ribs. These canoes are about 25 feet long and four feet wide, with sharp ends, and are models for speed, .safety, and capacity. The principal food of these people consists of limpets, soft shell- fish which cling to rocks along the shore, and which at low tide are pried off by the women with sharp sticks. These are eaten raw or slightly roasted over a fire kept burning on sods in the bottom of the canoe. The Indians strike fire with a piece of iron ore and catch the sparks in birds' down. Fish are plentiful and are caught with a seaweed line without a hook. The people eat berries, and a sweet, mucilaginous fungus growing in the damp woods takes the place of bread. They let themselves down by a .seaweed rope to gather birds' eggs on the face of the cliffs. They kill seals and sea otters with bone-headed harpoons, or with bows and arrows, and throw round stones with a rawhide sling. Their most ingenious tool is an ax made from a five-inch clam- i6 ECONOMIC Ri:i,.VriONS shell lashed to a stone for weight. The edge is keen but frail and requires a quick and delicate hand. With light and rai)id strokes they can fell a tree or shape a i)a(Ulle. Fig. 3. — Yahgan Indians, with canoe and shelters. The Yahgans cover their bodies with grease, and in very stormy weather hang a sealskin over their shoulders (Fig. 3). Their huts consist of a few poles covered on the weather side with boughs and grass, and left wide open toward the fire. A little dry grass serves for a seat or a bed. Almost unclothed and shelterless in a land of fierce and freezing storms, they never freeze or shiver. With passing ships they exchange seal and other skins for glass beads, which they prefer to knives and hatchets. The land furnishes them a resting place, shelter, and materials for canoes and weapons. The sea furnishes abundant animal THK ESKIMOS 17 food, which they secure vvithoul ,L!;reat exertion. They arc as closely dependent upon the land and water, trees, and shellfish as the Hmpets are upon the water and rocks. In their circum- stances and with their materials, they are almost perfectly adapted to their environment. They are bright, quick-witted, and contented with an apparently miserable, but not laborious existence in one of the most uninviting regions of the world. They have responded successfully to the few demands of their simple life. The Eskimos. — The Arctic lands of North America comprise an archipelago of large islands, of which Greenland is the largest, and a wide tract of " barren grounds " bordering upon Hudson Bay and the ocean. The climate is severe, with a dark, stormy winter of eight or ten months and a cold, foggy summer of two to four months. The winter temperatures fall to — 70°, and the summer temperatures cannot rise much above freezing on ac- count of the fields of ice and snow. Greenland is a high plateau almost buried under an ice sheet thousands of feet thick. Most of the other lands are low and free from snow in summer. The straits, bays, sounds, and fiords are covered in winter with floe (sea) ice many feet thick which is broken and drifted about by tides, winds, and currents. The ice sheets and streams of the highlands discharge into the sea immense bergs, which choke the inlets and passages at all seasons. The bare and marshy grounds produce coarse grass, lichens, mosses, and stunted shrubs sufficient, even in Greenland, to support hares, musk oxen, and caribou. Millions of sea birds rest upon the shores, coming and going with the season. In the water and on the ice, seals, wal- ruses, and polar bears find subsistence by catching fish. This region has been occupied for centuries by Eskimos, who move about a good deal but do not venture far from the sea upon which they chiefly depend. To them the seal is the most valuable resource. Seals are hunted on the ice and with a kayak, or sealskin boat, which will not sink when upset. Seal ELEM. ECON. GEOG. 2 1 8 ECONOMIC RELATIONS llcsh is the Eskimos' j)rinci])al food, seal blubber almost their only fuel, and from sealskin their clothinji;, boats, and tents are made. A lo' produce (late i)alnis, j^raiii, and other crops in abunchinee. la many places an artesian well will sui)ply water enough to create an arlilkial oasis. ^^nimals and Men. Animal and human life in ihc desert is very limited and uncertain. It is dependent upon ground water, sunlight, infrequent and irregular rains, and irrigation from streams which flow from neighl)oring rainy regions. The people of the Sahara and Arabia are nomads, wandering about with camels, asses, and horses to find pasture, and to trade with or rob neighboring peoples. The camel is " the ship of the desert," without which human hfe there would be almost im- possible. His hoofs are padded with cushions which prevent his sinking in the sand, his nostrils are slits which he can close when the air is full of dust, and the storage cells of his stomach enable him to travel many days or even weeks without drinking. As a pack animal he can carry a load of 500 to 1000 pounds twenty miles a day. The species kept for riding will carry a man 200 miles in twenty-four hours. _ Life in sedentary communities in a semi-desert is described on pages 22-26. Resources. — The economic resources of the desert are necessarily limited, but not to be overlooked. Salt, soda, and borax are mined from the dry lake beds. Saltpeter and guano, so valuable as fertilizers, are found only where no rain falls to wash them away. Native desert plants produce fiber, rubber, and various gums. In oases and irrigated lands like the Nile valley, all the tropical products are grown, such as cotton, sugar cane, grapes, olives, dates, and other fruits, as well as corn, wheat, barley, and millet. Ostrich plumes and the famous Arabian breed of riding horses are desert products. Tropical Dry Forests. — In the subtropical zones there are many areas where the rainfall is sufficient to support shrubs and small trees growing in clumps rather than in continuous forests. They all have small, leathery leaves and bear a general resem- blance to desert plants, but are larger and more numerous. TEMPERATE R.\IN FORESTS 67 They sometimes grow in thorny, scraggy, tangled thickets which are difficult to penetrate. The vegetation of a large part of the Mexican i>lateau is of this character. Mediterranean Regions. — Some regions on the polar sides of the subtropical zones have twenty inches or more of rain in the year, but most of it falls in the autumn and winter, leaving the summers dry. The result is much the same as though the annual rainfall were less, and the vegetation is adapted to dry conditions. Of these re- gions the lands around the Mediterranean Sea are the most important. Grass is scanty and poor, and sheep and goats are kept in prefer- ence to cattle. The trees have small, leathery, evergreen leaves and thick bark, like the oleander, often grown in the United States as a house plant. The most important arc the cork oak, from the bark of which the cork of commerce is obtained, and the olive, the oil of which takes the place of meat and butter. Some regions are very favorable for the growmg of tropical fruits, such as table, raisin, and wine grapes, figs, oranges, lemons, pome- granates, and dates. Mulberry trees are grown for their leaves upon which silkworms are fed (Fig. 21). Corn and wheat are raised in the cool, moist season or by means of irrigation. Many nut-bearing trees are profitable for human food and for feeding swine. The climate, vegetation, and prod- ucts of southern California are essentially the same as those of the Medi- terranean region. Small areas at the southern extremity of Africa and the southwestern point of Australia enjoy similar conditions. Temperate Rain Forests. — Some parts of the subtropical zones have no dry or cold season, but are not excessively warm or wet. They are naturally occupied by broad-leaved, ever- green forests, much like those along the equator but less dense. — Mulberry Iciucs, silkwijrms, cocoon, and moth. 68 PLANT KIXilONS AND ki:s()UR(i:s Southern China and the Gulf states of the United States are the most important (Fig. i8). They are productive of rice, sugar cane, cotton, and fruits, and in China of tobacco, indigo, mul- berry, camphor, spices, drugs, and tea. The Equatorial or Intertropical Zone. — The widest and largest zone of the earth covering nearly two fifths of its surface Hes on both sides of the equator (Fig. 17). It includes the larger part of South America and Africa, Central America, India, farther India, the northern coast of Australia, the East and West Indies, and the swarming islands of the Pacific. On the lowlands the weather is always hot, the temperature of the coldest month being above 70°. The rainfall is very heavy except on plateaus and lands protected by mountains. The growing season is determined not by temperature but by rainfall. Near the equator rain falls almost every day in the year and there is no change of seasons ; near the tropics, summer and winter differ chiefly in being one rainy and the other dry. This should be called the equatorial or intertropical zone, but is commonly referred to as the tropical regions or simply " the tropics." * Savannas. — Savannas are tropical grasslands which resemble the temperate steppes. Tall, stiff grasses in dense tufts are interspersed with low trees, scattered about or growing in belts along the streams. They occur on plateaus and lands partly protected from rain-bearing winds. The most extensive savan- nas in the world stretch across central Africa, almost from tropic to tropic (Fig. 18). The African savanna is the home of immense numbers of large grass eaters, among which are the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, giraffe, zebra, and about one hundred species of antelopes. The abundance of game, including lions and leopards, is a hindrance to human occupation, but indicates the great possibiHties of the country, when most of the wild ani- mals are displaced by domestic animals, as has happened in America. Corn, millet, beans, bananas, sheep, goats, and cattle form the basis of sub- sistence for the native tribes. Ivory from elephants' tusks has been a source of great profit to traders, but the supply is rapidly diminishing. SUMMARY 69 The Dckkan plateau of Ind'ni is in large part a savanna. Two or more crops a year are grown, rice or cotton in the hot, moist season and wheat in the cool, dry season. The country is so densely populated that in years when the monsoon rains are scant thousands of people die of starvation. The southern campos of Brazil produce about three fourths of the world's supply of coffee and its cultivation might be extended. Tropical Rain Forests. — The forest of equatorial South America has been described on pages 27-32. The forests of west equatorial Africa and the East Indies are of the same general character. The chief economic products now utilized are rubber, gutta percha, timber, and dyewood. Civilized people are dependent upon the savannas and cleared lands of the tropics for a very long list of products which contribute to their comfort, pleasure, and health. Those most extensively used are sugar, coffee, tea, chocolate, coconut, spices, and fruits. Sago, palm oil, quinine, and many gums, perfumes, and drugs are strictly tropical products. On tropical low- lands rice is grown in quantities which rival those of any other cereal grain. It forms the breadstuff and principal food of one half the human species. Summary. — The heat belts or zones of temperature are bounded by lines which show the average temperature of the hottest and the coldest month (January and July). Tempera- tures below 50° are too low for vigorous plant growth and are called C(?W, temperatures above 70° are called hot, and tempera- tures between 50° and 70° are called temperate. There are five zones which differ in the length of their cold, hot, and temperate seasons, and these difTerences determine the general character of the plants which may grow there. Each zone extends around the earth across lands which vary in size, position, rehef, and soil. The kinds of forest, grassland, or desert which actually exist in dififerent parts of any zone depend upon the amount and season of rainfall. The agricultural crops possible in any region, as well as the natural plant resources, are limited by the amount of available water in the soil. 70 PLANT REGIONS AND RESOURCES QUESTIONS 1. Why arc the usual torrid, lL'ni|)c'ralc, and in}s,u\ zones, bounded by the tropics and polar circles, unsatisfactory as zones of temj:)erature? (See Fig. 1 7-) 2. Why is the climate of the lands in the so-called lenii)erale zones really intemperate ? 3. Why is the vegetation different in different j)arls of the same zone? (See Fig. 1 8.) 4. What is the difference between a steppe and a prairie ? 5. Why were not the Indians of the North American steppe herdsmen? 6. Why do the temperature and rainfall of winter in the temperate zone have little efTect upon crop growing? How do they affect stock raising? 7. What countries lie wholly or partly in the Mediterranean region? 8. Why is not tea an important crop in the United States? 9. Why are there no savannas in Europe and only small patches in North America ? 10. Which are of greater value to mankind, temperate products or tropi- cal products ? CHAPTER VI MINERAL AND MARINE RESOURCES Some natural resources have little or no- relation to plants and are distributed independently of plant regions. Most of them are minerals obtained from the earth crust. The sea also furnishes many products, both mineral and animal, among which salt and fish are the most important. Air and Water. — The most widely distributed of all minerals are air and water. The outer shell of the earth, hundreds of miles in thickness, is composed of air. It covers land and sea and penetrates both to great depths. About one fifth of the lower air is oxygen, a constant supply of which is necessary to animal life. Without it, the higher animals, includ- ing men, can live but a few minutes. Plants require oxygen for growth, and also derive about three fourths of their bulk, from the small propor- tion (0.03 per cent) of carbon dioxide in the air. About three fourths of the air is nitrogen, a minute per cent of which becomes fixed in the soil and supplies food which neither plants nor animals can live without. Water vapor is everywhere present in the air and from it is derived the whole supply of water on land. The air contains many impurities in the form of dust made up of mineral particles, smoke, and minute plants or germs, some of which are favorable and some fatal to human life. The waters of the seas, lakes, and rivers cover more than three fourths of the earth crust. The ground water penetrates the crust to great depths, connects the oceans from shore to shore, and thus completes an unbroken sheet of water around the globe. Land plants depend directly upon ground water, and land animals directly upon fresh surface water for food. The water in the ground is the source of more wealth than all minerals mined, not excepting coal, iron, gold, and silver. Rocks. — The solid earth crust is made up of rocks of many kinds. On the surface the rocks have been broken up by air, water, and frost into a ELEM. ECON. GEOG. — 5 71 72 MINERAL AND MARINE RESOURCES laycrof loose, iiicolu'rciil fr;i^nu'nts, calK'd wiuillc nnk ( l''i^. ?.?.). l''roin this tiiaiillc, soils arc derived, eoiisisling mainly of ( l;i\ , sand, and gravel. Next Fig. 22. — Mantle rock overlying stratified bedrock. to air and water, soil is the most widely distributed of mineral resources. Not only does all land life depend upon mantle rock, but its materials are used for many purposes, such as clay for brick, tile, and pottery, sand for mortar and glass, and gravel for concrete and road metal. Limestone, sand- stone, granite, and many other kinds of rock are quarried for buildings, bridges, and walls. Limestone is most widely used, both in its natural state and after burning for quicklime, from which mortar and plaster are made. CoaL — The most valuable bedrocks in the world are the beds of coal. Milhons of years ago vegetable matter accumulated in swamps and was buried under loads of mud. By pressure and heat it has been converted into mineral coal. When burned, coal produces so much heat that it is used wherever obtainable PETROLEUM 73 for making steam to run engines and machinery. There is coal in Greenland and near the tropics in India, Australia, and Africa, but the great coal fields of the world are in the north temperate and cold temperate zones, in the United States and Canada, in western and central Europe, and in China and Japan (Figs. 23, 24). This adds greatly to the resources of the summer forest and grasslands where agriculture flourishes. These coun- FiG. 23. — Distribution of coal. tries have the raw materials and power for manufactures and the means of transportation for home and foreign trade ; they display the most intense economic activity in every line, produce enormous wealth, and are the homes of the leading people of the world. Petroleum. — Another mineral, second only to coal in value as fuel, is petroleum. It is abundant in the United States, southeastern Russia, Mexico, and Canada. The crude oil obtained directly from wells is used for generating steam in engines, as a " binder " in paving, and for keeping down dust on wagon roads. The greater part is refined and split up into numer- ous products: kerosene is used nea.r\y the world over in lamps for lighting, gasoline for the engines of automobiles and launches, and heavier oils for lubricating machinery. 74 MINKRAL AND MARINE RESOURCES Metallic Ores. - The metal-bearing rocks generally occur in thin veins or streaks, tilling what were once cracks in the earth crust. Such veins are most common in mountainous re- gions where the crust has been broken, and in lands worn down by erosion until rocks once deeply buried are exposed at the Fig. 24. — A coal seam eight feet thick in a West Virginia mine. surface. Hence metals are often mined in regions which are worthless for agriculture, thinly inhabited, and difficult of access. The native rock or ore is reached by shafts and tunnels, mined by drilling and blasting, and transported long distances, sometimes thousands of miles, to a furnace or smelter. There by means of coal the metal is extracted, purified, and made ready for use. Iron. — Of all metals, the most useful and valuable to man is iron (Fig. 25). The ore is plentiful and widely distributed, but the cost of extraction is rather high, owing to the very high tem- GOLD AND SILVER 75 perature required. The first use of iron for tools and cutting in- struments laid the foundation of civilization, and its present use for machinery, vehicles, railroads, bridges, and large buildings makes our era the age of steel. The wealth, power, and rank of any nation may be measured by the quantity of coal and iron used. Graded by this standard, the United States, Germany, Great Britain, and France lead the world. Fig. 25. — Distribution of iron and copper. Copper. — Next to iron among metals, copper plays the most important part in modern industry (Fig. 25). This is due to the fact that it is a good conductor of electricity and enters into the construction of all electrical apparatus. Copper makes pos- sible the telegraph, telephone, electric light, electric railway, and the distribution of power from a waterfall or central station over a large area. More copper is mined in Arizona and Mon- tana than in all the rest of the world. Lead, Zinc, Tin, Aluminum, NickeL and other metals fill less important places in the arts than iron and copper, but for many purposes they could hardly be dispensed with. Gold and Silver. — The precious metals have always been highly prized for their color, brightness, and durability, which 76 MINERAL AND MARINE RESOURCES make them suitable for ornaments, jewelry, and tableware. Their general use as a standard by which to measure the xalue of all other commodities and for coinage into money, makes them an essential part of the economy of all civilized peoples. During the last half century, their production has enormously increased, and in consequence the value of silver has declined about one half. The trade of the world has grown with the amount of gold in use as money, and gold has declined little, if any, in value. South Africa, western United States, and Australia lead in the mining of gold, and Mexico and western United States in the mining of silver (Fig. 26). Fig. 26. — Distribution of gold and silver. Fertilizers. — Of more real value to man than gold, silver, and diamonds are materials from which fertilizers can be made for feeding plants (p. 51). If crops are grown and removed from the land for many years, the soil becomes " worn-out " and the yield diminishes unless food for plants is in some way restored. The plant foods first exhausted are phosphorus, potash, and nitrogen, and artificial fertilizers generally contain these elements. The factories use animal waste whenever it can be obtained, refuse from slaughterhouses and fish canneries, bird guano from FISHERIES 77 oceanic islands, and marine fish, like the menhaden, which are too bony and oily for human food. But these are insufficient, and a last resort must be had to mineral resources. Phosphorus exists on the earth in very small quantities and is most concentrated in the bones of animals. The remains of myriads of animals, buried ages ago in the mud at the bottom of the sea, have been changed into phosphate rock and raised above sea level. Extensive beds of this rock are mined in Florida and Tennessee, and larger deposits have been found near Yellowstone Park. Potash is plentiful in the rocks of the earth crust but difficult to extract. The world's main dependence has been upon mines of potash salts at Stassfurt, Germany. Kelp, a seaweed which grows in inexhaustible quantities off the coast of California, is rich in potash, yielding fifteen tons per acre. Nitrogen, forming about three fourths of the air, is one of the most abundant of plant foods, but is the most expensive to get hold of and deal with. Although plants are bathed in an ocean of free nitrogen, they can make little use of it. An electric dis- charge through air causes some of the nitrogen to combine with oxygen, and the gas formed can be caught and held by lime. In Norway water power is used to generate electric current by which nitrate of lime is now made from air and sold for fertilizer. The chief commercial supply of nitrogen has been from natural beds of nitrate of soda in the desert of Chile. Other Minerals. — There are many other mmerals in common use, of which salt, obtained from sea water, from wells, and from mines, is the most important. Fisheries. — The animals of the sea form no exception to the law that animal life is everywhere dependent upon plant life, but their relations are complex and not so easily understood as the dependence of cattle upon grass. The term fisheries, as commonly used, includes the taking not only of fish, but also 78 MIX KRAI. AM) MAKINl' ki:SOURCi;S of seals, whales, lobsters, oysters, pearls, sponges, and other ocean products. The most productive fisheries are found in the cool waters of the northern hemisphere (Fig. 27). From the shallow waters off the Atlantic coast from Cape Cod to Labrador, cod and mackerel are taken in immense quantities ; salmon on the Pacific coast from California to Alaska ; cod, herring, and halibut oft" the coast of Norway ; sole, haddock, cod, turbot, and mackerel in the North Sea ; salmon, cod, and Fig. 27. — Distribution of foiheries. herring around Japan ; sardines, anchovies, and tunnies in the Mediterranean ; and oysters in Long Island Sound and Chesa- peake Bay. Seals and whales, hunted chiefly for their oil, are found around Labrador and Greenland, and in the North Pacific, Arctic, and Antarctic waters. From inland waters the whitefish and trout of the Laurentian lakes and the sturgeon of the Volga River and Caspian Sea are the most important. Summary. — Air, water, rocks, metals, petroleum, ^as, salt, and other mineral resources, necessary to life itself or to the best ways of living, are obtained from the atmosphere, from the sea, and from the solid crust of the earth. The sea and inland QUESTIONS 79 waters also contribute richly to the income of the human family. Mineral and marine resources difTer from nearly all others in having little or no relation to climate. QUESTIONS 1. Suppose all the metallic iron in the world to disappear suddenly by magic. What would be the immediate eflfects upon your family and com- munity? upon your state or country? finally upon mankind? 2. For what are lead, zinc, tin, aluminum, and nickel used? 3. Why are fish of more importance in England and New England than in Iowa or Colorado ? 4. Why is gold worth more per ounce than copper? silver than tin? 5. What is meant by the stone age? the age of bronze? the age of iron? the golden age? CHAPTER VII INDUSTRY AND TRADE Any sort of productive work is an industry, but the word has come to be used especially for mechanical and manufactur- ing business on a large scale, as distinguished from agriculture. Domestic Industry. — Formerly every household made at home whatever articles it needed, out of such materials as could be had, and literally by hand. Generally such articles are costly in time and labor and not of the best quality. Yet they may be so good as to make the terms homemade and handmade imply superior excellence. Among the early settlers and pioneers of America, each family was nearly self-supporting, producing at home from its own resources most of whatever food, clothing, housing, and conveniences it had. Little was carried to market and " bough ten " articles were regarded as luxuries. Under such a system nobody could produce much surplus to sell and buy with. The only possible development or improvement was a division of labor, by which one man or household raised grain and animals, another tanned hides, another made shoes, an- other ground grain, another worked in iron, another built houses, another spun wool or flax and wove cloth, and another made garments. Thus arose the fundamental trades of farmer, tanner, shoemaker, miller, blacksmith, carpenter, mason, weaver, and tailor. When their products were exchanged it was found that the wants of every household could be supplied more fully and cheaply than when each tried to do everything. The work was still done mainly by hand and at home. The Industrial Revolution. — The invention of the steam engine in the latter part of the eighteenth century revolutionized human industry by open- 80 THE FACTORY SYSTEM 8l ing to mankind enormous stores of power from burning wood or eoal. This stimulated the invention of machinery designed to do on a large scale what men had been doing by hand on a small scale. A spinning jenny and a power loom could produce from wool or cotton more cloth in a day than a hundred men could turn out by hand in a year. In consequence cloth be- came so much cheaper and the use of it so much increased, that many times as many persons as before were employed in spinning and weaving, and people were better clothed. A similar change occurred in all industries and is still in progress. Now almost the only articles which are made by hand and are not machine-made are works of art. The Factory System. — The advent of machinery almost did away with domestic manufacture. Machines must be placed in large buildings where they can be run by a single engine. The raw materials to be manufactured must be brought to the machines, and a large number of operators must be employed to tend the machines. All this requires the expenditure of large sums of money. Thus sprang up the factory system, main- tained by capitalists, who build the buildings, install the machin- ery, furnish raw material, hire the workman for wages, and sell the product. The location of a successful industry is deter- mined by many conditions : 1. A supply of raw materials to be manufactured. 2. Capital, or money to construct buildings, to buy machinery and materials, and to pay wages. 3. Power to run the machinery, usually derived from coal or water power. 4. A supply of labor, or a sufficient number of workmen to run the factory. 5. Housing, food, clothing, and other necessities and com- forts for the workmen and their families. 6. A market in which to sell the manufactured goods. 7. Cheap transportation for materials and goods. The existence in some degree of all these conditions in one locality or region is likely to make it a manufacturing site, town, or country. The presence of coal or water power seems to be the most potent single factor. 82 INDUSTRY AND TRADE Water power made New Kngliind the first niunufacturing (iislricl of ihe United Stales; it now makes factories cluster around Niagara Fails and is likely to make Norway a manufacturing country in the future. Coal makes the Pittsburgh district the center of the American iron industry and Great Britain the greatest manufacturing country in the world. Foodstuffs. — Of all natural resources foodstuffs require the least elaboration. Fruits, nuts, and vegetables may be eaten fresh, roots and grains with little preparation except cooking. Meats and lish are eaten fresh, but arc also dried, salted, smoked, canned, or otherwise preserved on a large scale. The great industries dealing with foodstuffs are canning, milling, baking, meat packing, and the manufacture of butter, cheese, and con- densed milk. Clothing. — Among materials for clothing, furs are worn most nearly in their natural condition, but they are usually cured, dyed, and sewed. Hides are tanned into leather, from which shoes and gloves are inade. The textile industry, or weaving of cotton, wool, silk, and linen into cloth is more com- plex than food preparation and assumes enormous proportions. This is done by machinery and demands little skill of the work- men. The cloth has then to be dyed and made into garments, largely by handwork, which, in the case of fine clothing, dress- making, and millinery, may demand a high grade of artistic skill. Constructive Materials. — In the utilization of materials for construc- tion, woodworking is the simplest and easiest industry. Trees are felled by hand, but the sawing, planing, and shaping of timber into lumber, imple- ments, vehicles, and furniture are done by machinery on a large scale. Fine carpentry, cabinet work, and wood carving furnish a field for the exercise of skill and artistic ability. Minerals are more difficult to work than wood and their use in great variety is a late event in human history. The simplest and most primitive mineral industries are the making of adobe, or sun-dried brick, for houses, and the piling up of loose stones into walls. At present bricks are burned, and building stone is TRADE 83 quarried, sawed, hewn, carved, and polished. PMne clay is worked into pottery and chinaware, and sand into glass, each of which is material for high types of decorative art. Metallurgy. — Few industries demand so much scientific knowledge as metallurgy. Few metals occur in nature in metallic form, and there is little in the appearance of an ore to suggest to the unlearned person that it contains a metal. The extraction and working of iron and other metals are now carried on by processes depending upon heat derived from coal, gas, or electricity, and involving the use of large capital and the most highly specialized scientific knowledge and technical skill. Chemical Industries. — A group of industries dependent upon the prog- ress of the science of chemistry has come into prominence during the last century. It includes the manufacture of petroleum products and gas for light, heat, and power, of acids, alcohols, ethers, and other solvents, of alka- lies for soap and glass making, salts used in the arts and in medicine, drugs, dyes, paints, fertilizers, and thousands of articles in demand among all civilized people. The manufacture of comm.on luxuries, such as tobacco, wines, beer, and distilled liquors, has assumed enormous proportions. Intellectual and ^Esthetic Industries. — The fullest development of human faculties involves the production and use of articles which minister directly or indirectly to intellectual needs and to the enjoyment of the beautiful in art. The commonest of such articles are paper, made from vegetable fiber (at present chiefly from wood pulp), inks, dyes, pigments, perfumes, and flavors. The printing of newspapers and books is one of the great mdustries of the world. The wall paper, rugs, and carpets, printed cloths, engravings, photographs, glass, china, silverware, and jewelry, found in nearly every household, owe much of their value to beauty. Even the production of paintings, sculpture, music, and literature may be classed among industries which minister to human wants and which are dependent in some degree upon material resources. Trade. — It is difficult to imagine any community of men in which no one wants anything possessed by another. Trade is the redistribution of goods according to the various needs of different persons. In trade each party exchanges something which he wants less for something which he wants more, and the 84 INDUSTRY AND TRADK exchange is to the advantage of both. Among primitive peoples trade consists of barter, or the direct exchange of articles or goods. One man has made several bows or pairs of moccasins, when he can use but one or two. Another man has killed several deer and has more venison and deerskins than he can use. An ex- change of bows or moccasins for meat and hides makes both parties richer. As the number and variety of articles exchanged increase, the need for some standard by which values may be measured, and for some convenient medium of exchange is felt, and all goods are priced and paid for by one kind, usually the more highly valued. White people in central Africa buy a sheep for one or more sticks of to- bacco, or cattle for ten yards of calico per head. Among some tribes the regular price of a wife is thirty goats. Thus tobacco, calico, and goats are used as we use money. Among civilized people, gold, silver, and copper coins are found to be the most convenient form of money. They have a definite value which does not change much, and are made of different sizes and values to facilitate exact payment and " making change." ]\Iost of the world's great commerce is now carried on by means of paper representa- tives of money, such as government notes, bank biUs, checks, and drafts, which are usually convertible into coin, if desired. Commerce. — Among progressive peoples, primitive barter and local trade still persist, but have been far surpassed by domestic commerce involving the whole country and foreign com- merce involving the whole world. Commerce grows out of the diversity of resources and products for which each zone and re- gion of the earth is naturally adapted. Furs and fat come from the polar caps, furs and timber from the coniferous forests, meat and wool from the steppes, meat and grain from temperate forest and prairie, cotton, coffee, spices, and fruits from the tropics. Every community wants some share of all these goods, and commerce in them, especially between the tropics and the temperate zones, has been carried on by caravans and sail- ing vessels for centuries. The advent of the steam engine SUMMARY 85 enormously increased the amount and variety of products manu- factured in the temperate zones. The use of steam power on railroads and ships makes possible a movement of goods along east-west lines exceeding in volume and value the commerce between different zones. It has come to pass that the possession of coal, iron, and water power, with facilities for transportation by land and sea, enables any people to use whatever foodstuffs and raw materials they have, to buy whatever they want from any part of the earth, to sell surplus products, and to manu- facture and sell any articles for which they find a market. Thus by foreign commerce, the environment of a community, or the territory from which the people get their living, is extended to include the whole world, and it may enjoy some share of all the world's goods. Each community produces those goods which it can produce to the best advantage, and buys abroad those goods for which other communities have better facilities. All pro- duction tends to be localized where it is cheapest, and the economic efficiency, wealth, and prosperity of mankind are increased. It is plain that world commerce can be carried on only by friendly intercourse and that it is a powerful influence in preserving peace among nations. Nothing conduces more to the general welfare of mankind than freedom and security of trade. Summary. — By the division of labor, the use of steam and water power, the invention of machines, and the expansion of trade into world commerce, the available resources of the human family have been greatly increased. The environment of many communities has been extended over the whole face of the earth, and human life has become extremely rich and complex. QUESTIONS 1. What domestic manufactures are carried on in your community? 2. Where do the materials used in these manufactures come from? 3. Where are the finished products marketed? 4. What articles used in your household have come from far distant regions ? 5. If an extensive trade should be established between the Americans and the Chinese, what effect would it have upon the two peoples, beyond increasing their wealth ? ffl o W a a ■3 3 in "5 c C) t1 3 'oj o U4 1 : I CHAPTER VIII ECONOMIES AND ECONOMIC SOCIETIES It is now possible to see how and why people make a living in so many different ways and to take a general view of all the different kinds of economy practiced by mankind in different parts of the world. (See Fig. 28.) Collective Economies. — The simplest, crudest, and least ef- fective way of getting a living is to pluck or gather whatever nature provides. This can hardly be depended upon outside the tropics, but in the equatorial zone, fruits, nuts, and roots mature spontaneously at all seasons of the year in such pro- fusion that, with the addition of fish, a moderately dense popu- lation can get a living with little effort (p. 20). Between the tropics and the poles a sparse population can support them- selves by hunting and fishing. The Indians of eastern North America carried such economy to its highest efficiency without the use of metals, and developed perhaps the best type of manhood under such conditions. Yet the total population was less than that of one of our smaller states, and they were savages poorly clothed and housed and subject to frequent famine. Collective econom}- in all its forms is purely destructive. It never increases but always decreases natural resources. Agriculture. — The cultivation of plants secures a large and relatively constant food supply, enables people to live together in fixed and populous communities, and gives opportunity for the development of domestic arts, social and political institu- tions, and the refinements of civilization. Its simplest form is hoe culture, carried on usually by the women with rude imple- ments and entirely by hand. It is often combined with fishing, 87 88 ECONOMIl'.S AND ECONOMIC SOCIKTIKS hunting, or herdin,!,^. Hoc culture is most efficient in the equa- torial or moist sul)tr()j)ical zones, but may be extended into temperate regions. It persists among advanced peoples in the form of garden cullure. Field Culture. — • With the introduction of draft animals and corresponding implements, the average area cultivated by each farmer increases, and hoe culture passes into field culture^ which prevails in the temperate zones. In new countries, like the United States, where land is plentiful and cheap, tield cul- ture is extensive and superficial. It is profitable for the farmer to cultivate a large tract imperfectly and to get a return, small per acre, but large in the aggregate. As population increases and land becomes more costly, agriculture becomes more inten- sive. Fields and farms grow smaller, but the yield per acre and the total return increase. Special crops, such as celery, onions, sugar beets, tobacco, small fruits, and vegetables, are grown by garden culture in which some animal power is used. The most efficient agriculture, obtaining the largest possible returns from the land, must be some form of garden culture. Such economy prevails in China, Japan, India, Egypt, and portions of southern Europe, where labor is cheap and a dense population is supported. Which is more profitable anywhere, field or garden culture, is a question determined largely^ by the supply and the cost of labor. Field culture combined with stock raising is characteristic of the most highly civilized peoples. Plantation Culture. — In the tropics certain crops are raised on plantations, or large tracts of land, generally o\vTied by foreigners and worked by native labor under some sort of com- pulsion. Sugar cane, coffee, tea, cinchona, cacao, cotton, hene- quen, rubber, and fruits are thus grown. On account of the cost of machinery and the facilities for handling such products, it does not pay to raise them on a small scale, but natives of the tropics seldom have the skill, enterprise, or capital necessary to carry on the business. Slave labor, once common on plantations, has nearly disappeared. SCIENTIFIC COLLECTIVE ECONOMY 89 Horticulture and Plant Breeding. — The growing of fruil-bcaring shrubs and orchard trees, and the discovery and breeding of new and better varieties of grains, fruits, roots, and all domestic plants, are branches of scientific agriculture carried on with great energy and success among advanced peoples. Herding. — ■ The domestication of animals is a fundamental economy, second in importance only to agriculture. Herding makes good use of the most valuable resource of the steppes — grass ; but without agriculture it can support only a sparse population. Scattered and wandering herdsmen can never enjoy the advantages of social intercourse essential to high civilization. Stock Breeding. — In agricultural communities animals are kept to con- vert a part of the produce into meat, milk, and power. Coarse fodder unfit for human food, waste products, and many of the less palatable grains and roots are thus utilized, and the resources of the environment are made the most of. The improvement of breeds of domestic animals, as cattle for beef or milk, sheep for mutton or wool, horses for strength or speed, swine for rapid growth, and fowls for eggs, has attained a high degree of scientific advancement. Scientific Collective Economy. — Collective economy is as essential to an advanced civilization as to the simplest life on a tropical island. Plucking wild fruits plays a trifling part, but lumbering, quarrying, and mining must be pursued on an ex- panding scale. These are collective economies because they are destructive inroads upon nature's capital laid up for human use. Except so far as forests may be planted and conserved, man can do nothing to increase the amount of timber, stone, coal, ore, or any mineral in existence. On the contrary, he is now consuming the natural supply at an enormous and in- creasing rate. Perhaps, taking all the forests in the world into account, timber is grow- ing faster than it is consumed ; but there is no useful mineral the quantity of which is known to be increasing. Some, like clay and limestone, are ELEM. ECON. GEOG.— 6 90 ECONOMIES AND ECONOMIC SOCIETIES inexhaustible ; some, like iron ore, will lust an incalculably long time ; some, like coal, can be used up in a few thousand years, or, like petroleum, in a few centuries. It is possible that the progress of scientific knowledge will discover new minerals which will take the place of some of those now in use and liable to be exhausted. Scientific Manufacture ^ and Engineering. — The useful in- dustries or mechanic arts are of recent origin and are practiced on a large scale only among advanced peoples. They are often called technical arts, from a Greek word meaning to make, be- cause they deal with things that are made. They depend upon the use of machinery and are hence mechanical. They involve the exercise of human skill or ingenuity and are, therefore, branches of engineering. In some countries the number of people engaged in manufacture and engineering and the value of their products exceed the number and value belonging to all other occupations combined. Commerce and the Professions. — In civilized communities there are large numbers of people who produce nothing at all visible or tangible, yet are busy and necessary to the community life. These include (i) merchants of all kinds, who buy and sell goods, (2) people engaged as carriers in transportation of pas- sengers and freight, (3) bankers and brokers who deal in money and securities, (4) lawyers, physicians, ministers, teachers, journalists, authors, artists, and domestic servants, who render highly necessary and valuable services to every citizen. An analysis and tabular view of human economies is given below : HUMAN ECONOMIES I. Collective. A. Primitive, i. Plucking. 2. Fishing. 3. Hunting. B. Scientific, i. Lumbering. 2. Mining. 3. Quarrying. 1 Manufacture (making by hand) might well be displaced by a new word, artifacture (making by art). All manufactured goods are artificial. ECONOMIC TYPES 9I II. Productive. A. Agricullitrc. i. Hoe culture. 2. Garden culture. 3. Field cul- ture. 4. Plantation culture. 5. Horticulture. 6. Forestry. 7. Plant breeding. B. Animal Industry, i. Herding. 2. Stock breeding. III. Constructive. A. Manufaciurc. i. Domestic. 2. Capitalistic. B. Building. C. Engineering. i. Mechanical. 2. Chemical. 3. Architectural. 4. Electrical. 5. Hydraulic. 6. Naval. 7. Mining. 8. Military. 9. Civil. 10. Sanitary. IV. Distributive. A. Commerce. B. Finance. C. Transportation. D. Communication. V. Personal. A. Domestic Service. B. Professional Service, i. Medicine. 2. Law. 3. Politics. 4. Edu- cation. 5. Literature. 6. Art. 7. Religion. 8. Army and Navy. Economic Types. — The various communities or societies of men may be classified according to their prevailing economy and given a rank corresponding to the extent and efficiency with which they utilize the natural resources of the earth. I. Simple Societies. — Societies which depend upon the re- sources of their immediate environment and are independent of foreign trade are simple. Their wants are few and their arts and industries are rudimentary. The resources of their envi- ronment are limited and imperfectly utilized. They are self- supporting and usually more or less nomadic. There are three types : 1. Societies which by plucking, fishing, and hunting use and destroy natural resources, producing nothing. They inhabit the cold deserts, tundras (Eskimos, p. 17), coniferous forests, and equatorial forests (Amazon people, p. 27). 2. Societies which produce food and clothing by hoe culture combined with collective economy or herding. They inhabit savannas, tropical islands 92 ECONOMIES AND ECONOMIC SOCIETIES (South Sea Islanders, p. 19), and the margins of warm desert and forest (Pueblo Indians, p. 22). 3. Societies whose main resource is domestic animals. They inhabit steppes (people of the Steppe, p. 32), savannas, and tundras. II. Complex Societies. — • Societies which are partly self- supporting, but dependent upon other societies to supply a large part of their wants, are complex. Their wants are nu- merous and varied, and their arts, industries, and commerce are moderately to highly developed. Foreign trade is essential. Their own resources are exploited and sometimes fully utilized. They are dependent upon one another. They flourish in the temperate forest and grasslands, but extend their enterprises to all parts of the world. There are four types : 1 . Societies which produce essentials, such as foodstuffs and raw materials at home and obtain very limited manufactured luxuries by trade. Their economies are chiefly productive. They feed themselves. Industry is almost wholly domestic. Foreign com- merce per capita is small. The Chinese are the best example. 2. Societies which export a large part of their foodstuffs and raw materials, and import most of their manufactured goods. When agricultural, they have a large excess of rural over urban population. Their economies are chiefly productive and dis- tributive. They feed others. Foreign commerce per capita is large. They are young and sparsely populated countries, often •European colonies. Austraha, New Zealand, South Africa, and Argentina are examples. 3. Societies which import most of their foodstuffs and raw materials, and export manufactures. Their economies are chiefly constructive and distributive. Capitahstic manufacture and foreign commerce are very large. They are fed by others. They depend chiefly on coal and iron and are very wealthy, but the sources of their wealth are exhaustible. The urban population greatly exceeds the rural. Great Britain and Belgium are examples. QUESTIONS 93 4. Societies which export foodstuffs, raw materials, and manufactures, and imj:)ort chiefly luxuries. They practice all economies, exploit all kinds of resources, and use all the arts of engineering. Trade and commerce are extensive and varied. Their economies are highly developed and harmoniously balanced. They feed and are fed. The rural and urban populations are nearly balanced. They might be independent but ac- tually enjoy the resources and products of the world, and their wealth is capable of indefinite increase. The United States is the best example. QUESTIONS 1. Make a list of all the different kinds of economy practiced in your community. Which are the most general and important ? 2. In what economies is the largest number of people employed? Why? 3. ]\Iake a list of the names of some of the most prominent people engaged in each economy. 4. Which economies require large capital ? 5. Which economies require superior education and ability? 