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Title: Commercial Geography

Author: Jacques W. Redway

Release date: March 20, 2008 [eBook #24884]

Language: English

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GEOGRAPHY ***

E-text prepared by Kevin Handy, John Hagerson, Greg Bergquist,
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COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY

COMMERCIAL
GEOGRAPHY
A Book for High Schools
Commercial Courses, and
Business Colleges

BY

JACQUES W. REDWAY,
F.R.G.S.
Author of "A Series of Geographies," "An
Elementary
Physical Geography," "The New Basis of
Geography"

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S
SONS
NEW YORK ::::::::::::::::::
1907

Copyright, 1903, by

JACQUES W. REDWAY

PREFACE
The quiet industrial struggle through which the United States passed during
the last decade of the nineteenth century cannot fail to impress the student
of political economy with the fact that commercial revolution is a normal
result of industrial evolution. Within a period of twenty-five years the
transportation of commodities has grown to be not only a science, but a
power in the betterment of civil and political life as well; and the world,
which in the time of M. Jules Verne was eighty days wide, is now scarcely
forty.
The invention of the Bessemer process for making steel was intended
primarily to give the railway-operator a track that should be free from the
defects of the soft, wrought-iron rail; in fact, however, it created new
industrial centres all over the world and brought Asia and Africa under
commercial conquest. The possibilities of increased trade between the
Atlantic seaboard and the Pacific Coast States led to the building of the
Northern Pacific and Great Northern Railways. But when these were
thoroughly organized, there unexpectedly resulted a new trade-route that
already is drawing traffic away from the Suez Canal and landing it at Asian
shores by way of the ports of Puget Sound. It is a repetition of the
adjustment that occurred when the opening of the Cape route to India
transferred the trade that had gathered about Venice and Genoa to the shores
of the North and Baltic Seas.
In other words, a new order of things has come about, and the world and the
people therein are readjusting themselves to the requirements made upon
them by commerce. And so at the beginning of a new century, civilized man
is drawing upon all the rest of the world to satisfy his wants, and giving to
all the world in return; he is civilized because of this interchange and not in
spite of it.

The necessity for instruction in a subject that pertains so closely to the
welfare of a people is apparent, and an apology for presenting this manual
is needless. Moreover, it should not interfere in any way with the regular
course in geography; indeed, more comprehensive work in the latter is
becoming imperative, and it should be enriched rather than curtailed.
In the preparation of the work, I wish to express my appreciation of the
great assistance of Principal Myron T. Pritchard, Edward Everett School,
Boston, Mass. I am also much indebted to the map-engraving department of
Messrs. The Matthews-Northrup Company, Buffalo, N.Y.
J.W.R.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. General Principles 1
II. How Commerce Civilized Mankind 7
III. Topographic Control of Commerce 17
IV. Climatic Control of Commerce 29
V. Transportation—Ocean and Inland Navigation 39
Transportation—Railways and Railway Organization;
VI. 62
Public Highways
VII. Factors in the Location of Cities and Towns 81
VIII. The Cereals and Grasses 88
IX. Textile Fibres 105
Plant Products of Economic Use—Beverages and
X. 127
Medicinal Substances
XI. Gums and Resins Used in the Arts 141
XII. Coal and Petroleum 147
XIII. Metals of the Arts and Sciences 159
XIV. Sugar and its Commerce 185
XV. Forests and Forest Products 193
XVI.Sea Products and Furs 203
The United States—The Seaports and the Atlantic
XVII. 211
Coast-Plain
The United States—The New England Plateau and
XVIII. 219
the Appalachian Region
The United States—The Basin of the Great Lakes
XIX. 227
and the Mississippi Valley

The United States—The Western Highlands and
XX. 247
Territorial Possessions
XXI.Canada and Newfoundland 261
XXII. Mexico—Central America—West Indies 267
XXIII. South America—The Andean States 275
XXIV. South America—The Lowland States 285
XXV. Europe—Great Britain and Germany 295
XXVI. Europe—The Baltic and North Sea States 310
XXVII. Europe—The Mediterranean States and Switzerland 320
XXVIII. Europe—The Danube and Balkan States 335
XXIX. Europe-Asia—The Russian Empire 343
XXX. The Iran Plateau and Arabia 349
XXXI. British India and the East Indies 358
XXXII. China and Japan 367
XXXIII. Africa 381
XXXIV. Oceania 391
APPENDIX 398
INDEX 399

COLORED MAPS
PAGE
Principal Transportation Lines and Regions of Largest Commerce x, xi
Mean Annual Rainfall 28
City of New York and Vicinity, with Harbor Approaches 49
Distribution of Vegetation 80
North America 210
Puget Sound 253
Mexico 268
South America 274
British Isles 299
Germany and Scandinavian Countries 304
Holland and Belgium 314
France 321
Italy 326
Spain and Portugal 329
Turkey and Greece 338
Russian Empire 342
The Iran Plateau and Arabia 349
Eastern China 369
Japan and Korea 375
Africa 382
The Commerce of the Pacific 393

PRINCIPAL TRANSPORTATION LINES AND REGIONS OF LARGEST COMMERCE

To the Teacher:—The contents of this book are so topicalized and arranged
that, if the time for the study is limited, a short course may be selected.
Under no circumstances, however, should Chapters V, VI, VIII, IX, XII, and
XIII be omitted. A casual inspection of the questions at the end of each
chapter will serve to show that they cannot be answered from the pages of
the book, and they have been selected with this idea in view. They are
intended first of all to stimulate individual thought, and secondly to
encourage the pupil to investigate the topics by consulting original sources.
The practice of corresponding with pupils in other parts of the world cannot
be too highly commended.
The following list represents a minimum rather than a maximum reference
library. It may be enlarged at the judgment of the teacher. A good atlas and a

cyclopædia are also necessary.
Industrial Evolution of the United States. Wright. Charles
Scribner's Sons.
History of Commerce in Europe. Gibbins. The Macmillan
Company.
Discovery of America. Fiske. Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
The New Empire. Adams. The Macmillan Company.
Statesman's Year-Book. Keltie. The Macmillan Company.
Outlines of Political Science. Gunton and Robbins. D. Appleton
& Co.
The Wheat Problem. Crookes. G.P. Putnam's Sons.
South America. Carpenter. American Book Company.
From the Bureau of Statistics, Department of Commerce,
Washington, D.C., the following monographs may be procured:
[1]

Commercial China. American Commerce. Commercial
Australia. Commercial Japan. Commercial Africa. Commercial
India. Statistical Abstract. Great Canals of the World. World's
Sugar Production and Consumption.
The following from the Department of Agriculture is necessary:
Check List of Forest Trees of the United States.
Lantern slides illustrating the subjects treated in this book may be procured
from T.H. McAllister, 49 Nassau Street, New York. Stereoscopic views may
be obtained from Underwood & Underwood, Fifth Avenue and Nineteenth
Street, New York.

COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY

CHAPTER I
GENERAL PRINCIPLES

Commerce and modern civilization go hand in hand, and the history of the
one is the history of the other; and whatever may be the basis of
civilization, commerce has been the chief agent by which it has been spread
throughout the world. Peoples who receive nothing from their fellow-men,
and who give nothing in return, are usually but little above a savage state.
Civilized man draws upon all the rest of the world for what he requires, and
gives to the rest of the world in return. He is civilized because of this fact
and not in spite of it.
There is scarcely a country in the world that does not yield something or
other to civilized peoples. There is scarcely a household whose furnishings
and contents do not represent an aggregate journey of several times around
the earth. A family in New York at breakfast occupy chairs from Grand
Rapids, Mich.; they partake of bread made of wheat from Minnesota, and
meat from Texas prepared in a range made in St. Louis; coffee grown in
Sumatra or Java, or tea from China is served in cups made in Japan,
sweetened with sugar from Cuba, stirred with spoons of silver from
Nevada. Spices from Africa, South America, and Asia season the food,
which is served on a table of New Hampshire oak, covered with a linen
spread made from flax grown in Ireland or in Russia. Rugs from Bokhara,
or from Baluchistan, cover the floors; portières made in Constantinople
hang at the doors; and the room is heated with coal from Pennsylvania that
burns in a furnace made in Rhode Island.
Now all these things may be, and usually are, found in the great majority of
families in the United States or Europe, and most of them will be found in
nearly all households. Certain it is that peoples do exist who, from the

immediate vicinity in which they live, procure all the things they use or
consume. In the main, however, such peoples are savages.
A moment's thought will make it clear that before an ordinary meal can be
served there must be railways, steamships, great manufacturing
establishments, iron quarries, and coal mines, aggregating many thousand
millions of dollars, and employing many million people. A casual
inspection, too, reveals the fact that all of the substances and things required
by mankind come from the earth, and, a very few excepted, every one
requires a certain amount of manufacture or preliminary treatment before it
is usable. The grains and nearly all the other food-stuffs require various
processes of preparation before they are ready for consumption by civilized
peoples. Iron and the various other ores used in the arts must undergo
elaborate processes of manufacture; coal must be mined, broken, cleaned,
and transported; the soil in which food-stuffs are grown must be fertilized
and mechanically prepared; and even the water required for domestic
purposes in many instances must be transported long distances.

AGRICULTURE AND MANUFACTURE SUPPLEMENT EACH OTHER

A little thought will suffice to show that not only are all food-stuffs derived
from the earth, but that also every usable resource which constitutes wealth

is also drawn from the same source. The same is also pretty nearly true of
the various forms of energy, for although the sun is the real source of light
and heat, and probably of electricity, these agents are usable only when they
have been transformed into earth energies. Thus, the physical energy
generated by falling water is merely a transformed portion of solar heat; so
also the coal-beds contain both the chemical and physical energy of solar
heat and light converted into potential energy—that is, into force that can be
used at the will of intelligence. Indeed, the physical being of mankind is an
organism born of the earth, and adapted to the earth; and when that physical
form dies, it merely is transformed again to ordinary earth substances.
The chief activities of living beings are those relating to the maintenance of
life. In other words, animals must feed, and they must also protect
themselves against extermination. In the case of all other animals this is a
very simple matter, they simply live in immediate contact with their food,
migrating or perishing if the supply gives out. In the case of mankind the
conditions are different and vastly more elaborate. Savage peoples
excepted, man does not live within close touch of the things he requires;
indeed, he cannot, for he depends upon all the world for what he uses. In a
less enlightened state many of these commodities were luxuries; in a
civilized state they have become necessities. Moreover, nearly everything
civilized man employs has been prepared by processes in which heat is
employed.
Therefore one may specify several classes of human activities and
employments:
(a) The production of food-stuffs and other commodities by the
cultivation of the soil—Agriculture.
(b) The preparation of food-stuffs and things used for shelter,
protection, or ornament—Manufacture.
(c) The production of minerals for the generation of power, such
as coal, or those such as iron, copper, stone, etc., required in the
arts and sciences—Mining.
(d) The exchange of food stuffs and commodities—Commerce.
(e) The transfer of commodities—Transportation.

It is evident that the prosperity and happiness of a people depend very
largely on the condition of their surroundings—that is, their environment. If
a country or an inhabited area produces all the food-stuffs and commodities
required by its people, the conditions are very fortunate. A very few nations,
notably China and the United States, have such diverse conditions of
climate, topography, and mineral resources, that they can, if necessary,
produce within their national borders everything needed by their peoples.
The prosecution of such a policy, however, is rarely economical; in the
history of the past it has always resulted in weakness and disintegration.
China is to-day helpless because of a policy of self-seclusion; and the
marvellous growth of Japan began when her trade was thrown open to the
world.
For the greater part the environment of a people is deficient—that is, the
locality of a people does not yield all that is required for the necessities of
life. For instance, the New England plateau requires an enormous amount of
fuel for its manufacturing enterprises; but practically no coal is found
within its borders; hence the manufacturers must either command the coal
to be shipped from other regions or give up their employment. The people
of Canada require a certain amount of cotton cloth; but the cotton plant will
not grow in a cold climate, so they must either exchange some of their own
commodities for cotton, or else go without it. The inhabitants of Great
Britain produce only a small part of the food-stuffs they consume; therefore
they are constantly exchanging their manufactured products for the food-
stuffs that of necessity must be produced in other parts of the world.
The dwellers of the New England plateau might grow the bread-stuffs they
require, and in times past they did so. At that time, however, a barrel of
flour was worth twelve dollars. But the wheat of the prairie regions can be
grown, manufactured into flour, transported a thousand miles, and sold at a
profit for less than five dollars a barrel. Therefore it is evidently more
economical to buy flour in Minnesota than to grow the wheat and make it
into flour in Massachusetts.
All these problems, and they exist without number, show that man may
overcome most of the obstacles that surround him. So we find civilized man
living in almost every part of the world. Tropical regions are not too

scorching, nor are arctic fastnesses too cold for him. In other words,
because of commerce and transportation, he can and usually does master
the conditions of his environment; his intelligence enables him to do so, and
his ability to do so is the result of the intelligent use of experience and
education.

CHAPTER II
HOW COMMERCE CIVILIZED MANKIND

The history of western civilization is so closely connected with the
development of the great routes of travel and the growth of commerce that
one cannot possibly separate them. Commerce cannot exist without the
intercourse of peoples, and peoples cannot be in mutual communication
unless each learns from the other.
Feudalism.—When the Roman Empire fell civilization in western Europe
was not on a high plane; indeed, the feudalism that followed was not much
above barbarism. The people were living in a manner that was not very
much unlike the communal system under which the serfs of Russia lived
only a few years ago. Each centre of population was a sort of military camp
governed by a feudal lord. The followers and retainers were scarcely better
off than slaves; indeed, many of them were slaves. There was no ownership
of the land except by the feudal lords, and the latter were responsible for
their acts to the king only.
But very few people cared to be absolutely free, because they had but little
chance to protect themselves; so it was the common custom to attach one's
self to a feudal lord in order to have his protection; even a sort of peonage
or slavery under him was better than no protection at all. A few of the
people were engaged in trade and manufacture of some kind or other, and
they were the only ones through whom the feudal lord could supply himself
with the commodities needed for his retainers and the luxuries necessary to
himself.
Each feudal estate, therefore, became a sort of industrial centre by itself,
producing its own food-stuffs and much of the coarser manufactures. It was