6. By which economies is the greatest iiadividual wealth accumulated? Why? ^ ^ C I F " I C^ " O PART II ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY OF THE UNITED STATES CHAPTER IX NATURAL ECONOMIC REGIONS OF THE UNITED STATES Location and Natural Conditions. — The continental territory of the United States spans the north temperate zone and extends into the cold temperate zone on the north and the subtropical zone on the south (Fig. 17). The main body of the states extends across North America from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, a distance of about 2500 miles, and from the Great Lakes and the 49th parallel to the Rio Grande and the Gulf of Mexico, a dis- tance of about 1200 miles. The area is about 3,000,000 square miles, or nearly as large as that of the continent of Europe. The position and size of the country are extremely advantageous. Occupying the middle latitudes of North America, it covers a large portion of the land area most suitable for civilization (pp. 50, 60, 64, 92, 93, Figs. 17, 18, 31, 32). Bordering upon two oceans, on the other side of which lie the populous countries of Europe and Asia, it can be neighborly with half the people of the world. It includes a great variety of relief, soil, climate, vegetation, and resources, and can produce nearly all kinds of wealth on a large scale. Atlantic and Pacific Divisions. — The United States is natu- rally divided into two nearly equal, contrasted portions. The line of division is marked approximately by the looth meridian. The eastern half may be called the low, humid states ; the western half the high, dry states (Figs. 29, ;^t,, 35). The eastern or Atlantic division is a plain, broken only by 95 96 NATURAL ECONOMIC REGIONS OF TIIK UNITi:!) STATES the Appalachian Highlands, of which only about 20,000 square miles lie more than 2000 feet above the sea. It is almost every- where smooth enough to be tilled and traversed by roads and canals. Beneath the surface are found the most valuable coal •.'|J» 3011 41)0 500 Fig. *o. Average length in days of the growing season in the Atlantic division of the United States. fields yet opened in the world, with important deposits of iron, lead, zinc, petroleum, and other minerals. In the rougher parts water power is abundant. One half the area is covered with the best glacial and alluvial soils. The rainfall varies from 20 inches in the northwest to 60 inches in the southeast (Fig. 29), and is everywhere sufficient in the growing season for agricul- ture without irrigation (Fig. 30). ISOTIIKRiMS 97 ^^X^^- Fig. 31. — January isotherms. Fig. 32. — July isotherms. 99 ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC DIVISIONS lOI The natural vcgelalion consists chielly of summer forest and prairie, with smaller areas of coniferous forest in the north, on the highlands, and on sandy soils near the coast (Fig. 6i). The Atlantic coast line is low and indented by many river valleys, which admit the sea far into the land, form- ing good harbors and ports. The coast faces the populous and highly civilized countries of Europe, which can be reached by a voyage of less than a week. Its southern boundary is the shore of " the American Mediterranean," where the waters of the Gulf of Mexico wash the tropical shores of the West Indies, JNIexico, and Central and South America. The western or Pacific division is a mountainous plateau, nine tenths of which lies above 2000 feet in height. It is crossed from north to south by the Cordilleras, consisting of the Rocky Mountain system near the eastern side, and the Cascade, Sierra Nevada, and Coast Ranges near the coast. The Great Plains east of the Rocky Mountains, and the lava plateau of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho are relatively smooth. The Colorado plateau is cut by profound canyons, and the Great Basin, ridged by scores of mountain ranges, resembles a washboard. The only extensive lowlands are the valleys of California, Puget Sound, and the lower Columbia and Colorado rivers. The mountains are rich in ores of gold, silver, copper, and lead, making this one of the great metal-producing regions of the world. The cHmate varies greatly with elevation but, except in the coastal region, is generally severe. The highest temperatures in North America occur in southern CaHfornia, and the lowest in the United States in Montana. The rainfall is generally less than 20 inches and in the southwest less than 10 inches. On the mountains it reaches 30 inches and on the coast north of CaHfornia 40 to 100 inches (Fig. 29). The coastal rains are heaviest in winter, and in CaHfornia the summers are dry. (See Figs. 29, 31, 32, 2,^.) The vegetation consists of dense coniferous forest on the mountains and wet lowlands (Fig. 61), steppe on the plateaus having 10 to 20 inches of rain, desert where the rainfall is less than 10 inches, and subtropical dry forest in the region of dry summers. The Pacific coast is high and rocky, with few harbors and only three large identations, San Francisco Bay, the lower '^'^o o JC CO z y o ^ ^ X cs J^ < CO o TUBAL P OF THE ED ST :z -J H O => M o S5 ;?; O M ECONOMIC RIXJIONS 103 Columbia River, and Piigcl Sound. TIk' dcnsily populated countries of China and Japan lie at a distance of 1 5 or 20 days' journey. A sail of 10 or 15 days more would take one to the East Indies, Australia, or New Zealand. The relative economic value of the Atlantic and Pacific divis- ions is clearly shown in Fig. 34. The contrast between the density of population, or number of people which each division supports, is very striking. In the eastern half there are only a few patches where the density is less than 18 persons to the square mile. In the western half there are only a few patches where the density is more than 18 to the square mile. Economic Regions. — Agriculture, stock raising, mining, man- ufacture, and trade are carried on to some extent in nearly every part of the United States, but there are regions in which some one of these economies assumes larger proportions than in any other. The leading crop or industry varies in different districts, and it is possible to subdivide the country into any desired number of economic divisions. This has been done as far as con- venient for the purposes of this book on the map. Fig. 35. 'The boundaries are not really sharp and definite as the lines in- dicate. Usually no difference would be noticed by a person cross- ing any of them, but a gradual change would occur within some Land area Population Natural wealth - Gross wealth .- Net wealth Value of property f. Railway mileage Foreign commerce Imports Exports 5,0 4 100 lb 20 3? 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 l~^ Middle West ^^ Eastern States pvrT! Southern States rr^^ Interior States Ml Pacific States Fig. 36. — Rank of economic regions in area, population, wealth, and commerce. (See Table I, Appenilix.) I04 NATURAL ECONOMIC REGIONS OF THE UNITED STATES PER CENT POPULATION 10 2,0 3,0 40 5,0 60 70 8,0 9,0 IQO Rural I I I I Urban UNITED STATES Middle West Eastern States Southern States. Interior States Pacific States UNITED STATES Middle West Eastern States Southern States Interior States . . Pacific States UNITED STATES. Middle West Eastern States Southern States Interior States Pacific States OCCUPATION UNITED STATES Middle West Eastern States Southern States .Interior States Pacific States Fig. 37- — -Rank of economic regions in population and occupations. Appendix.) 80 90 100 (See Table II, miles on either side of the line. The United States is a politi- cal unit, but in area and economic character the states differ among themselves as much as the countries of Europe. Eco- nomic boundaries do not always correspond with state lines, but each state may be treated as belonging to the region in which its most important economy would place it. Summary. — The United States may be divided into natural regions, or groups of states, in each of which the general economic conditions are uniform and are different from those in other regions. (See Figs. 36, 37.) QUESTIONS 105 QUESTIONS 1. What countries in the world arc as large as the United States, or larger ? 2. Do any of them have a long coast line on two oceans? 3. Is the relief of any as varied as that of the United States? 4. What countries lie in the same latitudes as the United States? in the same temperature zones? (See Fig. 17.) 5. What other countries have large areas of summer forest, coniferous forest, prairie, steppe, and desert ? (See Fig. 18.) 6. What other countries have large coal fields? (See Fig. 2^.) iron mines? copper mines? (See Fig. 25.) gold and silver mines? (See Fig. 26.) Has any other country all of these ? 7. What and where is the smallest rainfall in the eastern half of the United States ? (See Fig. 29.) What and where is the largest ? 8. Why is the density of population greater in that part of the United States which has 20 inches or more rainfall ? (See Figs. 2q, 34.) g. How does the density of population in that part of the United States which lies above 2000 feet compare with the density in the part below 2000 feet? (See Figs. 33, 34.) 10. How do you account for the density of population along much of the shore of both oceans and of the Great Lakes ? CHAFFER X THE MIDDLE WEST: AGRICULTURE The region upon which the people of the United States depend chiefly for their food supply may be regarded as the foundation of their economy, and that is the Middle West. The natural boundary on the east is the Appalachian Highland and on the west the contour line ^ of 2000 feet, the limit of 20 inches of rain- fall, and the margin of the steppe, all of which lie near the looth meridian (Figs. 18, 29, ;^2,). The natural southern boundary is indefinite, with a wide belt of gradual change to the conditions of the Southern States region, from which it may be separated by the limit of 7 months without frost (Fig. 30). On the north it extends to the Great Lakes and the Dominion of Canada. It includes the states of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota^ (Figs. 35, 56). The western part of the last four states named forms a region of transition or gradual change to the conditions of the Interior States. The area of the Middle West is a little more than one fourth that of the United States and its population more than one third (Fig. 36). Chicago, the metropolis and commercial center, is equidistant (about 900 miles) from the Atlantic seaboard and the Gulf coast, and about twice as far from the Pacific coast. 1 A contour line on a map represents a line on the ground which is everywhere at the same height above the sea, in this case 2000 feet. " These correspond to the North Central States of the Census Bureau with the addition of Kentucky, which is a transition state excluded from the southern group because it raises no cotton. 106 CLIMATI-: AND VEGETATION 107 Relief, Soil, and Drainage. - The Middle West includes lakes Michigan, Superior, Huron, and Eric, which form a great inland sea, connected both naturally and artificially with the ocean. The streams flowing into these lakes are short, and most of the region is drained by the upper Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri rivers, which furnish a waterway to the Gulf of Mexico. Be- tween North Dakota and Minnesota the Red River flows north- ward to Lake Winnipeg and Hudson Bay. Two thirds of the land is covered with a heavy coat of glacial drift (Fig. 33), brought by successive ice sheets from the north. This mass of mantle rock was removed from its original position, thoroughly ground and mixed, and finally plastered over the bedrock surface, covering up most of its ir- regularities. The surface of the drift forms a smooth, level, or undulating plain, traversed by many gentle ridges and belts of low hills. It is very favorable for tillage and transportation, and the drift forms a soil of great depth and fertility. The unglaciated portion is rougher, and in southern Missouri and eastern Kentucky decidedly hilly and rugged. The lands around Lake Superior are traversed by ranges of rocky hills, rich in iron and copper. Climate and Vegetation. — Cyclonic storms bring frequent and great changes of weather (p. 60). The winters are in most parts severe, but the summers are everywhere long and warm enough to ripen grain. The length of the growing season varies from four to seven months (Fig. 30). The rainfall ranges from 50 inches in the southeast to 18 inches in the northwest. In the drier parts most of the rain falls in the growing season and there is moisture enough for farming without irrigation. The belt of coniferous forest (Fig. 18) extends into northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and southern Michigan originally supported a heavy growth of hardwood timber. West of Indiana and Lake Michigan trees were few, and generally confined to belts along the streams (Fig. 61). This is the region of the great prairies, the richest grasslands in the world. io8 lill. MIDDIJ', WF.ST: agriculture Agriculture. In nearly every part of the Middle West, the relief, soil, and climate are extremely favorable for field culture. During the last century all except the poorest and roughest lands have been brought under cultivation. This required the removal of a large part Fig. 38. — Gang plow drawn by an engine on the level prairie. of the forest, itself a work of great labor. The prairies were already clear and ready for the plow (Fig. 38), but lacked materials for construction. A population large enough to occupy and till the land could not reach it, or be supported by it, without means of transportation for people and goods, and without access to markets. These means were supplied at first by the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri rivers and their tributaries, later by canals, railroads, and the Great Lakes. CORN 109 The proportion of improved land under cultivation for crops and pasture is as high as 82 per cent in Iowa, above 75 per cent in Illinois, nearly 75 per cent in Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio, and 46 per cent for the whole region, which includes 58 per cent of all the improved lands of the United States (Fig. 39). The products are nearly all foodstuffs. They include all the grains, fruits, and vegetables of the temperate Fig. 39. — Proportion of improved land in farms to total land area, igio. zone, but the principal crops are corn, wheat, oats, and hay. Stock raising is an essential part of the economy and much of the plant growth is converted into pork, beef, mutton, dairy foods, fowls, and eggs. Straw used for paper making, hides for leather, wool for cloth, and some other items not eaten may be regarded as incidental by-products. Corn. — The first European settlers found the American Indians raising, by hoe culture, a single cereal, and called it Indian corn, which was the EngHsh name for any kind of grain. It is known in many languages as maize. Corn is a large species ELEM. ECON. GEOG. 7 no THK MIDDLK WKST: .\(;KrCULTURi; of grass, growing soiiK'tiiiics to a height of llflccii feci. Each stalk may bear one, two, or niore ears, containing the grains in rows upon a woody stem or cob, covered with tough leaves or husks. The skin of the whole plant is tough enough to protect it from insect enemies and it is subject lo few diseases. It is well adapted to new and uncleared countries; when j)lanled among stumps or dead trees it will produce edible food in shorter time and in larger quantity than an\ other grain. It requires frequent rain in the spring, a hot midsummer with bright sunshine and warm nights, and a cool, dry autumn to ripen. It is not profitable where the growing season is less than four months. All these conditions })revail in the highest degree in the American corn bell, which extends from Ohio lo Kansas and from Kenluck}- to Wis- consin (Fig. 40). Fic. 40. — Distribution of corn. ICacli dot represents 100,000 bushels. Cultivation and Harvest. — Between April tirst and June first, according to locality and season, corn is planted in rows three or four feet apart. As soon as the blades appear above the ground, it is plowed to kill weeds and conserve moisture. This is done by a two-horse cultivator, ridden by the driver, and is repeated until the stalks are half grown. One man and team CULTIVATION AND HARVEST III can plant and tend forty or more acres of corn. By July the corn is too large to cultivate longer and in September the leaves begin to die and the kernels to harden. The ears are so well protected by husks that the grain can be left in the field for months without injury. Harvesting is still largely done by hand. The ears are picked from the standing stalks and drawn in wagons to bins having a tight roof but sides with many openings to the air. Hand i)icking is wasteful of fodder and is being superseded by machines which cut and bind the stalks into bundles Fig. 41. — Cutting corn in Illinois. (Fig. 41). Often the stalks are cut by hand and set up in shocks to dry (Frontispiece). The ears were formerly husked or " shucked " entirely by hand, the work being continued into the winter. " Husking bees," attended by all the people of the neighborhood, were held in the barns, and made the occasion of feasting, dancing, and social festivity. Many farmers now use machines, driven by gasoline engines, which husk the ears, and tear or slice the stalks to pieces. ■ This process saves and makes the most of all the fodder. Unripe stalks and ears are cut and packed into silos so closely that they do not spoil, but resemble canned vegetables. Corn thus treated is called ensilage and is fed to milch cows when other fresh fodder is not procurable. Even in localities where corn does not ripen, it may be profit- ably grown for ensilage and the green grain canned for the table. 112 riii'; MiDhi.i; wkst: agriculture More than half the corn crop is fed on the farm to swine, cattle, poultry, and horses and thus converletl into meat and power. Animals fed at home help to maintain the fertility of the land, and thus the corn-swine-cattle farm is one of the most efticient food factories yet devised. The proportion of corn sent directly to market varies with the cost of transportation from none to one half. It is used in the manufacture of starch, sugar, sirup, beer, alcohol, and oil. Crop. — In any state the corn crop is liable to vary greatly from year to year, but there is never a failure in all the states in UNITED STATES ^.672, 100 200 300 400 Iowa Illinois .-- Nebraska Indiana Missouri Ohia Texas Kansas- Kentucky. Minnesota- Tennessee ■ South Dakota "Wisconsin -- All others 804,000 427,000 100 200 300 400 Fig. 42. — Production of corn by states (1914) in millions of bushels. (See Table VI, Appendix.) the same year. Iowa and Illinois usually lead in corn production (Fig. 42). Corn can be grown throughout the Atlantic division of the United States and its cultivation is increasing in the Southern States, but of the total corn crop of about 3000 million bushels, worth 1500 million dollars, the Middle West produces 71 per cent (Fig. 54). It is the most valuable crop of America and it is practically all consumed at home. The grain itself plays a relatively small part in domestic or foreign commerce, but corn-fed animals and other products are widely distributed at home and abroad. Influence of Corn Culture. — Corn culture has probably done more to in- crease the grade of intelligence among farmers than any other branch of agriculture. Through the agency of the agricultural colleges, " corn WHEAT 113 schools " and "corn trains " travel over the railroads, giving instruction to all who will assemble at the stopping places. In rural schools prizes are offered to the pupil who raises the best crop of corn, 'i'he farmer has learned that it pays to give careful attention lo the selection of seed (Fig. 43), to fertilizers, cultivation, and stock feeding. Corn growing has changed from the haphazard methods of the squaw to a highly scientific business. World Crop. — Corn has come to be an important crop in nearly all parts of the temperate and warm temperate zones, and is the main food grown even on the savannas of cen- tral and southern Africa. Argentina, and the coun- tries of southern Europe, especially Hungary, Rou- mania, and Italy produce the largest crops, outside the United States, amount- ing in some years to 600 million bushels. The total world production ap- proaches 4000 millioi^ bushels, which, possibl\ excepting rice, is the largest single crop. Corn is a rich , starchy food, differing from other grains in containing an oil which makes it less palatable and more difficult of digestion. Corn flour does not contain enough gluten to make a sticky dough and to be " raised " by yeast, but it is often mixed with wheat flour and made into bread. The peasants of southern Italy live largely upon coarse, corn-meal mush. In Mexico the only indispensable household utensil is the stone upon which the women grind the daily supply of meal for " tortillas," or flat cakes baked upon the hearth. Wheat. — The plant of greatest value to the human race is the species of grass called wheat. It has been domesticated since prehistoric times, is nov\^ grown in all parts of the world where the chmate permits, and is the staple foodstuff of advanced peoples. It is easily raised, handled, and stored. Flour is nutritious and palatable, and can be made into a variety of breads, biscuits, and 114 'I'm; MiDDi.i; wi.si' : ackkti/itrI': pastes. Hrcad is i ailed tin- " slalT of life," and (he word is often used as a symbol lor food in general, as in the expression, " the struggle for bread." Wheat is a more delicate plant than corn and is liable to injury from insects and rusts. Wheat is grown throughout the Middle West (Figs. 35, 44), but in the corn belt it is a secondary crop. The wheat belt overlaps the corn belt but extends farther north. It is the leading crop of Fig. 44. — Distribution of wheat and flour-milling centers. the northwest, where the growing season is too short and dry for corn. A good yield requires cool, moist weather during which the plants may " stool out " or form many seed-bearing stalks. Warm, dry weather for ripening and harvesting is essential. A clean seed bed, rather clayey than sandy, compact below and well pulverized on the surface is required. In the corn belt wheat is sown in the autumn, makes a good growth of leaves before winter, stools out in the spring, and is harvested in early summer. Winter wheat needs a permanent covering of snow to prevent repeated thawing and freezing, which heaves the roots out of the ground and " winter kills " the plants. In the northwest wheat is WHKAT A \i:W LAND CROP 115 sown as early in the spring as the ground thaws and harvested in late summer (Fig. 35). Cultivation and Harvest. — Wheat is sown with horse drills having hollow teeth through which the grain is deposited in shallow furrows about nine inches apart. It requires no cultivation or attention until mature. When ripe, machines cut and bind it into sheaves which are set up in shocks or put into stacks to cure. A thrasher, driven by a steam or gasoline Fig. 45. — The end of larvcst in Illinois. The wheat has been thrashed, the grain sacked and the straw piled in a stack. engine, separates and cleans the grain and piles the straw by itself. One machine may thrash 1000 bushels a day and move in the night to the next field or farm. The grain is drawn to a railroad and stored in elevators (Fig. 144) built for the purpose, whence it is shipped to mills and markets. A crop of wheat requires little hand labor, and one man, with help at harvest time, can raise and market 1000 bushels. Wheat a New Land Crop. — In a newly settled country where land is cheap, if a market is accessible, wheat is one of the best money-making crops. There was never a better instance of this than in the Red River valley of Minnesota, North Dakota, and Manitoba. There the bed of a glacial lake, long since drained, treeless and as flat as a floor, with a rich, loose soil free from stones, made tillage easy and a crop sure. It was covered with wheat fields for thirty years, until the soil was exhausted by one-crop farming. Now, to maintain fertility, other crops are grown in rotation and cattle are kept. The new lands of the Canadian northwest are being exploited by ii6 rilK Mll)I)i>K WKST: AGRICULTURE the same one-crop system, and will maintain the world's wheal supply for another century. The wheat crop of the United States varies from 700 to 1000 million bushels (Fig. 46; Table III, Appendix), of which about 70 per cent is grown in the Middle West. UNITED STATES ...891.017.000 p 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Kansas Month Dakota - Nebraska. Oklahoma Missouri Indiana Minnesota Washington — Ohio- South Dakota - All others" Fig. 46. 177,200,000 - 81.592.000 . 68.116,000 . 47,975.000 .-i3,.333,000 - 43.239.000 ..42.975.000 -.41.840.000 .-36.538.000 .-31.566.000 -276,643,000 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Production of wheat by states (1914) in millions of bushels. (See Table VI, Appendix.) World Crop. — Wheat is above all others the staple product and com- modity of the world. Large quantities can be raised, but there is always a demand for more. People go without it only because they cannot get it. The equatorial zone is impossible for wheat except in India, where it is grown in the cool, dry winter and harvested in early spring. The Mediterranean climate of dry summers is ideal. The world's wheat belts lie along the pole- ward or windward margins of the great arid regions in all continents. South- ern Europe, Siberia, India, Argentina, Australia, the United States, and Canada furnish examples. The world's wheat crop is nearly 4000 million bushels, of which Europe produces one half, the United States one fifth, and Asia one seventh. The leading countries, United States, Russia, India, France, and Austria-Hungary, produce 65 per cent of the whole. The United States is the only country in the world in which the struggle for bread is literally and wholly successful. Bread is on every table at every meal. There is never any fear of famine, and hotels and restaurants furnish it with other food without charge. Distribution. — The distribution of such a commodity as wheat is of especial importance. Old and densely populated countries, like France and Italy, may raise much wheat and buy more. OATS 117 Young and sparsely populated countries, like Argentina and Canada, may raise much to sell. Crops and surplus vary from year to year, but usually Russia, Argentina, the United States, and Canada have most wheat to sell, while Great Britain, Ger- many, Belgium, and Italy buy most. The crops, exports, and imports of wheat are given in Table VIII, Appendix. Manufac- turing countries like Great Britain and Belgium are dependent on foreign countries for bread, and if their imports were cut ofi they would suffer from hunger. The Black Sea countries can ship wheat very cheaply by water to the great markets of western Europe. American wheat has to be transported about 1000 miles by lake boat or by rail to reach the coast. To transport a bushel of wheat from Duluth to New York costs, by rail, 12 cents, and from New York to Liverpool 10 cents. Future Supply. — The law that population tends to increase faster than food supply applies especially to wheat. Since all the new lands of the United States have now been brought under cultivation, there cannot be much enlargement of the wheat belt. The discovery of new varieties makes it possible to extend wheat fields into the steppe and even into the desert? but such expansion is quite limited. The wheat crop may be greatly in- creased by better farming. The present average yield per acre in the United States of 15 bushels could be raised to the Belgian average of 40 bushels, and will be as soon as the demand and increased price make it profitable. That will not take place until the new wheatlands are occupied and have proved insufficient to meet the increasing demand. For the immediate future the world may look to Canada, Argentina, and Siberia to furnish bread to its rapidly growing population. Oats. — Oats are adapted to a cooler and moister climate than wheat, and are an invaluable grain in regions where neither corn nor wheat flourishes. The yield per acre is much larger in bulk than that of wheat, but the weight per bushel is about half as great. In the corn belt oats are the third crop in acreage and second in total yield. They are sown early in the spring before corn planting, require no attention until ripe, and are har- vested after the period of corn cultivation and usually after wheat ii8 Till': MiDDij-, \vi;s'i': A(;Ri(Ui;ruKK harvest. The same machinery and methods are used as in the case of wheat (Fig. 47). Oat straw is softer and more valuable for fodder than wheat straw. Most of the grain is fed to stock, especially horses, but the use of oatmeal for human food has, in the last half century, become quite general. In food value it ranks high, but is more difficult to mill, cook, and digest than wheat flour. The crop of the United States is about 1400 million bushels, of which 80 per cent is grown in the Middle West (Table III, Appendix). Iowa and Illinois are the leading states (Fig. 48). UNITED STATES. .1,141.060.000 Iowa — Illinois Minnesota Nebraska North Dakota Wisconsin Kansas Michigan Ohio Indiana South Dakota New York All others 50 100 150 200 Fig. 48. — Production of oats, by states (iQi.t), in millions of bushels. 'See Table VI, Appendix.) BARLEY 119 World Crop. — The world's ( roj) of oats is about 4600 million bushels, of which the combined crop of Russia and (iermany is a little greater than that of the United Slates. Oats are of great importance in Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, Norway, Canada, and the European rye bell. The Scotch peas- antry, noted for their physical and mental vigor, have been until recently nourished largely on oatmeal. Rye. — Rye is closely allied to wheat, but will mature on poorer soil, in a colder climate, and with less careful preparation of the ground. In the United States it is not now an important crop, because wheat is generally more profitable. The rye crop of 40 million bushels is about two per cent of the world's crop ; 65 per cent of the United States crop is grown in the Middle West (Table III, Appendix). Rye is often used as a source of the starch from which whisky is manufactured. The rye belt of the world extends across Europe from the North Sea to the Ural Mountains, where the soil, as in the wheat belt of the United States, is of glacial origin. While the soils of the glacial drift of the United States are of extraordinary fertility, those of Europe are sandy and poor. Thus glaciation in the one case determined the location of a wheat belt and in the other that of a rye belt. The masses of the people in the rye belt eat black rye bread, which is nutritious and much cheaper than wheat bread. The world's crop of rye is about 1800 million bushels, of which Russia and Germany produce five sixths. Barley. — The hardiest of the cereals and the one adapted to the widest range of conditions is barley. It endures cold, heat, and drought, and in the old world is raised from the Arctic shores to the Sahara. Around the Medi- terranean it was the chief grain food of ancient times. Its yield is much greater than that of wheat, which it might displace as a breadstuff, except for the fact that it lacks gluten and cannot be made into light bread. In dry regions it is a good substitute for corn as a stock food, and is often cut while green and made into hay. In the United States it is used chiefly in making malt for beer. The barley crop of the United States is over 200 million bushels, of which the Middle West produces about 68 per cent (Table III, Appendix). Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Dakotas raise more apiece than any other state except Cahfornia. The world's crop is about 1 500 million bushels, of which Europe produces two thirds. I20 THE MIDDLE WEST: AOKTCUETURE Potatoes. - Next to grain, poUitocs arc the hirgcst food crop throughout cool temperate regions. They contain little nourish- ment besides starch, and their food value is low. They may sup- plenient but cannot take the j)lace of breadstuff s. Thej^lant origi- nated on the high plateaus of the Andes and does not maintain itself in a warm climate, yet its range extends from the arctic circle to the tropic. It will grow in all soils except heavy clay. It is raised in the corn and wheat belts for local supply, but is more important in regions too cool for corn and too sandy for wheat. The edible potato is a tuber, or enlarged underground stem (not root), of which there are many varieties differing in size, color, and quality. The tubers (not seed) are planted in early spring and cultivated like corn, the earth being finally heaped up around the plant to form " a hill." When the stalks are dead the tubers are dug with a fork or hook by hand, or are plowed out with horses. Under favorable conditions the yield is 200 bushels or more from an acre, and the gathering and handling of the crop involve much heavy labor. Crop. — The total crop varies widely from year to year, a surplus cannot be kept over, and the bulk and weight make transportation expensive. Consequently the price of potatoes and the grower's profits are very variable. They are generally cheap food and the poor man's reliance. The crop of the United States averages about 350 miUion bushels, half of which 921,000 Fig. 40. 004,000 10 20 30 40 50 60 ■Production of potatoes by states (igi4) in millions of bushels. (See Table VI, Appendix.) HAY 121 is produced in the Middle West (Table III, Appendix). Potatoes acquire and maintain their best quaUties in certain locaUties where, in consequence, their culture has become a special industry. Western New York, southern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, Maine, Pennsylvania, and eastern Canada are famous (Fig. 49), and supply seed to more southern states. New varieties are produced by sowing the true seed from the seed pods borne on the stalks. The greatest potato-growing region of the world covers the European rye belt from Ireland to Russia, where the crop approximates 5000 million bushels. In Germany 60 million bushels of potatoes a year are used as a source of alcohol for fuel. This is an ingenious and thrifty method of utiliz- ing the sun's rays for power in latitude 54°. Hay. — The poetic, scriptural expression of the brevity of animal Hfe, " all flesh is as grass," may be matched by the scien- tific statement, " all flesh is grass." In the history of the earth, no animals superior to reptiles existed until the period of abundant grasses arrived. As soon as grass became plentiful, the ancestors of our cattle, horses, swine, sheep, deer, and camels appeared and multipHed. Natural or artificial grasslands are now the homes of all the world's most advanced peoples. To what extent men are dependent upon the cereal grasses has already been indicated. Grass is as necessary to a supply of meat as of bread. The corn and wheat belts of the United States are also a hay belt, which produces about one half the crop (Table III, Appendix). In mixed farming about one half the land is devoted to grass each year. A part of it is pasture for summer feed, and the rest is meadow where hay is made for winter use. Natural pasture or meadow is made up of many species of grass and other herbs, among which the clovers are important. In Indiana and Kentucky blue-grass pastures are famous for horses. In the usual rotation of crops, seeds of timothy grass and red clover are sown on the wheat fields in the spring. The young plants are protected by the wheat until it is cut, and the fields thus " seeded down " are kept in grass for two or three years before they are again plowed. Millet, Hungarian grass, barley, alfalfa, and other species are sometimes sown to cut for hay. The 122 'Jill'; MiDDi.i: wKS'i": A(;ki(Ui/ruRi-; straw and cornstalks, which arc also j^rasscs, added to the hay, make the bulk of fodder produced on a corn hell farm very lar^e, and render live animals and meat the principal output. Hay is cut in early summer, both before and after f^raiii harvest. Im- proved machinery enables the farmer to cut, cure, and slack or house hay rapidly and with little or no hard labor. On account of ils bulk hay is sel- dom shipped far, but a certain i)ortion, loose or baled, is sent to the towns and cities to feed horses. Summary. — The staple food crops of the United States are corn, wheat, oats, barley, rye, potatoes, and hay. Of the cereal grains, except rice, grown in the United States, the Middle West produces 70 per cent and of potatoes and hay about one half. QUESTIONS 1. Why is the region discussed in Chapter X called the Middle West ? 2. Of what special importance is the rainfall line of 20 inches? (See Fig. 29.) 3. What peculiarities of surface and soil in the Middle West make large crops possible? 4. What factors of climate in the Middle West are favorable for food crops? unfavorable? 5. How do the winter storms, bringing rain and snow, affect the crops of the Middle West ? 6. If the Gulf of Mexico were dry land, what difference would it make to the Middle West ? 7. How can the natural superiority of the Middle West as an agricultural region be accounted for? 8. A good crop of corn has been raised in Kansas with a rainfall of only 8 inches in one year. Explain. 9. Why does corn-growing to-day show a higher stage of civilization than when it was done by the squaws ? 10. Why do most people prefer while bread if they can get it ? 11. Why are potatoes sometimes called Irish potatoes? 12. How does burning alcohol made from potatoes utilize the sun's rays for power ? CHAPTER XI THE MIDDLE WEST: STOCK RAISING The high efficiency of agriculture in the Middle West is due to the combination of stock raising with crop growing. The grain and bulky forage are converted into power to run the farm machinery for tillage, harvesting, and transportation, and are concentrated into meat of much higher value per pound than the fodder. At the same time a large part of the plant food con- sumed by the crops is returned to the land in the form of stable manure. Horses. — Among animals the horse has been most highly prized. On account of his speed, strength, and docility he is equally useful as a pack, draft, or riding animal. Horse riders and drivers have as much advantage over footmen as railroads and automobiles give over horse-drawn vehicles. The horse acquires his best qualities in the steppe (p. t,^), but can live in almost any climate where grass grows. He is sensitive to the attacks of insects and is excluded by them from some parts of Africa. When the first Europeans landed in America there was not a horse on either continent. Horses brought by the Spaniards to Mexico escaped from the settlements and ran wild for 300 years. The 21 million horses now in the United States are de- scended from the best stock imported from western Europe. No other country except Russia has so many. More than half of them are kept in the Middle West (Table III, Appendix) where horse and mule breeding is the special industry of many localities. Kentucky is famous for fine horses and Missouri for mules. Although displaced to some extent by gasoline and electric motor cars, the horse will 123 124 THK MIDDLK WKST: STOCK RAISING probably never be dispensed with. He may be excluded from cities for sanitary reasons. For general working purposes the mule is a better animal, but the beauty, intelligence, and spirit of the horse make him an aristocrat admired and loved by men. Cattle. - The most generally useful of domestic animals are the various species of cattle. For flesh, milk, and hides they are superior to all others, and as beasts of burden and draft fill places that no others can. The carabao, or water buffalo, is as nicely adapted to tropical jungles and marshes as the camel to the desert. The yak is the animal depended upon for milk and transportation on the high plateaus and mountains of Central Asia. The zebus, or humped cattle of India, are more numerous than any other species, and because they furnish the principal means of subsistence are regarded as sacred. The native American species of the family is the bison or buffalo, which once wandered over the prairie and steppe in immense herds, but is now nearly extinct. Cattle raising is the special and almost exclusive industry of the steppe, but a productive farm can support ten times as many Fig. 50. — Distnbution of neat cattle, and meat packing centers. DAIRYING 125 animals to the acre as a ranch. Consequently 45 per cent of the 56 million cattle of the United States are found in the Middle West. The farmers buy many young cattle from the ranchmen, fatten them through a winter, and sell them at a handsome profit. This is especially the case in Texas, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma (Fig. 50). Dairying, — • The characteristic cattle industry of the region is dairying. While the Middle Western states have eastern rivals UNITED STATES $274,558,000 10 20 30 40 ' 50 60 Wisconsin New York Iowa_ Minnesota Illinois Michigan Pennsylvania California All others Fig. 51. 53.843.000 42.458.000 25.849.000 25.287,000 17,798,000 J4,287,000 13,544.000 12,761.000 ! 68.731,000 10 20 30 40 50 60 Value of butter, cheesi;, and condensed milk, manufactured by states (igog). in the dairy industry none quite equals Wisconsin (Fig. 51). This is largely due to the efforts of the School of Agriculture at the State University, which has educated the farmers to a high degree of scientific intelligence and practice. The state has a million and a half of cows and about 3000 creameries and cheese factories for handling their product. Milk is a perfect food but difficult to preserve from contamination and spoiling. It must be used fresh within about thirty-six hours, or converted into some other form. In regions far from great cities nearly all of it is made into butter and cheese. These processes, once carried on in every rural household, are now more efficiently performed in creameries and factories, where the farmer delivers his milk every day. A high-grade cow, fed upon hay, grain, and ensilage, will yield her own weight of butter, or twenty times her own weight of milk in a year. Butter making has become a highly scientific process. An instrument for testing the amount of butter fat in milk determines its value when sold, and the cream is separated by a machine in a few minutes. A great deal of milk is evaporated, condensed, ELEM. ECON. GEOG. 8 126 THE MIDDLE \Vi;ST : STOCK RAISING Fig. 52. —Bottling milk in an Uliuuia dairy. Fig. Si- — Distribution of swine. POULTRY 127 and canned to be sent to the uttermost parts of the earth. Dairying (Figs. 52, 55) is a branch of intensive, scientific farming, which yields a good profit on small farms by increase of labor expended. Holland, northern France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Switzerland are famous dairy countries of Europe. Swine. — The wild hog is a forest animal (p. ^S) living upon nuts, roots, grubs, snakes, and other concentrated food. He will eat almost anything ; hence when domesticated he is the poor man's animal, producing from garbage and forage toothsome and nutritious meat. When fed on grain he will grow and multi- ply faster than any other domestic animal. The corn belt of the Middle West (Figs. 40, 53) raises twice as many hogs as any country in the world outside the United States except Germany. Iowa alone contains nearly 9 millions and the whole region 40 millions (Table VI, Appendix.) On a farm of moderate size ten litters of a dozen pigs each, born in the spring, are able by midsummer to live on the scattered grain of the wheat and oat fields. Fed through the autumn on the new corn, at the end of the year, after the happiest life possible for pigs, they will aggregate ten tons of pork. There is no more efficient organism for converting vegetable into animal food. Pigs are sometimes fed on clover or alfalfa ; these produce less fat and more lean in the meat than corn. In northern Europe barley and sugar-beet pulp take the place of corn in fattening swine. Sheep. — Of the 51 million sheep kept in the United States, 29 per cent are in the Middle West. Yet sheep raising in that region is relatively subordinate to other farm economies. There- fore, it will be more fully discussed in connection with the Interior States (p. 314). Poultry. — Of all domestic animals poultry are the most numerous, profitable, and widely distributed. There is hardly a country in the world outside the polar caps where the common fowl is not known and where eggs are not a common article of diet. Fowls are kept in towns and cities by all sorts of people, 128 THK MIDDI.K WEST: STOCK RAISING and on farms they arc a source of incidental income without much care or cost. Like swine they are omnivorous and in summer find an easy Hving on garbage, scattered grain, fallen fruit, in- sects, worms, weeds, and grass. Beauty is a notable element in their value, and poultry fanciers have bred many varieties, differing in form, color, and ornamentation, as well as in egg-laying ability. Poultry raising as a special industry has been pro- moted by the use of the incubator, which hatches eggs by artificial heat, and the brooding hen is dispensed with. Chicken is generally the most costly meat in a bill of fare. Provided by nature for the nourishment of the young bird, eggs are, like milk, a complete food, but difficult to transport and to preserve. They may be kept in cold storage for months, and dried eggs are said to be a commercial possibiHty. Of the 1600 million dozen eggs and 500 million fowls produced annually in the United States the Middle West is credited with about one half. The corn states, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, and Iowa are leaders in the poultry business. The crowded and intensive farming of China produces enormous but unknown quantities of poultry and eggs. Great Britain imports 200 million dozen eggs a year. When the value to mankind of this humble bird is considered, the act of the man who, after a trip around the world, came home and took off his hat to the old hen, does not seem foolish. UNITED STATES 1 Oats Corn Wheat Barley Rye Animals sold and slaughtered Swine Horses Fowl and eggs Tobacco Milch cows Potatoes Hay Dairy products Neat cattle All crops All animal products All farm products All farm property Improved land PER CENT 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Fig. 54. 10 20 30 40 50 Rank of Middle West in products of agriculture. 60 70 80 90 100 (See Table III, Appendix.) THE FARM AND FARM LIFE 1 29 Summary. — The most important large domestic animals of the United States are horses, cattle, sheep, and swine. The whole number of these is about 200 millions, of which 45 per cent are found in the Middle West. The Farm and Farm Life. — Farms in the Middle West vary greatly in size but average about 160 acres. The land is surveyed into sections, each one mile square and containing 640 acres. The sections are divided into quarters so that a square tract of 160 acres is common. The highways usually run along the section lines, and each quarter has a pubHc road on two sides. A few acres near the road are occupied by buildings, stockyards, orchard, and garden. The rest of the farm is divided into fields of 20 to 40 acres, alternately devoted to grass, corn, wheat, and oats, with smaller fields of potatoes or other crops. The old- fashioned rail fences have nearly disappeared, and the fields are inclosed with woven wire supported upon concrete posts. Except on the prairies there is generally a small wood lot, and many trees protect the house from sun and storm. Log houses (p. 39) are rare and the farmhouse is generally of wood, two stories high, framed, clapboarded, and painted. It looks small as compared with the size of the other buildings. The grain barn may have a floor space of 40 by 80 feet, with wide doorways for driving in with loads of grain and hay. The bays and lofts on either side are filled in midsummer to the roof. The floor is often raised on a stone wall which incloses a basement, opening upon a barnyard with its stack of straw, where stock find a warm shelter in winter. At the side of the barn is a silo (Fig. 55), and not far away are horse stables, sheds for implements, corn cribs, pig pens, and poultry houses. A windmill pumps water from a well, or it may have been displaced by a gasoline engine, which is also used to run a corn shredder, a feed cutter, or a thrashing machine. The work may be done by the farmer and his son or one hired man with extra help at harvest time. In the growing season the day's work is long, from five o'clock in the morning until six or seven o'clock in the evening ; but in the winter the principal i.^o THK MIDDI.K WKST : STOCK RATS IMG Fig. 55. — Barns, staljles, and silo on a dairy farm. work is the feeding and care of stock, and there is leisure for rest and recreation. The home is comfortably or even luxuriously furnished, and the table is loaded with good food, much of which comes directly from the farm itself. While life on a farm is laborious, much of its drudgery has been done away with. The work in the open air is healthful, and the standard of living is much above the average of the city. The postman brings mail daily and electric cars may pass the door every hour. There are horses and carriages, and in recent years automobiles have nearly put an end to the isolation and loneliness of farm life. Good schools are accessible, and news- papers and magazines are as plentiful as may be desired. The farmer need not be an ignorant person because he has unusual opportunity and encouragement to be intelligent and thoughtful. In a region of severe winters, good housing and food must be provided for family and herds. Every day calls for foresight, care, and attention, and the shiftless farmer is likely to be a failure. QUESTIONS 1. Compare the body and legs of a horse with those of an ox and find out why one is a better traveler than the other. 2. What are some of the leading breeds of horses and cattle? What are the good qualities of each ? QUESTIONS 131 3. What makes some horses worth from $1000 to $20,000 apiece? 4. Why should a perfect farm fence be " horse high, hull strong, and pig tight"? 5. What are some of the leading varieties of the common fowl and for what is each noted ? 6. How many eggs do some of the best layers produce in a year? What makes a single fowl sometimes sell for $100? 7. What are some of the advantages of farm Hfe as compared with city Hfe? some of the disadvantages? 8. How are all the other industries of a region dependent upon farming? 9. How could a country or community with no farmers maintain itself? 