not a very high condition of enlightenment, but it was much better than the
one which preceded it, for at least it offered protection. It encouraged a
certain amount of trade and commerce, because the feudal lord had many
wants, and he was usually willing to protect the merchant who supplied
them.
The Crusades and Commerce.—The Crusades, or wars by which the
Christians sought to recover the Holy Land from the Turk, resulted in a
trade between Europe and India that grew to wonderful proportions. Silk
fabrics, cotton cloth, precious stones, ostrich plumes, ivory, spices, and
drugs—all of which were practically unknown in Europe—were eagerly
sought by the nobility and their dependencies. In return, linen and woollen
fabrics, leather goods, glassware, blacklead, and steel implements were
carried to the far East.
Milan, Florence, Venice and Genoa, Constantinople and a number of less
important towns along the Mediterranean basin became important trade
centres, but Venice and Genoa grew to be world powers in commerce. Not
only were they great receiving and distributing depots of trade, but they
were great manufacturing centres as well.
The routes over which this enormous commerce was carried were few in
number. For the greater part, the Venetian trade went to Alexandria, and
thence by the Red Sea to India. Genoese merchants sent their goods to
Constantinople and Trebizond, thence down the Tigris River to the Persian
Gulf and to India. There was also another route that had been used by the
Phœnicians. It extended from Tyre through Damascus and Palmyra[2] to the
head of the Persian Gulf; this gradually fell into disuse after the founding of
Alexandria.
The general effects of this trade were very far-reaching. To the greater
number of the people of Europe, the countries of India, China, and Japan
were mythical. According to tradition they were infested with dragons and
gryphons, and peopled by dog-headed folk or by one-eyed Arimaspians.
About the first real information of them to be spread over Europe was
brought by Marco Polo, whose father and uncle had travelled all through
these countries during the latter part of the thirteenth century.[3] Marco
Polo's writings were very widely read, and influenced a great many people

who could not be reached through the ordinary channels of commerce. So
between the wars of the Crusades on the one hand, and the growth of
commerce on the other, a new and a better civilization began to spread over
Europe.
The Turkish Invasions.—But the magnificent trade that had thus grown up
was checked for a time by an unforeseen factor. The half-savage Turkomans
living southeast of Russia had become converted to the religion of Islam,
and in their zeal for the new belief, determined to destroy the commerce
which seemed to be connected with Christianity. So they moved in upon the
borderland between Europe and Asia, and one after another the trade routes
were tightly closed. Then they captured Constantinople, and the routes
between Genoa and the Orient were hermetically sealed. Moslem power
also spread over Syria and Egypt, and so, little by little, the trade of Venice
was throttled.

ROUTES TO INDIA—THE TURK CHANGES THE
COMMERCE OF THE WORLD

Now a commerce that involved not only many millions of dollars, but the
employment of thousands of people as well, is not likely to be given up
without a struggle. So the energy that had been devoted to this great trade
was turned in a new direction, and there began a search for a new route to
India—one that the Turks could not blockade.

The Search for an All-Water Route to India.—Overland routes were out
of the question; there were none that could be made available, and so the
search was made for a sea-route. Rather singularly the Venetians and
Genoese, who had hitherto controlled this trade, took no part in the search;
it was conducted by the Spanish and the Portuguese.
The Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile, fitted out an
expedition under Christopher Columbus, a master-mariner and
cartographer, the funds being provided by Isabella, who pledged her private
property as security for the cost of the expedition. This expedition resulted
in the discovery, October 10–21, 1492, of the West India Islands. In a
subsequent voyage, Columbus discovered the mainland of South America.
Even before the voyage of Columbus, the Portuguese had been trying to
find a way around Africa to India, and Pope Eugenius IV. had conferred on
Portugal "all heathen lands from Cape Bojador eastward even to the Indies."
Little by little, therefore, Portuguese navigators were pushing southward
until, in 1487, Bartholomew Dias sighted the Cape of Good Hope, and got
about as far as Algoa Bay. Then he unwillingly turned back because of the
threats of his crew. It was a most remarkable voyage, and one of the
shipmates of Dias was Bartholomew Columbus, a brother of the discoverer
of the New World.
Ten years later, or five years after the voyage of Columbus, Vasco da Gama
sailed from Lisbon for the Cape of Good Hope. As he passed the Cape he
was terribly storm-tossed, but the storms carried him in a fortunate
direction. And when at last he got his reckonings, he was off the coast of
India; he therefore kept along the coast until in sight of a port. The port was
the well-known city of Calicut. Two years later he returned to Europe by the
same route, his ships laden with spices, precious stones, beautiful tapestries
and brocades, ivory and bronzes. The long-sought sea-route to India had
been discovered.

A HANSE CITY—HAMBURG, ALONG THE WATER-FRONT

Commerce in Western Europe.—After the discovery of the new route,
Venice and Genoa were scarcely heard of in relation to commerce; they lost
everything and gained nothing. The great commerce with the Orient was to
have a new western terminus, and the latter was to be on the shores of the
North and Baltic Seas.
The commerce between Europe and India stimulated trade in western
Europe as well. As early as the twelfth century the manufacture of linen and
woollen cloth had grown to be a very important industry that had resulted in
the rapid growth of population. The older cities grew rapidly, and new ones
sprang up wherever the commodities of trade were gathered, manufactured,
or distributed.
These centres of trade had two hostile elements against them. The feudal
lords used to pillage them legally by extorting heavy taxes and forced loans
whenever their treasuries were empty. The portionless brothers and relatives
of the feudal lords, to whom no employments save war, adventure, and
piracy were open, pillaged them illegally. Along the coasts especially,
piracy was considered not only a legitimate, but a genteel, profession. So in
order to protect themselves, the cities began to join themselves into leagues.

The Hanse League.—About the beginning of the thirteenth century[4]
Hamburg and Lübeck formed an alliance afterward called a hansa; at the
beginning of the fourteenth century it embraced seventy cities, having the
capital at Lübeck. At the time of its greatest power the League embraced all
the principal cities of western Europe nearly as far south as the Danube.
Large agencies, called "factories," were established in London, Bruges,
Novgorod, Bergen, and Wisby. The influence of the League practically
controlled western Europe.
The Hanse League performed a wonderful work. It stopped piracy on the
seas and robbery on the land. Industrially, it encouraged self-government
and obedience to constitutional authority. Shipbuilding and navigation so
greatly improved that the ocean traffic resulting from the discovery of the
cape route to India quickly fell into the hands of Hanse sailors and master-
mariners. The League not only encouraged and protected all sorts of
manufactures, but its schools trained thousands of operatives. The mines
were worked and the idle land cultivated. It was the greatest industrial
movement that ever occurred.

HANSE ROUTES—THE HANSE LEAGUE REORGANIZES THE TRADE OF THE
WORLD

Socially, the Hanse League brought the wealth that gave those comforts and
conveniences before unknown. The standards of social life, education, art,
and science were raised from a condition scarcely better than barbarism to a
high plane of civilization. Indeed, the civilization of western Europe was
the most important result of it.
It forced the rights of individual freedom, as well as municipal
independence, from more than one monarch, and punished severely the
kings who sought to betray it. It crushed the power of those who opposed it,
[5]
and rewarded those who were faithful to it. Its most important mission,
however, was the overthrow of feudalism and the gradual substitution of
popular government in its place.
Having accomplished the regeneration of Europe, the Hanse League died
partly by its own hand, because of its arrogance, but mainly from the fact
that, having educated western Europe to self-government and commercial

independence, there was no longer need for its existence. Independent cities
grew rapidly into importance, and these got along very well without the
protection of the League. The great industrial progress was at times
temporarily checked by wars, but it never took a backward step. Indeed the
progress of commerce has always been a contest between brains and brute
force, and in such a struggle there is never any doubt about the final
outcome.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
What were some of the effects of Cæsar's invasion of Germanic Europe so far as commerce is
concerned?
What were some of the effects on commerce of the breaking up of the Roman Empire?
How did the invasion of England by William of Normandy affect the commerce of the English
people?
Who was Henry the Navigator, and what did he accomplish?
How did the blockade of the routes between Europe and India bring about the discovery of America?
What was the result of the great voyage of the Cabots?
Was the overthrow of feudalism in Europe a gain or a loss to commerce?
Why are not commercial leagues, such as the Hanse, necessary at the present time?
Why did Spain's commerce decline as Portugal's thrived?