10. Which is likely to change more rapidly, a community of farmers or one of city people? Why? CHAPTER XII THE MIDDLE WEST : MANUFACTURES Development of Industry. — Agriculture is a primitive, nat- ural occupation, more congenial to most people than the arti- ficial and unnatural work of manufacturing. The farmer works for himself and has many intervals and periods of idleness. Manufacture requires mostly work for others six or seven days in the week and every week in the year. As long as land is plentiful and cheap, people are drawn to the relatively free, spacious, and bountiful life of the farm. While the Middle West was being settled and brought under the plow, manufactures were small and local, providing breadstuffs, lumber, vehicles, and furniture for the immediate neighborhood. As the population increased and the land became more completely occupied and utilized, it rose in value and could no longer be paid for by the crops of a few years. The invention of machines made it possible for one man to do the work which once required three or four. Half the rural population was thus left without work. At the same time the quantity of foodstuffs to be prepared for consumption and distribution to distant markets enormously increased. The demand for clothing, furniture, building materials, tools, ma- chinery, vehicles, and luxuries was limited only by the means to pay for them. The resources of power in the coal fields and of constructive materials in the forests and iron mines attracted capital, and the change from an almost purely agricultural com- munity to one of great industrial activity was rapid. The surplus population of the farms went to the towns to work in 132 SOURCES OF POWER 1 33 stores, shops, factories, and mills, or on the railroads. This supply of labor was not sufficient, but the influx of milUons of immigrants from Europe made the city population increase from 23 per cent in 1880 to 43 per cent in 1910,' and the total annual value of manufactures to become twice as great as that of agricultural products (Tabbs III, V, Appendix). Manufactures. — The Middle West can supply nearly all the wants of a civilized community except clothing, for which it produces no cotton or linen, and httle wool, but many hides. Besides vast quantities of raw material for manufacture there is plenty of coal for metal working and power. The smoothness of the surface makes railroad construction easy and the Lauren- tian lakes aft'ord a waterway second in value only to the sea. There are few flrst-class agricultural regions in the world where manufacturing attains such proportions. The quantity of power used is 30 per cent and the value of goods manufactured is 35 per cent of the total for the United States. Among all the states, Illinois and Ohio are second only to New York and Pennsyl- vania in value of manufactures. Middle Western manufacture is notable for being based almost wholly upon its own raw materials. Sources of Power. — Four fifths of the power used in Middle Western manufacture is derived from coal. Most of this is bituminous, or soft coal, of which about 150 million tons are mined there annually. Of this nearly one fourth comes from the Appalachian field in Ohio (Fig. 96), and three fifths from the Eastern Interior field in Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky (p. 194). The Western Interior and Michigan fields supply the remainder. Besides the coal mined at home, a great deal is brought in from Pennsylvania and West Virginia, including coke and anthracite, or hard coal. Illinois and Ohio are second only to those states in amount of coal mined (Fig. 93). 'Between 1880 and iqio the rural population increased less than 25 per cent, the urban population 216 per cent. 136 'llll. MIDDI.I. WI.S'P: AIAXUFACTURKS Water Power. The aniount of walcr jjowcr used in Ihe Middle West is comparatively trifling but is increasing. Water power de- pends upon the sea as a reservoir, the heat of the sun to evapo- rate the water, winds to carry the vapor over the land, and highlands to condense the vapor into rain and to give the water which runs off a rapid fall. The rainfall and run-off of the Middle West are ample, but the absence of highlands makes most of the streams unavailable for power purposes. This is partly com- pensated by the effects of glaciation, which compelled many streams to take new courses over rapids and cataracts, and left innumerable lakes to act as reservoirs, in which water is stored and from which it is given out during a dry season. The mosl important water powers of the Middle West are at Minneapolis and Keokuk. The Falls of St. Anthony in the Mississippi River, originally about 20 feet high, have been used to run flour mills for a century, and the city of Minneapolis has grown up around them. About 1878 the natural fall was improved by a dam, and the 50,000 horse power now available is used to run the largest flouring mills in the world. In the Des Moines rapids the Mississippi, turned into a new channel by the continental ice sheet, faUs 23 feet in 12 miles. At the foot of the rapids opposite the city of Keokuk, Iowa, a dam completed in 1914, about a mile long and 35 feet high, gives 300,000 horse power, which will be used to generate electricity, and in that form sent to St. Louis, 137 miles distant, and to other cities. UNITED STATES - 61,980.437 20 40 Minnesota. Michigan _- Alabama __ New York _ Wisconsin . All others . . 658,793 841,093 215,740 459,628 018,272 786,911 Fig. 57. Production of iron ore by states (1913) in millions of long tons. (See Table IV, Appendix.) Iron. — Of equal importance with coal in manufacture is iron for machinery, buildings, railroads, vehicles, and vessels. In this resource the Middle West (Fig. 57) is favored above IRON 137 all other parts of the country, and has few equals in the world. The old, worn-down highland around Lake Superior, in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Min- nesota, contains six " ranges " or belts of iron ore which is rich in metal and free from troublesome impurities (Fig. 60). In the Mesabi range in Minnesota the ore is ex- cavated in open pits with steam shovels (Fig. 58), which load it upon cars. The cost Lake Superior mines furnish 85 per YEAR 1880 1890 1900 1910 500 / 1 < / / t ) .^ y Y ( ,A '-"1^ \^^- y 1860 1870 1880 i8yO lyUO 1910 1920 Fig. 59. — Production of iron ore, pig iron, and steel in LTnited States (1860- 1913)- Fig. 58. — Iron mine, Minnesota. of mining in this way is small. The cent of all the iron ore mined in the United States and have given this country the lead among nations in the production of iron and steel (Fig. 59). The ore is transported to the coal fields in specially built steamers on the Great Lakes, and is discharged at Milwaukee, Chicago, and Gary on Lake Michigan, and at Cleveland and many other lake ports from Toledo to Buffalo. It is distributed by rail throughout eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania, and northern West Virginia. The ore is handled by machinery with great rapidity and at small cost. Where coal and ore are thus brought together, great iron manufacturing districts have grown up around Pittsburgh, 138 Tin: MIDDIJ' WKST: MANUFACTURES Cleveland, and Chicago. Tlu' greater part of the Pittsburgh district is in I'ennsylvania, but 40 per cent of the [)ig iron and steel made in the United Slates is produced in the Middle West. Chicago ranks first among cities in blast furnace products and Youngslown, Ohio, second in pig iron and steel. Other Metals. — Among metals, copper, lead, and zinc rank next to iron in importance, and the Middle West has an ample store of all three. In the Ah, ltW.„ J + /,„„ _^^^.vMJ' ^^ Keweenaw peninsula on the Michigan shore of Lake Su- perior, deposits of metallic copper in volcanic rock have been worked for more than half a century (Fig. 60) . The mines, now nearly one mile deep, yield nearly one ninth of all the copper produced in the United States. Fig. 60. — Superior iron and copper district. Ores of lead and zinc occur together in two districts, (i) the Galena dis- trict, including the adjacent corners of Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa, and (2) the Joplin district in southwestern Missouri. The two districts pro- duce 36 per cent of the lead and 52 per cent of the zinc mined in the United States. Missouri is far in the lead of the other states (Table IV, Appendix). Timber and Lumber. — Northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota were originally covered with a dense coniferous forest, (Fig. 61) which during the last quarter of the nineteenth century was the principal source of pine, spruce, and hemlock lumber for the United States. It was especially valuable on account of its bordering on the prairie and steppe, where building material was very scarce. Probably a majority of the houses and barns now occupied in the Middle West were built out of it. Logs are so large and heavy, and transportation so difficult and costly, that lumbering can seldom be carried on far from waterways. In the " pineries " trees are usually felled in the winter where the ground is frozen and covered with snow, and drawn on sleds to a stream. Sometimes I40 THE MIDDLK WKST : MANUFACTURES engines are used instead of horses for liauling. When the snow niells an(i the ice breaks up in the spring, a freshet earriis the logs downstream to the sawmills, or to a large river like the Mississippi (Fig. 62), where they are fastened together into great rafts and lloated to market. The l)uilding of railroads has now made all the timberlands accessible. W'liilc pine is the most generally useful wood in the world. It is very light, strong, dural)le, and easily worked, and while plentiful was used almost Fig. 62. — A sea of logs in the Missisbippi I-li\cr above Minneapolis. to the exclusion of other lumber for houses, fences, boxes, and crates. The best quality " clear stuff," free from knots and straight-grained, is familiar in the form of match sticks. The price of white pine has doubled in the last ten years and its place is being taken by hemlock, cypress, and other cheaper woods. It is still generally used for doors and window sashes. Hardwood Forest. — In Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky the sum- mer forest attained its greatest density (Fig. 61). The timber was so heavy that in summer Uttle sunhght reached the ground and CLAY PRODUCTS 141 undergrowth was small. More than 40 species of trees grew to a height of 100 feet or more and were three to ten feet in diameter. Several species of oak, walnut, and poplar were the most valuable, but ash, hickory, beech, maple, chestnut, cherry, linden, buckeye, elm, and gum were numerous, making up a growth of hardwood timber unequaled elsewhere. The task of the pioneer was to clear this forest and to make room for corn and wheat. There was Uttle market for the timber and most of it was destroyed by burning the logs. There is now httle of the primitive forest left, but a portion of it has supphed materials 'for great industries in vehicles, tools, and furniture. Oak, ash, maple, chestnut, and poplar find a place in house building ; hickory and elm in wagon wheels ; and oak, wal- nut, cherry, and birch in fine furniture. The growing scarcity and cost of lumber has led to the extensive use of veneer, or thin sheets of fine and costly wood glued on to the surface of cheaper wood. Veneer is also used for boxes, baskets, and barrels and made into " three-ply " lumber, built up by gluing together three sheets of veneer. The forests of the Middle West still yield about 15 per cent of the total timber and lumber product of the United States, including the wood ground up to make paper. (See Fig. 63.) UNITED STATES. Iron ore Zinc Clay products Sand and gravel Cement Pig iron Lead Stone- Coal Petroleum Natural gas Copper All minerals Timber and lumber. PER CENT An M 60 Fig. 63. 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Rank of Middle West in mineral and forest products. (See Table IV, Appendix.) Clay Products. — Among the fundamental industries which sustain civilized communities, the use of clay, stone, and other kinds of rock for building is universal. The pioneer of the Middle 142 THE MIDDLK WKST : MAXUI ACTURKS West stopped the cracks in his log cabin with clay. In regions of small rainfall, adobe or clay bricks dried in the sun have been used for ages. Bricks molded from a mixture of clay and sand and burned hard in a kiln are very durable. Brick and stone walls are laid up with mortar made from burned limestone, sand, and water. The need for drainage and good roads has led to the extensive use of hollow tile and paving brick. Brick and Tile. — The glacial clay of the Middle West either in its original beds or in deposits washed out from them, is widely distributed. Shale rock, which is compact and hardened clay, is abundant in many localities, and is ground and used for the same purposes as clay. Nearly every community has its brickyard and tile factory. Bricks are now made in a variety of colors and finish which con- tribute to the beauty of buildings. Tile for underdraining farms and sewer pipe for cities are in great demand (Fig. 64). While these industries are widely diffused throughout the United States, the value of their products in the Middle West is about 44 per cent of that of the whole country. Cement. — Cement is made by heating a mixture of lime and clay to a high temperature long enough to drive off all the water. It is then ground to a fine powder which, when wet, reabsorbs water and hardens into an artificial stone. Marl, a natural mixture of clay and lime found in marshes and shallow lakes, is often used in the manufacture of cement. The lakes and marshes of the glacial drift plain contain marl in inexhaustible quantities. Among all the states, Indiana is second only to Pennsylvania in the production of cement, and the Middle West makes 40 per cent of the cement used in the United States (Fig. 63). ^ y Fig. 64. A kiln for heating sewer pipe at Brazil, Indiana. ICE AND COLD STORAGE 143 Rcenforced concrete, recently introduced as a constructive material, con- sists of a mixture of cement and gravel or broken stone, in which an iron framework is embedded. It is rapidly displacing brick, stone, and wood in the construction of houses, large buildings, bridges, dams, conduits, canals, poles, and posts. The structure is erected by filling wooden molds of any desired shape or size with fresh, soft concrete which solidifies; when the molds are removed they leave the whole as one solid mass (Figs. 100, 164). Pottery and Glass. — The manufacture of pottery is strongly localized either by the presence of some special kind of clay, or by the interests of individual capitalists. The potteries of East Liverpool, Ohio, give that state a rank second only to New Jersey. The Middle West turns out 46 per cent of all the pottery made in the country (Table V, Appendix). The manufacture of glass requires pure sand, which is abundant in many localities. It must also have cheap, gaseous fuel, which can be blown into a furnace to produce a very high temperature. Natural gas obtained from wells is ideal for this purpose, and the gas fields of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana have attracted most of the glass works. Since the natural supply has declined, gas is obtained by heating cheap, bituminous coal. Pennsyl- vania is the leading state, but similar resources in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois have given the Middle West 38 per cent of all glass production. Foodstuffs. — Foodstuffs require, to fit them for use, less change from their natural state than other classes of goods. This is evident from the fact that in the rich agricultural region of the Middle West they constitute only about one quarter of the total value of manufactures. Ice and Cold Storage. — The manufacture and use of ice are characteristic features of present-day economy in the United States. In no other country is ice water a common luxury, or the refrigerator a common household convenience. Artificial ice, first made on a commercial scale in New Orleans about fifty years ago, is now used more than natural ice throughout the states. By artificial refrigeration the preservation and transportation of perishable foodstuffs have been revolutionized. Meats, poultry, eggs, and 144 THE MIDDLE WEST : MANUFACTURES fruits arc kept in cold storage warehouses without serious loss for months or years. The surplus of one season or year thus becomes available for a time of scarcity. It is no longer necessary to transport beef " on the hoof." P'resh carcasses of cattle, sheep, and swine arc shipped from the Middle West to the Eastern and Southern Stales in refrigerator cars and even to Europe in ocean steamships. By the same means fresh tropical fruits are placed in the summer markets of the north. Slaughtering and Meat Packing. — This business is carried on in large cities of the corn belt where the cattle and hogs are fattened. Chicago has long held the distinction of being the greatest meat-producting center in the world ; Kansas City, Omaha, Indianapolis, and St. Louis are next in rank, but their coinbined product does not equal that of Chicago. Seventy per cent of the meat of the country comes from the Middle West. (See Figs. 65, 69.) UNITED STATES $1,370,568,101 100 200 300 400 Kansas New York Nebraska. MissourL lowa^ Pennsylvania Ohio Indiana Massachusetts Texas New Jersey California Wisconsin Minnesota All others Fig. 65. 100 200 300 400 Rank of states in slaughtering and meat packing (1909). At a large slaughtering establishment cattle and hogs enter on their feet, in a continuous line, and traveling almost without pause past a series of workmen, are killed, hung on a trolley, skinned, disemboweled, and cut to pieces, every part going to its proper place, all in a few minutes (Fig. 66). Nothing is wasted, not even the hair and hoofs. Besides meat, materials for soup, glue, mattresses, buttons, and fertilizers are among the by-products. A large part of the fresh meat is distributed without further change in MILLING 145 refrigerator cars. Hams and bacon are smoked, and both beef and pork are salted and canned. Fig. 66. — Cutting up beef in a packing house. Milling. — Not many years ago wheat was ground between two cylindrical stones, turned by hand or by a small windmill or water wheel. This process makes excellent flour from the softer varieties of wheat. The hard wheat of the Red River country is crushed between steel rollers, sifted, and reground until 75 per cent of it is converted into a very fine, white flour. The skin or hull of the grain is left as bran and middlings, and fed to stock. Milling is done on an enormous scale at Minne- apolis, use being made of the water power of the Falls of St. Anthony. In early times a farmer who raised wheat took it to a near-by gristmill and had it ground, taking home the flour ELEM. ECON. GEOG.— Q 146 'nil-: MIDDLi: WKST: MANUFACTURES and Iced made from liis own fjjrain. Now he sells his wheat at an elevator and buys Minnesota Hour. The value of ^fiiin ground in the Middle West amounts to 60 per cent of that of UNITED STATES 4883,584,406 30 60 90 120 150 i:i9.136.129 £9.802.278 68,476,.410 51,110,681 48,093,353 44,782,558 44,508,106 .40,541.422 34,860,803 32,484.612 .31,667.434 -29.070,019 25,188.133 (---223,862,467 Minnesota New York Kansas Illinois Ohio Pennsylvania Missouri Indiana. Michigan. Texas Wisconsin Tennessee California All others Fig. 67. 30 60 90 120 150 Rank of slates in llour and gristmill products (lyocj). the whole country, and is second only to the value of meat in that section. (See Figs. 67, 69.) Liquors. — Alcoholic liquors are not food, but are produced from food- stuffs, especially from corn, which is the cheapest form of starch. Conse- quently the corn belt supports extensive distilleries and breweries. Illinois, Kentucky, and Indiana distill 65 per cent of all the alcohol made in the United States. The brewing industry is widespread, but Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Cincinnati are especially noted for the manufacture of beer. Implements, Vehicles, and Furniture. — The Middle West enjoys even a larger share in the manufacture of the tools of UNITED STATES $146,329^268 10 20 30 40 50 60 . 57,268,325 _ 14,970,980 14,440.461 13,669,824 11,411,303 -9,272,787 — 25,295.588 10 20 30 4.0 50 60 Fig. 68. — Rank of states in manufacture of agricultural implements (igog). agriculture than in agricultural products. This amounts in the case of implements to 79 per cent, and in the case of wagons AUTOMOBILES 147 and automobiles to 68 per cent. This is due to the abundance of wood and metal and to the great home demand. The principal centers for machinery are Chicago and Moline, 111., Racine and Milwaukee, Wis., and Springfield, O. ; for wagons and plows South Bend, Ind. (See Fig. 68.) Furniture is made of hardwood at Grand Rapids, Mich., Sheboygan, Wis., and Chicago, 111. The tanning of hides, the canning of vegetables, and the manufacture of electrical machinery are important industries. Printing and publishing stands fourth in value of output, amounting to one third of that in all the states. Automobiles. — Few industries have ever developed so rapidly as the manufacture of automobiles and autotrucks. Since igog the output has more than doubled, and in 19 15 amounted to 700,000 cars worth $523,000,000. The number and variety of parts and the high quality of material required make it advantageous to build a complete machine by assembling parts obtained from a large number of independent factories, each of which furnishes a special product. This tends to concentrate these related indus- tries at a few favorable points, of which Detroit is far in the lead, with Cleveland a good second. New York, Buffalo, Indianapolis, Chicago, and Flint (Mich.) are also noted centers. The war in Europe has created a UNITED STATES Agricultural implements Automobiles Slaughtering & meat packing Distilled spirits Carriages and wagons Butter, cheese and cond. milk. Flour and grist mil 1 products . . Pottery. Paint and varnish Brick and tile Fermented liquors F'ndry & mach.shop products Soap Glass ^ " Steel — Pig iron Printing and publishing All manufactures Value added by manufacture. 20 PER CENT 40 50 60 70 80 .0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Fig. 69. — Rank of Middle West in value of manufactures. (See Table V, Appendix.) 148 nil. MIDDLK WKST: MANUFACTURES great demand for aulo-vchitics, wliitli is sui)[)licd largely from the United States. The general use of automobiles has slimulaled other industries in iron, steel, rubber, leather, electrical supplies, and above all in the jjroduc- tion of gasoline. It has also been the main factor in bringing about an era of good roads. Summary. — The manufactures of the Middle West amount to more than one third of the total in the United States. The region excels in the production of agricultural implements, vehi- cles, meats, spirits, butter, cheese, and flour. (See Fig. 69.) QUESTIONS 1. At a planing mill, get pieces of wood of as many varieties as possible. Try to split, break, and cut them. For what uses is each adapted? 2. What arc the advantages of concrete over wood as a building material ? 3. What are the advantages of water power as compared with steam for running a factory ? 4. In an artificial ice plant, coal is burned in a furnace, and by means of the power produced water is frozen. Explain. 5. Why have nearly all the small water-power sawmills and gristmills, once common in the Middle West, been abandoned? CHAPTER XIII THE MIDDLE WEST : COMMERCE AND TRANSPORTATION Production, Consumption, and Distribution. — In the last three chapters an account has been given of the principal kinds of productive and constructive work done in the Middle West. Nearly every square mile of land furnishes some useful thing, and there is many a square mile upon which production is so concentrated that the total product is worth millions of dollars. On nearly every square mile there is at least one household which uses or consumes a variety of products ; and where the population is dense, consumption amounts to millions of dollars' worth in a square mile. As a rule, very few products are con- sumed at the place where they are produced or by the people who produce them. There are many producers and a still greater number of consumers, including the producers themselves, each one of whom wants more of the goods produced by others than of his own products. In a general way, everybody has something to do with supporting everybody else. Hence the work of distribution, or getting the goods wanted from every producer to every consumer, is as important and almost as great as pro- duction itself. Distribution is accomplished through trade, or exchange of goods, and by means of transportation, or move- ment of goods. Commercial Basins, Channels, and Divides. — In the natural drainage of water from the land, every stream has its basin from which water Hows into it, and each basin is surrounded by a divide, beyond which water flows into some other stream. In the distribution of goods there are similar basins and divides. Every town has a certain district or basin around it, with which 149 ISO rilK MIDDI.i; WKST: COMMKRCK AND TRANSPORTATION il liahiuially docs l)usinc'ss, from wliii h prcxhuo is hiouglil for sale, and to whith giHxls arc siii)|)Iic(l. liclwccn llic commercial basin of one town and the basin of neighboring towns there is a divide or strip of country where the trade of two towns overlaps. The commercial basin tributary to a large town includes the commercial basins tributary to many smaller towns. In the same way every transportation line, be il country road or trunk railroad, serves and draws business from a certain territory or basin lying on both sides of it. At some distance, great or small, from the line is a di- vide or boundary beyond which business ordinarily goes to some other line. The movement of goods within a basin, large or small, is known as local traffic. The movement of goods across divides from one great basin to another is called through tratfic. On trunk lines the through traffic is much greater than the local. Commercial distribution resembles the natural drainage of the land in being carried on through main channels, which divide and subdivide into innumerable tributaries ramifying all through the terri- tory. In a drainage channel water runs in only one direction, but in a commercial channel goods move in both directions. The Circulation of Goods. — People could not live as they do in the Middle West without a very great movement of goods and people. Only a small part of the products of agriculture is used on the farm where they are grown. Probably 75 per cent of all the grain, roots, fruit, meat, milk, and eggs produced by the farmer is hauled to some market town and sold for money. Among the goods bought and taken back to the farm are tools, machinery, vehicles, lumber, brick, wire fencing, coal, flour, sugar, coffee, tea, spices, crockery, silverware, furniture, carpets, cloth- ing, and a hundred small luxuries of comfortable living, all ap- proximately equal in value to the products sold. In towns the business of manufacture involves a greater move- ment of goods than the business of agriculture does in the country. The manufacturer must get building materials, tools, and ma- chines from various other manufacturers and raw materials from far and near. Then his manufactured goods must be distributed to the consumers over a wide territory. To this movement and exchange of home products are added the sending abroad, or ex- portation, of goods to foreign countries and the importation of LOCAL TRANSPORTATION 151 foreign goods from all parts of the world, these also to be dis- tributed to the consumers in every community. The wholesale houses in the large cities obtain goods, domestic and foreign, in large quantities, assort and repack them in smaller lots and dis- tribute them to the retail dealers in every town and crossroads. In every prosperous community there are going on a collection of goods from every producer and their redistribution to every consumer, thus setting up a vast system of circulation, something like the circulation of blood in the human body'. It brings to each household the materials needed and carries away the materials not needed. Every household is enabled to sell whatever valuable thing it produces and to buy anything it needs and can pay for, and the wants of every consumer are in a large measure supplied. We seldom go without things we want because they are not in the market, but generally because we cannot afford to buy them. Local Transportation. — The hrst movement of goods sold by the producer and the last movement of goods bought by the consumer involve a large amount of teaming, or transportation by horse and wagon. In towns and cities, where this traffic is con- centrated and congested, horses are being displaced by motor trucks. While necessity has compelled the paving of city streets, the country roads used by all the rural population have been, until recently, poorer in the United States than in any other commercial country in the world. The farming communi- ties have been generally indifferent and insensible of the cost to themselves of the common dirt road, poorly made and main- tained, and during wet seasons almost impassable. Over a large part of the Middle West this condition is relieved in winter, when heavy hauling can be done with sleighs on frozen and snow- covered ground. The needs of travel for pleasure and business, first by the bi- cycle and later by the automobile, have aroused the people to the advantages of improved roads. The movement for good roads has now become general, and states, counties, and townships have combined to make and maintain highways that traverse 152 THE MTDDI.F. WEST: COMMERCE AND TRANSPORTATION the country in every direction (Fig. 70). In many cases the construction of a good road past a farm adds to its value twice Fig. 70. — A ^ood road across ihe prairie. the amount of the cost for road improvement taxed upon the farm. Electric Interurban Railways. — The generally level surface of the Middle West makes that part of the United States especially favorable for the extension of " trolley lines," or railways which often follow the highways and carry light cars driven by electricity from a central pow^r house. The cars running singly at frequent intervals and stopping almost anywhere, carry people, mail, milk, and small articles of freight. Thus communication and trade between the rural and the urban population, and between the smaller and the larger towns are greatly increased and facilitated. Men working or doing business in the city can have hom.es in the country, farmers are no longer isolated, and the advantages of town and country are brought within the reach of all. Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois have more extensive " trac- tion systems " of interurban railways than the other states RAILROADS 153 (Fig. 71). In the territory covered they carry more passengers on trips of 100 miles or less than do the steam railroads. VIRGINIA Fig. 71. — Traction system of some Middle Western states. Railroads. — The most extensive and efficient means of trans- portation in the United States is the steam railroad. The Middle West is especially favorable for railroad construction and operation. The level surface makes grading easy and in- expensive. The line may be run in any direction and in a nearly straight course. Sharp curves, deep cuts, high fills, tunnels, and long bridges are seldom required. The track is laid upon a bed of dirt and gravel, and steel rails resting on wooden crossties make a road so smooth, hard, and durable as to permit heavy loads and high speeds. The main trunk lines are equipped with double or even quadruple tracks. Freight trains of 70 or more cars, having a total length of half a mile and carrying a 154 TJii'' Mii>i>i-i^ \vi:sr: ('()MMi;k(i'; and traxsi'ortation loud ol" 3500 tons, can he drawn by one en TRAXSrORTATION Tonnage and Rates. — The lakes are ojjeii lor navigation less ihan eight months in the year, yet the freight carried exceeds in tonnage that of any other inland waterway in the world, equals that of the Mediterranean Sea, and exceeds the combined foreign trade of New York, London, and Liverpool. The size of the vessels used is limited by the depth of water in the " Soo " canals around the rapids of the St. Marys River. The largest, when loaded, draw 20 feet of water and have a capacity of 12,000 tons. The heaviest traffic is in iron ore (Fig. 73), lumber, grain, flour, and copper east bound and coal westbound. Ore and coal are run into a vessel from a bin on the dock above it and taken out by scoops which grasp and lift many tons at once. A vessel may be loaded in less than an hour and unloaded in one day. Ore is carried from Duluth to Erie ports for about 65 cents a ton, grain from Chicago to Buffalo for 40 cents, and coal in the other direction for 30 cents. The lakes control in a large degree the location of railroad lines, of which nearly all the great systems to the cast, west, and south reach one or more of the lake ports, and some of them run parallel with the lake route. The western and southwestern roads bring goods to Superior and Michigan ports, whence they are shipped by water to Erie ports. There they are again loaded on cars and sent by rail to the Eastern States. The westward move- ment of goods by the same routes is large, but smaller than the eastward. The railroads not only cooperate with the lake vessels but compete with them in carrying goods which, like fresh meat, require rapid transportation. Fig. 74. — Ice breaker freight boat used on the Great Lakes in winter. THI': MISSISSIPPI SYSTEM 159 In the winter the lakes are frozen (Fig. 74) and the railroads must do all the business. The vast system, comprising the lake routes and the rival and connecting railway lines, has been compared to a thick cable of many strands, which at each end are untwisted and spread out (Fig. 73). The Mississippi System. — The Mississippi, one of the largest rivers in the world, bisects the Middle West along a line nearly midway between the eastern and western borders. Two great Fig. 75. — A steamer on the Ohio River. tributaries, the Missouri and the Ohio, with their branches furnish navigable waterways to two thirds of the area (Figs. 33, 56). These natural arteries of economic circulation were used in the exploration and early settlement of the country. Trade was almost entirely southward, with New Orleans for a seaport, until the opening of the Erie Canal from the Hudson River to Lake Erie in 1825 made an easy outlet to New York, and diverted the main currents of traffic eastward. Population had previously entered and settled along the Ohio and Mississippi, but now it came in by the canal and occupied the lands around the lakes. This movement was favored and extended by the construction of canals from Lake Erie at Toledo to the Wabash River and to the Ohio at Cincinnati, from Cleveland to the Scioto and the Ohio, and from Chicago to the Illinois River. The canals were l6o Tin: MIDDLE WEST: COMMERCE AND TRANSPORTATION soon followed by several east -west lines of railroad, which caused a decline in traffic by water, but a great increase in total movement of goods. The closing of the Mississippi during the Civil War gave commerce on the rivers a blow from which it has never recovered, and the extension of railroads has kept the traffic by water between the Middle West and the (iulf of Mexico down to an insignificant quantity. The chief river business is now the ship- ment of coal in barges from Pennsylvania to points on the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri (Fig. 56). The Neglect of Waterways. — The United States, including especially the Middle West, stands alone among great commercial countries in the neglect of v^aterways and the extension of rail- roads. While in western Europe the natural waterways have been improved and extended by canals until they carry more freight than the railroads, in the United States only the Great Lakes are extensively utihzed. Although the railroads are con- gested and unable to meet the demands made upon them, com- paratively Httle use is made of the rivers, and canals formerly constructed have been in many cases abandoned. Even the old Erie Canal has become nearly useless and is now being enlarged (Fig. 124). The causes of the backward state of water transportation in the Mississippi basin are partly natural and partly artificial : 1. The Missouri River and the lower Mississippi are so loaded with sedi- ment that the channel is shallow and extremely crooked, shifting, and diflfi- cult to navigate. The whole system, including the Ohio, is subject to great floods in the spring and to very low water in the autumn. In the present condition of world trade, the rivers lead in the wrong direction, the greatest markets being on the Atlantic coasts of America and Europe. 2. The use of the Great Lakes is easy, unpreventable, and, on the whole, favorable to the railroads by carrying to them an enormous bulk of freight. The use of streams is difticult and their improvement requires the expenditure of large sums of public money. This has been successfully discouraged by the builders and managers of railroads, who see in them formidable rivals. Present conditions are not Hkely to continue. The opening of the Panama Canal, the decline in relative importance of Euro- pean markets, and the future trade with countries around the QUESTIONS l6l Pacific may draw such a movement of goods toward the Gulf as to compel the improvement and use of the waterways. Canals al- ready begun or projected from Chicago to St. Louis and from Cleveland to Pittsburgh may connect the lakes with the Missis- sippi system. Although the cost would be very great, the rivers may be so improved as to fill the largest place in the commerce of the Middle West which it is possible for them to do. Summary. — Goods produced on farms and in factories must be distributed to the people who use them. Hence the work of distribution becomes as great as that of production. This is done by vehicles on roads, railroads, and waterways. The Middle West has two great waterways and a close network of railroads. The railroad mileage and traffic are the greatest in the world. River transportation, now neglected, will probably increase in the future. QUESTIONS 1. In laying out a road is il belter to go around a hill or over it ? Why? 2. Why are " cuts and fills " made in grading a road? Why is a good wagon road highest along the middle ? 3. What materials are used on roads for making a hard, smooth surface? 4. Why is a railroad the best of all artificial roadways? 5. How is a railroad made more straight, level, smooth, hard, and durable than any other roadway ? 6. What advantages for passenger traflic have the electric interurban roads over steam railroads ? 7. Why does the railroad net shown in Fig. 56 become abruptly less dense at about the looth meridian? Why is it less dense in northern Minnesota and southern Missouri and Kentucky? 8. Why is a lake route superior to a river route for transportation ? 9. Compare waterways and railroads as to the advantages and disadvan- tages of each. 10. What goods would be carried each way on a waterway 20 feet deep between Chicago and New Orleans ? ELEM. ECON. GEOG. CHAPIKR XIV THE MIDDLE WEST: CITIES Growth of Cities. — A city is the product of all the natural conditions and economic forces of a community, and is, therefore, extremely complex. Savages often live together in small villages for the sake of company, for protection from enemies, and for cooperation in hunting, fishing, or herding. In early English history a town was a collection of dwelhngs inclosed by a hedge, palisade, or wall for protection, but the modern town owes its origin and existence to the demands of trade. When the division of labor has progressed so far that each household or village pro- duces only one or a few kinds of goods, permanent trading centers become necessary. Such places are advantageous for artisans, smiths, carpenters, shoemakers, tailors, and millers, as well as for tradesmen, and the two main characteristics of the modern city, trade and manufacture, are established at the same place. One thing essential for the existence of every commercial center is accessibility. It must be located where people and goods can reach it easily. The size and importance of the center depend upon the population and the products of the surrounding terri- tory, and upon the means of communication with other centers and countries the world over. The Crossroads. — The simplest example of a trade center in the United States is the country crossroads where two or more highways meet. A general store supplies the common wants of the community and a blacksmith carries on primitive industry. A schoolhouse and a church render the place a social as well as an economic center. If a railroad comes to the place, its importance is increased in proportion to the added facilities for transporta- 162 CONDITIONS OF CITY LIFE 163 tion, for the sale and shipment of produce, and for the supply of goods for distribution. The area of the tributary territory, or commercial basin (p. 149), of the town depends upon the facilities for the movement of goods and people to and from it. If these are sufiTicient, the town grows into a city, where many sorts of trade and industry are carried on and where people throng, not only for work and business, but for pleasure, luxury, education, culture, and other means for fuller and better living. Everything depends upon the advantages of location, and the greatest advantage of location is accessibility by waterways and roads. Large Cities. — The most favorable site for a large city is generally a place where goods must be transferred from one means of transportation to another. This is especially true of seaports, lake ports, and towns at the head of navigation on a river, where goods must be changed from land to water and from water to land. In the United States no town can be very large without a railroad. The rule is, railroads make a city and a city attracts railroads. Thus cities and railroads increase and multiply to- gether indefinitely until a limit determined by other conditions is reached. Some of these limiting conditions are the population and resources of the surrounding country, the presence or absence of coal or water power for manufacture, the growth of rival cities, the presence of capital to carry on business, the supply of human labor, and the degree of safety of life and property secured by city government, sanitation, and general management. Every city wants to grow larger, and does everything it can to attract new business enterprises and to increase its population. Conditions of City Life. — The conditions of urban Hfe are in most respects very different from those of country life. A city produces practically no raw materials for food, clothing, or con- struction, but uses enormous quantities, which must be brought in, mostly from long distances. It must be adequately and con- stantly fed with everything needed, and any interference with the regular supply may be disastrous to the welfare of some or all its citizens. When a storm blockades the railroads and cuts off the supply of milk for a day or two, children suffer or even l64 THK IMIDDLP; WKST : CITIliS die in consequence. To distribute the materials to every store, factory, and household involves as much labor and expense as to maintain the supply. The business and public buildings on a grand scale and the thousands of residences which are so conspicuous, form perhaps the smaller part of the engineering construction required. A great city may level hills, fill valleys, bridge straits, dam, deepen, or divert waterways, tunnel through ridges and under rivers, and obliterate or overcome all natural obstacles. Miles and miles of streets are graded and paved. They are crowded with coach and car lines for rapid movement of people, and with trucks, drays, and wagons for the delivery of goods. Sewers for the drainage of waste, pipes for the distribution of water and gas, and conduits for electric cables and telegraph and tele- phone wires form underground systems of circulation comparable in number and complexity with the canals, ducts, blood vessels, and nerves of the human body. Sanitation. — The crowding of so many people upon a small space renders municipal problems especially difficult. The ground becomes saturated, and the streams and wells polluted with human waste ; the air is foul with smoke and the products of decomposition. In such an environ- ment the germs of disease breed and multiply, and are rapidly distributed by the mingling of all sorts of people. The greatest municipal problem is sani- tation, and that depends on cleanliness. The life and health of a city can be secured only by adequate sewerage and an abundant supply of pure water. The prompt removal of garbage from every house, and of filth, water, and snow from the streets, the suppression of smoke, and the opening of parks and breathing spaces in every quarter are vakiable means to the same end. A large city finds it necessary to expend millions for sewers, water supply, cleaning, and parks. Business and Residence Districts. — A commercial city may be divided into business and residence districts of various kinds, each occupying more or less distinctly its own quarter. Factories and wholesale houses are usually distributed near the waterways and railways, by which goods are received and sent out, and hence occupy the lowlands. Offices, banks, shops, and stores tend to crowd as closely together as possible, each one wish- CITIES OF THI-: MIDDLE WEST 165 ing to secure the customers which visit the others. Hence the retail business district is the place where land values and rents are highest and where the population is most dense by day, although it is almost deserted at night. The " slum " district, where the poorest people live, may be greatly congested, and here the conditions of life are necessarily at their worst. The good residence districts occupied by people of moderate means are the most extensive of all and cover a half or three fourths of the city site. In the fine residence districts the density of population is least. These districts are usually situated farthest from the business center, gradually thinning out into more or less open suburban tracts. The bicycle, motorcycle, auto- mobile, and electric car have greatly increased the convenient distance between home and business, scattered the citizens out into the suburban districts, and done much to relieve urban congestion. In many cases, on account of the high cost of land in the city, special industries have been located outside and have built up a distinct, suburban, manufacturing town . Cities of the Middle West. — The most striking change in the Middle West in the last thirty years has been the increase of urban population, M^hich has accompanied the growth of manu- factures and the development of mineral resources, such as coal and iron (p. 133). While the total population has increased 70 per cent since 1880, the urban population has increased 216 per cent and now amounts to 43 per cent of the total. Of cities of more than 10,000 population there are 199, or one third of the whole number in the United States. There are 74 cities of more than 25,000 people, of which Ohio has 14 and Illinois has 12. Of cities of over 200,000, Ohio, Minnesota, and Missouri have two each, and Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, and Wis- consin one each. There are three cities which have within their municipal limits more than 500,000 people, one of which has more than 2,000,000. In the study of large cities, it is better to disregard political boundaries and to take into account the " metropoHtan district," or economic center, including all the organized towns which lie near the principal city and have the same business interests, although they may be in another state. Out of 13 metropolitan districts of high rank (value of manu- i66 rirK MIDDM'. WKS'I : CI'I'll-.S facturcs) in the United St;ites, six are in the Middle West (Table VII, Appendix). 'J'he i)rineipal cities may be geographically grouped as (a) lake ports, (b) river ports, and (c) inland cities. Chicago. — There is no city in the world looo miles from the sea so favorably situated for commerce as Chicago. The south- ward extension of Lake Mich- igan carries a great waterway into the heart of the Middle West and compels east-west lines of railroad to go around it. This simple fact of geo- graphical position makes a great lake port near its head a necessity. Location in the midst of the richest grain and stock belt of America, on the border between forest and prairie, and about midway between the Atlantic coast and the Rocky Mountains, marks the spot as an almost unrivaled center for trade. The supplies of timber, coal, iron, and copper within easy reach are as extraordinary as the agricultural products and make Chicago a seat of manufacture as naturally as it is a mart of commerce. The site of the city was fixed on the west shore by the mouth of a small river, which furnished a harbor and led by an easy portage for canoes to the headwaters of the Illmois River and to the Mississippi (Fig. 76). This route was used by the Indians and its lake end was the site of a fur-trading post and fort. It was not until after the Northwest Territory became a part of the United States, that Chicago was even a frontier village. In 1850 it had a population of only 30,000. In rapidity of growth it surpasses all records, having grown from a small town to be the second city in America and the fourth in the world within the memory of persons still living. It has Chicago. CHICAGO 167 no military or political significance, not ijcing even (he capital of a state, but it is a typical example of a metropolis created wholly by economic forces. The city has spread out over a low plain of alluvial and glacial clay and lake Fig. 77. — A business street in Chicago. sand 25 miles long and 10 miles wide. The metropolitan district borders the lake shore for about 40 miles. An artificial harbor has been made by building breakwateis to protect the mouth of the river, by deepening, widening, and straightening the little stream and by lining its banks with docks and warehouses. In South l68 THE MIDDLE WEST: CITIES Cliicago, Lake Calumet forms a secondary harbor scarcely less important than the river. The two constitute one of the great shipping ports of the world, almost equaling in tonnage the foreign trade of London. The business district (Fig. 77) is centered in an area of less than two square miles between the river and the lake, and is as crowded with buildings, vehicles, and people as any similar place in the world. The congestion has been relieved by elevated railways for passengers and subways for freight. The ground is distinctly unfavorable for the site of a city. The original surface was only seven feet above the lake, but it has been raised as much as ten feet by artificial filling. The foundations of large buildings have to be sunk 50 to 100 feet through clay to bedrock, or " floated " on artificial " pads " of concrete. Chicago was the original home of the " sky-scraper," or building of many stories sustained by a steel frame. It is now sur- passed by other cities in the number and height of such buildings. Enor- mous grain elevators having a capacity for 65 million bushels, the largest stockyards in the world, in which 10 million animals are slaughtered yearly, extensive lumberyards and steel mills are the features most characteristic of the resources upon which the city is founded. The residence districts lie 30 to 75 feet above the lake and are unevenly built up, including many sparsely settled areas. They contain a system of parks covering more than 3000 acres and broad boulevards along the lake shore and in a connected circuit of 60 miles. The system is planned to include, when completed, 35,000 acres. Trade and Manufacture. — Thirty-nine railw^ay lines make Chicago the greatest railway center in the world, and these com- bined with the shipping on the lake give it unequaled facilities for receiving and distributing goods. It is the largest grain mar- ket in America. Its annual wholesale trade is estimated at 1800 million dollars. The conditions which promote trade are equally favorable for manufacture, in which it is second only to New York. The value of goods manufactured in the Chicago metro- politan district is 1400 milUon dollars a year, or one fifth of the total for the Middle West. The leading industry, slaughter- ing and meat packing, yields nearly one fourth of the total value of manufactures in the district. Next in order are foundry and machine shop products, clothing, printing, iron and steel, carSj lumber, electrical appUances, soap, and furniture, which CHICAGO 169 make up more than half of the whole. Rolling mills at South Chicago and blast furnaces and steel mills at Gary, 15 miles east, are among the largest in the country. The Chicago district ranks first in blast furnace products. Public works. — Among the notable public works of Chicago are the har- bors and docks, tunnels under the river, and bridges which swing or lift to permit v'essels to pass. More than 800 miles of railroad track have been elevated or depressed from street grade, and subways connect the freight stations of all the railways with the basements of factories, stores, and hotels. Even more remarkable than these are the provisions for water supply and sewerage. Water is pumped from Lake Michigan through 17 miles of tunnels leading under the lake bottom to intake " cribs " two to five miles from the shore. This device was necessary in order to secure a supply of pure water, free from contamination by the waste of the city, which was orig- inally drained into the lake. Even this was not sutScient, and between 1892 and iQOo a drainage canal (Fig. 78) was built at a cost of $35,000,000 to carry Fig. 78 Chicago drainage canal. Note the bridge which swinj; the left bank to let boats pass. the sewage away from the lake. It is 22 feet deep and 28 and a half miles long, and through it the waters of Lake Michigan flow to the Illinois and Mississippi. The canal is also used by the city for hydraulic power and may in future become a part of a ship canal leading to the Gulf of Mexico. It is already connected by a seven-foot barge canal with the Mississippi at Rock Island. 170 TllK MIDDI.i; WKST: CITIES Population. — More than three fourths of the population of Chicago are foreign-born immigrants or the children of immi- grants, and include nearly every race, language, and nationality in the world. One fourth of the foreign population is German. The number of famiUes to each dwelling averages 1.7. Cleveland. — The third city and second lake port of the Middle West is situated at the extreme southeastern point of the shore of Lake Eric and is the end of one of the largest strands into which lake routes divide (Fig. 73). It is the principal port of the Pitts- burgh coal and iron district (p. 208), and shares with that city in the mineral industries. Its relations to the Atlantic seaports in distance and railway connections are so advantageous that a large portion of the through freight from the upper lakes is here transferred from vessels to cars. It is in a direct line and about one third of the distance by rail from Chicago to New York. Five of the great east-west railroad systems pass through it. Site. — Cleveland is built on both sides of the Cuyahoga River at its mouth and covers the blufTs and plateau which rise 75 to 200 feet above the lake. The river valley, about half a mile wide, admits vessels and trains to the heart of the city and is occupied by docks, depots, factories, furnaces, and lumberyards.' FiG. 79. — Cleveland. Public Works. — The harbor of Cleveland, like nearly all harbors on the lakes, is largely artificial (Fig. 79). By the construction of breakwaters around the mouth of the Cuyahoga River and by the deepening of its channel, more than a square mile of protected deep water and 13 miles of docks are provided. The principal streets radiate from a public square at the business center. Three viaducts, each more than half a mile long, carrying streets across the valley, are conspicuous features. Six public buildings of granite are grouped around a mall upon the bluff overlooking the lake. The water supply is pumped from an intake crib five miles from shore. DETROIT 171 Commerce and hiduslry. - Cleveland is the largest market for iron ore and fresh-water fish in America. The shipping of the port amounts to 13 million tons annually. Its most important manufactures arc of iron, steel, foundry products, and machinery, especially wire, nails, bolts, carriage hardware, bridges, boilers, engines, car wheels, and ships. Automobiles, clothing, meats, and oils refined from petroleum are also important products. Detroit. — A frontier post, originally established by the French for military and trading purposes, has grown to be a peer of Cleveland among lake ports. The gap of about 80 miles between Lake Huron and Lake Erie permits the passage of railroads connecting the Middle West with southern Canada. Thus Detroit, situated upon the river which connects the upper with the lower lakes, is primarily a crossroads city, where the lake route is crossed by five east-west trunk Knes of railway. Site. — The city extends along the right bank of the Detroit River about ten miles and nearly as far inland (Fig. 80). The ground is smooth and rises gradually from the river bank. Wide avenues radiate from a focus near the river, intersecting the rectangular streets. An island in the river having an area of 700 acres forms the uniriuo and especially attractive Belle Isle Park. Commerce and Industry. — ^ About 35,000 vessels pass Detroit annually, having a tonnage of about 60,000,000. Besides the through freight by rail which crosses both the Detroit and Niagara rivers to New York and New England, commerce with Canada is larger than that of any other lake port. The river is about half a mile wide, 30 to 50 feet deep, and has a swift current. Passenger and freight trains are ferried across sometimes with considerable delay, especially in winter. A double steel and con- crete tunnel a mile and a half long now connects the city with Fig. 80. — Detroit. 172 TIIK MIDDl.i: WKST: CITIES Windsor on the Canadian side. Detroit suri)asscs all other cities in the making of autoniohiles, the annual value of its outj)Ut being about ,S 163, 000, 000. It is also the seat of extensive indus- tries in cars, ships, stoves, drugs, alkalies, tobacco, and matches. Milwaukee. — A curv^ bay and river mouth on the west shore of Lake Michigan, 85- miles north of Chicago, was the site Fig. 81. — Milwaukee, with city hall in the center. of an early fur-trading post, which has grown into a large city (Fig. 81). The harbor and river resemble those of Chicago, but the site is naturally more favorable. The land stands about 100 feet above the lake and is intersected by three valleys which admit the lake shipping and accommodate most of the factories. The metropolitan district includes five suburban towns given largely to manufacture. There are four trunk lines of railroad, two of which ferry trains across the lake in winter. Commerce and Industry. — Milwaukee is the commercial center TOLEDO 173 of Wisconsin and a distributing point for the northwestern states. Its shipping tonnage nearly equals that of the Chicago district. Elevators are provided for grain and storage docks for coal, both of which are very capacious. The leading industrial establish- ments are breweries, tanneries, machine shops, and steel mills. The city stands first in the United States in the tanning of leather and third in brewing. Clay beds near the city furnish material for the famous cream-colored Mil- waukee brick. Nearly four fifths of the popu- lation are of for- eign parentage and 44 per cent of German. Other Lake Ports. — Some cities of mod- erate size are of special interest and impor- tance. Among the lake ports are Toledo and Duluth-Superior (Fig. 82). Toledo, on the Maumee River, near the head of Maumee Bay, and at the west end of Lake Erie, has an excellent natural harbor, but it is ofT the main route of lake commerce. It is reached by the largest vessels and has 20 miles of docks. It was the lake terminus of the old Wabash and Erie, and Miami and Erie canals and is a favorable point for future connection by water with the Ohio River. Thirteen steam roads and ten electric lines give it unusual advantages for commerce. It is related to the rich agricultural district behind it much as Fig. 82. — Duluth-Superior. 174 THE MiDDij", WEST: (:rni:s Chicago is lo a larger area. Flour, petroleum, building supplies, plate glass, and boats are among its special line of manufacture. Duluth-Superior. —These twin cities in different stales, on a line harbor at the head of Lake Superior, have the distinction of being the chief shipping ports for the iron ore of the Superior district (p. 137) and the grain of the Red River valley. They are connected by two trunk lines with the Pacific -a na'rii ; «W>.fe i«si*ni« Fii.. .Sv A lak. iiig loaded with iron ore at the docks of Duluth. coast and do a large business in lumber and coal. The St. Louis River furnishes water power for flour, lumber, and steel mills. (See Figs. 82, 83.) St. Louis. — That there should be a great city near the con- fluence of the three principal branches of the Mississippi system is a result of natural causes. A trading post and mihtary station just below the mouths of the Missouri and lUinois rivers and only 1 50 miles above the mouth of the Ohio was established while the Middle West was British and Spanish territory. This focus of exploration and trade, where the water routes from the Appa- lachians, the Great Lakes, the Gulf of Mexico, the Rocky Moun- tains, and the upper Mississippi converge, was of prime strategic ST. LOUIS 175 and commercial importance. When the Mississippi basin was added to the United States, St. Louis became its metropoHs. From the advent of steamboats in 1825 until the Civil War, the city enjoyed great pros- perity and was a successful rival of Chicago. The closing of communication with the southern seaboard put an end to that resource, and the ex- tension of railroads has re- duced traffic by water to small importance. Site. — St. Louis extends from a Fig. 84 river front of 19 miles on the right bank of the Mississippi up a bluff and over a rolling upland 100 to 200 feet above the river. The natural drainage is good and the valley of a small creek furnishes an inlet for railways from the west. Roads from the east cross the " American bottoms," a part of the flood plain of the river ten miles wide, occupied in part by East St. Louis, and reach the city by two bridges about one third of a mile long (Figs. 84, 85). All passenger trains enter a Union Station which covers eleven acres and is one of the largest in the world. Fig. 85. — Eads bridge, St. Louis. 176 THE MIDDLK WKST : CITIKS Trade and Maiin/iKinrc. St. Louis is second only to Chicago as a railway center, being a terminus of some twenty systems. The manufactures in the metropolitan district are valued at 430 million dollars annually. They include slaughtering and meat packing, boots and shoes, malt licjuors, tobacco, foundry and machine shop products, clothing, iron and steel, chemicals, lum- ber, flour, furniture, and paints. It is a distributing point for its own products and for grain, live stock, cotton, dry goods, groceries, hardware, and agricultural implements. Public Works. — The city park system includes nearly 3000 acres, a Botanical Garden, and a boulevard traversing the city parallel with the river. The water supply from the Mississippi is inexhaustible, and after removal of sediment is pure and healthful. Population. — ■ More than half the people of St. Louis are of foreign birth or parentage, and of these 44 per cent are German. Minneapolis-St. PauL — Falls and rapids in the Mississippi at the mouth of the Minnesota, locating the natural head of navigation and a source of water power, are the features which determine the site of the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. An early French trading post, and later a fort for the control of the Indians, at the foot of the rapids, and a sawmill at the falls 12 miles above, established two economic centers, which were vigorous rivals until the development of both made them more friendly. Before the Civil War they were frontier towns de- pendent upon the river for communication. Railroad connec- tions and the settlement of farm lands, especially the wheatlands of the Red River valley, led to commercial and industrial growth until the two adjoining municipaUties now constitute a single metropolitan district with a division of functions. Site. — The cities occupy the limestone bluffs and plateau about 200 feet high on both sides of the river and include a large number and variety of attractive features. Numerous glacial lakes within the city limits add beauty to the park system. The valleys, islands, and bluffs of the two rivers, MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL 177 the falls of Minnehaha, the Fort Snelling Military Reservation, and Lake Minnetonka, 15 miles long, lie within the district. The natural opportu- nities for wide avenues, boulevards, parks, and picturesque residence sites have been fully utilized. (Sec Fig. 86.) Commerce and Industry. — The two cities have the same rail- road systems and are connected by a belt line for freight and Fig. 86. — -Minneapolis-St. Paul and vicinity. by four interurban passenger lines. Nine trunk roads connect them with Chicago, St. Louis, Lake Superior, the Pacific coast, and Canada. Four of these are transcontinental. The Mississippi River is spanned by 22 bridges, varying in length from one fourth to a half mile. Minneapolis is the industrial city, famous as the greatest lumber and flour center in the world. Forty thousand horse power from the Falls of St. Anthony and 25,000 from Taylor's Falls in the St. Croix River run 22 mills, having a daily capacity of 80,000 barrels of flour. Rarely in the ELEM. ECON. GEOG. 178 THE MIDDI.I'; WKST: CITIKS world do natural resources for produi lion, and i)o\ver for jjrepara- lioii of protlucts occur togclher so happily as the wheat helds and falls of Minnesota. Minneapolis is the greatest primary wheat market in the United States, handling more than 100 million bushels a year. The river brings down from the northern forests booms of logs from which the sawmills cut 575 million feet of lumber. St. Paul is the capital of the state and the wholesale distribut- ing center of the northwest. It is also an important fur market. Kansas City. — A town at the great eastward bend of the Missouri was naturally the river terminus for the overland stage and wagon route to the southwest and California, the famous '' Santa Fe trail." After a long rivalry with other cities Kansas City, at the mouth of the Kansas, or Kaw River, has outgrown its neighbors and become a rival of St. Louis. This result is not due to the river trade, which is trifling, but to 17 lines of railway which maintain its supremacy as the gateway of the southwest. The high bluffs and deep ravines have been graded for streets and buildings, while the lowlands along both rivers are occupied by freight terminals, stockyards, elevators, factories, and wholesale houses. The ci\'il city is double, the smaller member being on the Kansas side of the Kaw and connected with the larger by a viaduct nearly two miles long from bluff to bluff. The metropolitan district is second only to Chicago as a live- stock market, and in value of meat products. Omaha, on the west bank of the Missouri near the mouth of the Platte, was the eastern terminus of the Salt Lake and Oregon trail, over which thousands of emigrants set out on their journey across the plains. It was also the terminus of the Union Pacific, the first railroad to the Pacific coast. Nine railroad systems now cross the river at this point. The suburban city of South Omaha ranks next after Chicago and Kansas City in slaughter- ing and meat packing. Cincinnati. — An intersection of waterways at the northern bend of the Ohio, where it approaches the Great Lakes, is a CINCINNATI 179 natural location for a large city. Cincinnati covers the flood plain, terraces, and bluffs of the Ohio valley and has a river frontage of about 14 miles. The low bottom lands are sub- ject to floods, but on account of convenience for river trade are occupied by factories and wholesale houses. The retail business district is largely situated upon a terrace about 60 SCALE OF MILES Fig. 87. — Cincinnati. feet above low water. The residence districts occupy a higher terrace and bluffs, 400 to 460 feet high, commanding views of the vafley, river, city, and surrounding heights. (See Fig. 87.) The Kentucky towns on the south side of the river, Covington and New- port, are connected with the city by bridges nearly half a mile long and are included in the metropoHtan district. Cincinnati formerly owed its pros- perity to the business brought by the river and by the Miami and Erie l8o THE MIDDLE WEST: CITIES Canal from Toledo, l)ut its railroad connections arc now far more important. It is reached by six cast-west trunk lines and an equal number of roads to the north and south. The city has the distinction of having built for itself, as a municipal enterprise, the Cincinnati Southern Railway to Chattanooga. The river trade in coal, iron, and lumber is still large. The United States Government is building a series of dams in the Ohio which, when completed, will maintain a depth of nine feet, and increase river transportation. Industries. — Previous to the Civil War, Cincinnati was fa- mous for pork packing, but has long been surpassed in that by Chicago. The special lines of manufacture in the metropolitan district are now clothing, boots and shoes, liquors, wagons, furni- ture, soap, tobacco, and artistic pottery. The city is noted for its zoological garden, art museum, music hall, annual musical festivals, and its municipal university, estabHshed and maintained by the city for the free tuition of its youthful citizens. Some of these institutions are due to the large population of German descent, which forms nearly one quarter of the whole. Louisville. — The so-called " Falls of the Ohio," really rapids where the Ohio descends 26 feet in two miles, determine the location of Louisville. It is built upon a gravel plain 60 feet above low water and inclosed by bluffs. It is the metropolis of Kentucky and an important river port and railroad center, having five east-west and four north-south lines. Three bridges connect it with New Albany and Jeffersonville on the Indiana side of the river. It handles more tobacco than any other American city. The value of tobacco and bourbon whisky manufactured equals $25,000,000 annually. Indianapolis. — The best example of a strictly inland railroad center in America is Indianapolis. It was located in the woods near the center of Indiana by legislative act as the state capital. It has neither waterways nor water power, but is near the Eastern Interior coal field (p. 194) and in the midst of a rich agricultural region. It is a creation of the railroads of which 15 lines of steam road and 12 of electric interurban road radiate from it like the spokes of a wheel. As a manufacturing and distributing center it has no inland equal in the Middle West. Its economic, political, and social influence in the state is greater than that of any other state capital. Summary. — Cities are the most complex of economic prod- ucts, but the reasons for their existence, in each case, can be QUESTIONS l8l easily discovered. The necessary conditions are productive territory and accessible site. They are reservoirs of concentrated population and wealth. The Middle West has seven first-class cities and nearly 200 smaller ones. Chicago is the second city in the United States in population, manufacture, and commerce. Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee are great lake ports. St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Minneapolis-St. Paul are the largest river ports. Economic Rank of the Middle West. — The Middle West, considered as an economic unit, belongs to the fourth and highest class of complex societies (p. 93) and in this respect resembles the United States as a whole more than does any other economic region. QUESTIONS 1. What are some of the advantages of city life as compared with Hfe in the country? the disadvantages? 2. Is there usually room enough in the principal business streets of a city? How can more room be utilized ? 3. Describe the features of an ideal city street. 4. Compare the advantages of the usual rectangular pattern of city streets with those of the spider-web plan, in which the main streets radiate from a central space. 5. To what uses are river banks commonly put in cities? 6. What is meant by " the smoke nuisance "? 7. Why do most of the citizens of every city want it to grow larger? 8. Why must a large city be constantly supplied from the country not only with food and raw materials but also with people? Q. If the urban population of the Middle West ever greatly exceeds the rural, to what class of economic societies will it then belong? 10. Why does the Middle West represent the highest class of economic societies? CHAPTER XV THE EASTERN STATES Boundaries. — The natural boundaries of this economic region are on the east the Atlantic Ocean and on the north the St. Lawrence River and lower Great Lakes. On the west the region extends to the upper Ohio River and the edge of the Cumber- land Plateau. The southern boundary is climatic and therefore indefinite, but is near the hmit of seven months without frost and of the cotton belt. It includes the six New England States, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, the seven so-called Middle States, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia, and the District of Columbia ^ (Figs. 30, 33, 35^ 88). The Eastern States contain the largest commercial centers and industrial districts of the United States, and are consequently more densely populated than any other region. While the area is less than one twelfth of the United States, the population is more than one third. The urban population amounts to 67 per cent and of employed persons 40 per cent are engaged in manufacture (Figs. 34, 36, 37). Economic Character. — The economic character of the region is due alrrjost wholly to natural causes. I. Location. — Every state except three has a seaboard on the Atlantic, deeply indented with bays and inlets, which admit the tide far up the valleys and form some of the most commodious harbors in the world. These ports ^ The group of the Eastern States corresponds to the New England and Middle Atlantic groups of the Census Bureau with the border states of the South Atlantic group added. 182 RELIEF 183 arc about 3000 miles, or five to ten days' voyage by steamer, from the ports of Europe. 2. Relief and Structure. — About two thirds of the area is a moderately rugged highland, diversified by knobs, knots, and ridges, which are the stumps of worn-down mountains. This highland contains the most valuable beds of coal in America. The streams flowing from it have steep slopes and narrow valleys, and are, therefore, available for water power. The numerous glacial lakes act as storage reservoirs to equalize the flow of streams. 3. Forests. — The region was originally covered with coniferous forest in the north, changing gradually through mixed forest to deciduous hard- wood timber in the south. 4. Food Supply. — Easy routes of communication by land and water with the Middle West insure a large and constant supply of food for the people who can produce little. 5. Labor Supply. — • Millions of immigrants from Europe land at the Atlantic ports and furnish an abundant supply of cheap labor. 6. Markets. — Ocean vessels, lake vessels, canal boats, and railroad trains transport raw materials and finished products, by land and water, to and from the greatest markets of the world. Relief. — ■ The New England Plateau. — The northern part of the Appalachian Highland (Fig. ^^) east of the Hudson River and north of the Mohawk consists of the New England Plateau and the Adirondack Mountains, which are remnants of old moun- tain ranges from which layers of rock, thousands of feet in thick- ness, have been removed. The last important work of the agents of erosion was done by continental ice sheets, which wore off the sharp points and angles, rounded the summits, and rubbed down and polished the whole surface. Valleys were deepened into hollows and dammed with drift. These basins hold the waters of thousands of small lakes. The higher places were swept nearly bare of mantle rock and the drift left on the slopes is thin and coarse. The surface is in many places thickly strewn with bowlders. In northern New England the hills are large, rising here and there to mountainous heights which occur generally in isolated knots. The Katahdin group in northern Maine, the 1 84 Till'; i;Asri:RN statks White Mountains of New llamj)sliin.', and the AcHrondacks of New York contain peaks about one mile high (Mt. Washington 6279 feet). The Green Mountains of Vermont are lower and form a range extending southward into Massachusetts and northward into Canada. In southern New England the plateau is nearly level-topped, with a gentle slope to the south, and is dissected by narrow valleys into a surface of moderate roughness. The glacial drift is ridged up into many parallel, half-melon shaped hills called drumlins. The region is crossed by two great valleys. The Connecticut valley south of Vermont is cut out of soft rocks to a width of several miles. The Hudson-Champlain valley in New York is a continuous depression forming a gap through the highland and an easy route by land or water from the sea to the St. Lawrence. The Mohawk valley is a similar and even more important pass westward from the Hudson to lakes Ontario and Erie. The Northern Appalachians. — South of the Hudson-Mohawk gap, the highland consists of a central mountain belt flanked by a plateau on each side. The central belt, 50 to 75 miles wide, consists of hundreds of parallel ridges and valleys which occupy southeastern New York, northern New Jersey, eastern Pennsyl- vania, and western Maryland and Virginia. The ridges have smooth, symmetrical slopes and even crests, and extend in straight or gently curved lines, like a wall. They are 10 to 50 miles long and 1000 to 4000 feet high. South of the Potomac River, the easternmost ridge is more massive than the others and is called the Blue Ridge. It is separated from the other ridges by an unusually wide interval known as the Great Appalachian Valley. The Plateaus. — The central belt is bordered upon the west by the Appalachian Plateau, which occupies southern New York, western Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. The general surface slopes gently northwestward to the plains of central Ohio and Kentucky, but is deeply dissected by the tributaries of the Ohio, and is the roughest and most difficult part of the highland DRAINAGE 185 (p. 37). The abrupt eastern edge of the plateau is called in New York the Catskill Mountains, in Pennsylvania and Virginia the Allegheny Mountains, and in Kentucky and Tennessee the Cumberland Mountains. East of the Blue Ridge, the low Piedmont Plateau, 25 to 125 miles wide and resembling southern New England, extends from New York to Alabama. The seaward margin of the plateau is marked by the Fall Line, where falls or rapids occur in every stream which crosses it. The Plains. — The space between the Fall Line and the coast is occupied by the Coastal Plain. It has been recently elevated above the sea and is covered with soft and unconsoli- dated sediments. Its slope is so gentle that the streams which cross it are sluggish and admit the tide far inland. Hence this plain is often called the tidewater region. The Lake Plain. — In New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio the space between the northern edge of the Appalachian Plateau and lakes Ontario and Erie is a plain of glacial drift and lake silts. In New York the drift is heaped up into thousands of drumlins, and the plateau edge is cut by deep, narrow valleys opening northward, which contain the basins of the Finger Lakes. This region is one of the best for fruit, grain, and potatoes. Soils. — In contrast with the Middle West, where the surface and soil are nearly uniform over large areas, the Eastern States present a great \ variety in a small space. South of the glacial boundary (Fig. t,^), the soil \ varies with the kind of bedrock beneath it, being generally poor on sand- \ stone and good on shale_and limestone. On the high mountains and steep i slopes, there islfttle but bare rock, and on the hills and ridges the soil is \ generally poor and thin. Most of the Coastal Plain is too sandy to be pro- ) ductive. The Piedmont Plateau has soils derived from granite which are ; good for wheat, tobacco, and cotton. The valleys between the mountain ridges are broad and fertile. I Drainage. — The principal streams of the Eastern States rise near the inland border of the region and cut across the plateaus 1 86 1 88 Till-: i:Asri:RN statks and ridges to the sea. The gateways by which they flow through the ridges are called water gaps and afford easy passage for railroads and canals. Their lower valleys are all drowned below sea level and admit shipping far inland. Thus the river valleys bring together the traffic of land and sea. In Maine, the Penob- scot and the Kennebec drain tangled chains of lakes and reach sea level at Bangor and Augusta, each about 50 miles from its mouth. Although the Connecticut is the longest river in New iMTgland, it is of little use for navigation. The lower Hudson is not a river, but a deep arm of the sea as far as Troy, 150 miles from New York Bay. The lower seventy miles of the Delaware River is a bay admitting the largest vessels to Philadelphia. The drowning of the Susquehanna and its tributaries has made Chesapeake Bay with its arms, extending ocean navigation to Baltimore, Washington, and Richmond. /^ Coast Line. — The subsidence or drowning of the coast has ( made it much indented. The New England coast is generally \ rock-bound except around Cape Cod Bay and peninsula. In Maine it is broken by fiords, or deep, narrow channels, into peninsulas and islands. Harbors are very numerous and some 1 of the smaller ones are most useful, as Portland, Portsmouth, Gloucester, Boston, and Narragansett. Cape Cod Bay and canal, Buzzards Bay, and Long Island Sound constitute an " inside passage " between New York and New England ports. New York Bay accommodates more shipping than any other harbor in the world. From Long Island southward the coast is low and sandy. The mainland is bordered by marshes and shal- low lagoons, outside of which sand bars thrown up by the waves form an almost continuous barrier beach. Such a coast would shut out ocean commerce if it were not broken by the great inlets of Delaware and Chesapeake. ^ Climate. — The chmate of the Eastern States does not differ y much from that of the eastern part of the Middle West in the same latitudes. The highlands are colder and have heavier < QUESTIONS 189 rainfall than the lowlands around them. In the north, the winters arc severe on account of the north and northwest winds which bring cold air from the interior. The summers are warm because the winds are west and southwest and bring heated con- tinental air to the coast. The moderating influence of the Atlan- tic Ocean is shght. New York and New England He in the track of most of the cyclonic storms that sweep across the continent and bring in winter heavy falls of snow. The annual rainfall varies from 30 inches in the northwest to about 50 inches on the coast (Fig. 29). About one half of it falls in' the growing season, which increases in length from five months in the northwest to seven months in the southeast (Fig. 30) . A cold current washes the coast as far south as Cape Cod and helps to produce much cloudy and foggy weather. Summary. — The Eastern States form a small but populous economic region, comparatively unfavorable for agriculture, but having every advantage for manufacture and commerce. QUESTIONS 1. Which of the natural conditions given on page 81 is absolutely indis- pensable for the existence of great manufactures in the Eastern States? for the existence of large commerce? 2. If the coast line lay along the foot of the highlands, what difference would it make in the economy of the Eastern States? 3. How do the streams of the Eastern States help manufacture and commerce ? 4. How does nearness to Europe affect the life and character of people in the Eastern States? 5. What natural conditions in the Eastern States favor an excess of urban over rural population? CHAPTER XVI THE EASTERN STATES: MINERAL AND FOREST PRODUCTS YEAR 1 870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 192 _ —1600 500 P Coal. — The economy of the Eastern States is based upon mines, water power, and the sea. Among mineral products, coal used for power, and in metal working is far the most im- portant. While water power and wind power were used for ages before coal was burned and are still used in many localities, the industry and commerce of the present time are almost entirely dependent upon coal. Without it factories could not be run, rail- roads and steamships would be tied up, cities at night would be in darkness, and their inhabitants would be idle. Industrial com- munities would face starvation because their food supplies must be brought from regions hundreds or thousands of miles distant. If unemployed, they would have no means of buying what might be at hand. To the human life of the Eastern States, coal is as necessary as bread. The first coal used in America was from a small field near Richmond, Va. The quantity mined in the United States has increased in a century from 50,000 tons a year to more than 500 million tons, or live tons for every man, woman, and child 190 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 Fig. 89. — Production of coal in United States, 1870-1913. COAL 191 (Fig. 89). This amounts to about two fifths of all the coal used in the world. The Appalachian coal field (Fig. 96) covers western Pennsyl- vania, eastern Ohio, West Virginia, and eastern Kentucky, and extends through Tennessee to central Alabama. The bituminous or soft coal of this field is of excellent quality for making steam in engine boilers. The total quantity mined in 1913 was 478 million tons, of which the Eastern States produced more than half. Bituminous coal occurs in horizontal beds or seams, of which there are usually many underlying the same area. The seams vary in thickness from a few inches to fifteen or twenty feet, but a seam less than four feet thick is difficult to work. Coal seams sometimes outcrop (Fig. qc^ on the sides of a I'ir.. 90. — Outcropping seam of coal in Pennsylvania. valley and are worked by direct tunneling. Usually shafts are sunk to reach them and " drifts " or tunnels are run at different levels in all directions. The coal is broken up by drilling and blasting, drawn on small cars to the shaft, and hoisted to the surface. In some mines, mules are used to draw the cars, but in a well equipped mine, electric power, generated by an engine at the surface, is used for hauling, hoisting, pumping out water, blowing in air for ventilation, and lighting the mine. If the overlying rock is not strong. 192 THE EASTERN STATES: MINERAL AND I'ORIIST PRODUCTS timbers must be used to support I he roof of the mine. Also for this purpose, pillars of eoal are left between the " rooms " or spaces excavated. These cannot be removed and from one fourth to one half of the seam is thus left in the ground. Such waste is sometimes avoided by lilling the space with earth and broken rock. Anthracite, or hard coal, is much heavier than bituminous, and its value per ton is about twice as great. It burns with little smoke or flame and makes a very hot lire. It occurs in a region of much disturbed and folded rocks in northeastern Pennsylvania occupying only 480 square miles. Some of the seams are 50 feet thick and outcrop at the surface. Anthracite is mined in the same way as bituminous coal, but after being hoisted to the surface it has to be assorted partly by hand (Fig. 91). The pro- duct in 1913 was nearly 92 million tons. Pennsylvania anthra- FiG. 91. — Power house and breaker of an anthracite mine, Pennsylvania. cite is carried by rail to the Atlantic seaports and thence by water to New England. In the Eastern States it is used for domestic purposes almost to the exclusion of soft coal. The city of New York uses about 12 miUion tons a year. Anthracite also COKE AND GAS 193 goes to the Great Lake ports and is thence distributed through the Middle West, where on account of the cost of carriage it is a luxury. The bituminous coal of the Appalachian field is distributed all over the Eastern States for use in the boilers of stationary and locomotive engines. It is floated in barges down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and carried by rail and water as far as the western lake ports. Steam coal and the coke made from it sustain the iron man- ufacturing districts from Pittsburgh and Buffalo to Chicago and Duluth. Coke and Gas. — About one seventh of the bitu- minous coal is made into coke by heating in retorts or ovens (Fig 92). Gases are driven off and a soHd fuel, which is harder and makes a hotter fire than natural coal, remains. It is indispensable in the smelting of iron. The gases are in most cases wasted, but in cities are purified and used for light- ing and cooking. Coal tar and ammonia may be extracted from them. Coal of inferior quaUty is heated to make " producer " gas, which can be used without purification in gas engines and furnaces. " Culm and slack," waste products of the mines too finely divided for ordinary use, may be compressed into " briquettes " or lumps of any convenient size and thus made available. Coal tar, formerly a waste product, is now the source of a very large number of drugs, dyes, and chemicals of the highest importance in the manufacture of medicines, textiles, knit goods, and explosives. The coal-tar industry has been most highly developed by the Germans, who have hitherto held almost a monopoly of the business. Recently " by-product " coke ovens have been built in the Eastern States and the coal tar obtained from them is being utilized in the manufacture of chemicals. In this line the United States may soon be self-supporting. Fig. g2. — Coke ovens. 194 THE KASTKRN STATKS : MINIIRAI- AND FOKIiST I'RODUCTS UNITED STATES... Pennsylvania Anthracite Bituminous West Virginia. Illinois. Ohio Kentucky Alabama Indiana All othera 570, 100 91, J-.— 173, ._.71, ...61, ...36, ...19, ..-17, .--17 ...81, 048.125 .TOi922 781.217 308.982 618,744 200.527 616.600 678.522 165.671 152.940 100 Fig. 93. — Production of coal, by states (1913), in millions of short tons. Coal Fields of the United States. — The coal fields of the United States are the largest and most productive in the world. (See Figs. 23, 96.) They cover 496,000 square miles and are estimated to contain 3,000,000 millions of tons. They are divided into six provinces : I. The Eastern Province includes the Appalachian field and lies in the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ala- bama, Virginia, and North Carolina. It furnishes nearly seven tenths of all the coal mined. 2. The Interior Province includes several distinct regions. The Eastern Interior Region in Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky furnishes about 18 per cent, and the Western Interior Region in Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma 6 per cent. The Northern Interior Region in Michigan, and the Southwestern in Texas are of less importance. 3 and 4. In the Gulf Province in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas, and the Northern Province in North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana, the coal is of an inferior quality called lignite. 5. The Rocky Mountain Province in Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Col- orado, and New Mexico furnishes about 6 per cent, some of which is anthracite. 6. The Pacific Coast Province in Washington and Oregon is of small extent and value. In general the quality of the coal declines from east to west. Nevertheless, it is all of great local value and importance, and MINING AND MINERS 195 maintains industry and transportation from the Atlantic Ocean to the Rocky Mountains. Mining and Miners. — Coal mining is a somewhat undesirable and dangerous occupation. Few men would prefer to work in dark, damp chambers underground. Currents of fresh air must be blown through the mine to prevent the accumulation of gases, which may smother the miners or explode with great violence and loss of life. In the Eastern States, the mines are worked almost entirely by foreign immigrants and their im- mediate descendants. It is a great field for unskilled labor at wages which are larger than can be ob- tained in older countries. In many cases the miners occupy houses built and owned by the company which employs them, and depend upon company stores to supply their wants. In the Appala- chian Plateau the mines are generally difficult of access. The railroads follow the narrow valleys and ascend steep grades to reach the coal outcrop. There is not room in the valley bottoms for houses, which are consequently perched on the slopes. The exact methods by which mining shall be done, the hours of work, the amount and time of payment of wages, the provisions for safety of life and limb, the housing of the miners and their families, the sanitary and educa- tional conditions of a mining community (Fig. 95), all give rise to many problems which are difficult of adjustment, and lead to strikes in which all or most of the miners refuse to work until the matters in dispute are settled. The miners have generally organized themselves into unions, the members of which are bound to support one another, and to prevent men who do not belong to the union from being employed. The economic life of the whole community is so dependent upon a large and constant supply of coal that a general strike of the miners, interfering with industry and transportation, is a serious calamity. The courts of law and sometimes the military forces of 1880 Fig 1885 94-- 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 19S0 Total mineral production of United States, 1SS0-1913. 196 Till'. KASTI:RN STATKS : MTNKRAL AND FORF.ST PRODUCTS the state arc calk'd upan to protect property and i^reservc order until the miners and thi'ir employers can eonie to an aj^reenient. Fig. 95. — Coal-mining town in West Virginia. Petroleum. — Oil is obtained from wells drilled into bedrock, generally several hundred or even a thousand feet or more in depth. It has accumulated in porous strata along with gas and salt water. If there is a cover of impervious rock, the gas pres- sure is in many cases sufficient to drive the oil out, producing a flowing well or " gusher." Most wells have to be pumped sooner or later, and in time the oil is exhausted and the well yields only salt water. The crude oil from the well is a thick, dark colored, and ill smelling liquid. It is stored in steel tanks or temporarily in open pools, and pumped through pipe lines laid underground to refineries. By heating the oil and cooling the vapors given ofT, it is split up into many products, of which gasoline, kerosene, lubricating oil, and solid parafhn and asphalt are the most important. Kerosene is the material most widely used for lighting and has largely dis- placed all other illuminants in every continent. Perhaps no other utensil OIL FIELDS 197 has contributed so much to the comfort and welfare of milHons of families as the coal oil lamp. Gasoline has in recent years become scarcely less im- portant on account of its use in engines which require no furnace or boiler, and obtain their power directly from the fuel without the intervention of steam. They make possible this age of the automobile, auto truck, motor boat, motor cycle, and aeroplane. The gas engine has displaced the steam engine and the windmill for many purposes. The invention of the Diesel marine engine makes it possible to burn crude oil in the place of gasoline and to reduce the cost of transportation by water. Engines are also coming into extensive use in which crude petroleum is consumed for making steam. In southwestern United States, where coal is lacking, petroleum is used for firing locomotive engines. Modern warships are equipped for oil fuel be- cause it takes up less space than coal and is more conveniently handled. Oil Fields. — The first oil wells in the United States were bored in Pennsylvania about i860. The Appalachian field was extended to southwestern New York, eastern Ohio, and western West Virginia, and reached its largest yield between 1880 and 1900. During this period, it furnished from 100 to 50 per cent of the total product of the United States. Between 1885 and 1905, a field in western Ohio and eastern Indiana was very productive. Since 1900, wells in Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Cali- fornia, and Illinois (Fig. 96) have equaled or surpassed all pre- vious yields. The " life " of an oil field, or its period of great productiveness, lasts from a few years to about twenty-five years. Although new fields should be discovered, the supply of petroleum in the United States can hardly be expected to remain plentiful longer than about a century. It is impossible to foresee what will be used for lighting and lubrication when the petroleum is exhausted. In engines alcohol may be used instead of gasoline. Petroleum is transported in tank cars, tank steamers, and pipes. About 8000 miles of trunk pipe line connect the oil fields with Atlantic and Gulf seaports and ports on the Great Lakes. Extensive oil refineries have been established near Chicago and Cleveland, and at Bayonne, N. J. Among foreign oil fields, the Russian along the Caucasus Mountains and the Mexican are the only ones that rival those of the United States. ELEM. ECON. GEOG. — 12 IqS Till': KASTERN STATES: MINER/VL AND FOREST PRODUCTS Of ihe world su[)|)l\, the United Stales furnishes about 65 per cent and Russia about 20 per cent. Refined oil ranks fourth in value among exports from the United States and shares with American cotton and copper the distinction of being a prod- uct which the world could hardly do without. American oil goes to almost every part of the world except Russia, and in some countries the empty cans in which it has been received are prized for domestic use. Fig. 96. — Fuel resources of the United States. Natural Gas. — The best and cheapest of all fuels is gas, be- cause of its high heating power, cleanliness, and convenience. It usually escapes from wells before the flow of oil begins. The first gas wells to be utilized were in western New York and Penn- sylvania, and later in Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, and Okla- homa (Fig. 96). Gas has greatly stimulated manufactures in the gas fields, especially of glass and iron, and has been piped to all the principal cities for boiler and domestic use. Storage of gas is diffi- cult, and probably one half of the whole supply has been wasted. The life of a gas well is short, and any field is likely to be exhausted in twenty years. This addition to the already Uberal supply BRICK 199 of fuel in the coal and oil fields cannot be expected to prove more than temporary. Brick, Stone, and Cement. — In the development of a forested country like the Atlantic division of the United States, buildings are almost exclusively of wood. The log cabin of the pioneer could be completed without the use of a nail or any other metal, the only mineral matter required being the hearthstone and mud for a chimney. The wooden frame house still prevails through- out the country. It is relatively cheap, very comfortable, and, if cared for, durable. Its worst defect is its liability to destruction by fire. In the arid and semiarid parts of the world and in old and densely populated countries, wood is scarce and costly, and building materials are obtained chiefly from the earth crust. In western Europe, wooden houses are rare or of local occurrence, as in Switzerland and Norway. Field and quarry stone are used wherever available, and in other places brick. Houses are built to stand for centuries, and fires are infrequent. In the United States, until recently, brick and stone have been used chiefly in the business districts of cities and for large public buildings. Probably nine tenths of the homes are still within wooden walls. The scarcity and high price of lumber have brought at least the Eastern States to a period of change and a rapidly increasing use of brick, stone, and cement. Brick. — • Clay suitable for making common brick is widely distributed, so that almost every community has its own brickyards. The output is roughly proportioned to the density of population, and, therefore, is greatest near large cities. The most extensive brick industry is carried on in the Hudson valley. Numerous deposits of clay made by former streams empty- ing into the Hudson estuary have been raised by crustal movements 100 to 300 feet above tide. The output of the Hudson district is one tenth that of the whole United States. The bricks are floated on barges to build the great city of New York, which requires 1000 million every year. The clay is thoroughly kneaded, mixed with a little sand, run into molds, dried, and burned in a kiln. Pressed brick, vitrified or specially hardened brick, and brick of peculiar colors are used for facing fine houses. Fire brick made 200 THE EASTERN STATES: MINERAL AND FOREST PRODUCTS from clay wliiih underlies coal scams is used for lining furnaces and stoves. In many works, shale rock is ground and made into paving Ijrick, tile, and sewer pipe. Stone. — Good building stone is less common than brick clay, and it costs more to quarry it than to make brick. Hence stone is not used so much as brick, except in foundations. The cost of transportation usually confines the use of stone to a terri- tory not far from the quarry. Yet there are some varieties which, on account of their beauty, durability, or other peculiar quality, find a wide market in spite of their cost. Among these are granite, slate, and marble. In the last ten years, the value of the building stone used in the United States has increased 65 per cent. Extensive erosion in the Appalachian plateaus and mountains has exposed on the surface many rocks not found on the plains. The value of the quarry products of the Eastern States is nearly one half that of the whole United States. Granite. — The " granite hills " of New England contain inexhaustible resources of rock of excellent quality, much of which is so near the coast that it can be shipped by water. Vermont, Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire produce more than 40 per cent of the total output. The hard- ness of granite makes the work of quarrying, cutting, and dressing difBcult and costly, but the rock takes and retains a high polish which brings out a mottled pattern of colors. It is used chiefly for columns, arches, trimmings, and other ornamental parts of buildings and for monuments. The gray, reddish, and other mottled stones in cemeteries are varieties of granite. A very durable pavement is made of granite blocks. Slate occurs only in regions where the earth crust has been subjected to great disturbance. It splits naturally into thin, smooth sheets which form first-class material for roofing, table tops, and blackboards. It is more easily quarried and worked than granite, and is shipped long distances, even across the ocean. The Eastern States have a monopoly of slate pro- duction, Pennsylvania and Vermont furnishing nearly nine tenths of the whole supply. Limestones are abundant and widely distributed rocks, exhibiting a great variety of qualities and colors. They are all relatively soft and CEMENT 20I easily worked, and the best are beautiful and durable. They nearly equal in value all other quarry products combined. Large quantities are " burned " or heated in kilns for the manufacture of mortar and cement. The limestone most widely used for building is the Bedford stone of southern Indiana, which can be quarried in solid blocks of almost any thickness, cut with wire saws, and turned in a lathe (Fig. 97). It is shipped to nearly every state and even to Europe. Marble is a compact, crystalline limestone, highly valued for its color, fine grain, and surface when polished. Large buildings are sometimes built of marble, but it is used chiefly for ornamental work. The most productive marble quarries are at Proctor, Vt. (Fig. 98). The finest statuary marble is imported from Carrara, Italy. Sandstones are quarried in great variety but are of less value for building than other stones. Some from Ohio rival the finest limestone. Many of the best are brown or reddish in color and known as brownstone. Trap, a volcanic rock, occurs in dikes or walls cutting through other rocks, notably in New Jersey and Connecticut. When broken in pieces of proper size, it forms excellent road metal. The economic importance of common sand and gravel used in building and road making should not be overlooked. Complete statistics are not available, but they exceed in quantity used, and perhaps in value, all other nonmetallic minerals except fuels. Fig. 97. Limestone columns turned in a lathe, Bed- ford, Indiana. Cement. — The increase in the use of cement (p. 142) from about one milhon barrels a year in 1895 to more than 80 milUon barrels in 191 2 is one of the most significant events in the eco- nomic development of the United States. It is a direct and fortu- nate answer to the serious scarcity and increasing cost of timber. Improvements in methods of manufacture have reduced the cost of cement from three dollars to less than one dollar a barrel. 