COLLATERAL READING[6]
Gibbins's History of Commerce—Chapters IV-V.
Fiske's Discovery of America, Vol. 1—Chapters IV-V.

CHAPTER III
TOPOGRAPHIC CONTROL OF COMMERCE

The great industry of commerce, which includes both the trade in the
commodities of life and the transportation of them, is governed very largely
by the character of the earth's surface. But very few food-stuffs can be
grown economically in mountain-regions. Steep mountain-slopes are apt to
be destitute of soil; moreover, even the mountain-valleys are apt to be
difficult of access, and in such cases the cost of moving the crops may be
greater than the market value of the products. Mountainous countries,
therefore, are apt to be sparsely peopled regions.
But although the great mountain-systems are unhabitable, or at least
sparsely peopled, they have a very definite place in the economics of life.
Thus, the great western highland of the United States diverts the flow of
moisture from the Gulf of Mexico northward into the central plain, and
gives to the region most of its food-growing power. In a similar manner,
moisture intercepted by the Alps and the Himalayas has not only created the
plains of the Po and the Ganges from the rock-waste carried from the
slopes, but has also made them exceedingly fertile.
Mountain-ranges are also valuable for their contents. The broken condition
of the rock-folds and the rapid weathering to which they are subjected have
exposed the minerals and metals so useful in the arts of commerce and
civilization. Thus, the weathering of the Appalachian folds has made
accessible about the only available anthracite coal measures yet worked;
and the worn folds about Lake Superior have yielded the ores that have
made the United States the foremost copper and steel manufacturing
country of the world. Gold, silver, tin, lead, zinc, platinum, granite, slate,
and marble occur mainly in mountain-folds.

Mountains and Valleys.—Mountain-ranges are great obstacles to
commerce and intercommunication. The Greek peoples found it much
easier to scatter along the Mediterranean coast than to cross the Balkan
Mountains. For twenty years after the settlement of California, it was easier
and less expensive to send traffic by way of Cape Horn than to carry it
across the Rocky Mountains.
The deep cañons of mountainous regions are quite as difficult to overcome
as the high ranges. In modern methods of transportation a range that cannot
be surmounted may be tunnelled, and a tunnel five or six miles in length is
no uncommon feat of engineering. A cañon, however, cannot be tunnelled,
and if too wide for cantilever or suspension bridges, a detour of many miles
is necessary. In crossing a deep chasm the route of transportation may
aggregate ten or fifteen times the distance spanned by a straight line.
Excepting the mining regions, the population of mountainous countries is
apt to be found mainly in the intermontane valleys. A reason for this is not
hard to find; the valleys are usually filled with rich soil brought from the
higher slopes and levelled by the water. The population, therefore, is
concentrated in the valley because of the food-producing power of the land.
For this reason the Sound, Willamette, and San Joaquin-Sacramento Valleys
contain the chief part of the Pacific coast population. The Shenandoah and
the Great Valley of Virginia are similar instances.
What is true of the larger intermontane valleys is true also of the narrow
stream valleys of mountain and plateau regions. Thus, in the New England
plateau the chief growth during the past forty years has been in the valley
lands. In that time if the uplands have not suffered actual loss, they certainly
have made no material gains. Upland farming has not proved a
remunerative venture, and many of the farms have either been abandoned or
converted to other uses.
Passes.—Transverse valleys form very important topographic features of
mountain-regions. Inasmuch as the ranges themselves are obstacles to
communication, it follows that the latter must be concentrated at such cross
valleys or gaps as may be traversed. Khaibar Pass, a narrow defile in the
Hindu Kush Mountains, between Peshawur and Jelalabad, for many years

was the chief gateway between Europe and India. Even now the cost of
holding it is an enormous tax upon England.
Brenner, St. Gotthard, and the Mont Cenis Passes are about the only land
channels of commerce between Italy and transalpine Europe, and most of
the communication between northern Italy and the rest of Europe is carried
on by means of these passes. Every transcontinental railway of the
American continent crosses the various highlands by means of gaps and
passes, and some of them would never have been built were it not for the
existence of the passes. Fremont, South, and Marshall Passes have been of
historic importance for half a century.
The Hudson and Champlain Valley played an important part in the history
of the colonies a century before the existence of the United States, and its
importance as a gateway to eastern Canada is not likely to be lessened. The
Mohawk gap was the first practical route to be maintained between the
Atlantic seaboard and the food-producing region of the Great Central Plain.
It is to-day the most important one. It is so nearly level that the total lift of
freight going from Buffalo to tide-water is less than five hundred feet.

A PASS—THE ROUTE OF A RAILWAY

Rivers.—River-valleys are closely connected with the economic
development of a country. Navigable rivers are free and open highways of
communication. In newly settled countries the river is always the least
expensive means of carriage, and often it is the only one available for the
transportation of heavy goods.
In late years, since the railway has become the chief means for the
transportation of commodities, river transportation has greatly declined. The
river-valley, however, has lost none of its importance; in most instances it is
a naturally levelled and graded route, highly suitable for the tracks of the
railway. As a result, outside of the level lands of the Great Central Plain, not
far from eighty per cent. of the railway mileage of the United States is
constructed along river-valleys.
Plateaus.—Plateaus are usually characterized by broken and more or less
rugged surface features. As a rule they are deficient in the amount of
rainfall necessary to produce an abundance of the grains and similar food-
stuffs, although this is by no means the case with all.
Most plateaus produce an abundance of grass, and cattle-growing is
therefore an important industry in such regions. Thus, the plateaus of the
Rocky Mountains are famous for cattle, and the same is true of the Mexican
and the South American plateaus. The Iberian plateau, including Spain and
Portugal, is noted for the merino sheep, which furnish the finest wool
known. The plateau of Iran is also noted for its wool, and the rugs from this
region cannot be imitated elsewhere in the world.
Plains.—Plains are of the highest importance to life and its activities. Not
only do they present fewer obstacles to intercommunication than any other
topographic features, but almost always they are deeply covered with the
fine rock-waste that forms the chief components of soil. Plains, therefore,
contain the elements of nutrition, and are capable of supporting life to a
greater extent than either mountains or plateaus. About ninety per cent. of
the world's population dwell in the lowland plains.
The Great Central Plain of North America produces more than one-quarter
of the world's wheat, and about four-fifths of the corn. The southern part of
the great Arctic plain, and its extension, the plains of the Baltic also yield
immense quantities of grain and cattle products. The coast-plains of the

Atlantic Ocean, on both the American and the European side, are highly
productive.
River flood-plains are almost always densely peopled because of their
productivity. The bottom-lands of the Mississippi and the Yangtze Rivers
are among the chief food-producing regions of the world. Lacustrine plains,
the beds of former lakes, are also highly productive regions. The valley of
the Red River of the North is an example, and its wheat is of a very high
quality.
Fertile coast-plains and lowlands that are adjacent to good harbors, as a rule
are the most thickly peopled regions of the world. In many such regions the
density of population exceeds two hundred or more per square mile. The
reason is obvious. Life seeks that environment which yields the greatest
amount of nutrition with the least expenditure of energy.
The study of a good relief map shows that, as a rule, the Pacific Ocean is
bordered by a rugged highland, which has a more or less abrupt slope, and a
narrow coast-plain. Indeed, the latter is absent for the greater part. The
slopes of the Atlantic, on the other hand, are long and gentle—being a
thousand miles or more in width throughout the greater part of their extent.
The area of productive land is correspondingly great, and the character of
the surface features is such that intercommunication is easy.