202 nil'; i;Asri:RN sr.vi-iis: MiNi;kAi. and lokiosr i'Roducts P'iG. q8. — Marble quarry, Proctor, Vermont. FOREST PRODUCTS 203 The cement industry, like brick making, is widely distributed because lime, clay, and fuel can be had in almost every state. The demand for cement is greatest in large cities and the production is largely controlled by density of population. Pennsylvania has led all the states from the first ; Indiana has recently acquired second place. The Eastern States produce over two lifths of the total output. When the United States Government undertook the construction of the great Roosevelt dam and irrigation canal in Arizona, it established a cement factory on the spot. Such an expedient is likely to be repeated almost anywhere, when the occasion arises. UNITED STATES. $2,084,103,175 q 100 200 300 ' 400 500 Pennsylvania . West Virginia Illinois Ohio California Minnesota Oklahoma Michigan Arizona. All others 143.211 429,705 132,263 300 500 Fig. gg. — Value of minerals produced by states (191 j), in millions of dollars. (See Table VI, Appendix.) Forest Products. — The use of wood for fuel and construction is universal, and it is difficult to imagine how men could live with- out it. Forests naturally prevail from the equator to the arctic circle and from sea level to high mountain crests, covering more than one half the land area. Large trees will grow on soils and slopes where nothing else of value can live. The great northern coniferous forest (Fig. 6i) originally extended over the Eastern States, becoming mixed with hardwood trees toward the south. The history of the settlement of the region is a story of struggle with the forest which had to be cleared to make room for crops. This struggle lasted about two centuries, at the end of which forest destruction had progressed so far that the demand for timber and lumber exceeded the home supply. Since 1870 the upper lakes region of the Middle West, and the Southern States have supplied the deficiency. As the yield of the lakes region 204 THE EASTERN STATES: MINERAL AND TORKST PRODUCTS has decreased tliat of tlie south has increased and tliere is now a large shipment from the Pacific coast. About 40 per cent of the total forest product is used for firewood and nearly as much for lumber, while poles, fencing, and railroad ties are large items. About one eighth is ground into pulp for paper making. Forest Conservation. — The increasing demand for wood in many forms can be met in two ways: (i) by the substitution of other materials in the place of wood, and (2) by the conservation of forests. Of substitution, the use of coal for fuel, of steel, brick, cement, and concrete (Fig. 100) for build- FiG. 100. — A concrete railroad bridge. Tunkhannock viaduct, Pennsylvania. ing, of wire for fencing, of glass or metal for ties, and of steel for cars and furniture, are examples. Conservation means the cutting of timber without waste or injury to standing trees, the prevention of forest fires, and the re- planting of land already cleared, much of which is useless for other purposes. Limbs and tops of trees may be converted into charcoal or distilled for wood alcohol. A forest or wood lot should receive the same intelligent care as an orchard. Only by the practice of the art of scientific forestry can the future timber supply of the United States be made to meet the demand. Without it the country will soon be dependent upon Canada or some other foreign source. The Eastern States still furnish nearly 15 per cent of the forest products of the United States. (See Fig. 10 1.) Summary. — The Eastern States contain the richest anthra- cite field yet worked in the world and one of the best bitu- minous coal fields. These, together with petroleum, natural gas, clay, and stone, furnish the foundation for manufacture and con- struction on the largest scale. QUESTIONS 205 UNITED STATES Natural gas Coal Pig iron Stone Cement Sand and gravel Clay prod ucts Petroleum (value).— All minerals Timber and lumber PER CENT 40 50 _60_ Fig. ioi. 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 10 Rank of Eastern States in mineral and forest products. (See Tabic IV, Appendix.) QUESTIONS 1. Will the coal fields of the Eastern States ever be exhausted? What can be done to conserve the supply ? 2. If coal should become scarce and costly, what would be the effect upon business and population? 3. Would it be a good plan for the Federal Government to operate the mines and control the distribution of coal? 4. How were streets and houses lighted before coal gas and petroleum were discovered? . 5. What mineral resources are inexhaustible? 6. What is being done in your state for the conservation of forests? 7. Look up the origin and meaning of the phrases " stump speaking," " log rolling," " taking to the tall timber." Why did they originate in the Appalachian region ? CHAPTER XVII THE EASTERN STATES: MANUFACTURES The geographical conditions which make possible the suprem- acy of the Eastern States in manufactures have been given on pp. 182-183. Nearly all lines of industry are represented, and most of them on the largest scale. Table V in the Appendix and Fig. 122 show the very high rank held by this region in the production of basic materials, such as pig iron, cotton cloth, woolens, silk, leather, and paper and also of finished products, such as steel, glass, chemicals, cordage, clothing, carpets, hosiery, boots and shoes, gloves and mittens, and printed matter. Power. — Of the power used in manufacture in the United States, nearly one tenth is derived from streams and the rest from fuel, chiefly coal. Of all the water power utilized 70 per cent is found in the Eastern States and 40 per cent in New England. Manufacturing began in New England before the in- vention of the steam engine and was successful because there were many small streams with good fall and narrow valleys which could be easily dammed. Among these the Merrimac, Blackstone, and Connecticut were the most important. The water power has long since been outgrown and now forms only 28 per cent of all the power used. The power of water is due entirely to its weight and is proportional to the quantity multiplied by the " head," or vertical distance through which it falls. Natural cataracts are generally most available, but an artificial cataract can be made by building a dam. It is generally inconvenient to place the mill or wheel directly under the fall, therefore it is built at one side 206 IRON AND STEEL 207 and water is led to it by a race or canal. Fuel can be carried to the factory, but the factory must go to the water power. This difficulty has been largely overcome since invention has made it possible to conduct power hundreds of miles by the electric current and to distribute it in small quantities where- ever needed. The largest water power now in use, and perhaps the largest in the world, is at Niagara Falls. There a river, with the upper Great Lakes above it for reservoirs, and a volume which never varies, falls 160 feet. There is power enough, if completely utilized, to supply four or five of the largest cities. At present only a small fraction of the river is diverted to ■;«^^'>iin^--i?4e^-. Fig. 102. Water power on the Niagara gorge. Note the penstocks conveying water to a power house at the foot of the bluff. power houses (Fig. 102) where electricity is generated and sent to BufTalo and other cities within 150 miles to be used for lighting and for running cars and machinery. Iron and Steel. — Iron ores are abundant and widely distrib- uted, but the utilization of any particular deposit depends upon the purity of the ore, the presence of fuel, and the access to markets. The first iron furnaces in America were scattered along the Appalachians from Vermont to Georgia. They were small and supphed only a local demand. The fuel used was char- coal and the blast was produced by water power. The use of anthracite in eastern Pennsylvania about 1840 stimulated and 208 THE EASTERN STATES: MANUFACTURES concentrated the iron industry in Unit region (Fig. 103). The extension of railroads tinough the bituminous coal field and the use of coke, which is less expensive than anthracite, soon shifted the iron-making district to western Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh, at the junction of three navigable rivers and with good ore and the best of steam and coking coal at hand, became UNITED STATES $1,377.1.52,000 200 400 600 800 Pennsylvania. Ohio Illinois. New York. Alabama. _ All othera- .— 668,922,000 — -281,479,000 .-.^124,908,000 66.1,'3,3,000 21.2:}6,000 -- 214,454,000 Fig. 103. — Manufacture of iron and steel, by states (igog), in millions of dollars. the natural center of the industry. The exploitation of the rich ore deposits around Lake Superior (p. 137) since 1885 has served only to increase the importance of Pittsburgh, which has become the leading iron working center of the world. It is cheaper to ship the ore to the fuel than the fuel to the ore, and this movement on the largest scale is made possible by the waterway of the Great Lakes (p. 157). The Pittsburgh district has expanded until it comprises western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, and northern West Virginia, where scores of " iron towns " have sprung up and it is difhcult at night to get out of sight of furnace fires. The lake ports of the Appalachian and Eastern Interior coal fields (p. 194), Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Gary, Ind., are vigorous rivals in the making of iron and steel from Lake Superior ores, but neither yet equals " the Smoky City " of coal, oil, and gas. In eastern Pennsylvania, ores im- ported from Cuba, Newfoundland, Sweden, and Spain are mixed with domestic ores and smelted to supply the seaboard market. Smelting. — The smelting or extraction of iron from the ore requires a very high temperature, which can be obtained only in a blast furnace. The furnace, shaped like a bottle having its largest diameter a little above PIG IRON, WROUGHT IRON, AND STEEL 209 the bottom, is built of masonry or steel and lined with fire brick. It may be 90 feet high and 15 feet across. After a fire is started, coke, ore, and lime- stone are dumped in alternately at the top. A blast of hot air is blown in near the bottom, and at a temperature of about 2500° some elements of the ore combine with the coke to form gases which escape at the top. Other ingredients unite with the limestone to form a liquid slag. In six or twelve hours the bottom of the furnace is filled with liquid iron, upon which the slag floats like cream on milk. The slag is drawn off through an upper opening and has usually been thrown away as waste. Recently it is being used as material for making cement (p. 142). The iron is drawn off through a lower opening and run into sand or iron molds, where it cools and solidifies into " pigs." (See Fig. 104.) Fig. 104. — The high tower at the left is a blast furnace with a hoist for ore and coke be- side it. The lower towers are ovens for heating the blast. "Pigs" of iron stacked in the foreground. Pig Iron, Wrought Iron, and Steel. — Pig or cast iron, as it comes from the furnace, contains two per cent or more of carbon, 210 Tin: EASTERN STATES: MANUFACTURES which makes it hard but rather brittle and unworkable under the hammer. When hot it is very liquid and can be poured into a mold of any shape, which it fills in all its corners, making when cold a good casting. It is used for the large and massive parts of machinery and for small, irregular pieces which do not require great strength, like the parts of a stove. Wrought iron, the purest form of the metal, is soft, flexible, and tough and can be welded and hammered into any shape without breaking. Steel is a variety of iron which combines the good qualities of cast iron and wrought iron with some of its own. It contains less carbon than cast iron. It can be made hard or soft, brittle or tough, and can be hammered or cast. It is one of the strongest and most elastic of materials. By vary- ing shghtly the pro- portion of carbon, and by heating and cooling rapidly or slowly (" tempering "), we may give to steel the exact qualities desired for a watch spring, a razor, a railroad rail, a fence wire, an anchor chain, a bridge or sheets to be coated Fig. 105. — A Bessemer converter in action. beam, armor plate for a with tin and made into battleship, ' tinware." The use of steel on a large scale was made possible by the Bessemer pro- cess invented about 1856. By blowing a blast of air through molten pig iron PIG IRON, WROUGHT IRON, AND STEEL 211 in an egg-shaped " converter " it is converted into steel in a few minutes and at a small cost. (See Fig. 105.) While Bessemer steel is relatively inexpensive, it can be made only from certain kinds of ore, and it is not so good in ciualily as steel made by the Fig. 106. — Location of blast furnaces, igoy. open-hearth process now coming into general use. This consists in melting cast iron in a shallow furnace by causing flame to flow over its surface, and in adding iron ore and scrap steel until the material acquires the proper composition. This takes about twelve hours. The quantity of open- 212 THE EASTERN STATES: MANUFACTURES hearth slccl now made in llu' I'liiled States is nearly twice that of Bessemer. On account of ils great strength and duraljihty, steel has largely dis])laced other varieties of iron, and this is often called " the age of steel." Division of Iron Manufacture. — Articles nuulv of iron and steel are so ntimcrous and varied that the industry has become highly specialized and divided into many departments. The primary plant which furnishes material for all the rest is the blast furnace, of which there were in 1909 in the United States 208 : in the Middle West 70, in the Eastern States loi, and in the Southern States 35 (Fig. 106). The largest furnaces turn out 600 to 900 tons of pig iron a day. Nearly one half of the whole furnace product is delivered while still hot and liquid to mills where it is converted into steel. Most of the molten steel is run into ingots and allowed to cool until it is stiff enough to handle. In a rolling mill, the ingots, weighing many tons each, are passed, while still hot and soft, between rollers which squeeze them into thinner and longer masses until the metal has been rolled down into railroad rails, plates, sheets, or bars of various sizes called billets. Of steel works and rolling mills, there are in the United States 446, of which 268 are in the Eastern States, 150 in the Middle West, and 8 in the Southern States. Rods and wires are made by drawing the hot steel through holes of different sizes. Large articles of other shapes are forged under hammers of enormous weight. Foundries. — The most widely distributed establishment for iron work is the foundry where articles in great variety are made by casting. This process consists in filling molds with melted iron or steel and allowing the metal to cool and solidify. The molds are generally made of a special kind of sand built up around a pattern of wood, which, when removed, leaves a space of the desired shape. Other works produce structural steel in large pieces for bridges, buildings, and ships. Others are devoted to making nails, bolts, screws, tools, cutlery, and the vast variety of small articles found in a hardware store. Still others manufacture pipe, stoves, car wheels, engines, or special kinds of machinery. To trace the iron which runs out of a blast furnace through all the changes and processes by which it is converted into the almost innumerable " finished products " in common use would require a volume. To discuss these processes and products would be to write the history of modern industrial civilization. SPINNING AND WEAVING 213 Table V in the Appendix shows that the Eastern States lead the other economic regions of the United States in the extent of their iron industries, and in many departments equal or exceed all the rest combined. If the extension of the Pittsburgh district into Ohio is included in the Eastern States, with which it naturally belongs, their superiority becomes very striking. Pennsylvania has twice as many blast furnaces as any other state and also pro- duces half the steel made. Among cities, Pittsburgh, Youngs- town, O., and Chicago rank highest in value of steel produced. Of the world's supply of steel the United States makes more than two fifths, Germany more than one fifth, and Great Britain more than one tenth. Textiles. — As clothing is second in importance only to food, so among manufactures textiles, or woven goods, stand next in value after foodstuffs. The rudest peoples know how to braid or weave grass, bark, and leaves into coarse mats, blankets, and other fabrics which resemble basketwork or the plaiting of a straw hat. The use of fine fibers like wool, flax, and cotton is more difficult and requires considerable skill. Such libers are only an inch or two long and must be spun by twisting them to- gether to make a continuous thread. The arts of spinning and weaving were invented in prehistoric times and have been prac- ticed for thousands of years, but until about 150 years ago the work was done by hand (Fig. 107). Spinning and Weaving. — Spinning consists essentially in drawing out a wad or roll of fibers and twisting it at the same time. This can be done with the simplest implements, a distaff to hold the bunch of fiber and a spindle twirled in the hand. The spinning wheel run by foot or hand improved the product and increased the speed, but spun only a single thread. In 1770, James Hargreaves in England invented the spinning " jenny" (a machine named after his daughter), which contained twenty or more spindles. This machine, with many improvements and the number of spindles multiplied indefinitely, is the one still used in the large mills of the present day. Weaving is the process of interlacing two sets of threads at right angles. A loom consists essentially of a frame upon which one set of threads, the ELEM. ECON. GEOG. — 13 214 Till-; easti:rn statics : manufactures warp, is strclclu'd, wliilf I hi' ollirr sil , the woof, is woven lhrou};h them back and forth by means of a shullk'. The essential parts are simple and the quality and patterns of cloth may he considerably varied without complicated machinery. Hand looms are still in use in remote parts of Scotland, Ireland, and the United States. In 17S7 another Englishman, Edmund Cartwright, invented a power loom which wove cloth much faster than the hand loom and was able to use the accumulations of yarn which Hargreaves' jenny had Fig. 107. — Carding, spinning, and weaving cotton at home, .\labama. spun. The new machines were at first run by water or horse power, but these were soon supplemented by Watt's newly invented steam engine. In 1793 Eli Whitney in the United States invented the cotton gin, which could remove the seed from 5000 pounds of cotton a day. Before this invention, one person could remove by hand the seeds from only one pound a day. This machine gave an enormous impetus to the growing and manufacture of cotton. These inventions secured to all mankind an abundant supply of clothing forever. Early Textile Industry in America. — Spinning and weaving were carried on by the early settlers of New England, who brought wheels and looms with them. The severity of the climate made good clothing necessary, and distance from the FLAX AND HEMP 215 Old World made it difficult and expensive to buy. They were, therefore, compelled to provide for themselves. Textiles made by hand were at first a by-product of agriculture, manufactured in the farm homestead. The farmers planted flax and raised sheep. Some wool was imported from Spain and cotton from the West Indies. A stout cloth, called fustian, was made from linen and cotton, and kerseys and linsey-woolseys suitable for winter wear from linen and wool. Learning to spin and weave was an im- portant part of the education of every woman. At one time in Boston, spinning schools and bees became a fashionable craze, and men took pride in wearing homespun. Between 1788 and 1794 mills containing machines run by water power were established at Philadelphia, Beverly, Mass., Pawtucket and Provi- dence, R.I., Hartford, Conn., and Paterson, N.J. The mill at Paw- tucket used cotton from Guiana and Haiti costing a dollar a pound. The mill at Hartford made the fine, dark brown broadcloth for the suit worn by Washington at his inauguration in 1789. Between 18 10 and 1827 textile manufactures were established at Manchester, N.H., Fall River and Wal- tham, Mass., Woonsocket, R.I., Amsterdam, N.Y., and Lowell, Mass., and in 1846-1847 at New Bedford and Lawrence, Mass. It is notable (i) that these mills were located on streams which furnish water power, and near good harbors ; (2) that in nearly all of them the industry has continued to flourish and they are now the great textile centers of the United States (Fig. 108). Philadelphia, Pa.,. Lawrence, Mass Fall River, Mass New Bedford. Mass. Paterson, N.J Providence, R.l Lowell, Mass Pawtucket, R.I New York, N.Y.,.. 25 50 75 100 Woolen and cotton goods, hosiery and carpets I Woolen goods . ^■Cotton goods Cotton goods ^■Silk. Woolen goods. Cotton goods I Cotton goods.. Hosiery 25 50 75 too 125 Fig. io8. — Rank of cities in manufacture of textiles, igog. .-$124,060,000 — -58,536,000 — 48.576,000 42.505.000 .— 40.358,000 .— 29.926.000 —.24,744,000 14.338.000 ....13.565.000 Fibers. — Of fibers in general use flax, hemp, and wool date from the earliest times, while cotton and silk are quite recent. Flax and Hemp. — Flax is grown both for the fiber of its stems and for the seed, from which linseed oil, indispensable in making 2l6 THE EASTERN STATES: MANUFACTURES good paint, and oil cake for |.altcningcatllc,arc obtained. Before the advent of cheap cotton, flax was grown on nearly every farm in the United States and clothing was made from it in the house- hold. The straw was " retted " by soaking in water, " broken " by pounding with a club, and " scutched " by drawing through a " hetchel " or comb with long wire teeth. The " tow " thus obtained was spun on a wheel, turned by a pedal, and woven on a hand loom. The whole process was laborious and the product was coarse linen cloth. Flax is adapted to a wide range of climate and is now an important crop in central and northern Europe from Ireland to Siberia. It is difficult to prepare and to spin, but the finest thread and cloth used for handkerchiefs, towels, collars, cuffs, and table linen are produced in northern Ireland, southern Scotland, Belgium, Germany, and Bohemia. A ma- chine which would do for flax what the gin did for cotton might so cheapen linen as to make it a rival of cotton for clothing. Hemp resembles llax but tlie fiber is coarse and used chiefly for making rope, twine, sacking, and matting. It is now of less importance than jute from India, Manila hemp from the Philippine Islands, and sisal from Yucatan. UNITED STATES. Cotton goods Woolen goods Hosiery & knit goods-. Silk Carpets &rugs Cordage, jute & linen. .$1,738,489,723 - 628,392,000 - 435,979,000 200,144.000 .196,912,000 .- 71,188,000 -61,020,000 Fig. log. 150 300 450 600 750 Textiles manufactured in United States, igog. (See Table V, Appe.idix.) Wool. — The fibers of wool differ from all others in being crinkly and scaly ; therefore, woolen cloth is thicker, heavier, warmer, more elastic, and less easily wet than fabrics made from vegetable fiber. It is open to the serious objections that it is irritating to the skin and can hardly be washed without injury. Therefore, it is used chiefly for outer garments, especially those worn by men. Wool is also made into felt, which is a matted, tangled mass without threads. WOOL 217 Woolen goods arc usually " fulled " bj' healing and teasing until the threads are hidden by a soft, furry, felllike surface. Cloths which are not fulled and show the thread plainly are called ivorstcds. Shoddy is a thick, warm, cheap, but weak cloth made from woolen rags. Wool is produced by sheep which are raised also for mutton and are widely distributed in all the temperate regions of the world which are not too wet. The quality of the wool varies with the climate and the breed of sheep. It is bulky but light and the price paid to the producer is so high that it can be transported long distances without greatly increasing the cost to the manufacturer. He can afford to import from any part of the world the kinds needed to supply his market. Consequently wool is an article of extensive and long-dis- tance trade. In the United States most of the wool is raised in the Pacific Division (p. loi) and nearly one half of the 591 million pounds used (1914- 1915) is imported. W^ool for the finest goods is obtained from Australia, New Zealand, and .Argentina, while a heavy importation of coarse carpet wools comes from China, Russia, Turkey, and Scotland. Woolen manufacture is one of the most concentrated of indus- tries. More than nine tenths of it belongs to the Eastern States, one third to Massachusetts, and one sixth each to Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. The leading cities are Lawrence, Philadelphia, and Providence. The average value of the goods made from a pound of wool is about one dollar. (See Fig. no.) UNITED STATES $435,978,558 40 80 120 160 Massachusetts. Pennsylvania-- Rhode Island New Jersey. New York Connecticut Maine New Hampshire Ail others -141,966,882 -77,446,996 - 74,600,240 . 33,938,637 ..23,739,421 -19,363,228 _ 18,490,120 - 16,730,652 -J29, 702,382 Fig. 40 80 120 160 Manufacture of woolen goods, by states (igog), in millions of dollars. The value of woolen goods manufactured in Great Britain, Germany, France, and Austria-Hungary is in each country about the same as that in the United States. Each of the first three imports twice as much wool as does the United States, most of it from Australasia and Argentina, which grow more than half the w^ool of the world, export nearly all they grow, and buy back manufactured goods. On account of the large area required to 2l8 THE i;asti:rn stativS : manufactures support shcc[), tlic world's suijpiv of wool docs not keep uj) with the demand, and mixed goods of wool and cotton are coming more and more into use. Cotton. — The cotton plant was widely distributed throughout the warm temperate and tropical regions of the world and its seed liber was in general use for clothing before the dawn of history. Yet the commercial manufacture of cotton on a large scale dates from the invention of the cotton gin in 1793. Pre- vious to that time cotton cloth was more expensive than linen or woolen. Machinery for spinning and weaving was ready, but the supply of raw material was limited by the cost of labor in seeding by hand. With this obstacle removed, the production and manufacture of cotton increased by leaps and bounds, until it now forms nine tenths of all the materials used for clothing. The Southern States produce about three fifths of the world's cotton crop, India one fourth, and China, Egypt, Russian Turkes- tan, and Brazil nearly all the rest. IWl'?. lllHIIHtll '""^P'^IptP'pI^ Fig. III. — Cotton mills, Rhode Island. Cotton manufacture in the United States was at first almost confined to New England, which still holds its supremacy, not in amount of raw cotton consumed, but in value of the product. The location of mills was determined by the presence of water BRITISH COTTON INDUSTRY 219 power, as that of the Merrimac River in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and of the Blackstone in Rhode Island (Fig. in). Many of the mills have outgrown the water power and use steam. Coal is obtained by cheap ocean transportation. The leading city in the cotton industry is Fall River, but its neighbor. New Bedford, produces the finest cloth. Lowell, Philadelphia, and Pawtucket stand next in rank. The mills of the Southern States use more cotton than those of the Eastern States, but their product consists of coarser cloths which are mostly exported. While the United States is the only important country that produces raw cotton enough for its own use, the fiber of finest quality is imported from Egypt and Peru. In total value of goods the United States stands second only to Great Britain. (See Fig. 112.) UNITED STATES $628,391,813 20 40 60 80 100 Massachusetts - - North Carolina., South Carolina.. - Rhode Island Georgia Pennsylvania New Hampshire Connecticut Alabama Maine New York New Jersey. All others ■ 186,462,313 680,385 929,585 312,597 036,817 917,033 601,830 231,881 211,748 932,225 351,555 728.874 994.970 Fig, 40 60 80 100 112. — Manufacture of cotton, by .states (igog), in millions of dollars. British Cotton Industry. — The possession of a large body of skilled workmen, trained through many generations to spin and weave, and the invention among them of the spinning jenny, power loom, and steam engine gave the English a long start ahead in cotton manufacture. A favorable climate, abundant coal, the first-class harbor at Liverpool through which food and raw materials are imported, peace at home, plenty of capital, skilled labor, and merchant ships which reach all ports have made the region within forty miles of Manchester the center from which 70 per cent of the world's export of cotton cloth is sent out. 2 20 vwv: i;.\sti;k.\ statiis : m.wufacturks English cotton goods may be Ijought in every considerable dry goods store in America, and it would be dilTicult to find a corner of the world, outside the polar regions, where they are unknown. The cotton industry flourishes in Germany, France, Belgium, Holland, and Switzerland. It is carried on in northern Italy, Spain, Bohemia, and Poland and has penetrated even India, Japan, and China. Cotton is the king of fibers and by far the most valuable plant known to man outside the cereal grains. It literally clolhes the world in the sense that few human beings, savage or civilized, do without it. UNITED STATES 4200,143.527 15 30 45 60 75 New York Pennsylvania-- Massachusctts. AUothera . 67.130.296 . 49.657,506 - 14,736,025 -68,619,700 60 75 15 30 45 Fig. 113. — Manufacture of hosiery and knit goods, by state.s (igog), in millions of dollars. UNITED STATES j;71.188.152 5 10 15 20 25 30 New York Pennsylvania - Massachusetts . All others ... 2.5,606,262 .--.24.879,232 -.- 12,811.981 7,890,677 Fig. 114. 5 10 15 20 25 30 Manufacture of carpets and rugs, by states (igog), in millions of dollars. Silk. — Silks, first brought to Europe from China before the Christian era, have continued to be a luxury valued for their luster and beauty. Raw silk is an exceedingly fine thread which a caterpillar, called the silkworm, draws from its head and winds around itself in preparation for changing into a moth (Fig. 21). When the cocoon thus made is completed, the worm is killed by heating and the thread is unwound, from five to twenty threads being combined into a single fiber. Silk culture consists in gather- ing the eggs of the moth and feeding the worms, when hatched, on fresh mulberry leaves until they are mature and ready to spin their cocoons. The mulberry tree thrives in the tropical and warm temperate zones, but the worms are delicate and require care in securing proper temperature, humidity, and cleanliness. SILK MANUFACTURE 221 Therefore, raw silk is produced only where skilled labor, mostly that of women and children, is abundant and cheap. Japan is es- pecially well provided in this respect and now prtxlucesone third of the world's supply. China yields three tenths, and southern France and northern Italy combined, one fifth. Silk Manufacture. — The French have taught the world how to attain the highest degree of excellence in silk fabrics, the center of the industry being at Lyons in the Rhone valley. French satins, velvets, brocades, and ribbons have become famous as the most beautiful, durable, and costly of dress goods. The demand for them is necessarily limited, but the market for lighter, poorer, and cheaper goods is capable of indefinite expansion. Swiss and German manufacturers cater to this growing trade and their French neighbors are obliged to compete. In the silk industry the cost of transportation is trifling com- pared with the value of the goods. Hence it is possible for the United States, although producing no silk, to manufacture more than any other country. Raw silk worth $3.00 a pound is im- ported to the value of $75,000,000 a year, about three fifths of it from Japan. Silk manufacture, one of the youngest of Ameri- can industries, is one of the most vigorous. Cheapening of the goods has placed them within reach of millions of people, and the UNITED STATES $196,911,667 15 30 45 60 75 New Jersey Pennsylvania New York Connecticut.. All others. .65,429,550 .62,061,302 . 26,518.821 .21,062,687 -21,839,307 Fig. IIS- 3 15 30 45 60 75 Manufacture of silk, by states (igog), in millions of dollars. output has doubled in five years. Silks are no longer hixuries for the rich, but the common finery of the masses. The industry is concentrated in a district extending from Connecticut to eastern Pennsylvania with Paterson, N.J., as a leading city (Fig. 115). The labor is performed chiefly by women, and in this district the wives and daughters of men employed in iron and cement works and coal mines are available. 222 THE EASTERN STATIvS : MANUFACTURES Artificial Silk. - The silkworm makes raw silk out of mulijcrry leaves. It is possible lo produce similar chemical changes in the laboratory by which cotton is converted into artiticial silk. This substance can be spun and woven, possesses even a higher luster, and is much cheaper than natural silk, which it may in lime displace. Clothing. — Textiles are made into clothing of many sorts. No other industry covers so wide a range of form, size, quality, style, and cost. Making clothes was once wholly a domestic industry. Cutting out garments and doing the family sewing took much of the time of the women in every household. Later, the tailor became as important a member of the community as the shoemaker, and like him was often a " journeyman," going from house to house. When the tailor came to have a shop of his own, the seamstress set up as a dressmaker, and the household was largely relieved. The invention of the sewing machine about 1850 made possible the be- ginning of the ready-made clothing business. It is carried on by two systems, the " sweatshop " and the factory. By the former, garments in pieces already cut out were sent to the homes to be sewed. The pay often was so small that many workers — ■ men, women, and children — worked long hours in crowded, unsanitary rooms to earn the bare necessities of life. Sweatshop conditions have now been generally improved and the system to some extent broken up. There has been of late a rapid increase of clothing manufacture in factories equipped with power machinery for cutting and sewing, and the cost in money and human life has been notably reduced. The making of clothes has been the last of the domestic arts to pass into the factory stage, and the change is incomplete. Some clothing, principally that of women and children, is still made at home. The more costly garments for men and gowns for women are " custom-made " by the tailor and " modiste." The sizes, patterns, and styles of ready-made and " ready to wear " cloth- ing are so numerous that at an outfitting establishment any man, woman, or child can be completely and decently clothed in a few minutes. HIDES AND TANNING 223 A sufficient labor supply and a market for all the sizes and styles restrict the location of the clothing manufacture to large cities. One half of the biUion dollars' worth is made in the city of New York and nearly three fourths in the Eastern States. Illinois is the second state and Chicago the second city, while Phila- delphia is second for women's clothing. (See Fig. 116.) 828.000 UNITED STATES !S9iS2. ( Hew York ) IC 2C 3C 400 500 600 L 106, Illinois Pennsylvania ^^^~ 72 ^^ •' 44, ^^ _ _ -41, ^ . 36. All others 1 113, 593,000 108,000 519,000 352.000 272,000 042,000 942,000 Fig. 116. 100 200 300 400 500 600 Manufacture of clothing, by states (igog), in millions of dollars. The Leather Industry. — The brunt of man's struggle with nature for a living is met by his hands and feet and he has found it advantageous to protect them with an artificial skin. For this purpose, furs, skins, and leather furnish tough and flexible material. Animal skins, with or without hair, scraped and cured with oil, are widely used among primitive people. Leather is a product of the arts of civilization and, before the days of cheap textiles, was made into clothing more serviceable than sani- tary. Outside the tropics few people go entirely without foot- wear, and " to handle without gloves " has come to mean close and vigorous action. Hides and Tanning. — Hides used for leather are taken from a great variety of animals, cattle, sheep, goats, dogs, pigs, horses, and even alligators, kangaroos, monkeys, walruses, and whales ; but the skins of domestic animals are by far the most important. After a thorough preparation by soaking, cleaning, and removing the hair or wool, hides are tanned or converted into leather by two processes. The oldest, and until recently the only, method accomplished this by the use of tannin obtained from various barks, woods, and leaves. The principal sources are oak and hemlock bark, but birch, spruce, chestnut, quebracho 2 24 THE EASTERN STATES: MANUFACTURES from Argentina, sunuu: from Sicily, and various other materials arc used. The bark, or wood is ground and leached with hot water to obtain a strong solution of tannin. The hides arc soaked in vats of this tan liquor for a year or more. Within the last twenty years, vegetable tan liquor has been largely displaced in the United States by solutions of various chemicals, chiefly potassium bichro- mate. By the chemical I)rocess hides are converted into leather in a few days. The hides of steers, cows, and calves make heavy leather used for soles and coarse shoes. The skins of wild goats furnish material for light shoes and for gloves. The United States is the richest country in the world in tanning materials and leads in the manufacture of leather. The forests located the tanneries which were once almost as numerous as grist- mills from Maine to Georgia, and later westward to Wiscon- sin. Better facihties for transporting the bulky bark, the importation of hides at the great seaports, and the rise of the factory system have concentrated the tanning industry in a few states, mostly in the Eastern States. The chemical process has made Philadelphia the greatest leather center in the world, and Pennsylvania the leading state ; Wis- consin stands second, with Massachusetts not far behind. Fig. 117. — The village shoemaker. BOOTS AND SHOES 225 Hides arc obtained from all parts of the country, and nearly $100,000,000 worth arc imported, more than one third from Argentina. More than 100 million goatskins are brought from India, China, Mexico, and other arid countries. Boots and Shoes. — Long after textiles and clothing had become factory products, footwear continued to be made by hand, either in the household or in one-man shops (Fig. 117). The man who could sit on a bench and with a few tools make a pair of boots, cutting out the pieces from a " side " of leather, sewing or pegging them together with wooden pegs, and fitting each pair to the measure of the individual customer, was an artisan of no mean skill. The village shoemaker's shop was a social as well as an economic center, from which gossip and sometimes wisdom and culture were disseminated in the community. Fig. 118. — A shoe taclory in Massachusetts. Handmade footwear has now been almost entirely superseded by shoes made in factories which turn out 5000 to 10,000 pairs a day (Fig. 118). It is one of the most complex and highly 226 THE EASTERN STATES: MANUFACTURES organized of liKluslrics. Scores of pieces of leather of different shapes, sizes, and quaHties are cut out and put together to make one shoe, which is finished by scouring, staining, cleaning, ironing, and polishing. In all about fifty operations are rc(iuire(l, each performed by a different machine and operator. The work is completely revolutionized. Formerly a single artisan made a whole shoe by hand. Now each workman makes only some small part of a shoe with a machine, little skill being required. While the excellence of the work and the ability required of the workman have necessarily deteriorated, a great variety in quality, style, and size is turned out at less cost and people are better shod than before. The boot and shoe industry, Hke that of leather, is strongly concentrated in the Eastern States, which turn out about three fourths of the 250 million pairs made. Massachusetts alone produces nearly one half, chiefly at Lynn, Brockton, and other towns near Boston. Recently there has been a tend- ency of the industry to spread westward, and St. Louis has become the third UNITED STATES. $512,797,642 g 50 100 150 200 250 Massachusetts Missouri New York New Hampshire Ohio Pennsylvania All others Fig. iig. — 236,342.915 48,751,235 48,185,914 39,439,544 31,550,957 20,218,784 88,308,293 50 too 150 200 250 Manufacture of boots and shoes, by states (iqoq), in millions of dollars. city and Missouri the second state, although producing less than one tenth of the total (Fig. 119) * American methods of tanning, and the machinery for making shoes, have extended to Europe, with results similar to those in the United States. Gloves. — Compared with shoes, gloves are articles of luxury worn by the few and subject to changes of taste and style. Their manufacture is in some degree an artistic industry, and much more simple than that of shoes. Goatskins are specially pre- pared by scouring, stretching, dyeing, and softening with yolks of eggs. The pieces are cut with dies or stamps and sewed on PAPER AND PRINTING 227 specially constructed machines. About one half the gloves made in the United States come from two small towns, Glovers- ville and Johnstown in central New York, where Scotch glove makers settled and established the business a century ago. In France, Germany, Holland, and Belgium, leather is tanned with bark from the basket willow and converted into a large output of line kid gloves. The greatest center is around Grenoble in the lower Rhone valley. This is due to the supply of goatskins produced in the mountainous and arid Medi- terranean countries, to water power from the Alps distributed by electricity to many small factories, and to the artistic ability of the people. Rubber. — A notable feature of modern scientific economy is the extensive and increasing use of rubber. The method of col- lecting crude rubber has been given on page 32. The enormous demand for it has led to the planting of rubber trees in Ceylon and the Malay Peninsula and Islands. "Wild" or native rubber is obtained from many species of trees and vines, one of which is grown in the United States as an ornamental house plant. They are widely distributed over tropical America, Africa, and the East Indies. The crude gum was called rubber because it was first used as an eraser. The Goodyear process (1842) of making it hard and durable by mixing it with sulphur was an invention of greater importance than the chemical tan- ning of leather. It made possible rubber boots and shoes, water- proof clothing, pneumatic tires for bicycles and automobiles, hose, tubing, combs, buttons, and other " hard rubber " articles. The people of the United States consume about a pound of crude rubber apiece every year, and manufacture it into goods worth $178,000,000. It is possible to make artificial rubber out of starch, and the supply may become abundant and cheap. Paper and Printing. — In the economy of advanced peoples paper is almost as important as textiles (Fig. 120). The quantity of paper used might be taken as a better index of the stage of civilization than soap or iron. Paper is almost the only 228 TTII' EASTERN STATES: MANUFACTURES Fig. I 20. I'riiitiiig wealher maps. The while stone, having the iiiaj) engrav'ed on it, slides under the small rollers which carry ink, then under the large cylinder which, as it turns, presses a sheet of paper upon the stone. material by which literature is distributed, and is, therefore, closely related to the intellectual life of the people. Paper con- sists of matted vegetable fiber and can be made from a great variety of materials. Cotton and linen rags, grass, straw, and wood are commonly used. They are ground to a fine pulp, mixed with water, and spread out in sheets to dry. The entire process is now performed on a large scale by machines, some of which turn out 50 tons a day. Since wood pulp became the chief material for paper making, mills have been built in the northern forests. The highlands of New York and New England and the wilderness of Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland furnish raw material and water power to the largest plants. Spruce wood is most sought for, but hemlock, pine, fir, poplar, Cottonwood, and other species are used. The solid logs ground upon a grindstone yield a pulp which, when SHIPBUILDING 229 screened, pressed, and dried makes common " newspaper." A much better grade suitable for books is made by digesting wood chips in hot alkali. Holyoke, Mass. is the chief center for rag and line writing papers. In the wheat belt of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois coarse wrapping paper and straw board are made from wheat straw. New York, INIassachusetts, and Maine are the leading states in the paper industry, and their only western rival is Wisconsin. A single metropolitan newspaper may use every day 25 tons of paper made from 35 tons of wood and issue a square mile of print. To supply one paper mill requires the destruction of thousands of acres of forest. Cheap paper is as necessary to civilization as any other commodity, and to find material for it is one of the problems of the near future. Printing and publishing is one of the most widely diffused of industries. There are iaw counties or towns in the country, in which there is no printing press. Yet more than half the literary UNITED STATES_ -$737,876,000 New York - Illinois Pennsylvania _. Massachusetts . Ohio. Hissourl- California. .All others.. -216,946,000 ,- 87.247.000 —70.584.000 .