A RIVER FLOOD-PLAIN—A REGION ADAPTED TO CULTIVATION

The result of these conditions is evident. The Atlantic slopes, though not
everywhere the most densely peopled areas, contain the great centres of the
world's activities and economies. In the past 400 years they have not only
overtaken the Pacific coast races, but have far surpassed them. They are
now entering upon a commercial invasion of the Pacific nations that is
resulting in a reorganization of the entire industrial world.
Topography and Trade Routes.—As the settlement and commerce of a
country grow, roads succeed trails, and trails are apt to follow the paths of
migrating animals. Until the time of the Civil War in the United States,
most of the great highways of the country were the direct descendants of
"buffalo roads," as they were formerly called.
In the crossing of divides from one river-valley to another, the mountain-
sections of the railways for the greater part follow the trails of the bison.
This is especially marked in the Pennsylvania, the Baltimore and Ohio, and
the Chesapeake and Ohio railways; in some instances the tunnels through
ranges have been constructed directly under the trails. The reason is
obvious; the instinct of the bison led him along routes having the minimum
of grade.

Throughout the Mississippi Valley and the great plains the Indian trails
usually avoided the bottom-lands of the river-valleys, following the divides
and portages instead. This selection of routes was probably due to the fact
that the lowlands were swampy and subject to overflow; the portages and
divides offered no steep grades, and were therefore more easily traversed.

WHERE COMMODITIES ARE EXCHANGED—NEW YORK CITY WATER-FRONT

Harbors.—Coast outlines have much to do with the commercial
possibilities of a region. The "drowned valleys" and similar inlets along the
North Atlantic coast, both of Europe and America, form harbors in which
vessels ride at anchor in safety, no matter what the existing conditions
outside may be. As a result, the two greatest centres of commerce in the
world are found at these harbors—one on the American, the other on the
European coast.
From New York Bay southward along the Atlantic seaboard there are but
few harbors, and this accounts for the enormous development of commerce
in the stretch of coast between Portland and Baltimore. San Francisco Bay
and the harbors of Puget Sound monopolize most of the commerce of the
Pacific coast of the United States. South America has several good harbors
on the Atlantic seaboard, and in consequence a large city has grown at the

site of each. On the Pacific coast the good harbors are very few in number,
and they are not situated near productive regions.
Asiatic peoples, as a rule, are not promoters of foreign commerce, and,
those of Japan excepted, the only good harbors are those that have been
improved by European governments. These are confined mainly to India
and China. The many possible harbors make certain a tremendous
commerce in the future. Africa has but very few good harbors. There are
excellent harbors in the islands of the Pacific, and many of them are of great
strategic value as coaling stations and bases of supply to the various
maritime powers.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
The Pennsylvania Railroad has found it more economical to tunnel the mountain-range under
Horseshoe Curve, near Altoona, than to haul the trains over the mountains; discuss the details in
which there will be a saving.
Why are rugged and mountainous regions apt to be sparsely peopled?
The first valuable discovery in the Rocky Mountains was gold; what were the chief effects that
resulted?
Would the industries of the Pacific coast of the United States be benefited or impaired by the
existence of a coast-plain?
Which are more conducive to commerce—the large mediterraneans, such as the Gulf of Mexico, or
the small estuaries, such as New York Bay? Discuss the merits or demerits of each.
What are the chief products of mountains, of plateaus, of lowland plains?

COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE
Adams's New Empire—Chapter I.
Redway's Physical Geography—Chapter IV.
A topographic map of the United States.

MEAN ANNUAL RAINFALL

CHAPTER IV
CLIMATIC CONTROL OF COMMERCE

In its effect upon life and the various industries of peoples, climate is a
factor even more important than topography. Of the 53,000,000 square
miles of the land surface of the earth, scarcely more than one-half is capable
of producing any great amount of food-stuffs, and only a very small area
can support a population of more than one hundred people to each square
mile.
Climate and Habitability.—In the main, regions that are inhabited by
human beings produce either food-stuffs or something of value that may be
exchanged for food-stuffs; and inasmuch as food and shelter are the chief
objects of human activity, regions that will not furnish them are not
habitable.
The growth and production of food-stuffs is governed even more by
conditions of climate than by those of topography. Thus the great Russian
plain is too cold to produce any great amount of food-stuffs, and it is,
therefore, sparsely peopled. The northern part of Africa and the closed
basins of North America and Asia lack the rainfall necessary to insure
productivity, and these regions are also unhabitable. The basin of the
Amazon has a rainfall too great for cereals and grasses, and the larger part
of it is unfit for habitation.
All the food-stuffs are exceedingly sensitive to climate. Rice will not grow
where swampy conditions do not prevail at least during part of the year.
Turf-grass will not live where there are repeated droughts of more than
three months' duration, and corn will not ripen in regions having cool

nights. Wheat does not produce a kernel fit for flour anywhere except in the
temperate zone; and the banana will not grow outside the torrid zone.
The two chief factors of climate are temperature and moisture. No forms of
life can withstand a temperature constantly below the freezing-point of
water, and but few, if any, can endure a constant heat of one hundred and
twenty-five degrees, although most species can exist at temperatures
beyond these limits for a short time.
Zones of Climate.—The belt of earth upon which the sun's rays are nearly
or quite vertical is comparatively narrow. But the inclination of the earth's
axis and the fact that it is parallel to itself at all times of the year create
zones of climate. These differ materially in the character of the life, forms,
and the activities of the people who dwell in them.
In the torrid zone the temperature varies but little. During the season of
rains it rarely falls to 70° F., and in the dry season it is seldom higher than
95° F. As a result, all sorts of plants that are sensitive to low temperatures
thrive in the torrid zone. It is not a climate suitable for heat-producing food-
plants, and they are not required.
The constant heat and excessive moisture of the atmosphere in the torrid
zone is apt to produce a feeling of lassitude among the dwellers in such
regions, moreover, and great bodily activity is out of question. These
conditions seriously affect the lives of the people, and, with few exceptions,
tropical peoples are rarely noted for energy or enterprise. Great commercial
enterprises are the exception rather than the rule, and they are usually
carried on by foreigners who must live a part of the time in cooler localities.