-47,445,000 ..41,657,000 ..29.651.000 ..25.031.000 . 219,.315,000 80 120 160 200 240 Fig. 121. — Printing and publishing, by states (igog), in millions of dollars. product of all kinds comes from the Eastern States and nearly one third from New York (Fig. 121). Among cities New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia are most important. Shipbuilding. — Outside the work of the Federal Government, general shipbuilding is carried on chiefly in three districts : (i) Along the Atlantic coast from Maine to Virginia ; (2) on the Great Lakes ; and (3) on the Pacific coast. The Eastern States do about three fifths of the business, New York ranking first among states, New Jersey second, and Virginia third. On the lakes, the number of large steel freighters built at Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee brings the total value up to one fifth of the whole. The value of iron and steel ships built in the United States is more than twice that of wooden vessels. In total ton- ELEM. ECON. GEOG. 14 230 HI. I..\SII;K\ S'rATKS: manukacturks nage of vessels launched, Ohio K-ads the slates, with New York second. Maine builds more sailing vessels than any other state. Specialties. — There are many other lines of manufacture which belong especially to the Eastern States, but which are of minor importance compared with those already discussed. The location of most of them was originally determined by some natural advantage of water power, raw materials, or transporta- tion. Some owe their existence to individual enterprise and capital, or to the presence of skilled labor. An industry once es- tablished is likely to continue after the special conditions which led to its foundation have ceased to exist. (See Fig. 122.) UNITED STATES 0. Silk..- Woolen goods Dyeing and finishing Carpets and rugs Hosiery and knit goods Cordage and twine. Boots and shoes. Clothing Electrical machinery Paper and wood pul(i Chemicals Leather Cotton goods Gloves and mittens SteeL Shipbuilding _. Glass Printing and publishing. __ Pig iron PER CENT 40 50 60 F'ndry & mac h. shop products Paint and varnish Soap Fermented liquors Pottery Canning and preserving All manufactures Value added by manufacture. 60 70 Fig. 122. — Rank of Eastern States in manufactures. (See Table V, Appendix.) To this minor class belong in New York state flour milling at Rochester, the manufacture of cornstarch at Oswego, of salt and chemicals at Syracuse, of shirts, collars, and cuflfs at Troy, and of aluminum and shredded wheat at Niagara Fal\s. In Connecticut hats are made at Danbury, bicycles at QUESTIONS 231 Hartford, firearms at New Haven, clocks at Waterbury, hardware at New Britain, brass and bronze al Ansonia and Bridgeport, and plated ware at Meriden. Providence, R.I. is noted for jewelry, Waltham, Mass. for watches, and Trenton, N.J. for pottery. After the outbreak of war in Europe in 1914, a new industry sprang up in the Eastern States. Hundreds of factories were enlarged, refitted, or newly built for the production of arms, shells, explosives, and other munitions of war, for exportation to Europe. This has grown to be one of the leading industries of the country, with products of hundreds of millions of dollars in value annually. This business will probably not be permanent. The Eastern States produce one half the total value of goods manufactured in the United States. The value per capita is UNITED STATES New York Pennsylvania-. Illinois Massachusetts Ohio New Jersey -$20,672,051,870 All others " 369,490.192 626,742,034 919,276.594 490,529,386 ,437.935.817 145,529,076 — 8,682,548.771 2500 Fig. 123. — Rank of states in total value of all manufactures (igog), in millions of dollars. $341, and is highest in Connecticut ($440), Massachusetts($443), New Jersey ($451), and Rhode Island ($517). (See Fig. 123.) Summary. — On account of having water power, coal, and access to the sea, the Eastern States have become one of the great manufacturing regions of the world. They excel especially in textiles, boots and shoes, clothing, iron and steel, paper and printing, and shipbuilding. QUESTIONS I. Niagara Falls is one of the great scenic features of America visited by about 1,000,000 people every year. To divert water for power purposes will impair or destroy its beauty. Which is of greater value to the people, the power or the scenery ? 232 TIIH EASTERN STATES: MANUFACTURES 2. If iron ore could he smelted al a low lemperalure, wlial dilTerence might it have made in the history of mankind? 3. How does a bhicksmith 111 a horseshoe? weld a bar? What are horse- shoe nails made of? Why? 4. Of what are knives, axes, springs, and hammers made? Why? 5. What arc the good qualities of cotton for cordage and cloth ? How is cotton superior to linen? to wool? to silk? 6. Why is not raw silk produced in the United States? 7. For what is leather used besides footwear? 8. How might a scarcity of paper be beneficial to the community? g. Compare the modern iron and steel worker with the smith who hammered out implements and weapons by hand ; the operative in a textile mill with the spinner and weaver who worked at home ; the man who works in a shoe factory with the shoemaker of fifty years ago. Which industrial system, the domestic or the factory, tends to make more intelligent and valuable citizens? 10. Has the great development of mechanical invention been, on the whole, beneficial to mankind ? Why ? CHAPTER XVIII THE EASTERN STATES: COMMERCE AND TRANSPORTA- TION Waterways. — Natural and artiticial waterways have played a large part in the economic development of the Eastern States. The greatest waterway is the sea and its arms, which furnished entrance and foothold for the colonists. The coastwise traffic is carried on by hundreds of steamers and sailing vessels, and on the bays and rivers by thousands of small craft. Chesapeake Bay and its branches furnish about 500 miles of waterway, Dela- ware Bay 120 miles, the Hudson 150 miles, and the Connecticut, Narragansett Bay, the Kennebeck, and the Penobscot 50 miles each. The drowned valleys, bays, sounds, and lagoons of the Atlantic coast (Fig. 88) , extending with some interruptions from Massachusetts to Florida, provide a natural, protected " inland waterway " for small boats.' The recently opened ship canal across Cape Cod completes the " inside passage," between New York and Boston through Long Island Sound, Buzzards Bay, and Cape Cod Bay. The part of the inland waterway south of New York is now little used, but its improvement and utiliza- tion are one of the probabilities of the future. Erie Canal. — The Appalachian Highlands were a formidable barrier to the progress of settlement and economic expansion until the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 connected the Great Lakes with the coast at New York. This was made possible by the drowned valley of the Hudson and by the valley of the Mohawk (Fig. 124). This river and its much larger glacial pred- ecessor have cut a gap through the highland, which leads by easy grades to the shores of lakes Ontario and Erie. The canal 233 234 rHK EASTF.KN STATKS : COMMKKCK was tlic mosl important artiluial walcrwa}' and internal improve- ment ever constructed in the United States. By it the state and city of New York gained control of the trade of the (ireat Lakes ^^^^<^ ^ ^^ 10 'JO 30 40 50 V7^ r ■ ■ ■ m Barffo Canal =^=tjld Canalit o * / \ <■ L c'='.l K K u X T '^ ^Oswego ,''-,., On.,.,, ^^i^^"/^ i;r r =J\ .#* «/ ', <^i. > AlbanyJ JflJ CATTARAUGUS STEUBEN /rscVOVuB'. l"*"" TOMPKINS""" ^\"'', (* Montour Fulls -A. CV ; ALBANV*)lt^ DELA^yVRE ""■)•■ GREENE*!©^"* .'■? Fig. 124. — Erie Barge Canal. and the Middle West. It remained the most important route of transportation for about forty years, but was later reduced by railroad competition to a position of insignificance. It is now {BiilTalo Lin Win.) Fig. 125. — Erie Barge Canal. Rock cut at Waterford. Note material from cut piled on the banks. RAILROADS 235 being reconstructed as a barge canal twelve feet deep and is expected to regain its former importance. (See Figs. 125, 126.) Fig. 126. — - Lock on the Erie Barge Canal. Boats on the old canal carried 250 tons and were towed by mules. On the enlarged canal the boats will have a capacity of 1000 tons and will be pro- pelled by steam or electricity. A ship canal at least twenty feet deep which would permit the largest lake vessels to pass from Buffalo to the Hudson and thence to New York, may in the future constitute the principal outlet for the commerce of the Great Lakes. The Mohawk gap, traversed by such a canal and by the six tracks of the New York Central Railroad system, would become the most important gateway of the continent. The success of the Erie Canal led to the construction of many others, some of which were in- tended to connect Atlantic seaports with the Ohio through the water gaps of the Northern Appalachians. They were shallow, and small boats towed by animals could not compete with the railroads which took advantage of the same natural routes. Most of them have been abandoned, and those still open play an inconsiderable part in transportation. Railroads. — The main trunk lines of railway follow the routes which the rivers have already graded for them across the high- lands (Fig. 127). Of these the route of the New York Central 236 THE EASTERN STATES: COMMERCE system through the Hudson-Mohawk \alley is by far the most favorable. The lirst railroad in the United States, now the Baltimore and Ohio, has been extended from Chesapeake Bay up the Potomac valley to the Ohio, Mississippi, and Lake Michigan. Fig. 127. — A railroad following a stream valley thmugli tiu- Inrrstdl plateau nt West Virginia. The Chesapeake and Ohio takes its name from the waters which it connects through the valleys of the James and Kanawha. The Pennsylvania system passes from Delaware Bay through the Appalachian walls by way of the Susquehanna- Juniata valley. The valleys of the Delaware and its branches, with those of the upper Susquehanna, furnish similar but more difificult routes, between the sea and the lakes for the Erie, Lehigh Valley, and FOREIGN COMMERCE 237 Lackawanna railroads. These are the mam trunk lines upon which the traffic of the Middle Western network and the strands of lake navigation are concentrated. There are no important north-south lines except those connecting the seaports and the Hudson-Champlain route between New York and Montreal. Boston, the railroad center of New England, is connected with the New York Central system by the Boston and Albany and the Hoosac Tunnel line across the highlands to the Hudson ; with New York directly by the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad ; and with Montreal, Port- land, and Augusta by the Boston and Maine. The.Grand Trunk Railroad of Canada has a terminus, most important in winter when the St. Lawrence is frozen, at Portland ; and the Canadian Pacific crosses central JVIaine on its way to St. John and Halifax. The heaviest freight trafiic is over the New York Central between New York and Buffalo and over the Pennsylvania between New York and Pittsburgh. The greatest number of passengers are carried between New York and Philadelphia, where hundreds of trains a day are run. The volume of traffic is concentrated upon a few great routes, where serious natural difficulties have been overcome by the exercise of engineering skill. Their capacity has been increased by multiplying the number of parallel tracks, ballasting the roadbed with stone, cutting off sharp curves, diminishing the steepness of the grades, building stone and concrete bridges, boring tunnels, laying heavy rails, and using steel cars drawn by the most powerful engines. The enormous movement of goods and people over a rough country has compelled the railroad companies to adopt a construction, equipment, and management scarcely equaled elsewhere in the world. While the Eastern States have but 16 per cent of the railroad mileage of the United States, multiple tracks make it equiva- lent to several times that proportion. The railway density, or number of miles of road to 100 square miles of area is 17, but it is not so uniformly distributed as in the Middle West. New Jersey leads all the states with over 30 miles, while Massachusetts and Pennsylvania surpass Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana. Foreign Commerce. — If the Eastern States were an independ- ent political unit, their foreign commerce would exceed their 238 THK llASTERN STATi:S : COMMERCE domestic. As a part of the United States their seaports serve as gateways, not only lor their own commerce but for most of that of the Middle West. Their exports and imports amount to 64 per cent of the foreign commerce of the whole country (Fig- 36). Summary. — The natural waterways of the sea and the Great Lakes, connected by the Erie Canal, give the Eastern States the best facilities for commerce. Difficulties of relief have been overcome by engineering skill, and traffic with the Middle West is concentrated upon a few railroad systems which pass through the water gaps in the highlands. QUESTIONS 1. In 1902 the state of New York voted to use $101,000,000 for the en- largement of the Erie Canal. Most of the popular vote in favor was cast in the cities of New York and Buffalo. Why? 2. How will the improvements now being made in the Erie Canal affect the cost of transportation? 3. What would be the advantages of a ship canal 20 feet deep from Lake Erie to the Hudson River ? What use could be made upon it of hydroelectric power from Niagara Falls? 4. Should the cost of such a canal be borne by the state of New York or by the Federal Government ? Why ? 5. Why is two thirds of the foreign commerce of the United States carried on from the eastern side, and only one third from the other sides? CHAPTER XIX THE EASTERN STATES: AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES Compared with the Middle West, the Eastern States are poor in agricultural resources, yet previous to the opening of the Middle West the region supported 7,000,000 people. On the lowlands and in the valleys the soil is generally productive, but on the uplands and mountains it is fit only for pasture and forest. The largest continuous areas of agricultural land are on the Coastal Plain of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, and on the lake plain of New York. The most valuable crop is hay, amounting to 26 per cent of the total for the United States. In this New York leads all other states. Maine, New York, and Pennsylvania produce large crops of potatoes, rais- ing the production of the Eastern States to 31 per cent of the total (Fig. 131). Western New York, once " the granary of the continent," has yielded that title to the Red River valley, and wheat has been superseded by potatoes, beans, vegetables, and fruit. In yield of oats New York and Pennsylvania hold a respect- able place. It is remarkable that some of the New England states hold a higher record for yield per acre of the common crops than any in the Middle West. This is due to more intensive farming and better cultivation of smaller acreage. Dairying. — Of domestic animals milch cows are the most numerous, amounting to one fifth of the total in the United States. The hill farms are generally difficult to cultivate and profitable only for pasture. Hay is grown on bottom lands in permanent meadows, w^hich are mowed every year and seldom plowed. Many large cities make a market for fresh milk. The 1,500,000 quarts of milk required daily for the city of New York are obtained 239 240 THE EASTERN STATES: AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES chiefly from the country to the north and west as far as Lake Ontario. It is brought in refrigerator cars attached to fast trains a distance of 300 or 400 miles in some cases. 'J'he best breeds of cows are kept, and there are indivi(kial cows which yield 20 times their own weight of milk in ayear. The strictest rules areen- forced as to their health and food, and the cleanliness of the stables, milkers, and cans. By this means the death rate among children in cities has been reduced nearly one half. In value of dairy products, New York is second only to Wisconsin among states. Market Gardening. — The growing of fresh vegetables and small fruits for market is an important industry in the vicinity of all the large cities. Facilities for transportation by land and sea have extended it to great distances. Celery, lettuce, cabbage, asparagus, peas, beans, tomatoes, melons, cucumbers, berries, and other perishable articles are supplied in large quantities by nearly all the Eastern States, and in winter from the Atlantic Coastal Plain as far south as Georgia. Orchard Fruits. — The Middle West and the Eastern States share equally in the production of three fifths of the orchard fruit of the United States. New York alone is credited with one fifth. Peaches are most abundant on the Coastal Plain from New Jersey to Virginia, and in Michigan. The best apple belt extends from New York to Michigan and Missouri, but the Eastern States produce 49 per cent of the crop and New York twice as many as any other state (Fig. 131). Apple growing is most concentrated in a few counties of the lake plain in western New York, where limestone and lake silt soils and the moderating influence upon temperature of a large body of water render the conditions very favorable. Along the " ridge road " which follows a former beach of Lake Ontario, one may ride 120 miles through an almost continuous orchard. Scientific horticulture is practiced on a large scale. The apple tree and fruit are subject to attack by many fungous and insect pests which are con- trolled by spraying the trees several times a year with liquids fatal to the injurious organism. Careful cultivation, proper food in the form of fer- tilizers, and more constant attention than would be given to a herd of cattle, GRAPES 241 are necessary to secure the best yield in quantity and quality. There are trees still vigorous at the age of 100 years and yielding 50 lo 6o barrels of Fig. 128. — Sorting and packing apples, western New York. fruit each. The best apples, assorted according to size and quality, are packed in barrels for market (Fig. 128), but the bulk of the crop is dried in specially constructed kilns and exported to Europe. Grapes. — The Eastern States produce more than half the grapes grown east of the Pacific coast, and New York more than any other state except CaHfornia. The Chautauqua grape belt occupies a strip of old lake bottom from one to ten miles wide along the shore of Lake Erie and extends through Pennsyl- vania into Ohio. The deep, narrow valleys of the Finger Lakes (p. 185) are protected from winds and contain at the bottom a body of water which prevents early frosts. The steep valley sides are occupied by extensive vineyards, from which excellent table grapes and wine are produced. 24: nil': i:astkrn statks: A(iRicui;ruKi'; and fisiii:rii:s The Decline of Agriculture. - In New l-jij^huul and New York large tracts of land have become, after a century or two of cullivalion by the early settlers and their descendants, too poor to yield a living to the farmer. Farms have declined in value to less than the cost ol" ihc buildings upon them, and some, abandoned by their owners as unusable, unsalable, and not worth paying taxes upon, have reverted to woodland. The healthful air and beautiful scenery of hills and valleys, lakes and forests, have attracted many people from the cities to buy these cheap lands (Pig. 129) and to establish estates upon which large sums are spent for pleasure rather than profit. The Berk- shire Hills of western Massachusetts are es- pecially famous for beautiful country seats. Thousands of acres of worn- out land have been taken up and reclaimed by foreign immigrants, who succeed in market gardening, dairying, and general farming. A large major- ity of the descendants of the old New England stock have gone to the cities or to the Middle West, leaving the rural districts to be occupied by people of strange names and habits, who are contented with a lower scale of living. Fig. 129. — An abandoned farm. Fisheries (p. 77). — It has been said that the first settlers of New England would have starved if it had not been for the harvest of the sea. They turned from the barren coast lands and found subsistence in the teeming waters. The cool, shallow waters off the coast abound in cod, halibut, herring, and mackerel. The fishing fleets go out from Gloucester and Boston to " the banks " off Nova Scotia and Newfoundland (Fig. 130), where each schooner sends out small boats carrying two or three men to set and bait the lines attached to a " trawl " or rope half a mile long. The fish are removed and the hooks rebaited every day. The small boats are often lost in a fog or swamped by a storm. The fish are SUMMARY 243 cleaned and salted on hoard the schooner, which docs not return to port until its cargo is full. The value of the catch of the whole United States is $54,000,000, or about one sixth as much as that of the eggs laid by the hens. Chesapeake Bay and Long Island Fig. Fishing boats off Newfoundland. Sound are famous for their oyster beds, where the young fry are sown and protected until mature. Summary. — The surface and soil of the Eastern States are unfavorable for cereal agriculture on a large scale. The rural population arc engaged chiefly in dairying, fruit growing, and market gardening. (See Fig. 131.) PER CENT 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 UNITED STATES Apples .. Dairy products Orchard fruits Potatoes Hay Tobacco Grapes Cows All crops All animal products All farm products Farm property Improved land. 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Fig. 131. — Rank of Eastern States in farms aad farm products. (See Table III, Appendix.) 244 T'l'"- KASTERN STATKS : A(;RI(ULTURE AND FISHERIES QUESTIONS 1. .\vv I he unfavorable conditions for a^'riculturf in the Kastern Stales due more to cUmate or to rehef and soil ? 2. Which recjuircs ihc greater skill antl business ability, lo raise and market corn or api)les ? wheal or milk ? 3. Why are fish more abundant north of Cape Cod than south of it ? 4. If the Eastern States were as good an agricultural region as the Middle West, would the development of manufactures and commerce be greater or less? 5. Which is the more complex and, therefore, more highly developed, the economv of the Eastern States or that of the Middle West ? CHAPTER XX THE EASTERN STATES: CITIES The urban population of the Eastern States averages 67 per cent, rising in Rhode Island to 96 per cent, in Massachusetts to 92 per cent, in Connecticut to 89 per cent, in New York to 79 per cent, and in New Jersey to 75 per cent. This imphes the existence not only of a few very large cities but also of a large number of small cities. There are 272 cities of more than 10,000 inhabitants, of which 107 have over 25,000 and 22 over 100,000. There are six metropolitan districts of 450,000 people or over, of which four are seaports, one a lake port, and one a river port. (See Table VH, Appendix.) New York. — The metropolis of x\merica, the greatest seaport and the largest urban center in the world, could not have attained such a rank without superior advantages of position and site. Situated about midway in the coast line of the Eastern States, New York is about 3000 miles and five to ten days' voyage by steamer from the nearest European ports. Its preeminence among Atlantic ports is due chiefly to its accessibility through the Hudson-Mohawk gap to the Great Lakes and the Middle West. The Erie Canal extended the tributary area of the city to the Mississippi River and eventually to the Rocky Mountains, giving it a start of its rivals which no obstacle could check. The anthracite field 100 miles to the west is another powerful factor for progress which it shares equally with Philadelphia. The forests of the Appalachians, Adirondacks, and northern New England, the brick clays of the Hudson valley (p. 199), sand- stone from Connecticut, marble from Vermont, slate from Pennsylvania, and trap rock from New Jersey, contribute to the ELEM. ECON. GEOG. — 1 5 245 246 THK KASTERN STATICS: (ITIKS construction of the great city. Aside from these the resources of the immediate hinterland are not important. Site. — The site of New York comprises an assemblage of islands, peninsulas, and arms of the sea scarcely matched else- where. The Borough of Manhattan, the heart of the city, is an island thirteen miles long and about two miles wide, between the Hudson River on the west and the East and Harlem rivers on the east. In relief it is a massive ridge of schist which rises from sea level at the south end to a height of 200 feet at the north. The slopes are in some places precipitous. The Borough of the Bronx, a peninsula about six miles across between the Hudson and Harlem rivers and Long Island Sound, resembles Manhattan in relief and structure but is less rugged. The Borough of Brook- lyn occupies an undulating surface of glacial hills at the west end of Long Island. The Boroughs of Queens and Richmond are larger in area than the others combined, but are as yet sparsely occupied. The west bank of the Hudson is formed by the Pali- sades, a high clifY of trap rock, beyond which is a belt of shallow water and tidal marsh four miles wide. The cities of Jersey City and Hoboken cover the lower end of the Palisades ridge, and with Bayonne, Newark, Elizabeth, Orange, Passaic, and Pater- son, farther inland, belong, although in another state, to the metropolitan district and are integral parts of the economic city of New York (Fig. 132). The bodies of water are as important as the land. The Lower Bay is wide open to the sea, roomy and protected, but shallow, and millions of dollars have been spent in dredging deep channels through it for large ships. It is connected through the Narrows, a mile wide, with the Upper Bay, a deep, jug-shaped basin about six miles across. The Hudson River opens into it from the north and the East River from the northeast. These " rivers " are deep arms of the sea in which the currents are controlled by the tides. Newark and Raritan bays on the New Jersey coast are too shallow to be of great commercial importance. The same 248 THE EASTKRN STATES : CITIES is true of Jamaica Bay on ihc south coast of Queens, but the con- version of these l)ays into conmiodious artificial harbors is a possible undertaking which the needs of the future may demand. Business District. — The of New York is in the oldest It is a triangular area about Fig. shipping, wholesale, and manufacturing center part of the city, at the lower end of Manhattan, two miles on a side between the two rivers and touching the waters of the bay. Its water front is lined with docks, where ships are loaded and un- loaded and goods con- veyed to and from w-are- houses by short hauls. Here the high value of land has led to the utiliza- tion of space upward in the form of steel-framed " skyscrapers," rising in some cases 750 feet above the street, each housing a population equal to that of a good-sized town. The streets are narrow and resemble canyons (Fig. 133). The business district has extended up- town, crowding out the old residences and most of the churches and other public buildings, until it A city canyon. Pine Street, New York. occupies about twice the original area. It gradually merges northward into a district of retail shops, theaters, and palatial hotels which extends to the lower end of Central Park. Extensive docks, warehouses, and fac- tories line the Brooklyn side of East River and the Jersey shore of the Hudson, where most of the railroads from the west have their terminal stations. The principal navy yard of the United States is located in Brooklyn. Residence Districts. — The principal slum or poor residence district is on the lower east side of Manhattan, where the tenement houses shelter NEW YORK 249 500,000 people to the square mile, a density the highest accurately known in the world. The linest residence district lies on both sides of Central Park and along the ridge in the upper half of Manhattan. To prepare such a surface for occupation by a modern city has involved great labor and expense. The grading of streets and lots means the blasting and removal of huge masses of rock, some of which is used in building. The result has been worth the cost, and for a residence district upper Manhattan presents one of the finest sites in the world. It is solidly built over, largely with apartment houses of seven or more stories, each hous- ing a score or more of families (Fig. 134). The Bronx, Brooklyn, and many suburban towns within fifty miles in all directions are made up chiefly of homes for people whose business is on Man- hattan. Circulation of People and Goods. — The narrow and crowded condition of lower Manhattan, hemmed in by wide and deep waterways, renders the problem of " rapid transit " pecuUarly diflficult. The million or more of people who do business there every day have their homes elsewhere. For the passage of these streams of humanity surface cars and omnibuses have long been inadequate. Rail- roads elevated upon steel trestles form an upper story on many streets, and subways blasted out of the rock beneath traverse the length of the island and are connected by tunnels with Brooklyn and the Bronx. Local and express trains are run through them upon four tracks and carry more than a million passengers a day. The East River is spanned by four bridges, Fig. 134. — An apartment house, Riverside Drive, New York. 250 TFIK KASrilRN SIATliS: (TI'IKS but the iludson, nearly a mile wide and 50 feet deej), has not been bridged. Both rivers are crossed by many ferryboats. Natural barriers render Manhattan almost inaccessible by railroads, and until recently only two lines reached it, the New \\)rk Central and the New York, New Haven, and Hartford. The Pennsylvania Railroad Co. has spent $50,000,000 in con- structing a double tunnel from New Jersey under the Palisades, the Hudson River, Manhattan, and the East River to Long Island, with an immense station in the heart of New York. This company is now expending another $50,000,000 in bridges across the East River, to connect Long Island with the New England railroad systems. The serious difficulties encountered in building a commercial metropolis upon such a site as that of New York have called for the exercise of the highest engineering skill and have given the city a unique character, in many respects unrivaled for magnificence and beauty. That the difficulties have been overcome and even turned to advantage may be accounted for by the facilities which the site affords for the busi- ness of a seaport. These lie in the deep, roomy, and protected harbor and the interlocking of bays, straits, and islands, giving 340 miles of shore line along which docks may be built. Public Works. — Streets. — In the oldest pari of the city the streets have little uniformity of plan, but in the rest of Manhattan they are laid out with mathematical regularity. The longitudinal avenues are spaced to give six blocks to the mile, and the cross streets to give 20 blocks to the mile. The avenues, with a few exceptions, are numbered from east to west and the streets from south to north. Broadway, originally a country road, extends the whole length of the island, following approximately the crest of the ridge. In the lower half of its course it cuts obliquely across the streets and avenues. Above Central Park it lies near the Hudson and widens into a handsome boulevard. Of almost equal importance is Fifth Avenue, which extends midway of the island in a straight line for seven miles. The four bridges, 14 tunnels under the rivers, and the 105 miles of subway are essential parts of the street system. Parks. — - Of the many parks and squares the most famous is Central Park, two and a half miles long by one half mile wide near the center of NEW YORK 251 Fig. 135. — The lower end of Manhattan Island, New York. The Hudson River is on the left; the East River with bridges on the right. Notice the docks and the skyscrapers. Manhattan. Its naturally irregular surface, slightly modified by art, is about one half wooded, and contains lawns, walks, drives, reservoirs, and several small lakes. In the Bronx, a system of large parks, connected by parkways 400 to 600 feet wide, includes about 4000 acres. Bronx Park is occupied by the largest Botanical and Zoological Gardens in the world. Brooklyn has a system of beautiful parks comprising more than 1000 acres. Buildings. — Some of the largest and most imposing buildings of the world stand upon Manhattan Island. In contrast with the famous buildings of the old world, they are not temples, cathedrals, palaces, or parliament houses, but business buildings, designed and erected for economic purposes (Fig. 135). Among these the Woolworth, Singer, Metropolitan, and Equitable build- ings are the tallest, the stations of the Pennsylvania and New York Central railroads, the new Post Ofhce, the Hudson Termi- nal accommodating 10,000 ofhce tenants, the Public Library, the Custom House, and the Municipal Building are the largest and most imposing. Columbia University and the College of the City of New York occupy commanding heights with buildings 252 THE EASTERN STATES: CITIES worthy of their site, and New York University stands upon a similar site in the Bronx. Water Supply. — Excellent water is obtained from the Croton River through an aqueduct about 40 miles long, but the supply is becoming in- adequate. An aqueduct 85 miles long to bring water from reservoirs in the Catskill Mountains is now under construction at a cost of $177,000,000. One of the largest and most important of public works is the maintenance of docks which now utilize about 50 miles of water front. Commerce and Manufacture. — The accessibility of New York by land and sea, and its unparalleled facilities for transferring goods, bring the port more shipping than comes to any other in the world and nearly one half the total foreign commerce of the United States. Generally there is an excess of imports over ex- ports, made up in part of articles of luxury, furs, laces, gloves, diamonds, and works of art. It is the chief port of entry for sugar, coffee, cocoa, spices, silk, rubber, and hides. Exports of grain, flour, chemicals, copper, machinery, and coal oil are es- pecially heavy. There is always an immense stock and variety of goods in store. Almost anything can be bought there and it is the principal wholesale market for dry goods and groceries in America. Raw materials, labor supply, and market combine to make New York the leading manufacturing city of the country, its products amounting to 14 per cent of the total. Almost every thing is made, but one quarter of the value of the output is in clothing and printed matter. In the refining of sugar and petro- leum it leads all other cities, but no statistics are available. It stands first in the clothing, printing, and tobacco industries, second in foundry and lumber products, and third in slaughtering and meat packing. As a financial center it is no less important. The concentration of capital is enormous and its banks and trust companies are the richest and most powerful in America. The Stock Exchange, the Produce Exchange, and NEW YORK 253 the Cotton Exchange control the markets, and in the Clearing House all the banks of the United States settle their daily balances. In literature, New York is the home of the principal publishing houses of books, magazines, and newspapers. About 900 periodicals are printed in twenty languages. Population. — It took New York about 150 years to grow from a village of 1000 inhabitants to a city of 100,000 in 1810. Fifty years later it had a population of 1,000,000, and in thirty years more nearly 5,000,000. The population Of the metropolitan district is now about 7,500,000, exceeding that of London. Its growth has been fed largely by immigration. Nearly all the foreigners who come to the United States land at New York, and a large proportion stay there. Nearly 80 per cent of the population are foreign born or of foreign parentage. Of these, Russians (mostly Jews) are the most numerous. The Germans, Irish, and Italians each number nearly as many, and the four nationalities together make up two thirds of the foreign element. There are but two cities in Germany containing more Germans than New York, only one city in Italy containing more Italians, and the Irish number one eighth as many as there are in Ireland. There is a strong tendency for those of each nationality to crowd together into one neighborhood, thus forming a foreign community, preserving its own language, religion, and customs. The housing, employment, and ed- ucation of such a mass of people, who are poor and ignorant of the language and institutions of the country, present the most difhcult problems of muni- cipal management. The public school system is an effective means for converting the parents as well as the children into good Americans. The total expenditures for free public schools amount to $40,000,000 annually. About one third of the working population are employed in trade and trans- portation and one third in manufacturing and mechanical arts. The average number of families to each dwelling is three. Summary. — New York does not owe anything, as London does, to political influence. It has not behind it a thousand years or more of history, as have most of the great cities of the world. It is the product of economic conditions and forces, and 254 THE EASTKKN STATES: CITIES the natural result of the exploitation of the resources of a new and rich land. The foundations of its greatness lie in the Middle West, of which it is the financial center and principal seaport. A unique combination of physical features, the interlocking arms of land and sea at the mouth of a gap leading to the greatest of inland waterways, is here the direct cause of a marvelous con- centration of people and wealth. The assessed valuation of real estate, land, and buildings only in the City of New York is about 8000 million dollars, a sum larger than the total valuation of all the property in the Pacific division of the United States. About $180,000,000 are expended annually in new buildings. Boston. — The position of Boston in relation to the sea is slightly more favorable than that of New York, but in relation to the land it is decidedly less favorable. It is about 200 miles nearer to European ports, but its immediate hinterland is suffi- ciently hilly and rough to make communication with the Great Lakes and the Middle West difficult. No navigable inlet like the Hudson River or open gap like the Mohawk valley leads from the interior to Boston. Two railroads built to connect the city with the Hudson-Mohawk thoroughfare fail to divert any large share of traffic. Consequently Boston can be httle more than the metropolis and commercial center of New England. Site. — The site of Boston resembles that of New York on a much smaller scale. It stands at the head of Massachusetts Bay, upon islands and peninsulas between the drowned valleys of several small streams. The old city occupies the Shawmut peninsula, originally a pear-shaped eminence attached to the mainland by a narrow neck often swept by the tide. The land was irregular in relief and outline, and large sums have been expended in grading down the hills and filling the coves. The original area of 780 acres has been enlarged to 1830 acres, the surface of which slopes gently from the summit of Beacon Hill to the water front. Charlestown Neck, a high peninsula on the north side of the Charles River, an island at the mouth of the BOSTON 255 Mystic River, a third peninsula on the south, and annexed territories on the mainland comprise about 40 square miles. The metropolitan district extends about ten miles in all directions from Beacon Hill, and includes Cambridge, Brookline, Somer- ville, and other suburban towns (Fig. 136). The harbor, partly closed by sand spits, is about eight miles across and studded with many islands. The ship channel, naturally crooked and difficult, has been improved and marked by buoys and lighthouses. Fig. 136. — Boston and vicinity. Business District. — The en- larged Shawmut peninsula, now nearly circular in outline and about one mile across, is almost entirely devoted to commerce and public affairs. The streets, said to have been originally cow-paths, are still narrow and irregular. After a great fire in 1872 they were widened and straightened and now somewhat resemble in plan a spider's web. On the highest point near the center stands the Statehouse, from which streets radiate in many directions. Atlantic Avenue runs around the water front, which is bordered on the harbor side by extensive docks. Washington and Tremont streets are the principal thoroughfares. Charlestown, the island of East Boston, and the peninsula of South Boston are also provided with docks and are largely devoted to commerce and manufacture. Residence Districts. — The finest residence district, called the Back Bay, has been made by filling the shallows of Charles River. The streets are laid out in regular rectangles, the central Commonwealth Avenue being a parkway 240 feet wide. Most of the better residences are in the suburban districts. The foreign quarter occupies Chelsea and other districts north of the harbor. Public Works. — Boston was one of the first cities to construct an extensive subway. It is about three miles long, extending from the Common under the business district and the harbor 256 THE EASTERN STATES: CITIES to East Boston. There arc two large railway stations near the business center. Boston Common, on the south slope of Beacon Hill, was at first a cow pasture, and has been public land for nearly 300 years. It is now a wooded park of 48 acres. Adjoining it are the Public Gardens, devoted to flower beds and other orna- mental works. These are connected through Commonwealth Avenue with a unique system of outer parks in two concentric rings, the inner comprising 2300 acres and the outer 10,000 acres. A bridge to Cambridge includes a dam in the Charles River which converts it into a fresh-water basin for boating. Public water supply is obtained from reservoirs fed by several small streams. The greatly enlarged Statehouse occupies a conspicuous position on the summit of Beacon Hill. Its gilded dome and the shaft of Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown serve as landmarks and guides for the traveler in the bewildering streets of the old city. Among many objects of historic interest are three old burial grounds maintained in the heart of the city where land is of the highest value; the Old South Church, now a historical Fig. 1J7. — Commercial district, Boston. Faneuil Hall in the l:iackgroun(l. PHILADELPHIA 257 museum ; the old Stalchousc ; and Fancuil Hall, called " the Cradle of Ameri- can Liberty" (Fig. 137). In the Back Bay district the new Old South Church, Trinity Church, the Public Library, and the Museum of Fine Arts are noted specimens of architecture. In Cambridge are the extensive grounds and buildings of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Wellesley College for women is located in the suburb of Wellesley. Commerce and Manufacture. — Under the competition of New York, Portland, and Montreal, the commerce of Boston has relatively dechned and become secondary to manufacturing, in which the metropolitan district ranks fourth among eastern cities. Among the distinctive industries are boots and shoes, printing, leather, clothing, textiles, electrical machinery, sugar refining, pianos, organs, and shipbuilding. The United States maintains a well equipped navy yard at Charlestown. In foreign commerce the tonnage is third among eastern ports, being about one sixth that of New York. The leading imports are fibers, wool, hides, cotton, sugar, coal, and leather. In the export of cattle, meats, and dairy products Boston is second only to New York. Population. — The population of Boston in 1910 was 670,585, and of the metropoHtan district 1,520,470, the fourth in the United States. In the city the foreign population is nearly three fourths. Of these 31 per cent are Irish and 14 per cent are French Canadian. There are on an average two families to each dwelling. Philadelphia. — -"The City of Brotherly Love," 90 miles south of New York, and previous to the opening of the Erie Canal the metropolis of America, shares with that city many advantages of sea and land. It is the third city and second seaport of the United States, with a foreign tonnage a httle larger than that of Boston. In contrast with New York and Boston, it is 100 miles from the sea on the tidal Delaware River at the mouth of the Schuylkill, but is accessible by the largest vessels. 258 'Jill': i:.