THE EFFECTS OF HIGH LATITUDE—TOO COLD TO PRODUCE BREAD-STUFFS

Polar regions are deficient both in the heat and light necessary for food-
stuffs. Neither the grasses nor the grains fructify. As a result, but few
herbivora can live there, and these are practically restricted to the musk-ox
and the reindeer, which subsist on mosses and lichens. The native people
are stunted in growth; their food consists mainly of raw blubber, and they
are scarcely above savagery.
The temperate zones are the regions of the great industries and activities of
human life. The larger part of the land surface of the earth is situated in
these zones; moreover, the people who dominate the world also live in
them, and their supremacy is due largely to conditions of climate. The
alternation of summer and winter causes a struggle for existence that
develops the intellectual faculties and results in industrial supremacy.
Effects of Altitude.—There is a decrease of temperature of 1° F. for about
every three hundred feet of ascent. But few people live at an altitude of
more than six thousand feet above sea-level, and in many cases they depend
on other localities for the greater part of their food-stuffs, because very few
of such regions produce food-stuffs abundantly.
The chief exceptions to this rule are found in tropical regions. The
highlands of Mexico, the plateau-regions of Bolivia and Ecuador, and the

highlands of southern Asia are habitable, but they are not densely peopled.
Because of their altitude they are relieved of the enervating effects of
tropical climate at the sea-level.
Altitude likewise affects the amount of rainfall. Most plateaus are arid. As a
rule, they are arid because of their altitude; and because of their aridity they
are deficient in their power to produce food-stuffs. They are therefore
sparsely peopled.
Effects of Rainfall.—Regions having considerably more than one hundred
inches of rain annually are very apt to be forest-covered, and therefore to be
deficient in food-producing plants. Such localities have usually a sparse
population, in spite of the profusion of vegetation. In some parts of India,
lands that have been left idle for a few seasons produce such a dense jungle
of wild vegetation that to reclaim them for cultivation is wellnigh
impossible.
A deficiency of rainfall is even a greater factor in restricting the density of
population than too much rain. With less than fifteen or twenty inches a
year few regions produce good crops of grains and grasses, and as a result
they are sparsely peopled. Some of the exceptions, however, are important.
If the rainfall is not quite enough to produce a normal overflow to the sea,
the soil may be very rich, because the nutrition is not leached out and
carried away.
Many small areas of this character produce enormous crops when
artificially watered, and many of them, such as Persia, parts of Asia Minor,
northern Utah, and large areas of Australia and Chile have become regions
of considerable commercial importance. The products of such regions are
apt to be unique in character and of unusual value. Thus, the wool of Persia
and Australia and the fruit of the Iberian peninsula are important articles of
commerce.
In Egypt one may see the results of irrigated lands. The area of geographical
Egypt is somewhat less than half a million square miles; the habitable part
of the country is confined to a narrow strip, which, one or two places
excepted, varies from three to six miles in width. In other words, almost the
whole population of the country is massed in the flood-plain and delta of
the Nile; the remaining part is a desert producing practically nothing.

The water that makes these lands productive falls, not in Egypt, but in the
highlands of Abyssinia, 2,000 miles away. The September overflow of the
flood-plain is the chief factor in the irrigation of these lands, but the area
has been greatly increased by the construction of barrages and dams at
Assiut and Assuan.
In the western highland region of the United States considerable areas
already have been made productive by irrigation, and it is estimated that
about two million acres of barren land can be reclaimed by impounding the
waters of the various streams now running to waste.
The distribution of rain with respect to the season in which it falls is quite
as important as its distribution with respect to quantity. In tropical regions
the ocean winds, and therefore the rainfall, come from the east. The eastern
slopes of such regions, therefore, have a season in which rains may be
expected daily, and another in which no rain falls for several months. In the
temperate zones seasonal rains for a similar reason are on the western
coasts.
Thus on the Pacific coast of the United States the rainfall varies from about
one hundred inches in southern Alaska to about twelve in San Diego, Cal.
Practically all the rain falls between October and the following May; very
little or none falls in the interval between May and October. As a result,
ordinary turf-grass, which will not withstand long droughts, grows in only a
few localities of the Pacific slope. It is replaced by hardier grasses whose
roots, instead of forming turf, grow very deep in the soil.
Common clover will not grow in this region unless irrigated; it is replaced
by burr-clover, a variety of the plant that will not thrive in moist regions.
Now the quality of the merino wool clip of California depends in no slight
degree upon the burr-clover and other food-products that thrive in regions
of seasonal rains; that is, a great commercial industry exists because of this
feature of rainfall, and it could not long survive in spite of it.

CLIMATICALLY ADAPTED TO CULTIVATION—THE LOWLANDS PRODUCE
BREAD-STUFFS AND FRUIT; THE MOUNTAIN-SLOPES ARE GRAZING REGIONS

The seasonal rainfall also affects other agricultural industries. The sacked
wheat-crop may be left in the field without cover or protection until the
time is convenient for shipping it. The absence of summer rains makes
possible in California what would be out of question in the Mississippi
Valley, where a rainstorm may be expected every few days.
The quality of certain fruits depends largely on the season during which the
rainfall occurs. Apples, pears, and grapes grown in regions having dry
summers have usually a very superior flavor. The raisin-making industry of
California also depends on the same condition, because, in order to insure a
good quality of the product, the bunches of grapes, after picking, must be
dried on the ground. To a certain extent this is also true of other fruits, such
as dates, figs, and prunes, which frequently are sun-dried.
The presence of large bodies of water, which both absorb and give out their
heat very slowly, tempers the climate of the nearby land and to that extent
modifies the commerce of such districts. The grape-growing industry of
central New York is a great one and its product is famous. Its existence
depends almost wholly upon the lake-tempered climate. Elsewhere in the
State the industry is on a precarious basis, and the product is inferior.

Effects of Inclination of the Earth's Axis.—The inclination and self-
parallelism of the earth's axis is undoubtedly a very important factor in
climate. Practically it more than doubles the width of the belts of ordinary
food-stuffs by lengthening the summer day in the temperate zone. Beyond
the tropics the obliquity of the sun's rays are more than balanced by the
increased length of time in which they fall.
Thus, in the latitude of St. Paul, the longest day is about fifteen and one-half
hours long; at Liverpool it is nearly seventeen hours long; a greater number
of heat units therefore are received in these latitudes during summer than
are received in equatorial regions during the twelve-hour day. Moreover, the
summer temperature is higher in these latitudes than in the torrid zone,
because the sun is shining upon them for a greater length of time.
The result of these various influences is far-reaching. Because of the long
summer days and short nights, wheat can be cultivated to the sixtieth
parallel. Corn, which gets scarcely enough warmth and light in the torrid
zone to become a prolific crop, attains its greatest yield in the latitude of
fourteen-hour days.
These factors, it is evident, carry the grain and meat industries into regions
that otherwise would not be habitable. Because the long summer days
produce these great food-crops, commerce and its allied industries have
reached their maximum development in these regions. Human activities are
greatest in the zones bounded by the thirty-fifth and fifty-fifth parallels, the
zone that includes the greater parts of the United States, Europe, China,
Japan. They are greatest, moreover, because of their geographical position.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
What would be the probable effect on the food-crops of the United States were the main body of the
country moved twenty degrees north in latitude? Which would then be the wheat-growing States, the
cotton-producing States?
Illustrate the connection between occupation and altitude above sea-level.
What difference would it make to the corn-crop were the days and nights always twelve hours long?
What would be requisite to make Canada a centre of silk production?
Why is not cod-fishing an industry off the east coast of Florida?
Why is the greater part of the Russian Empire destined to be sparsely peopled?