\sri:RN s'i\ri;s: iirii;s Site. — The ground 111)011 which Philadelphia stands rises from tide level at the junction of the two rivers to a hilly tract on the north, a distance of about 16 miles. The surface is level or gently rolling and there are no natural barriers to expansion or to easy access and communication. The plan of the city is through- out extremely regular (Fig. 138). The Delaware River front of about 20 miles is largely occupied by docks, freight terminals, factories, and wholesale houses. The principal holds, stores, banks, office buildings and railway stations are near the City Hall (Fig. 139). In the same neighborhood are many fine resi- dential streets. The picturesque suburbs on the north and west are occupied by beautiful villas of recent construction. There is a small congested tenement district in the southeast. The greater part of the city consists of street after street of plain, two or three story brick houses, each occupied by a single family. On account of the level, open, and unobstructed site, the business and residential dis- tricts are less distinct than in other large cities, and the number of residences nearly equals the num- ber of families. Public Works. — Fairmount Park extends along the Schuylkill and one of its tributaries eleven miles and comprises 3500 acres. The park contains many historic mansions, statues, and monuments of art. The City Hall is one of the largest buildings in the world, covering a space of four and one half acres. The city was the first capital of the United States and contains a larger number of historic buildings than any other. Among them are In- dependence Hall, now a historical museum, where the Continental Congress met and the Declaration of Independence was written ; Congress Hall, in which Washington was inaugurated; and Carpenter's Hall, in which the First Continental Congress met. Philadelphia has an unusual number of schools, learned societies, libraries, and museums, including the University of I IG 1^(5 — Phil iflLlphia and \Kinitv PHILADELPHIA 259 Pennsylvania, Girard College, and Jefferson Medical College. Bryn Mawr, a leading college for women, is a few miles outside the city. Manufacture and Commerce. — Philadelphia has always been one of the greatest manufacturing centers of the United States, and the metropolitan district ranks next after New York and Chicago. It stands first in the manufacture of carpets and rugs, Fig. 139. — Broad Street, Philadelphia. City Hall in the distance. second in that of woolens, worsteds, hosiery, felt hats, and leather, and third in clothing, foundry products, and printing. Other large industries are cotton goods, iron and steel, malt liquors, and chemicals. It is the seat of large petroleum and sugar refineries, the Baldwin Locomotive Works, and the Cramp ship- yards, where steel vessels and warships are built. The United States maintains a large navy yard at League Island below the city. 26o THK KASTKRN STATES : CITIES The (lock line extends about lo miles alonj; the Dehiware River, and there are many reguhir steamship hnes to Eurojje and the West Indies. In forcij^n tonnage it is the second seaport ot" the United States, with a total nearly one fifth that of New York ; hut in total value of exports and imports it is sur- passed by Boston. The principal imports are raw sugar, chemicals, goat- skins, wool, and hides, and the principal exports are iron and steel, petroleum, wheat, and cattle. Its inland communications are by the Pennsylvania and the Baltimore and Ohio systems, by which it is closely connected with the Pittsburgh iron district. Its distance by rail from Chicago and Lake Erie is about the same as that of New York, but the grades and curves are more difficult. The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad connects the city with the anthracite region. Population. — The population of Philadelphia in igio was 1,549,008 and of the metropolitan district 1,972,342. In the city 57 per cent are of foreign parentage, of which nearly one fourth are Irish. Summary. — There can be no better example of the influence of natural features upon the development of cities than a compari- son of New York and Philadelphia. Previous to 1830, Phila- delphia was the metropolis and principal seaport of America. In position and distance from Europe, the Middle West, and the coal fields, neither city had any considerable advantage over the other. The site of Philadelphia for city construction was far superior, but its restricted harbor accommodations and the lack of a gap through the mountains behind it were fatal to its com- mercial supremacy. Baltimore. — In being an inland seaport Baltimore re- sembles Philadelphia. It stands near the head of Chesa- peake Bay, 170 miles from the sea and has an excellent harbor in the drowned valley of the small Patapsco River and its branches. Site and Plan. — The ground on which Baltimore is built presents a pleasing variety of relief not too rough for successful improvement. The city is compact, covering an area about five by six miles. The shipping, manufacturing, and business dis- tricts lie in the southeast near the harbor, the better residence districts in the northwest (Fig. 140). BALTIMORE 261 The business center was destroyed by fire in 1904, and the new buildings, restricted to a height of 185 feet, are mostly of three or four stories. The parks and squares, of which Druid Hill is the largest, aggregate about 2300 acres. The first monument in the country in honor of George Washington, erected in 181 5-1829, and the Battle Monument, erected about the same SCALE OF MILES Fig. 140. — Baltimore and vicinity. time in memory of those killed in defense of the city against the British, have given to Baltimore the name of " the Monumental City." It is the seat of Johns Hopkins University, the foremost graduate school in the United States. Commerce and Manufacture. — The foreign tonnage of Balti- more is growling more rapidly than that of any other eastern seaport, and its commerce is approaching in value that of Phila- ELEM. ECON. GEOG. — l6 262 THE EASTERN STATES: CITIES delphia. Its western gateway is the Potomac valley, traversed by the Baltimore ami Ohio Railroad. The fruit l)clt of the Coastal Plain and the oyster beds of Chesapeake Bay are in its immediate tributary area and give rise to a large canning industry. It stands next to New York and Chicago in the manufacture of men's clothing. Copper, tin })late, sheet iron, meats, tobacco, brick, and fertilizers rank high among its products. Population. — While Baltimore is the seventh city in the United States, the district with 658,715 stands eighth in population and tenth in value of manufactures. The foreign element is less than 40 per cent. Pittsburgh. — The chief iron and steel center of the United States, and one of the greatest in the world, has its economic basis in a seam of coal 16 feet thick which outcrops along the Monongahela River for about 100 miles. The occurrence of coal and ore near the confluence of two rivers forming the Ohio established the iron industry there about 100 years ago. The nearness of Pittsburgh to Lake Erie ports, only 125 miles distant, enabled the industries already established to avail themselves of the Lake Superior ores and to expand to dimensions which the home supply could not support. To these resources were added timber, petroleum, and natural gas. Site. — The industrial city extends along the three rivers more than 20 miles with a center at their confluence called " The Point" (Figs. 141, 142). The valleys are narrow and bordered by steep bluffs. The residential districts are on the plateau between them. Surrounded by a belt of furnaces and fac- tories, it has won the title of " the Smoky City." Fig. 141. — Pittsburgh. PITTSBURGH 263 Fig. 142. ■'The Point," Pittsburgh. Notice barges loaded with coal and pushed by steamers. There are four parks, comprising about 1200 acres. The most notable institution is the Carnegie Institute in Schenley Park, established by a gift from Andrew Carnegie of $19,000,000. It includes a library, art gallery, music hall, scientific museum, the largest botanical conservatory in America, and various technical schools. Associated with it are the Allegheny Ob- servatory and schools of mining, engineering, law, medicine, pharmacy, and dentistry, the whole constituting the University of Pittsburgh. Commerce and Manufacture. — The rivers are of more im- portance to Pittsburgh than to any other inland city. They have been improved by locks and dams, and are used for the transpor- tation of coal, steel rails, and other heavy freight, amounting to about 9 million tons a year, or two thirds of the total tonnage of the Mississippi River system. A ship canal to connect Pitts- burgh with Lake Erie is projected and would be of great service. It is on one of the two great lines of transportation between the Middle West and the Eastern States, and is the most important midway station on the Pennsylvania and the Baltimore and Ohio 264 THE EASTKRN STATES : CITIES railroad systems. The freight yards have a capacity of 60,000 cars and the freight handled amounts to 150 million tons a year. In value of manufactures the metropolitan district stands fourth in the United States, and in iron and steel products stands first. The establishment of the industry at Gary in the Chicago district and other centers has diminished the relative importance of Pittsburgh, but it still produces 22 per cent of the pig iron, and 24 per cent of the steel made in the United States. It con- tains the principal plants of the United States Steel Corpo- ration. Other important products are castings, machinery, cars, tin plate, and glass. Population. — The pop- ulation of the city in 19 10 was 533,905 and of the district 1,042,855, the fifth in the United States. The foreign element in the city amounted to 62 per cent and included considerable numbers of nearly every European nationality. Buffalo. — The city at the point where the waterway of the Great Lakes and the Mohawk-Hudson route meet holds a position of great ad- vantage. The falls of Niagara, 20 miles be- low Buffalo, prevent most of the lake traffic from continuing by water to Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence, and furnish the city with the largest and cheapest water power in the world. Fig. 143. — Buffalo and vicinity. BUFFALO 265 Site and Plan. — Buffalo occupies an area extending from Buffalo Creek along the Erie and Niagara shore about ten miles and rising gradually from the water to a height of 80 feet. Numerous streets radiating from the business center near the lake front give direct access to all quarters of the city. The main streets are unusually broad and in the residence district are lined Fig. 144. — Unloading wheat from a lake steamer into an elevator, Bufialo. with noble trees. The park system of about 1000 acres encircles the city. Commerce and Manufacture. — Buffalo is connected by steam- ship lines with all the lake ports, and its tonnage (14,500,000) is greater than that of any other port on Lake Erie. The harbor is protected by a series of breakwaters and provided with ten miles of piers and wharfs. It is the lake terminus of the Erie Barge Canal and is connected with the Atlantic seaports by the New York Central, Lehigh Valley, Lackawanna, and Erie railroad 266 Tin-; i;asti:rn stati:s : cities systems, and with Chicago by the Lake Shore, Michigan Central, Nickel Plate, Wabash, and Grand Trunk systems. It is the most important way station on the northern east-west route. It is a distributing center for the manufactured products of the Eastern States and the foodstuffs and raw materials of the Middle West, which are here transferred from lake to canal boat or car. Its grain elevators (Fig. 144) have a capacity of 20 million bushels and it is one of the principal markets for wheat, flour, cattle, hogs, horses, fish, lumber, and coal. Its foreign trade, chiefly with Canada, amounts to about $50,000,000 a year. The Buffalo district includes the manufacturing plants at Niagara Falls and the blast furnaces and steel mills at Lackawanna, where water transpor- tation for ore and the short haul for coal from Pennsylvania, make it possible to produce iron and steel at less cost than at any other plant in the Eastern States. The city is supplied with light and power by electric current from Niagara, which is used in a great variety of industries. Meats, foundry products, flour, automobiles, lumber, and soap make up about one half the total value of manufactures. Other important establishments are pe- troleum refineries, ship yards, copper smelters, and car works. Population. — The population of the Buffalo district in 1910 was 488,661. Excellent drainage, pure water from the Niagara River, the use of electric power which does away with " the smoke nuisance," wide streets, and abundance of trees render Buffalo one of the most attractive and healthful of cities. Washington. — A city which owes nothing to industry or commerce, but is devoted wholly to governmental pur- poses, is an economic product only in the highest sense of the term. Washington was arbitrarily located by Congress and designed solely as the Federal capital (Fig. 145). It occupies the Fig. 145. — Washington, D.C. SUMMARY 267 Fig. 146. Washington, D.C. The Capitol and the Library of Congress in the middle distance. whole area (60 square miles) of the District of Columbia at the head of navigation on the Potomac River. Except for low grounds along the river, the site is hilly and picturesque. The Capitol (Fig. 146) and the presidential mansion, or " White House," occupy commanding heights about a mile apart. Radiat- ing from these centers, diagonal avenues, named after the states, intersect in every direction the regular pattern of streets, fur- nishing many opportunities for small parks. The streets and avenues are 80 to 160 feet wide and with parks and public grounds occupy one half the area of the city. These features, combined with the large number of public buildings and monu- ments, which are among the most beautiful and imposing in the world, make Washington " a city of magnificent distances," unique in America. Its population of 331,000 is made up mostly of government officials and employees.' Summary. — Superior facilities for manufacture and commerce make the Eastern States the only region in America which 268 THR EASTERN STATES: CITIES resembles the countries of western Europe in density of popula- tion, number of great cities, and concentration of wealth. Economic Rank. — The Eastern States, considered as an economic unit, belong to the third type of complex societies (p. 92) which import most of their foodstuffs and raw materials, and export manufactures. QUESTIONS 1. What are the economic effects of the existence of the Hudson- Mohawk gap? 2. Why is the seaport on the Hudson River located at its mouth instead of near the head of tidewater, as on the Delaware and Chesapeake ? 3. What are the natural advantages of the site of New York for a seaport ? What disadvantages had to be overcome ? 4. Of what use are parks in a city ? 5. What natural conditions have prevented Boston from being as large as New York? 6. Steamers leaving Philadelphia fill their boilers with water from the river. Sometimes it is found to be salt and unfit for use. Explain. 7. Why are the people of Philadelphia better housed than the people of New York ? 8. Why has Baltimore a much smaller proportion of foreign population than New York or Boston ? Is that an advantage ? 9. What natural conditions have made Pittsburgh the leading iron manufacturing city of America? the second or third in the world? 10. What natural conditions favor the growth of Buffalo beyond that of any other lake port except Chicago ? CHAPTER XXI THE SOUTHERN STATES Boundaries. — The southern part of the Atlantic division of the United States constitutes a well-marked economic region, distinguished by relief, chmate, products, and occupations. The northern boundary of this region does not coincide with the historic line separating the former slave or Confederate States, commonly called " The South," from " The North." The states of the northern tier are in a transition belt and have been included in the Middle West and Eastern States. The limits of the eco- nomic region are fixed by the long, hot summers and short, mild winters of the warm, temperate zone ; more precisely by the northern limit of seven months without frost (Figs. 30, 35). The fact that the cotton belt is confined to this region is a better indi- cation of its chmate than average temperatures. The natural boundary on the west is formed by the rainfall line of 20 inches, the contour line of 2000 feet, and the margin of the steppe, which approximately coincide along the looth meridian (Figs. 29, 33, 147). About 15 per cent of the total area of the Southern States, in western Texas and Oklahoma, belongs naturally with the Interior States. The other boundaries are the Rio Grande, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic Ocean. The region comprises the states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Tennessee. These correspond to tlie South Atlantic, East South Central, and West South Central groups of the Census Bureau, except the northern transition states, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, 269 TlNCOLNrt --A> J, 1 jHmRqbN^CIT^ \7 f] !a„.,s„H„^^^ 'hicE I Pill.- Kl. _^-rj Bherinan "Vy,. iMii '^ J , J^ii Texarkaoa? 05'^ Lonpritude 270 -J M > ? H — ^ N /-' 'K^" ' J — j^/ — ^->& Saiei'C'j^ 'v'/iV^^' ^^ ^^^=- \ V'Bvsiemer/ \ r,/ i. ' ' ' ^* larleston ;a(COii n. \\AlbanyJ--_ \ l^* *AJ^ =S>^p^sacola^ o M E X I Fig. 147. SOUTHERN STATES ■Key West: -<. SCALE OF MILES iT^ U_ B J7I 272 TIIH SOU ri HORN STATES and Kentucky. The area is 26 per cent of the United Slates (exclucUng the western i)hileau region, 2^ i)er cent) and the population is nearly 24 per cent. Its economy is preeminently agricultural, nearly 60 per cent of all employed persons being at work upon the land. 'Ilie only large food crop is corn. Cotton constitutes one half the total value of agricultural products, 99 per cent of the crop of the United States, and 63 per cent of the world's crop. The region might well be called the cotton ])elt. (See Figs. 36, 37 ; Table III, Appendix.) Relief. — The physical features of the Eastern States described on page 183 extend far into the Southern States. The Coastal Plain (Fig. 33) occupies more than one half the surface, rising from the ocean waters to a height of 500 feet at its inner border. From Virginia to Alabama it is from 150 to 200 miles wide. A part of it, called the Mississippi Embayment, projects northward from the Gulf to the mouth of the Ohio and includes Louisiana, Mississippi, half of Alabama and Arkansas, and a portion of Tennessee. The coastal plain of Texas is about 200 miles wide. Along the coast a belt of shallow sounds, lagoons, islands, and marshes extends from Chesapeake Bay to the Rio Grande. The general surface of the plain is smooth, flat, or slightly un- dulating, and slopes gently toward the sea. It is crossed by many parallel streams which have cut wide and shallow valleys. It is underlaid by strata of soft sands, silts, and clays, the waste of the old Appalachian Mountains deposited on the sea bottom. It has only recently been elevated above the sea and is the newest land in North America. The Fall Line. — The inland border of the Coastal Plain is marked by a low but rather abrupt rise to the Piedmont Plateau. As the streams cross it from the plateau to the plain, they descend by falls or rapids. Above this line the valleys are narrow and rocky, below it wide and sandy. In the larger rivers it is the head of tidewater and navigation. The presence of water power at these points and the transfer of goods from water to land carriage have determined the sites of Raleigh, Columbia, Augusta, Macon, Columbus, and Montgomery (Figs, ^i, 147). THE ALLUVIAL VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI 273 The Piedmont Plateau. — This low, worn-down plateau ex- tending from the Hudson River to central Alabama occupies about seven per cent of the Southern States. It is broadly undulating and diversified by low, rounded knobs and ridges, and deep, narrow valleys. It is sharply distinguished from the Coastal Plain by its red clay and gravel soils produced by the weathering of the underlying granite, gneiss, and other crystalline rocks. The Appalachian Mountains and Plateau.- — In western North Carohna, eastern Tennessee, and northern Georgia, the Blue Ridge (p. 37) expands to a width of 75 miles and rises to the highest elevation in eastern United States. Mt. Mitchell is 67 11 feet above the sea and a score of peaks rise above 6000 feet. The Great Appalachian valley, about 50 miles wide, drained by the Tennessee and Coosa rivers, lies between the Blue Ridge and the Cumberland Plateau. These highlands decline west- ward and southward to central Tennessee and Alabama, where they disappear beneath the sediments of the Coastal Plain. The Ozark Highlands. — Northwestern Arkansas and southern Missouri are occupied by the low Ozark Plateau. South of the Arkansas River a belt of low mountain ridges extends westward from central Arkansas through Oklahoma. There are a few summits above 2000 feet. The whole group stands like an island in the midst of the plains and repeats on a small scale the features of the Appalachians. The Great or High Plains. — More than half of Texas is occupied by the southern portion of the Great Plains Plateau which will be more fully de- scribed in connection with the Interior States (p. 305). This plateau, which is in part above 2000 feet, is generally smooth and bordered by steep bluffs. The Alluvial Valley of the Mississippi. — Through the middle of the Gulf Coastal Plain the alluvial valley of the Mississippi extends 600 miles. It is a low, level tract, 25 to 80 miles wide, bounded by bluffs and covered by the river at times of high water. In the natural state of the river, the flood waters spread out over the valley floor, leaving a thin layer of soil. Such lands are ex- 274 'flU'^ SOUTHERN STATES ccc(lin>"' ■ s ^ iK Fig. iDo. — Southern pine forest, Georgia. MANUFACTURE 2QI remaining sources of hardwood timber (Fig. 6i). The Southern States furnish nearly half the lumber used in the United States (Fig. 163). Naval Stores. — The distillation of tar and turpentine from pine wood is a peculiar industry of the Coastal Plain forest. Crude turpentine is a gum which e.xudes from cuts made in the pitch pine. When this is heated, the vapors given off condense into spirits of turpentine, extensively used in paints and varnishes. The solid which remains is common rosin. Pitch and tar are distilled from the trunk and limbs of pine trees. These articles are used on board ships for calking seams and coating ropes, and hence are called naval stores. Manufacture. — The difficulty of se- curing a constant supply of workmen in a warm country is un- favorable to manufac- turing on a large scale. A factory requires a full force of operatives to be on hand every iig. lo.. -c> pit., luic.i, Mississippi. working day in the year, and as few changes among them as possible. In tropical and subtropical countries the people are not commonly accustomed to work regularly and steadily, because their modes and standards of living do not require it. Clothing is light, and housing inexpensive. A 292 THK SorrilllRX STAIKS: MANUFACTURES liUlc iiidc cultixation of the soil suffices to produce food. There are months in the year when human Ijeings can revert to the practice of collective economy and live off the country, enjoying in idleness what it spontaneously produces, with little fore- thought and less effort than the birds and beasts make. These conditions exist to some degree in the Southern States. During the existence of slavery, the negroes were fit only for agricultural and domestic service. The landholders found it very profitable to raise cotton and sell it all to English and Yankee manufacturers, .\fter the aboli- tion of slavery, labor conditions were for many years worse than before. The white planters had no capital, and the negroes, no longer subject to control and thrown upon their own responsibility, wandered about help- less and bewildered. There had come to be a large class of " poor whites," people who did not own land and were hardly more competent than the blacks. They lived in poverty and ignorance and were generally regarded as lazy and shiftless. These characteristics are now known to be due in large measure to the prevalence of hookworm disease, which was universal among them. The worms enter the body through the feet and, becoming established in the digestive organs, produce serious disturbance and debility Fig. 162. — Water power and cotton mill, Columbus, Georgia. WATERWAYS 293 of the whole system. They can be easily got rid of by the use of medicine, and kept out by wearing shoes instead of going barefoot. These white people have been found available for work in cotton mills and furnish a supply of cheap labor scarcely equaled elsewhere. This is partly due to their large families and the employment of children in the mills. It is not unusual for parents to live upon the earnings of their children of all ages from twelve years up. Since 1880 cotton mills have been built along the Fall Line and near the foot of the mountains where water power is abun- dant (Fig. 162). North CaroKna, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama now produce cotton goods amounting to one third the value of the total for the United States. They use more raw cotton than New England, but the cloths made are coarser and are largely exported to China and tropical America. UNITED STATES < MANUFACTURES Fertilizers Cotton goods All manufactures Value added by manufacture- - MINERAL AND FOREST PRODUCTS Petroleum All minerals Timber and lumber PER CENT 40 50 60 70 90 100 Fig. 163. — Rank of Southern States in manufactures (see Table V, Appendix); in mineral and forest products (see Table IV, Appendix). and The total value of manufactures in the Southern States is nearly one tenth that of the United States. (See Fig. 163.) Waterways. — The waterways of the Southern States are utilized more extensively than in any other region of the United States. This is due to the parallel drainage peculiar to the Coastal Plain. Outside the Mississippi system, there are 16 rivers navigable for 100 miles or more and leading directly to the sea. Each forms a convenient outlet for its own narrow drainage basin, having an inland town at the head of navigation 294 THK SOUTHERN STATES: COMMERCl': and a seaport at its mouth. Each basin is commercially isolated from ils neighbors, and the result is a large number of small towns and ports and no great centers. The lower Mississippi is capable of very large development as a waterway (p. 159). At present it carries little through traffic, mostly in coal from Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and lumber from Minnesota and Wisconsin. The Federal Government has spent many millions of dollars for the improvement of navigation. The principal works consist in protecting the banks from wash, the removal of bars, the closing of side channels, and the con- struction of levees calculated to confine the waters, to quicken the current, and to deepen the channel. A depth of nine feet is maintained from St. Louis to New Orleans, but this is not suffi- cient to enable the river to compete with the railroads as a route for traffic. A waterway at least fourteen feet deep from Chicago to New Orleans is greatly needed, but the expense of construction and maintenance would be enormous. The new demands created by the opening of the Panama Canal may justify the necessary outlay (p. 160). The Tennessee River has been improved by the Federal Government and is navigable to Knoxville, about 500 miles. The Arkansas and Red rivers, and numerous smaller tributaries and distributaries of the Mississippi are used for the shipment of cotton, sugar, rice, and lumber from the plantations and forests to New Orleans. Railroads. — The main trunk lines of the Southern States extend north and south, connecting the northern cities with the seaports (Fig. 147). The most extensive system is the Southern Railway, the lines of which reach nearly every important town from Chesapeake Bay to Florida and from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi. The Illinois Central parallels the Mississippi from Chicago and St. Louis to New Orleans, touching the river towns, and has been a potent agent in destroying the through river traffic. The Louisville and Nashville connects St. Louis and Cincinnati with Memphis, Atlanta, Pensacola, Mobile, and RAILROADS 295 New Orleans. The Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Air Line furnish direct routes from Chesapeake Bay, through the principal towns of the Coastal Plain and Piedmont Plateau, to southwestern Florida. The Florida East Coast Railway passes through the numerous seaside resorts from Jacksonville to the southern end of the peninsula, and is continued 100 miles along the chain of " Keys," or small islands to Key West, where it connects with steamers for Havana. It crosses the shallow straits between the Fig. 164. — Concrete arches of "the oversea railroad," Florida. Keys on concrete viaducts (Fig. 164) aggregating about 40 miles in length and has thus earned the name of " the oversea railroad." West of the Mississippi, the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas system extends from St. Louis and Kansas City through Oklahoma and eastern Texas to Galveston. The Missouri Pacific and allied lines connect St. Louis through Arkansas with Laredo and El Paso on the Mexican boundary. The most im- portant east-west line is the Southern Pacific, which runs from New Orleans, near the southern boundary of the United States to the Pacific coast. The railway mileage of the Southern States is one fourth of the total for the United States. The density of mileage is two thirds that of the Middle West and nearly half that of the Eastern States. 296 THK SOUTHKRX STATES: COMMERCE AND CITIES Foreign Commerce. Tlic total lorcij^n (oninu-rcc ol" the SoutluTii States is onl)' one third as iinu h as that of the Ivislerii Stales, but their exports amount to nearl}- two thirds as mueh, being more than live times the imports. This is due to the large place held by cotton, which once formed more than half the total value of the exports of the United States and is still the largest item. More than half the crop is exported, having a value of $610,000,000. Cities. — The agricultural character of the Southern States, the relatively small development of manufactures, and the number of seaports (p. 274) are conditions unfavorable to the growth of large cities. The number having 10,000 inhabit- ants or more is 80, of which only live have more than 100,000. Of cities of more than 25,000 Texas has eight, Ten- nessee and Georgia four each, the other states one or two, except Mississippi, which has none. New Orleans. — The metropolis of the South holds a unique position among American cities. It is a river port near the mouth of one of the largest rivers in the world, and the principal seaport on " the American Mediterranean." Fig. 165. — New Orleans and vicinity. NEW ORLEANS 297 Fig. 166. — Loading cotton on the levee at New Orleans. Site and Plan. — New Orleans is a delta city located in a wide bend of the Mississippi 100 miles above its mouth (Fig. 165) . The ground is almost level alluvial plain, only ten feet above the sea and as many below the top of the levee which protects it at high water. The river front of about nine miles curves around three sides and gives it the name of " the Crescent City." The river which serves as a harbor (Fig. 166) is about half a mile wide and from 40 to 200 feet deep. The city with its suburbs extends back from the river to the shore of Lake Pontchartrain, a large arm of the sea, too shallow for navigation. The general plan is well adapted to the site with one set of streets curving parallel with the river and another set extending at right angles to it. The old city, now called the French or Latin Quarter, occupies the northeastern part of the area, and the new city, or American Quarter, the southwestern. ELEM. ECON. GEOG. — l8 298 I'lii: s()riiii;k\ s r.\i'i;s : ciiiks Piihlir Works. Tlu' low and level surfuccof ihc silc, some of which is be- low sea level, renders the jjrohlem of drainaj^e din'Rull. L'nlil the present century there were no sewers, paved streets, or public water sujjply. Rain water stored in cisterns above ground and open surface gutters in place of sewers made the city notoriously unhealthful. It was visited by frequent epidemics of cholera and yellow fever, and its death rate was the highest of all the large cities of the United States. There are now more than 300 miles of sewers, which carry the drainage to stations w'here it is pumped into the river below the city. Cisterns have been abolished and a supply of good water is obtained from the river above the city. These measures have reduced the death rate more than one half. The cemeteries are a notable feature. On account of lack of drainage, burial is almost impossible and the dead are placed in tombs of brick or stone built entirely above ground. The French Quarter contains many buildings and monuments of historic interest. The city is the seat of Tulane University, one of the strongest in the South. Commerce. — The great possibilities of New Orleans as a com- mercial center were an important consideration which led to the purchase from France by the United States of the Louisiana Territory in 1803. The opening of the Erie and other canals and the extension of railroads across the northern Appalachians diverted trade to the north Atlantic ports. In spite of that, steamboat navigation on the Mississippi developed to large proportions and became an important factor in the settlement of the Middle West. During that period New Orleans was the chief commercial center and the most rapidly growing city west of the Appalachians, v During the Civil War the Mississippi was closed and all traffic cut off. The bars at the mouth of the river, the unsanitary conditions of the city, and the lack of enterprise among its citizens prevented recovery of the lost commerce for 25 years. The river trade with the Middle West has never revived, but is now far surpassed by the movement by rail. Between 1875 and 1880 Captain Eads secured a deep channel to the ocean through the South Pass (Fig. 165). This was done by the construction of jetties, or em- bankments which narrow the channel and quicken the current, thus caus- ing it to scour out its bed (.Fig. 167). In 1909 the Federal Government NEW ORLEANS 299 completed a system of jetties at the Southwest Pass, opening a still deeper channel. New Orleans is now accessible by the largest ocean steamers, of which there are many lines running to the West Indies, Central America, New York, and Europe. The city is fortunate in con- trolling enlarged and improved docks and terminals to which G. 167. — Jetties at the mouth of the Mississippi River. goods are brought by eleven railways. The largest export is cotton, amounting to about 2,000,000 bales. Sugar, wheat, corn, lumber, and tobacco are also large items. Coffee from Brazil, bananas from Central America, and other tropical products are the most important imports. The foreign trade amounts to $283,000,000. Perhaps more than any other seaport. New Orleans is in a position to profit by the opening of the Panama Canal, which may compel the improvement of the lower Missis- sippi, turn the currents of trade from the east to the south, and restore to the city something of its former importance as an outlet for the products of the Mississippi basin. 300 THE SOUTHERN STATES: CITIES Popiihition. — In New Orleans the native while [wpulalion of native parentage is only 43 per cent, but the addition of the 26 per cent of colored people renders the proportion of native Americans very large. Among the foreign population Italians are most numerous. The original settlers were of French and Spanish blood and speech, and their descendants, called Creoles, still maintain a language of their own and have impressed their manners and customs upon the whole city. To their influence is due the famous displays and festivities which mark the carnival season and attract many visitors. Galveston. — A small city on a sand bar at the mouth of a shallow bay (Fig. 168), Galveston is a remarkable example of the creation of a seaport almost I GALVESTON / j y / Railroads: .^-^^— ^ A ^'^ Sumbtra Bhow depth in /•.i SCALE OF MILES Fig. 168. — Galveston. without a harbor. The de- mand for shipments by sea from the country behind the long stretch of Texas coast was so great that large vessels anchored several miles off shore and transferred cargoes in lighters, or small boats. The Federal Government has built jetties about 20 miles long and now maintains a channel 28 feet deep to the wharves. In 1900 the city, only a few feet above sea level, was destroyed by the waves, accom- panying a hurricane. The demands of commerce were so great that capital was found to rebuild it on a higher grade and to protect it by a sea wall five miles long (Fig. 169). Other Seaports. — Of the Southern States Savannah (68,000) has the best harbor on the Atlantic coast and ships out large quantities of lumber and naval stores. Charleston (60,000) has a harbor made accessible by jetties and was once a great cotton shipping port. Its trade has now declined. Jacksonville (67,000), the chief city, seaport, and railroad center of Florida, is also a center of attraction for winter visitors. Mobile (57,000) POPULATION AND ECONOMIC RANK 301 Fig. lOy. — The wall built to protect (lalveston from the waves. stands at the head of a large but shallow bay. The natural ship channel of only 8 feet has been deepened to 24 feet, and the city exports cotton and lumber, and imports tropical fruits. There are many other ports useful for the shipment of special products, but not marked by a town of any considerable size. Among these are Newhern, N.C., Brunswick, Ga., Pensacola, Fla., Gulfport, Miss., and Port Arthur, Texas. (See Fig. 147.) Inland Cities. — The Southern States are a region of small cities, each a thriving railroad and manufacturing center for its own state. Among these the largest metropolitan districts are Atlanta, Ga. (208,000) ; Birmingham, Ala. (212,000) ; Memphis (175,000) and Nashville Tenn. (150,000) ; and the cities of 0^/o/?oma, Okla. (88,000) ; San Antonio (iiq,ooo), Dallas (118,000), Houston (108,000), and Fort Worth, Texas (gQ,ooo). Population and Economic Rank. — The mild climate, perennial rainfall, and wide extent of young plains which made the growing of cotton by slave labor profitable in the Southern States are directly responsible for their social and economic condition. A native white population of native parentage of 60 per cent and a rural population of 80 per cent are unequaled in any other region 302 THE SOUTHERN STATES : CITIES of the United States (Fig. 37). One third of the people are negroes, and in the " black belt," extending from South Carolina to Mississippi, they outnumber the whites. Their presence has kept the foreign population down to 6 per cent and made the Southern States the most purely American community in the country. At the same time industry has been hampered and the region has been kept in the second class of complex societies (p. 92) which export raw materials and import manufactured products. Summary. — The natural resources of the Southern States are ample to supply a society of the highest class. On account of their tropical products they might be more self-sufhcing and independent than the Northern States. A continued influx of capital from the north is bringing about an extension of the in- dustries which coal fields and water power make possible. This, combined with more varied agriculture, will in the future raise their economic rank and efficiency. QUESTIONS 1. What public good can be accomplished by the creation of a National Forest Reserve in the southern Appalachians ? 2. How did slave labor affect manufactures? 3. Why are manufactures in the Southern States chiefly of cotton? 4. Why are warm countries generally unfavorable to the existence of large factories? 5. Why have extensive systems of hydroelectric power transmission been constructed in the southern Appalachian Highland? 6. In what waterways are the Southern States interested in common with the Middle West ? 7. Find on the map, Fig. 147, five pairs of cities, one of each being a seaport, the other a river town, and both on the same river. 8. Why is navigation on the lower Mississippi difficult ? 9. What other seaports in the world stand, like New Orleans, near the mouth of a large river ? 10. In 191 5 Galveston was again partly destroyed by a hurricane. Is a sea port at Houston, 50 miles inland, practicable and preferable to one at Galveston ? CHAPTER XXIV THE INTERIOR STATES The Interior States constitute a region in which the natural and economic conditions are strongly contrasted with those of the rest of the country. The land is high and, except on the mountains, treeless. The vegetation varies from steppe to ab- solute desert, and agriculture without irrigation is generally im- possible. Fuel resources are scanty. Many of the streams and lakes dwindle or go dry a part of the year and their waters fail to reach the sea. There is no seacoast, no waterway, and no port upon lake or river. The region is saved from extreme poverty by the Rocky Mountain system, which occupies three eighths of its area. These mountains are so lofty that they condense sufficient rainfall to support forests and to feed great rivers, which flow from them across the arid plateaus and furnish water for irrigation and power. The disturbance of the earth crust during the upheaval of the mountains caused many cracks and fissures, which have been filled with ores of many metals. The wearing away of the mountains by frost and streams has left the veins of ore within reach. The principal resources are copper, gold, silver, lead, zinc, bunch grass, timber, and water power, and the chief occupations are mining and herding. The natural region to which the foregoing statements apply is bounded on the east by the rainfall line of 20 inches and on the west by the crest of the Cascade, Sierra Nevada, and San Bernardino mountains. It extends northward into Canada and southward into Mexico. It includes more than 40 per cent of the area of the United States, and has a population less than that 303 304 Till'; iNPiikiok SI vri;.s ^s^^ A -*■• Fig. 170. — Desert before irrigation, near Phcenix, Arizona. of Massachusetts. Eight states he wholly within it, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona (Figs. 170, 171), Utah, and Nevada.^ Their area is 29 per cent of the United States, and their population, less than 3 per cent, about equals that of Indiana or New Jersey. The density is three persons to the square mile. (See Figs. 29, 34, 35, 36, 172.) Relief. — The relief features and regions of the Interior States are more complex than those of the Atlantic division of the United States (Fig. 33). As a whole, the region may be thought of as a plateau, from a half mile to a mile high and nearly 1000 miles across, having a belt of mountains from 100 to 400 mile^ wide ex- tending through it. The mountain belt is widest in the north, highest in the middle, and narrowest and lowest in the south. East of the mountains the plateau slopes gently to the plains of the Middle West, more abruptly to those of the Southern States. West of the mountains, the plateau is divided into ^ These are the Mountain States of the Census Bureau. RELIEF 305 1 '.A Li. ..dil^MI^ I'iG. 171. Field of barley on irrigated desert, near Phoenix, Arizona. several basins with a high mountain rim on the west and a rather wide gap at the southwest corner. The Great Plains, more appropriately called the High Plains, rise from the 2000-foot contour line to a height of 4000 to 6000 feet at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. Over most of the area they appear to be as level and boundless as the sea, but are broken in some localities by dome-shaped elevations, monumental buttes, lines of cliff, narrow canyons, and intricately dissected areas of " bad lands." The most prominent feature is the Black Hills in South Dakota, an eroded dome of oval out- line, 50* by 100 miles in diameter, rising about 3000 feet above the plains, like an island from the ocean. Their ele- vation produces a good rainfall and as a result they are well forested. The extreme northern part of the plains is covered with glacial drift. The Rocky Mountains. — This system is so extensive and com- plex that a detailed description would fill a volume. = S 5 -J/ 1 3 % %3 Fig. 207. - San Francisco and vicinity. long extends eastward into the Great Valley. There are nearly 500 square miles of open water, completely protected from the sea and deep enough to float the navies of the world. It is entered by the Golden Gate, a strait 5 miles long and i mile wide (Fig. 207). The city, located upon the site of an old Spanish post and mission, occupies the northern end of a hilly peninsula between the sea and the bay. It covers an area about 8 miles square and includes a range of rocky hills 300 to 900 feet high. The original surface has been smoothed by grading down the hills and filling the coves of the shore. The city faces the bay with the busi- ness district near the water front, the residence districts farther back on high ground, and the parks on the seaward side. In April, iqo6, fire following an earthquake shock destroyed the principal business quarter and many residences. About 28,000 buildings covering one sixth of the city area were left in ruins. They were rebuilt in four years at a cost of about $150,000,000. The new city is built of steel and reenforced concrete (p. 143), of the most modern and substantial type of architecture. Suburbs. — • Golden Gate Park of 1000 acres, a military reservation of 1500 acres, and a seashore drive of 20 miles are included in the city. The principal naval station of the Pacific is at Mare Island at the northern end of the bay. On the eastern shore Oakland (190,000), the principal railroad terminal and an important seaport, and Berkeley (55,000), the seat of the State University, form a part of the metropolitan district. The climate is breezy and damp, with almost daily fogs in summer. Electric power and light are derived from a hydraulic plant in the Sierra, 140 miles distant. A water supply is planned to be drawn from the Hetch Hetchy valley. Commerce. — Of the ten railroads which reach the bay, only one enters San Francisco, the others being connected by ferry 364 Jill, I'ACIIIC STATKS : t'lTIKS from Oakland. The conmuTci' of llic distric 1 is much tlic hir^cst on Ihc Paril'ic coast. Regular steamship Hues arc maintained to Mexico, Central and South America, Hawaii, the P]iiHpj)ines, Japan, China, New Zealand, and Australia, and ships are cleared to almost every part of the world. The domestic coastwise trade exceeds all the rest in tonnage. Population. — San Francisco is a cosmopolitan city, one third of the people being of foreign blood. Of these, Germans, Italians, Norwegians, Chinese, and Japanese are most nu- merous. Seattle (331,000). — The metropolis of Puget Sound (Fig. 208) is the vigorous rival of San Francisco in the commerce of the Pacific. It has an outer harbor on Elliot Bay and an inner on the fresh-water Lake Washington. It is the terminus of three Pacific railroad systems and has connec- tions with all. Many of the glacial drift hills on the site of the cit}^ have been removed by hydraulic power used as in mining (p. 327). The wooded shores of the sound and of numerous lakes furnish sites for beautiful parks, including the campus of the State University and a military reservation. The Cascade and Olympic Mountains with the lofty cones of Rainier and Baker are in full view. Seattle and vicinity. Hydroelectric power and coal are near at hand, and used in manufacture, especially of cedar shingles. Seattle is nearer to Asiatic ports than San Francisco, and its foreign connections are equally extensive. It almost monopolizes the trade with Alaska and the Yukon territory, which was the principal factor in its increase of nearly 200 per cent in population between 1900 and 1910. PORTLAND 365 Tacoma (108,000), on Commencement Bay, shares with Seattle the advantages of Puget Sound shipping, railroads, coal, hydro- electric power, timber, and grain. The city claims a proprietor- ship in Mt. Rainier or Tacoma, whose glacier-covered summit is conspicuous 50 miles away (Fig. 209). Fig. 2og. — Tacoma, Washington, and All. Rainier. Portland (273,000), on the Willamette River, 12 miles from the Columbia, commands the only waterway and the easiest natural outlet from the Interior States to the sea. It stands at the inter- section of the river route with north-south routes of the Intermont Valley. It has connection with all the transcontinental railway lines. Water and electric power are obtained from the mountains. It is the commercial center of the rich Willamette valley, the Oregon forests, and the Columbia fisheries, and as a seaport enjoys a share of the foreign commerce of the Pacific. (See Fig. 210.) ELEM. ECON. GEOG. — 22 366 Till'. I'ACIIIC STATES: CITIES SpokfUic (14,^,000), is llu- ('(Hiiiiu-n iai (iiiliT of llic so « ailed " Inland Empire," comprisiiiK castt-rii \Vashinf,Moii and northern Idaho. I'"alls of Oo and 70 feel in the Spokane River and ulher waler powers in the district run mills, factories, and mines in both stales. It is a junc- tion point for five transcontinental rail- road systems. Los Angeles (475,000). — The commercial center of the fruit district of southern Cali- fornia is within 20 miles of two arti- ficial harbors, but is not important as a seaport (Fig. 211). The site between the moun- tains and sea in- sures an equable climate. The dif- ference in temper- ature between the coldest month and the warmest is less than 20 degrees and frost has occurred but five times in 20 years. The residence districts are notable for the number and variety of tropical trees and shrubs. Eucalyptus, palms, pepper trees, rubber trees, bananas, yuccas, oranges, and a profusion of roses, hehotrope, lilies, gerani- ums, and other flowers flourish all the year around. The country inland for 50 miles is watered by thousands of artesian wells, and is the most productive tropical fruit region in the United States. An aqueduct 200 miles long brings from Owens River sufficient Fig. 210. — Portland and vicinity. FOREIGN COMMERCE 367 water for a city of a million people. The aqueduct also supplies power for car lines, lighting, and factories, and any excess of water may be used for irrigation. A rich petroleum field has been de- veloped within the citv limits. Easy passes through the moun- tains eastward made Los Angeles a point of prime importance on the routes of the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe railroads, and their rivalry stim- ulated the growth of the city. The high market value of fruit lands and city prop- erty has brought a population of unusual wealth, enterprise, and intelligence. This has had a marked effect upon the ma- terial, social, and political conditions, which are in many respects superior to those of other American cities. Between 1900 and 1910, its population increased 211 per cent. Pt. Vincente > Pt.Fermln 6CALE OF MILES Fig. 211. — Los Angeles and vicinity. Foreign Commerce. — The foreign commerce of the Pacific States amounts to 6 per cent of the total for the United States, about one half through the San Francisco district and two fifths through Puget Sound (Fig. 212). The shipping tonnage of the Sound ports is greater than that of all others, but the goods are of less value. The Panama Canal will stimulate the commercial 368 THE PACII IC STATES : COMMERCE development of the Pacific ports to a degree diflicult of esti- mation. The possibilities are very great. Half the people on the globe live around the Pacitic and Indian oceans. If their econ- omies ever become as complex (p. 92) as those of the people around the Atlantic, the value of their trade will not be inferior. Population. — One half the people of the Pacific States are native white of native parents (Fig. 37). More than one fifth are foreign born, among whom about 100,000 Chinese and Japanese attract more attention than their num- bers warrant. They are generally industrious, thrifty, and contented with a very modest living. If permitted to immigrate freely they would furnish an almost unlimited supply of cheap labor with a low standard of living. For this reason and be- cause of their inability to assimilate with white Americans, further immigration is prohibited by law. Summary. — Mountain and ocean barriers render access to the Pacific States difficult, and cause the concentration of urban population at a few seaports. The commerce of these ports is likely to be multiplied many times in the near future. Economic Rank. — The lack of coal, on the Pacific coast, seems to forbid an industrial development comparable with that of the Atlantic coast. The mines in Alaska may in the future supply this deficiency, and petroleum and hydroelectric power may be better than coal. The mother lode will, sooner or later, be exhausted, Fig. 212. A steamer at Seattle, loading for Japan and China. QUESTIONS 369 the forests, even if conserved, cannot support a dense population, and the small area of available land forbids extensive agriculture. The most permanent and available asset of the Pacific States is likely to be found in their rare climate, which permits intensive tropical horticulture, and attracts people who can choose a home for the joy of living in it. The region is fast becoming the garden and pleasure ground of America. Left to itself, partial aridity, isolation, and lack of fuel might keep it in the second class of complex societies (p. 92). A position in the commercial currents of the north temperate zone and organic connection with the United States have imposed upon it a development beyond that of other youthful regions, and made it a peculiar example of a complex economic society of the fourth class. QUESTIONS 1. Why do the transcontinental railroad systems control the transporta- tion and to some extent the politics of the Pacific States? 2. Compare the natural advantages for commerce of San Francisco Bay and those of Puget Sound. 3. Why is San Francisco nearly twice as large as Seattle? 