FOR COLLATERAL REFERENCE
A rain chart of the world.
A chart of isothermal lines.

CHAPTER V
TRANSPORTATION—OCEAN AND INLAND NAVIGATION

Of all the adjustments which come into the lives of a people none has been
so far-reaching as the gradual localization of industries each in the region
best adapted to it. For instance, manufacturing industries require power, but
not fertile soil; therefore the manufacturing industries seek nearness to fuel
or to water-power, and a position available for quick transportation.
Farming does not require any great amount of natural power; on the
contrary, level land having a great depth of fertile soil is the essential
feature. The farmer must therefore look first of all to conditions of
topography and climate, and secondly to the means of transporting his crop.
Mining cannot be an industry in regions destitute of minerals; the miner
must therefore go where the mineral wealth is found, without regard to
climate, soil, centres of population, or topography. But two things are
required—the mineral products and the means of getting them to the people
—that is, ready means of transportation.
A century or more ago, each centre of population in the United States was
practically self-sustaining. Each grew its own food-stuffs, and manufactured
the articles used in the household. But very little was required in the way of
transportation. The means of carriage were mainly ox-carts, pack-horses,
and rafts. There was a mutual independence among the various centres, it is
true, but the independence was at the expense of civilization and the
comforts of life.

OCEAN TRANSPORTATION—ROYAL MAIL STEAMSHIP OCEANIC, WHITE STAR
LINE

Beyond an independence that is more apparent than real, such a plan of
social and industrial organization has but little in it to commend.
Intercommunication increases knowledge, and under the conditions that
formerly prevailed, there was a lack of the breadth of knowledge that comes
with the mutual contact of peoples.
The utilization of national resources, such as the productiveness of the land,
the existence of iron ore, coal, copper, and other economic minerals, finally
brought about the policy of a territorial division of industries. This, in turn,
made the prompt transportation and exchange of commodities essential;
indeed, without such a plan, industrial centres could not long exist.
The man whose sole business is manufacture must look to others for his
supply of food-stuffs and raw materials, and these are produced more
economically at a distance from the centre of manufacture. Thus England
must look to the United States for wheat and cotton, to the Australian
Commonwealth for wool, and to New Zealand and the United States for
meat. Her chief wealth is in her coal and iron, and these make the nation a
great manufacturing centre. So, also, the manufacturer of New York must
go to Pittsburg for steel, to Minneapolis for flour, and to Chicago for beef.

The application of this principle is very broad; it is the foundation of all
commerce, and it underlies modern civilization. For this reason the question
of transportation is just as important to a community as the industries of
agriculture, mining, and manufacture. Food-stuffs are of no use unless they
can be transported to the people who want them; nor can peoples remain in
unproductive regions unless the food-stuffs are brought to them.
The gross tonnage of goods is transported mainly in one or another or all of
three ways—namely, by animal power, by railway, or by water. Thus, the
cotton-crop of the United States is usually transported by wagon from the
plantation to the nearest station or boat-landing; by rail or by barge to the
nearest seaport; and by ocean steamship to the foreign seaport.
Water transportation is more economical than land carriage, for the reason
that less power is required to move a given tonnage through the water than
on the most perfectly graded railway. Steamship freights, as a rule, are
lower than those of sailing-vessels, because a steamship has more than
twice the speed, and, being larger, can carry a greater tonnage. Freight rates
on the Great Lakes are higher per ton-mile than on the ocean, because the
vessels are necessarily smaller than those built for ocean traffic. For a
similar reason, river and canal freights are higher than lake freights.
Railway transportation is economical, partly because a single locomotive
will draw an enormous weight of goods, and partly because of the high
speed at which the goods move from point to point. Animal transportation is
more expensive than any other means ordinarily employed.
Ocean Transportation.—In many respects, water-routes form the most
available and economical methods of transportation. Intercontinental
commerce must be carried on by means of deep-water vessels. Therefore an
extraordinary development of ocean carriers has taken place in the past
century.
One important period of development began with the rise of American
commerce. Just after the close of the War for Independence, it was found
that deep-water ships could be built of New England timber for thirty-five
dollars per ton, rated tonnage, while a vessel of the same burden built in
Europe cost about forty-five dollars per unit of tonnage. Two types of
vessels came into use—one, the clipper ship with square sails, was used for

long ocean voyages; the other, the schooner, with fore-and-aft rigging, was
employed mainly in the coast-trade.

A SQUARE-RIGGED SHIP—A TYPE NOW BEING REPLACED BY FORE-AND-AFT
RIGGED SCHOONERS

In speed and ease of management these vessels surpassed anything that had
ever sailed. In time they became the standards for the sailing-vessels of all
the great commercial nations. The types of the vessels are still standards.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODERN STEAMSHIP

The Development of the Steamship.—Another important era in ocean
commerce began when steam was used as a motive power for vessels. The
first deep-water vessel thus to be propelled was the Savannah. Her steam-
power was merely incidental, however, and her paddle-wheels were
unshipped and taken aboard when there was enough wind for sailing. Up to
1860 almost all the ocean steamships were side-wheelers, propelled by low-
pressure beam-engines.
The next most important improvement was the screw-blade propeller,
placed astern. This means of propulsion called for higher speed of the
engines, and in a very short time compactly built high-pressure engines
took the place of the low-pressure engine with its heavy walking-beam. The
latter carried steam at a pressure varying from twenty to thirty-two pounds;
the modern boiler has steam at 260 pounds per square inch.

Ocean steamships have gradually evolved into two types. The freighter,
broad in beam and capacious, is built to carry an enormous amount of
freight at a moderate speed. The White Star liner Celtic is a vessel of this
class; her schedule time between New York and Liverpool is about nine
days. The Philadelphia of the American line, though not the fastest
steamship, makes the same trip in an average time of five and one-half
days.[7]
Twin-screws, instead of a single propeller, are employed on nearly all the
large liners. The gain in speed is not greatly increased, but the vessel is far
more manageable with two screws than with one; moreover, if one engine
breaks down, the vessel can make excellent time with the other.
Triple-expansion engines are almost universally used on modern
steamships, and a pound of coal now makes about three times as much
steam available as in the engines formerly used. As a result a bushel of
wheat is now carried from Fargo, N. Dak., to Liverpool for about twenty-
one cents—less than one-half the freight tariff of 1876.

THE SCHOONER THOMAS A. LAWSON. THE FIRST SEVEN-MASTED SAILING-
VESSEL

The fastest liners consume from three hundred and fifty to more than four
hundred tons of coal a day, and for each additional knot of speed the
amount of coal burned must be greatly increased. Freighters like the Celtic
consume scarcely more than half as much as those of the Kaiser Wilhelm II.
type.
Sailing-Craft.—In spite of the growth and development of steam-
navigation, a large amount of freight is still carried by sailing-craft;
moreover, it is not unlikely that the relative proportion of ocean freight
carried by sailing-vessels will increase rather than decrease, especially in
the case of imperishable freight.
The square-rigged ship, or bark, has been very largely replaced by the fore-
and-aft, or schooner-rigged vessel. A large full-rigged ship requires a crew
of thirty to thirty-six men; a schooner-rigged vessel needs from sixteen to
twenty. These vessels are commonly built with three and four masts; some
of the largest have six or seven. They carry as many as five thousand tons of
freight at a speed of about ten knots—only a trifle less than that of an
ordinary tramp freighter. Some of the larger vessels are provided with
auxiliary engines and propelling apparatus, which enables them to enter or
to leave port without the assistance of a tug. Donkey-engines hoist and
lower the sails, and perform the work of loading and unloading. They are
admirable colliers and grain-carriers.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, about ninety thousand sailing-
craft and thirty-five thousand steam-vessels were required to carry the
world's commerce. Of this number, Great Britain and her colonies register
nearly thirty-five thousand, and the United States over twenty thousand.
Harbor Safeguards.—Excepting the open anchorages formed
by angles in coast-lines, the greater number of harbors consist of
small coves and river-mouths. In these, although there may be a
considerable area of water, there is not apt to be much sailing
room; it is therefore necessary to mark off the navigable
channels. For this purpose buoys of different shapes and colors
are used by day; by night fixed and flashing lights are employed.