4. Compare the natural economic advantages of New York and San Francisco. 5. Why is Seattle nearer to Asiatic ports than San Francisco is? 6. Account for the rapid growth and large population of Los Angeles. 7. Why is the commerce of the Pacific half of the world much smaller than that of the Atlantic half? 8. Of what advantage to the United States is the fact that its territory extends across the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific ? 9. If the territory of the United States extended from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean and was bounded on the west by the Rocky Mountains, would it be of more or less value than the present territory ? CHAPTER XXXI THE OUTLYING TERRITORIES AND DEPENDENCIES OF THE UNITED STATES The outlying territories of the United States do not play a large part in their economy. Alaska is continental and polar and has few resources not already existing in the United States. The rest (except Panama) are far-away tropical islands which might be expected to supply those products for which the United States are poorly adapted. Yet they contribute less than the single neighboring, independent island of Cuba. Longilude HX) \V. from 150 Greenwich Fig. 21- Alaska. Alaska. — The territory of Alaska occupies the northwestern projection of North America with its peninsulas and islands and 370 ALASKA 371 a strip of coast stretching 500 miles to the south (F'ig. 213J. It extends through as many degrees of latitude and longitude as the whole of the United States and its area is nearly one fifth as large. Fig. 214. — The coast of Alaska, near Sitka. In relief it repeats the large features of the Interior and Pacific States. The Coast Ranges, 100 to 200 miles wide, extend in a great curve of 2500 miles along the Pacific coast and contain the highest peaks in North America. The interior is occupied by the Yukon Plateau which descends westward to low plains bordering upon Bering Sea. The northern part is crossed by the Rocky Mountains beyond which a hilly plateau slopes to the Arctic Ocean. Coast Line. — The Pacific coast is extremely complex. A belt of high, rocky islands 100 miles wide, separated by a maze of deep " canals " and fiords lies between the mainland and the sea. (See Fig. 214.) The shores of Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean are generally low and regular, and the coast waters are shallow. 372 'rKRRirOKIKS AND DKrKNDKNCIKS UI-" U.MTKI) STATES Climate. ■ — Alaska lies in the cold temperate and polar zones (p. 56), but extent in latitude and longitude, and extremes of relief and exposure give it a variety of climates. The Pacific coast is exposed to almost constant southwesterly winds from the ocean, which bring an equable climate similar to that of the northern Pacific States, but with longer and colder winters and a heavier rainfall. As the damp winds from the ocean arc turned upward by the mountain wall, condensation is rapid, heavy rain falls on the lower slopes and still heavier snow on the higher. The peaks are covered with perpetual snow and the valleys are filled by the most extensive system of glaciers in the world, of which about 200 descend nearly or quite to the sea. In the interior the climate is extreme and severe, with short, hot sum- mers, long, cold winters, and a rainfall of less than 20 inches. Drainage. — The interior plateau is drained by the Yukon River and its tributaries, navigable in summer for 1500 miles but closed by ice 8 months in the year. The Kuskokwim is navigable 500 miles. The Pacific streams are glacier fed, short, and rapid. Vegetation. — The Arctic slope is a treeless, mossy tundra (p. 56), the Yukon Plateau a grassy tundra with forest in the stream valleys. The Pacific coast region, where free from snow and ice, is covered with coniferous forest similar to that of the Puget Sound region (p. 345), but much inferior in density and value. Minerals. — The mineral resources of Alaska are large but undeveloped except by gold mining. Many rich placer gold districts have been worked, of which Fairbanks in the interior and Nome on the Bering Sea coast are the most important. Quartz mining is carried on at Juneau, the present capital. Alaska has sent out more than $200,000,000 worth of gold, the present yield being about $16,000,000 a year. Copper mines in the northern Coast Ranges have yielded $17,000,000. The known fields of coal and lignite are extensive and probably ALASKA 373 sufficient to supply the PaciJic States, but the lands are under government control and at present coal is imported from British Columbia. Fisheries. — The principal salmon fisheries (p. 78) of the world are lo- cated near the mouths of the Alaskan streams and yield about $17,000,000 a year. The Pribilof Islands in Bering Sea are breeding and hunting grounds for the fur seal. The herd is now greatly reduced in numbers and without government protection would soon become extinct. Agriculture and Herding. — The long days and nearly constant sunshine of the short summer are sufficient to ripen barley, oats, potatoes, and hardy vegetables in the interior valleys as far north as the arctic circle. The summer pastures are luxuriant, and hay enough can be cut to make cattle raising profitable. Domestic reindeer have been imported from Lapland, and under native care have multiplied rapidly. It is possible that the tundra may thus become an important source of meat for export. Transportation. — The chief hindrance to the economic de- velopment of Alaska is the difficulty of transportation, which sometimes costs a dollar a pound for 100 miles. The Federal Government has built hundreds of miles of stage roads and established cable and telegraph lines to the principal centers. Nearly 500 miles of railroad have been built, but mostly in short, disconnected pieces. Two lines from the Pacific coast into the A ■J'.,5N-> lljJi^jWw^ PORTO RICO SCALE OF MILES Fig. 215. — Porto Rico. 374 Ti:kkri()Rii:s axd dkpendencies of united states interior have been begun and one is in operation for about 200 miles. The Federal Government has undertaken its extension to Fairbanks. Alaskan ports are connected with Puget Sound by several lines of ocean steamers. Populalion and Commerce. — The population of Alaska is 64,000, of which two fifths are Indians and Eskimos. The whites are em])loyed in min- ing and fishing. They export to the United States about $25,000,- 000 worth of goods a year and import about 820,000,000 worth. Only railroads are needed to increase these amounts indef- initely. Porto Rico. — The easternmost of the Greater Antilles (Fig. 215) lies 1000 miles southeast of Florida. It is a compact island 35 by 95 miles in ex- tent and traversed by several ranges about the height of the mountains of Penn- sylvania. The climate cumbing for coconuts, Porto Rico. -g equable, healthful, and dehghtful. The hills are cultivated to their summits, and all tropical products flourish (Fig. 216). Sugar, tobacco, coffee, and fruits are most abundant, of which about $45,000,000 worth a year are exported to the United States. The largest Fig. 216. HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 375 imports are rice and cotton cloth, which with other articles amount to about $33,000,000 a year. The population of 1,118,000 is two thirds white of Spanish descent and one third negro. One fifth of the people are urban, and the capital, San Juan, on a fine harbor, is a well-built city of 49,000 inhabitants. Hawaiian Islands. — A chain of eight large and many small volcanic islands in the Pacific Ocean in the latitude of Cuba, and about 2000 miles from San Francisco, constitutes a territory of the United States (Fig. 217). Hawaii, the largest, about the 100 Longitude lo8 nich Ij NIIHAU'% \\1A -f THE PKINCIPAL ISLANDS OF THE TEUUITOKY 01" HAWAII On enlarged soale SCALE OF MILES THE TEHKITOKY HAWAII SCALE OF MILES HXl 'JOO SOO 100 500 J 175 Lung. 170 West 105 from 100 Oreenw. 1 Fig. 217. — Hawaiian Islands. size of Connecticut, rises in several rounded summits to 13,000 feet above the sea. Honolulu (52,000), the capital, on the island of Oahu, about 3500 miles from Japan, 5000 miles from China and the Philippines, and 4000 miles from New Zealand and Australia, has an excellent harbor and is the most important crossroads port of the Pacific. It is a coahng and supply station for seven trans-Pacific steamship lines and has cable communi- cation with the United States and Asia. Latitude and marine location give these islands a cUmate and products similar to Jiacht.'Cliaiinrt B*T»NE9 ' Fig. 218. PHILirPINE — ISLANDS SCALE OF MILES Vitiau *%r mo s 'hiCiof b/ujj Kaiik rX^ AUJ luO IW '^lU '^M > g,raH >-' 31 _ CAGAYAN DE JOLO "^ BRITISH ^'^S/'-^ \J^YJa""*' ° ^^^ NORTH EORNEcTj^ .' gS^'^'^' ' ^ ^ CELEBES 37^ 124 Ureenwicb THE PHILIPPLNE ISLANDS 377 those of Porto Rico. Sugar cane is the principal crop and the yield of sugar per acre the largest in the world. In 191 5 the islands exported $65,000,000 worth of sugar. Of the population (192,000), fewer than one fourth are white, one fifth are native Malay, and the rest are Japanese and Chinese. The Philippine Islands. — The archipelago of the Philippines, lying about 6000 miles across the Pacific Ocean, and only about 600 miles from the coast of China, belongs to the United States (Figs. 218, 222). There are about 1700 islands extending north and south as far as from New Orleans to Duluth, but in the latitude of Central America. Luzon, the northern- most, and Mindanao, the southernmost, are each about as large as Ohio. They are generally mountain- ous and volcanic. The climate of the low- lands is always hot, damp, and trying for white people, espe- cially women and chil- dren. The monsoon rains of destructive hurricanes occur. - Natives pounding rice, Philippine Islands. summer are very heavy, and Where the tropical forest is cleared its place is taken by coarse grass. The bamboo grows to a height of 70 feet and is used for houses, bridges, and 378 'ii;KRriokii;s a.nd I)i;i'i:.\I)K\ciks of uxitkd states iiiipliiiu'iils. All tropical plants llourish, among ihcni the toconul, arcca, and iiipa palms, cacao, coffee, yam, sugar cane, and 50 species of edible fruit. Rice is the staple food (Fig. 219), but methods of cultivation are so crude that the crop is insuftkient to supply the home demand. Cotton, tobacco, maize, and sweet potatoes are grown. The most valuable product for export is Manila hemp, a coarse fiber obtained from a i)lant of the banana family. There are about 120 miles of railway, but transportation is chielly by water, on foot, or by carabao, a native sjK'cies of water buffalo. The population is 8,276,000, of which only 15,000 are white, mostly of Spanish blood. There arc about 80 tribes of native Malay stock, differing in language, religion, and degree of bar- barism. Manila, the capital, is a commercial city of 234,000 in- habitants on a commodious bay. The islands send to the United States exports amounting to about $24,500,000 a year, of which three fifths is hemp and one third sugar and tobacco. Imports from the United States amount to $25,000,000 a year, one half of which is cotton cloth and machinery. The Panama Canal Zone. — North and South America stretch 9000 miles across the parallels dividing the world into an Atlantic and a Pacific half. Ships can pass from one to the other only by going around the southern end of South America or clear around the world the other way. The continental barrier is broken al- most in two in the middle by the Caribbean Sea, on'ly the nar- row isthmus of Panama being left between Atlantic and Pacific waters. The distance is less than 50 miles, and the highest point of the divide is only about 300 feet above the sea. For centuries men have dreamed of cutting a passage through this compara- tively slight obstruction. To accomplish it the control of ma- laria and yellow fever was as necessary as the removal of earth and rock. Up to the beginning of the twentieth century the sanitary and engineering difftculties of the work were such as to render it practically impossible. (See Fig. 220.) When in 1904 the United States undertook the construction of the Panama Canal, control was obtained from the Republic of Panama of a THE PANAMA CANAL ZONE 379 zone lo miles wide having the line of ihe eaiuil along its center. The waterway now completed does nol cul I lie isthmus down to sea level or permit the Atlantic and Pacific waters to mingle. It may be thought of as a bridge of water over the land, raised 85 feet above the sea. Half its Gdiuh'iL ocksMgn PANAMA CANAL ZONE and Route of the PANAMA CANAL , '> < ^i,PER CO I. J> SCALE OF MrLES jflAmenco I. 1 f ■ Fig. 220. — Panama Canal. length is through an artificial lake made by an immense dam in the Chagres River. An inlet 7 miles long leads from the Caribbean Sea to the dam, where a flight of three locks lifts vessels to the level of Gatun Lake. The only actual cut made in the isthmus, 9 miles long and about 200 feet deep, leads from the lake to dams and locks on the Pacific slope, by which vessels are lowered to an inlet 8 miles long on that side. The depth of the channel varies from 40 to 85 feet and its width from 300 to 1000 feet. The size of the vessels which can pass through is limited by the dimensions of the locks. Each lock is a concrete chamber 1000 feet long and no feet wide, closed at the ends by steel gates or doors. A ship can pass through the locks in about 3 hours and from sea to sea in 12 hours. (See Fig. 221.) 380 TEkkrrokii'S and r)i:PENDENCiF-:s of united states 'I'hc clTccts of tlu' canal upon world (oinnicrcc must he far- reaching. The distance from Atlantic porls of llu' I'nited States and Cana(hi to Pacillc ports of America is shortened one half or more, and from European ports by some smaller proportion. The domestic trade between all ports of the United States must b}' law be carried on in .\mcrican vessels, which are more costly I'"lG. ^2 1. Cukhra cut. I'anama Canal. Dredges removing earth from a slide. to operate than foreign vessels. Therefore, the freight rates be- tween San Francisco and European ports can be made as low as those between San Francisco and American ports. This would result in a considerable diversion of foreign commerce from the Atlantic to the Pacific states. The exchange of goods between the Atlantic and the Pacific states will be greatly in- creased and much of the through freight hitherto carried by transcontinental railroads will go by water. Water routes be- tween Atlantic ports and Asiatic ports are shortened about 3000 miles. The expansion of Pacific coast trade and the improved accessibility of the Pacific States may encourage a considerable immigration from Europe. Those states may increase in popu- lation and wealth and San Francisco may occupy in relation to QUESTIONS 381 them an economic position similar to that of New York in the Eastern States. Summary. — Considering their present and future products, Alaska, Hawaii, and Porto Rico are the most valuable outlying possessions of the United States. In promoting the commerce of the whole country, the Panama Canal is destined to have an incalculable influence. The Philippines have proved to be a burden rather than a support. Measures are being taken to provide for their poUtical independence. QUESTIONS 1. Why has the Federal Government retained control of the .\laskan coal fields? Is this a good economic policy? 2. Why has the Federal Government undertaken the construction of railroads in Alaska? 3. What are the Greater Antilles? What is the political condition of each? 4. Which is of greater value to the United States, Hawaii or the Philip- pines ? Why ? 5. Compare the importance of the Panama Canal with that of the Suez Canal. ELEM. ECON. GEOG. — 23 CHAPTER XXXII FOREIGN COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES' Although the domestic commerce of the United States is estimated to be forty times as great as its foreign commerce, the hitter amounts to four or live bilHon dollars a year. Imports. — The people of the United States buy from foreign countries nearly two billion dollars' ($1,893,925,000) worth of goods a year. The reasons for this large and varied purchase abroad may serve as a means for classifying the goods. (See Table IX, Appendix.) 1. Products of tropical plants which cannot he largely produced in the United States for lack of suitable climate. Most of these are table luxuries which people could do without. The largest items are coffee, cane sugar, cacao (chocolate), fruits, nuts, olive oil, tea, and spices. Of constructive materials, rubber is by far the most needed and valuable. Among fibers, jute, sisal, and Manila hemp supply cordage and sacking. These constitute about 30 per cent of all imports. 2. M inerals not found in the United States. Among these tin is the most widely useful, precious stones are costly lu.xuries, sodium nitrate is invaluable as a fertilizer, and nickel and platinum are rare but useful metals. These minerals amount to about 8 per cent of the total imports. 3. Articles which might be produced at home but on account of labor conditions can be had more cheaply abroad. The one great item of this kind is raw silk. Burlaps, linen, and other textiles also belong to this class, which forms 10 per cent of imports. 4. Articles produced at home in large quant Hies, but insufficient or lack- ing in some special quality. The largest item of all imports is hides and skins. Cotton, wool, tobacco, lumber, wood pulp, copper, iron, and steel ' This chapter is based on the statistics of the Department of Commerce for the \'car ending June 30, 1914, before the beginning of the European ]]'ar. 382 EXPORTS 383 are other important additions to resources in which the United States is already rich. Such articles form 22 per cent of all imports. 5. Articles which require special technical or artistic skill not yet de- veloped in the United States. Chemicals, drugs, and dyes head this list. Gloves and line leather goods, silks, velvets, fine woolens, works of art. and books are largely or wholly products of skill or talent belonging to few peoples. These comprise about 18 per cent of all imports. To render the United States all but self-sufficient and inde- pendent of foreign commerce, without lowering the standard of Hving, two things are needed: (i) an expansion of territory into the tropics, and (2) an increase of scientific, technical, and artistic skill among the people. For example, Cuba, Mexico, or Central America would be ample for the first. Under the pressure of necessity the second could be acquired in a generation. Exports. — The people of the United States sell to foreign countries more than two and a quarter billion dollars' ($2,365- ooa,ooo) worth of goods a year. The largest item is raw cotton, amounting to more than one quarter. Other large items are iron and steel, breadstuffs, petroleum, copper, meats, and wood, amounting to two fifths. The remaining third is made up of about 00 items of relatively small value. Exports represent a surplus not needed at home and may be classified according to economic origin. (See Table IX, Appendix.) 1. Products of agriculture, cotton, tobacco, grain, fruits, etc., amount to nearly two fifths. 2. Collective products, petroleum, coal, copper, timber, lumber, etc., make up one fifth. 3. Manufactures of iron and steel, including engines, cars, carriages, auto- mobiles, agricultural, electrical, and other machinery constitute 18 per cent. 4. Miscellaneous manufactures amount to 14 per cent. 5. Meats and fish form about 8 per cent. Imports and exports are classified by the Department of Com- merce as follows : 6^4 i'()Ki;i(;.\ co.MMiiRci'; oi' iiii-; i\ni:i) statiis Crude materials used in manufai lure Crude foodstuffs Manufactured foodstuffs Manufactures for further use in manufacture Finished manufactures Imports 12.00 16.88 23.67 Exports .5403 5-9° 12.57 16.08 31.12 Several things are notable. Although the United States is one of the great food-producing countries, it buys more food than it sells. More than half the goods sold are manufactures. There is not a single item for which the world is dependent upon the United States alone. American cotton, petroleum, and copper constitute a larger share of the world's supply than is the case with other commodities. Foreign Countries. — The countries with which the United States trades may be placed in four classes, 'determined by -the economic development of each, which depends largely upon posi- tion, climate, and mineral resources. (See Table X, Apj)endix.) Class I. Western Europe. — To the first class belong those countries of western Europe which have attained the highest stage of economic development. They utilize practically all their domestic resources, buy largely of raw materials abroad, and manufacture a great variety of goods for export. They also act as collectors and distributors, importing all sorts of goods which they assort and reexport without change, as wholesale dealers and middlemen do in every community. None of them are able to feed themselves fully, and some are dependent upon other countries for most of the food they consume. They are the in- dustrial and merchant nations for which factories at home and markets abroad are essential to prosperity or even to existence. Nearly one half (46 per cent) the trade of the United States is carried on with them across the north Atlantic Ocean by the main sea route of the world. CLASS I. WESTERN EUROPE 385 The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. — - The leadership of the United Kingdom in world commerce depends upon a combination of geographical and historical causes. No other country enjoys in equal degree advantages of position in relation to Europe and America, number and excellence of seaports, large coal resources, mild climate, and a dense popula- tion of skilled artisans. The extent and resources of the oversea dependencies of the British Empire and the number of vessels under the British flag give to the British Isles the command of vast resources and markets. More than one fifth (21 per cent) of the total foreign commerce of the United States is with the United Kingdom, which is our largest customer for cotton, meats, tobacco, wheat, flour, and lumber, buying one fourth of all our exports. In return we import textiles, rubber, tin, wool, and other articles of manufacture and merchandise amounting to one half as much as wc export. Germany, the great industrial and commercial rival of the United Kingdom, is less favorably situated for commerce, but has greater and more varied resources of food and mineral wealth. Industry is so organized as to attain a very high degree of scientific efificiency and to make the most of the rather severe cHmate, moderately good soil, and well-distributed coal and ores. The Germans have secured one eighth of the trade of the United States, buying most largely cotton, copper, meats, and wheat, and selHng textiles, gloves, toys, and chemicals, espe- cially dyes. France is highly favored by nature, having as good access to the sea as Great Britain and better climate and soil than Ger- many. In mineral wealth the country is deficient. Southern France is in the Mediterranean region and its products are sub- tropical. The French buy largely from the United States of cotton and copper, and sell wines,, fine textiles, and works of art amounting to as much as the textiles. Their share of our total commerce is 7 per cent. 386 FOREIGN COMMKKCK OF Iiri-. r\ri'i;i) S'lA'IKS The Nctlicyliiiuls and Bcli^iinn, small (ounlrirs al liic iiioiillis of the Rhine, {ikiy a larger |)arl in tlu' world's coinnuTcc ihaii lluir sizt' alone would ac- count for. Three of their seai^orts, Antwerp, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam, are amonj; the lar<^esl in the world. The soil is intensively cultivated and the coal fields of Belgium make the country a hive of industry. The Dutch have very productive colonies in the East Indies, and the Belgians control the Congo basin in Africa. Thus they are able to sell to the United Slates African rubber and diamonds and Sumatra tobacco, buying copper, cotton, foodstuffs, and oils, all amounting to 6 per cent of the United States com- merce. Class II. — Some countries of the temperate zone exchange with the United States raw materials and manufactured goods of home production, but do not act as middlemen. They carry on one fifth of the total foreign commerce of the United States. Canada is the nearest neighbor, next of kin, and in an economic sense a small copy of the United States. The railroad systems of the two countries connect at many points, both make free use of the Great Lakes and connecting canals and rivers, and ex- change of goods goes on almost as freely as between the states. Canadian forests supply lumber, wood pulp, and paper, the steppe furnishes cattle and hides, the farms flaxseed, and the mines copper. Canada buys twice as much as she sells, largely coal, machinery, iron and steel, and foodstuffs, the whole equaling the trade of Germany. Japan, on the opposite side of the world, sells to the United Slates raw silk, tea, straw hats, and other goods amounting to twice as much as the purchases, chiefly of cotton, petroleum, and flour. Italy and Spain furnish peculiar Mediterranean products, such as raw silk, macaroni, cheese, olive oil, fruits, nuLs, and cork in exchange for cot- ton, tobacco, and petroleum. Class III. — Young or economically undeveloped countries of the temperate zone sell raw materials and buy mostly textiles and machinery. Trade with them amounts to only 8 per cent of the whole and could be indefinitely increased by better shipping facilities. PORTS AND SHIPS 387 Chile and Peru sell copper and nitrale of soda, Argentina and Russia sell hides and wool. Australia sells wool and China sells wool and raw silk. Class IV. Tropical Countries. — The fourth class contains a long list of countries which supply tropical products : coffee, cacao, rubber, fibers, cotton, fruits, nuts, cane sugar, palm oil, tobacco, spices, and among minerals tin and copper. With few exceptions they sell to the United States goods amounting to many times the value of what they buy. Commerce with these countries amounts to more than one fifth (22 per cent) of the total of the United States. Of these countries the United States is most indebted to Cuba, an island only 100 miles off the Florida coast and our chief dependence for cane sugar and fine tobacco. Mexico, al- most as closely connected on the south as Canada on the north, but foreign in race, language, and customs, is the only source of sisal fiber, and contributes also cattle, hides, rubber, cop- per, and coffee. In Brazil, the southern subtropical highlands supply three fourths of our coffee and the Amazon lowlands one fifth of our rubber {\). ^2). The Caribbean countries, Colombia, Venezuela, Central America, and ihe West Indies furnish coffee, tobacco, fruits, and nuts. Of the United States dependencies Porto Rico contributes sugar, tobacco, coffee, and fruits, Hawaii sugar, and the Philippines hemp, sugar, and tobacco. The British East Indies send us jute, burlaps, tin, rubber, and skins. Egypt alone furnishes the finest grade of cotton. Ports and Ships. — The foreign commerce of the United States is carried on chiefly by sea from the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts, but also across the land borders with Canada and Mexico. (See Tables, XII, XIII, Appendix.) The Eastern States have 64 per cent of the total, 56 per cent by sea and 8 per cent by land, and the imports exceeding the ex- ports. The port of New York handles 45 per cent of the whole. Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore follow in rank, with a combined commerce of 12.5 per cent of the whole. The Southern 388 FOREIGN COMMllKCi: OF THK UNITKlJ STATES Stales have 21 })er cent of the total, almost entirely hy sea, r^ j^er cent being through New Orleans and (ialveston. The large shipments of cotton from southern ports make their exports four times as valuable as their imports. The Pacific States have 6 per cent of the total commerce, a little more than half through San Francisco. The commerce of the Middle West with Canada, carried on through the lake ports Detroit, Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, and Duluth, amounts to nearly 7 per cent of the total. Even the Interior States have a little foreign com- merce across the Mexican border. (See Table X, Appendix.) Of the total foreign tonnage of all the ports of the United States, New York has 31 per cent, exceeding that of any other port in the world. Puget Sound, New Orleans, Boston, and Philadelphia stand next in rank with a combined tonnage of 23 per cent. (See Table VII, Appendix.) About 10 per cent of the foreign commerce is carried in American vessels, 45 per cent in British, 13 per cent in German, and the rest in French, Dutch, Norwegian, and Japanese vessels. Summary. — Two thirds of the foreign commerce of the United States is carried on with western Europe, Canada, and Japan, countries in the north temperate zone. This includes some goods which came originally from the tropics. QUESTIONS 1. What does the relative value of foodstuffs and of manufactures ex- ported indicate as to the need for the improvement of agriculture in the United States? 2. Why does the United States import cotton, tobacco, and iron? 3. Is it of advantage to the United States to export goods of greater value than the imports? 4. Why is nearly half the foreign commerce of the United States carried on with countries whose natural resources and economic products are similar to our own? 5. Why is the exchange of goods on east-west routes in the temperate zone more extensive than on north-south routes between different zones? What natural conditions make this possible ? EFFECT OF EUROPEAN WAR ON COMMERCE 389 6. Why is so little foreign commerce carried in American vessels ? Would an increase of the American merchant marine be of advantage to the United States? SUPPLEMENTARY STx\TEMENT Effect of the European War on Foreign Commerce. — The general ctTcct of the European war upon the foreign commerce of the United States was to decrease imports sUghtly and to in- crease exports enormously. Trade with Germany was almost cut off and trade with Great Britain, France, and Italy was greatly stimulated. The most notable advance was in exports of breadstuffs, meats, horses, mules, automobiles, explosives, and munitions of war. 1913 1915 Imports $1,792,596,480 2,484,018,202 $1,778,596,695 3,547,480,372 Exports Total $4,276,614,772 $5,326,077,067 Fig, 222. Map of the World showing the United States and its outlyir COMMUNICATIONS Principal steamship routes. The heavier blue " lines ehow the most important ocean routes Figures indicate the distance in geographical miles between places marked thua, 8 Submarine telegraph catles. -Principal railroads. ..Caravan routes. CO" Greenwich .".0 Longitude 30' Kast from CO^ Greenwich territories and dependencies, together with principal commercial routes. 391 CHAPTER XXXIII THE ECONOMIC WORK OF THE GOVERNMENT In a civilized country the success of any economic undertaking depends not only upon the natural resources and conditions, but also upon the kind of government which prevails there. The Federal and state governments of the United States influence every industry and business in a thousand ways. Only their more important activities can be noticed in this book. The Post Office Department. — The postmen are the only Federal officers who serve practically every man, woman, and child. There are few, if any, citizens to whom they do not deliver letters, papers, and parcels. The speed, safety, and small cost of mail service is one of the fundamental things which make economic prosperity possible. In some countries the tele- graph and telephone systems are under government control and managed much like the postal service, but in the United States these are left to private enterprise. The Treasury Department. — Civilized economy requires the use of money (p. 76) and the transaction of business depends upon the existence of a sufhcient amount of currency, in coin and notes which do not fluctuate in value. This is provided by the Treasury, which cooperates with the banks to maintain a sound financial condition. The War Department has charge of the improvement of rivers and harbors, upon which many millions are spent every year. 392 SUMMARY 393 The Interior Department. — This department, besides having charge of the survey and sale of public lands, includes the Geologi- cal Survey, the work of which is fundamental to that in many other lines. The Survey is engaged in the making of topographic and geologic maps, in the exploration and description of the earth crust on the surface and underground, and in the investigation of mineral veins and deposits, including water resources. To it belongs also the work of the Reclamation ^Service designed to carry out large irrigation projects (p. 319). The Department of Agriculture, created in 1889, has functions almost purely economic. It maintains the Weather Bureau, which issues daily maps and forecasts and, when necessary, warnings of storms, frosts, and cold waves. The Bureau of Plant Industry sends agents to every part of the world to find and bring home useful species and varieties. By its work and that of the Bureau of Animal Industry and the agricultural Experiment Stations in every state, the farmer gets the benefit of the latest scientific discoveries, and agricultural methods and results are being revolutionized. The Bureau of Soils makes surveys and pubHshes maps with statements of the crops best suited to each variety of soil. The national forests are under the care of the Forest Service. The Department of Commerce publishes statistics of the com- merce of the world (p. 382), and of the decennial census of the United States. It maintains the Bureau of Fisheries (p. 353), builds lighthouses, and conducts a Coast Survey for the improve- ment of navigation and the safety of mariners. Summary. — ■ Probably no government ever before did so much to develop the national resources of its domain and to help its citizens to get a better Hving, as the Government of the United States is doing to-day. Most of the states cooperate with the Federal Government, and also carry on independent work in ge- ology, mining, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, water power, canals, flood control, sanitation, and other lines of economic importance. 394 'i'HE ECOXO.MK WORK ()!• llll': (iON IIKXMKNT QUESTIONS 1. How do the telegraph and leleplione save lime and expense? 2. What would be the advantages of government ownership of telegrai)h and telephone service? 3. If every bank were permitted to issue notes and coins, whal would be the result ? 4. How does the Weather Bureau help the farmer? the shipper by rail? the shipper by water? 5. What does the Government do to encourage foreign commerce? STATISTICAL APPENDIX Fuller statistics from which these tables are condensed may be found in the following works of reference, which should be in every school library. They may usually be obtained free of cost on application to the department or bureau of the Government which publishes them. Report of the Thirteenth Census of the United States. Bureau of the Census. Statistical Abstract of the United States (Annual). Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture (Annual). Depart- ment of Agriculture. The Mineral Resources of the United States (Annual). United States Geological Survey. 305 396 STATISTICAL AI'I>I.\I)[X If! tA s u " lo i« o On qO'C't Onono ''1 o (22 6 4iA U^ 1^ IT) t^NO NOnOiA -•J -S qoo o q q -t ";> !■* to i^ - I^ '''in Ov n' "i *n to f^ fO O^ fN fo ■c u >ooq q 00 noqvOm OnwO qS; k) 23 ui "i 4 N rriNO 4 1^ d I-^ M 00 « < o *; ^ 00 6 r^ iflNd 4>d i« d o g WcJ5 ^ »«» U u •d m r~.Ov y: CO NO q to 00 00 00 q « 1 ^^ >6 4 4 rl rC fs On 6 so* u^ t^ d ^ N ro r^ ■* "5 •:)• "5 ^ ^ovd d « fONO g§2 ON 6» C/2 o^ ^■ o oooonoooo C>VO N tJ °° ". "? o o^ q o_cc t--. o o t<; N H d o' o' o'scT n 4 >A c> 0« o t^ 1^00 O GOO -to IN t^ On 0^ I^ q^ o_^ o_ o_ " CO lo q ir (X m" m-oo" S >^o6 S 6 oc "f -- OOv -i- CN t^ re NC 1^. c o >J 00 "^ t^ r^ >-< <■» X) ": s O" « C> t^ M 4 -' ^; w ro«oo mfm> . ... 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  • o CTi O t^ -. 11 06c>O''OW fid d rirj-io •«t^ "t d s f^Sn PO it <*5 f^ (H W M un g ^B 0000 o"^ *^'79P'^9'^ "P*^*?*? d ta 4 lA (NO 4od »A»novwSm Mvdwpo z 00 ^0 C>0 ^. w & "S M - . 1 2 -sh I r^ tH o -^O *^ "to vO O*0*000"?pf^0 d 3 RS so t-^<)oo fo o»o M 6^000 fooooo t^ o-y ro^O'^tH MM M^ 1 C/3C/5 Ul ^ OJ ^ooo N -^ O <^ "^o ^ p •-; *^ ^ ^ '*} ^ ^ rt 6 t-' 00 M t^vo 4 ov t^ 1^00* cfi 6 00 ^ -t W£^ \0 w*0 ■* ■^rOro-^f^tNw U T3« M NOMWodfodooO^ S^ WWHiWtHtHOOrO M rCi^lPC^Tj-rtfOC^'H hi ►J >< O < « H O Q . M p p p p P w o . IM ^ o 3 o « S^Ph C/j ooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooo & o o o o o o o o p^ p^ o^ o o o p^ q p q q p^ q oo' 30* ■C •-<' O 1^- o' d^ -t 00 ^--j r-^ 1^ <^ »'^C0_ fO ■* '■■O 1^ "N ''J^ 1- -t "H f^ o" o'oc" t-* r-^ r^ i-i O •-• >^00 '^i-.-t-caOOOO r^O ^ f^O 00 ^O rn fn --COO -+ OOcOr^oOfOiorO ^ i/:t^wr*H 333333333333333333S S -^ CA ;/; X cA. ■^. -J-. ^. ir. ir. ir. y. IT: ir. ir. ir.-j-.ir.m ^^ ^ _3^ >ii ^ 3 ^ '""'5' -2I --ss i;'?3 3 ^^ ?-- ^^^ t 3 u rt -3 ^i;-g E E „ U^^" "i O O'- ~ = " Sci-^ 5 i; & .« — TJ-3 1 c > C c a 3 C 'h- -0 ■ . O f^O 00 o . a tr, o^ O O 00 . "-« Oco O CC »'"- ■ ■ '-' O O 000 (^00 ) 1^ 000 O r*. O^ » rv^ Q\ 0\ r* r-. cs o^ 0*"co" ccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccc C^ ?i 000000000 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOm^ 400 STATISTIC AL AIMMNDIX Ohio Indiana Illinois Michigan W isconsin Minnesota Iowa Missouri North Dakota South Dakota Nebraska Kansas Kentucky r^ Maine New Hampshire \ermont Massachusetts Rhode Island Connecticut New York New Jersey Pennsylvania Delaware Maryland D. of Columbia X'irginia West X'irginia C Miner- als 1913 $1000 ■f 000»r>cO« -tN MvOCO -i- covo OO*^ Tj-iriMOO ""'OO CO M Tt «'tMt^«~>t-~o>~ ~5 « t t i-i OS OS i^o -t Os -^ 1^ t -t N so Ooo «-;";; (sj "t *^ **l ^ '^'^^ ■4 pi ds 1-^ fO M iCsO M iC ro t to M « -t t 00 so" 00 Lum- ber 1913 1000 y Feet MCOO<^<7*"^0*M l-l Tt rJ-rOMN^Tj-M^ rt 10 r^ 10 OS >o 1/1 in -rfoo 1^ M 00 1-0 rO0OsPiMOs»/1«00W',1- r^»o sO_ s:r8 ^.o> C/2 " " 00 sO_ r-CO OCO c^ -t rf m'' N m'oQ- -^ m' cv^ ci m" i 10 M 00 00 "500 00 M sO Q OS so -1- Os "^ !-■ mso so 00 sO ■* >n 1~ MM t^MM^ to OsrO OS 00 Horses Sheep 1914 1914 looo j 1000 so *0 M CO (OOO ~0 rtO^iocor^M p< o t- t^ 000 10 CO ro ^ 0*00 rtxo r^oo t^ t^ M rj- M MM MM ro to r^oo toi-^iofjsosot^ ^ts M rfOO SO M -^t M OS OS tOsO »0 Os M SO ,0 M to M -f gS to o_ 00 CO t>-^ 00 CO •<+ IJ^ ^- '^CO CO CO 000 M 00 M M VO coo ^ 00 vO t-^ t^ w w^'O -^ 10 o_^ t^ lO SO VO MTt-r-.coMM-)-O00OM Ooo QsOsOOOMt^Ost^totstN tri r^ MM 00 -0 M rt- to 00 o_ to Milch Cows 1914 1000 so v^-O t-~ -t-O t^ t^ CO too C-tO M cjc0r--0\co»0« CN 000 OOOOMC'^'^^ "^^^ *^ '^ 00_ 0" t^ "-.00 t^ tooo OssO to M t^ OS -+ I/-, OssO lONMO-^-t-^t^ t'O r^ Hav 1914 1000 Tons 0" CO^*nmotJ-wOOO"^^<^ t^\0 M MsO O»~^^00 iocoOm M t^OO "^"N 000 1000 »o -^ r*. f^ m" m" CO ^ fO 't m" ci cT 00 so o" to -too 00 -+00 OS t r^ OsOO 00 M GscO t.-;sO sO00CC w_00 t tN^ "O to pT t -t to to C>QO to I-^ pi Oats 1914 1000 Bu. so o_ 1000 O'NOOOO'ttoOO"^ woOOtoO ^ 00 OOr^ cOOO Or^M M Ooo Oi-iO 00 0" '^ 10 0" f^"^ lO 10 >0 ff -:t Ooo" CO tn Tt " Q, ,=, a- H " " PLi 00 tooq q r^ 000 000 j>- 00* 00" CO M* m' r^ M 10 -rj- •N t^co t^ ■T^ M CN t^oo ■'too to r* ^ w r^^ coo . r^oo ■^ in "c Ohio Indiana Illinois Michigan Wisconsin Minnesota Iowa Missouri North Dakota South Dakota Nebraska Kansas Kentucky § Maine New Hampshire Vermont Massachusetts Rhode Island Connecticut New York New Jersey Pennsylvania Delaware Maryland D. of Columbia Virginia West X'irginia ir. c w STATISTICAL APPENDIX 4CI North Carolina South Carolina (ieor^ia Florida Tennessee Alalnima M ississippi Arkansas Louisiana Oklahoma Texa> ■7. Montana Idaho Wyoming' Colorado New Mexico Arizona Utah Nevada if, .2 c c 2 C5 .S c E ^ c ^VO CCr^0^*-'^O^ Tt-O <-< "1VO Tj-QO MVO>0 t-.TfiomOOMr^OMvO rO i-To 0' ih" 4 (-"«" m" 0' 1-." M ri to N 00 to 00" l^vO N T CN N 0000 OvvO CO T CO I/IVO^ <^_^00_ tvO_00_ a-+co4l-^M"cotC 0, 00 -t ^ ^ 000 c> M r^«i^io<^rtwr<(-iOM Cn t^oo 00 w^<5 o^ M M a- coo' 00 ■^O CO M CO 1^ (N 10 t.^ CO ^O M CO rt -t CI 00 CO ??". I^ 1^ ,^1 I^ CO COOO (^ -t ' lOC^tNO^M 0^0 r^f^ '^«-1-'+0i'. tr^MMoo ■000 0_ "2 'n 10 \n ^ -tco p t^ c) ro -t 000 VO -t t^ fOO M r^ M fOOO t^ M OsMi^MOMOOcy ,., -+ 0. 10 -to CO CO "t '■; '^ '^ 0. '? 4 CO ■* m" CO m' P) m' CO -to o_ N tO>^t^W5CT,lHVO MOO N 0000 N lOinTf^r^OvioO 1 M COO i^ r^oo CO Ov-tt^-tMM-tl^ -t M?? CO com 00 O, M <0 CO rf Tt- ^00 O^ M vOw-OtOOOMOOTJ-MN CONO t^\010>nTl.-;fM_M_ 00 VO VO 0" M OVOO M M M t^ COO 0> O, t^ CO -r m CO M 000 m ° " 00 a> -t 8 M »n U^\0 <0 »/l ^ ^ t^OO TO MOO rTjxncC fOOO O^00 fOM TtM fOPO-^fO^^ T0_^ -t -t -h 00 "-.CO -t n -t M 1-1 t -h o- c, 00 'N CO >n :« -l-O 00 00 TtrovOOcO fOOO CO fOW*0 0^tNfOcOrO>nt^ t^ 4 CO 00 in -to CO r.-00 m' CO u-J -t M_0O -t 00 MO m m MO CO 00" -OOOOin<^OOOOT M f^oo 'i- '■' CO 'i-oo t^ r.* t^ m T 0^ "^ ri \o 1^ 0" 00000000 oor^cMOOMOO, M_ tN r^ ov M 00_ »o in 10 m'oo" VIVO W vO W t/^ Tf rC o! oo'"oo'' too" m" o" " CO M 05 o_ 000 inooo 00 mo t^O r^com-t^ ino_00^ 0_^ O; CO l-^ co" 4 tC CO m" 4 m ° ° t^ r^ CO cj iC 4 CO OooOOOoo^- °."l iCo'vo" M 0" lot^o" ts CO 0' 't 0" 100 0000 000 CM WC^r^CN CO -t m ino mm T m" 6 4oo CO CXi OQO CO M Ov 't CO M 0\ CO 00 00 m q 00' North Carolina South Carolina Georsia Flori la Tennessee Alaliama Mississippi .Arkansas Louisiana Oklahoma Texas c J= 3 (/J c C " 'c c c E 12 ■J-j KLK. IKON. C.KOO. 402 STA'I'TSrrCAI. AIM'i;\l)I.\ z c c ■" Q — »A 6 6 '^'^ f^ 2.8 0.74 (Puget Sound) 6.4 0.5 See above Value of Manufac- tures 1909 (Million Dollars) t!.s2 0* 'tf ro ro e** *o^b t^vd »ono r^ wtorOTf toOv w rxOvtvi 2-S ii CN tO-ttoto VOIO M rOtOOO 10 M 10 ■* lot- to J- ■* <^M tt'^tONWIH So t-00 ""i »o po (^ »vo fo M ON Ov e^^o v> tn 10 po CO to M M M M ^st to M w (O CO (0 s CO 1 3 B) S CO IH 'u v c ■.^ ■ : s 8 atnO^n pit un,-} oi 0 '^ <; o>J2 5 c Iq 00 i" ■* 00 fOOO VO -^ MD Tf ^ IN vO tooo " ^ t^vO ^tOcsi/>-t NNt^lMtN to r^ •+ u^ « U-) "^00 Ovoo -rtoo -* t^oo 10 -^ m -I- 0_0^ t^ ir> >n rj- w CO (N 0^ 5. a :3q t^OvtorfvO "t^ OOOvO^ ^NMVO " 00 00 VO >0 M NO r~. TttoNvOOO ►H_sO iOroto-. VOSO 10 10 -^ (^ r> "N -^ m" W to „.2 c^ o._^ ^ o.= 5 , .0 K 3 1 = 5 " 03 -.2 • • ■ • c • t: a. b£ £; c h^ a^ o-t; 1= ^ £ ^^t; =^:7:tc-^ — *G ^ u i^x: 0.^ M 3 2::2 ° 2; (1, m Ph pq pq Ph ?: « STATISTICAL APPENDIX 403 " 3 m •- '^ M-^ ♦-' "^ 3 O ^I'c^ljv'Z 2 ce a 2 'S -2 c -b rt S '^ ^•'^ d ^ S ^ r^ W, ^'* ,S.£ '■-■■^B>Z 2e ..— .« rt ^^ 3 a>:7:~ o. 3 1^ o o o^^^'- - „ O *J ^x t: tc 3 K rt c! rtj= 0000 O-ii S££.2 fcfcKA 404 STATISTICAL AI'l'KNDlX o aO Oi^ o S 2 >= p cQ K.ii ^JS'S SO •J JS O 3 '^ O umAt-> 2 S^i c..!2 o 0^ tI" lO t^O O^oo -^ in ^ fo ( S-n 3-0"^ 3 ■" o t»oiJHMpq25c/2Pi'ing, 239 decline of agriculture, 242 drainage, 185 economic character, 182 foreign commerce, 237, 387 forest products, 203-205 fruits, 240 manufactures, 206-231 map, 186-187 market gardening, 240 minerals, 190—203 population, 182 railroads, 235 rank in farm products, 243 rank in manufactures, 230 rank in mineral and forest products, 205 soils, 185 waterways, 233 East Indies, 286, 387 East Liverpool, 143 East St. Louis, 175 Economic geography, 1 1 Economic relations, 13-44 Economies, analysis of human, 90-91 Economy, defined, 10 kinds of, 9 Eggs, 127, 128, 243, 331 Egypt, 218, 219, 318, 387 Electric railways, 152 Engineering, 90 Ensilage, iii Environment, 10 favorable to man, 50 Equatorial zone, 68 Erie Barge Canal, 234, 265 Erie Canal, 159, 160, 233, 245, 298 Eskimos, 17-19, 43 Europe, 73, 119 European war, 147, 389 Exportation, 150 Exports, 383 P'actory system, 81 Fairbanks, 372, 374 Fall Line, 185, 272, 293 Fall River, 215, 219 Farinha, 3: Farm life, i 29 Fertilizers, 66, 76, 289 Fibers, 215 Field culture, 88 Film water, 51 Finger Lakes, 185, 241 Fisheries, 77, 242, 352 map, 78 ' Flax, 215 Floe, 17 Flour, 38s rank of states in, 146 Food, investigation of, 47 Foodstuffs, 82, 143 Forage, 313 Foreign commerce, 237, 252, 257, 260, 261, 296, 299, 367 Forest Service, 393 Forests, United States (map), 139 Foundries, 212 Frame houses, 199 _F ranee, 75, 116, 127, 217, 220, 221, 324, 38s Fruits, 282, 374, 382 Furniture, 147 Gainful occupations, investigation of, 46 Galena, 138 Galveston, 300, 388 Garden culture, 88 Gary, 137, 208 Gas, 193 Gasoline, 73, 74, 197 Geography, 10 Geological Survey, 393 Georgia pine, 290 Germany, 75, 77, 117, 119. 121, 127, 213, 216, 217, 220, 25^, 3*5^ Ginseng, 41, 42 ' Girard College, 259 Glacial drift. 107 Glacier National Park, 337 Glass, 143 Gloucester, 242 Gloves, 224, 226, 383, 385 Gloversville, 227 Goatskins, 225, 226 Gold, 75. 76. 326, 330, 353. 372 production by states, 330 Goldfield, 329 4IO INDEX Good roads, 151, 152 (Joodycar process, 227 Cirand Canyon, 309, 337 ('•rand Kapids, 147 (Iraiiitc, 200 Clrapcfruit, 283 (irapes, 241, 351 Grass, ^2, 121 Grassland, 53, 68 Gravel, 201 Great Basin, loi, 308 Great Britain, 75, 82, 92, 117, 128, 213, 217, 219. 3*^5 Great Lakes, 156-159, 160 tonnage, 158 Great Plains, 273, 305, 333 Great Salt Lake, 319 Greenland, 17, 43, 56, 73, 78 Green matter in plants, 51 Grenoble, 227 Growing season (map), 96 Hammock, 30 Hardwood forest, 140 Hargreaves, James, 213 Hartford, 231 Harvard University, 257 Hawaii, 282, 283, 284, 375, 387 Hay, 121, 349 Hemp, 216, 378, 382 Herding, 89 Hides, 223 Hoe culture, 87 Hogs, 38, 41, 127 Holland, 127, 220 Holyoke, 229 Home economies, investigation of, 46-49 Honolulu, 375 Hookworm, 292 Hopi, 22, 23 Horse, a, 123 Horticulture, 89 Household equipment, investigation of, 48 Housing, investigation of, 48 Human economies (map), 86 Humus, 51 Hungary, 113 Hydraulic mining, 327 Ice desert, 56 Importation, 150 Imports, 382 Improved land, 109 India, 73, 116, 216, 218, 220, 225, 280, 282, 283, 286 Indianapolis, 144, 180 Industrial geography, 12 Industrial rev(jlution, 80 Industry, domestic, 80 factors necessary for, 81 Inside jxissage, 188, 233 Intellectual industries, 83 Intensive agriculture, 88 Interior Department, 393 Interior States, agriculture, 315-325 cities of, 338-341 climate, 308 crops, 323 drainage, 309 foreign commerce, 388 herding, 312-315 map, 306-307 mining, 326-332 natural features, 303 railroads of, 334 rank in farm products, 325 rank in mineral and forest products, 332 relief, 304 transportation, 333-337 vegetation, 310 Intermediate zones. See Temperate zones Intermont Plateaus, 308, 345 Intermont Valley, 344 Intertropical zone. See Equatorial zone Ireland, 119, 121, 216, 253 Iron, 74, 75, 90, 136-138, 207, 329, 382 production by states, 208 Irrigated lands, life on, 324 Irrigation, 318, 347, 350, 367 Irrigation projects, 321-322 Isotherms, 97 Italy, 113, 117, 221, 253, 386 Ivory, 68 Jacksonville, 300 Jamaica, 282 Japan, 73, 78, 220, 221, 282, 386 Java, 283, 284 Jefferson ville, 180 Jetties, 298, 299, 300 Johns Hopkins University, 261 Johnstown, 227 Joplin, 138 Juneau, 372 ^ Jute, 216, 387 Kafir, 317, 318 Kalahari desert, 65 Kansas City, 144, 178 Kayak, 17 INDEX 411 Kelp, 77 Keokuk, 136 Kerosene, 73, 74, 196 Keweenaw, 138 Key West, 286, 295 * Kibitka. See Yurt Kirghiz, 33 Klamath project, 350 Knoxville, 294 Kumiss, 34 Lackawanna, 266 Lake plain, 185 Lassen, 344 Lawrence, 215 Lead, 138, 330 Leadville, 328 Leather, 173, 223, 383 Levees, 274 Lianas, 27 Limestone, 72, 89, 200 Limpets, 15 Liquors, 14O Liverpool, 219 Log houses, 39 London, 168 Los Angeles, 362, 366 Louisville, 180, 286 Lowell, 215, 219 Lumber, 138-141, 361, 382. 383. 384. 385. 386 production by states, 357 Lynn, 226 Lyons, 221 Machinery, effects, 132 Maize, 109 Manchester, 219 Mandioca. See Manioc Manila, 378 Manila hemp, 216, 378, 382 Manioc, 31 Mantle rock, 72, 107 Manufactures, investigation of, 48 rank of states in, 231 Marble, 201, 290 Marl, 142 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 257 Materials for construction, 82 Meat packing, 144 Mechanic arts, 90 Mediterranean regions, 67 Memphis, 301 Menhaden, 77 Mercury, 354 Mesabi, 137 Metallurgy, 83 Metropolitan district, 165 Mexico, 73, 76, 113, 225, 387 Miami and Erie Canal, 173, 179 Middle West, agriculture, 108-122 cities of, 165-181 climate, 107 commerce and transportation, 149-161 extent, 106 farms, 129 foreign commerce, 388 manufactures, 133-148 map, 134-^135 population, 106 rank in manufactures, 147 rank in minerals and forest products, 141 rank in products of agriculture, 128 relief, soil, drainage, 107 stock raising, 123-129 vegetation, 107 waterways, 156 Milk, 125 Millet, 68, 121, 317, 318 Milling, 145 Milwaukee, 137, 147, 172-173, 208, 229 Minerals, 82 production by states, 203 Mining, 195 economy, 331 Minneapolis, 136, 145 Minneapolis-St. Paul, 176-178 Mississippi, 159, 160 Mississippi Embayment, 272 Mobile, 301 Moline, 147 Money, 76, 84, 392 Moonshiners, 42 Mother lode, 327 Mt. Mitchell, 273 Mt. Rainier, 365 Mt. Washington, 184 Mt. Whitney, 344 Mules, 123, 124, 287 Munitions of war, 231, 389 Mutton, 315 Nashville, 301 National Forest Reserves, 357 Natural gas, 198 Natural resources, 11 Naval station, 363 Naval stores, 291 ^avy yards, 248, 257, 259 Netherlands, 386 New Albany, 180 412 i\i)i;x New Bedford, 215, 2ig New Britain, 2.^1 Xew England Plateau, 183 Newfoundland, 242 New lla\en, 231 New Orleans, 143, 284, 296-300, 388 Newport, 179 New York, 188, 192, 223, 229, 239, 245-254, 284, 387, 388 map, 247 New York University, 252 New Zealand, 92, 217 Niagara Falls, 82, 207, 230, 264, 266 Nile valley, 66, 280 Nitrate of soda, 77 Nitrogen, 71, 77 Northern Appalachians, 184 Norway, 77, 78, 119 Oakland, 363 Oats, 117-iig, 282 production by states, 118 Oil field, 197 Oil refmeries, 197 Omaha, 144, 178 Oranges, 282, 351 Oregon trail, 178 Ores, 74 Oswego, 230 Overland Mail, 333 Oysters, 78, 243 Ozark Highlands, 273 Pacific Cordillera, 344 Pacific division, 101-103, 217 Pacific States, agriculture, 349-352 area, 344 cities, 362-367 climate, 345, 357-359, 369 commerce, 362 drainage, 346 economic development, 346 economic rank, 368 foreign commerce, 367, 388 lumber, 355-357 manufactures, 361 map, 306-307 natural conditions, 343 population, 344, 368 rank in farm products, 349 rank in manufactures, 361 rank in minerals and forest products, 359 relief, 344 transportation, 362 vegetation, 346 Pampas, 62, 63 Panama Canal, 160, 294, 299, 337, 357, 3'M mm IffiHli. jiiit |':f lil «l!l!i .i;i .11 'hlljl,!!!! 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