The buoys of permanent channels are usually hollow metal
cylinders or cones about two feet in diameter, anchored so that
the end of the cylinder projects about three feet above the water.
On entering a channel from the seaward, red buoys are on the
starboard, or right hand; white buoys are kept on the port, or left
side. Buoys at the end of a channel are usually surmounted each
by some device or other fastened at the upper end of a perch.
Thus, at the outer entrance of Gedney Channel in New York
Harbor, a ball surmounts the perch; at the inner entrance the
buoy carries a double square. Sharp angles in a channel are
similarly marked. In many instances the buoy carries, as a
warning signal, a bell that rings as the buoy is rocked by the
waves; in others, a whistle that sounds by the air which the
rocking motion compresses within the cylinder; still others carry
electric or gas lights.
The color of a buoy is an index of its character. Thus, one with
black and red stripes indicates danger; one with black and white
vertical stripes is a channel-marker. Temporary channels are
frequently marked by pieces of spar floating upright. In some
cases it is customary to set untrimmed tree-tops on the port, and
trimmed sticks on the starboard.
Light-houses are built at all exposed points of navigated coast-
waters, and beacons are set at all necessary points within a
harbor for use at night. All lights are kept burning from sunset
until sunrise. The color, the duration, and the intervals of
flashing indicate the position of the beacon. In revolving lights
the beams, concentrated by powerful lenses, sweep the horizon
as the lantern about the light revolves. Flashing lights are
produced when the light is obscured at given intervals. Fixed
lights burn with a steady flame. In some instances a sector of
colored glass is set so as to cover a given part of a channel.
Range lights, set so that one shows directly above the other, are
used as channel-markers.

CITY OF NEW YORK AND VICINITY, WITH HARBOR
APPROACHES

The use of lights may be seen as a vessel enters New York
Lower Bay. A steamship drawing not more than eighteen feet of
water may enter through Swash Channel (follow the course on
the chart). In this case the pilot makes for Scotland lightship,
and merely keeps New Dorp and Elmtree beacons in range,
giving Dry Romer a wide berth to starboard, until Chapel Hill
and Conover beacons come into range on his port side. The

vessel is then held on a course between Coney Island and Fort
Tompkins lights until Robbins Reef light shows ahead.
For the liners that draw more than eighteen feet the task is more
difficult, inasmuch as the channel is tortuous. At Sandy Hook
lightship a course lying nearly west takes the vessel to the outer
entrance of Gedney Channel, marked by two buoy-lights. In
passing between the lights the vessel enters the channel, which
is also covered by the red sector of Hook beacon. The pilot
continues between the buoy-lights until Waacaack and Point
Comfort beacons are in range, and steers to this range until
South Beacon and Sandy Hook light are in range astern. The
helm is then turned, keeping these lights in range astern until
Chapel Hill and Conover beacons are in range on the port bow.
Turning northward nearly eight points, the pilot holds the bow
of the vessel between Fort Tompkins and Coney Island lights,
keeping sharply to his range astern, until Robbins Reef light
comes into view through the narrows. From this point on, the
shore lights are the pilot's chief guide.
So difficult are harbor entrances, that in most cases the
underwriters will not insure a vessel unless the latter is taken
from the outer harbor to the dock by a licensed pilot, and the
latter must spend nearly half a lifetime as an apprentice before
he receives a license. The charges for pilotage are usually
regulated by the number of feet the vessel draws. The charges
differ in various ports, but the devices for marking and lighting
the channels are much the same in every part of the world. In the
United States all navigable channels are under the control of the
general Government.
Inland Waters.—Lakes, rivers, and canals furnish a very important means
of transportation. In Europe and Canada an enormous amount of slow
freight is transported by their use; in China they are the most important
means of internal traffic.

THE COMMERCE OF THE OHIO—TOWING COAL TO THE STEEL MILLS,
PITTSBURG

In the United States the Great Lakes with the Erie Canal and Hudson River
form the most important internal water-way, and by them the continent is
penetrated as far west as Duluth, a distance of more than one thousand three
hundred miles. The traffic passing out of Lake Superior alone is about one-
third greater than that passing out of the Mediterranean Sea at the Suez
Canal. Much of this traffic goes across the continent, and the route in
question is one of the great commercial highways of the world.
The Mississippi River and its branches afford not far from ten thousand
miles of navigable waters. Canals connect tributaries of this river with the
Great Lakes at Chicago and at several points in Ohio. The development of
the navigation of this great water-way was checked by the Civil War, and
after the close of the war the great advance in railway building kept its
improvement in the background. The general government, nevertheless, has
done much to encourage the use of the Mississippi as a commercial
highway, and many millions of dollars have been spent in widening and
deepening its channel.[8] On the upper river grain and lumber form the chief
traffic; on the lower part a large part of the world's cotton-crop starts on its
journey to the various markets.

On account of the soft-coal fields and the steel manufacture in western
Pennsylvania, the commerce of the Ohio River is very heavy, aggregating
not far from fifteen million tons yearly. Much of this traffic extends to ports
on the Mississippi.
The navigable parts of the Hudson and Delaware Rivers are estuaries of the
sea or "drowned valleys." In each case navigation extends about to the
limits of high tide. Both rivers carry a heavy freight commerce; the Hudson
has a passenger traffic of several million fares each year. Nearly every river
of the Atlantic coast is navigable to the limit of high tide or a little beyond.
Navigation extends to the point where the coast-plain joins the foot-hills.
Above this limit, called the "Fall Line," the streams are swift and shallow;
below it they are deep and sluggish. As a result, a chain of important river
ports extends along the Fall Line from Maine to Florida.
River-navigation in Europe in the main is inseparably connected with the
great canal systems. As a rule, the lower parts of the rivers are navigable for
steamboats of light draught. Some of the smaller streams are made
navigable by means of a long steel chain, which is laid along the bed of the
stream; the boat engages the chain by means of heavy sprocket wheels
driven by steam, and thus wind the boat up and down the river.
Ocean steamers penetrate the Amazon Valley to a distance of one thousand
miles from its mouth; boats of light draught ascend the main stream and
some of its tributaries a thousand miles farther. The Orinoco is navigable
within one hundred miles of Bogota. Light-draught boats ascend the
tributaries of La Plata River a distance of fifteen hundred miles.
The Asian rivers that are important highways of commerce are few in
number. The Amur, Yangtze, Indus, and Cambodia have each considerable
local commerce. The Hugli, a channel in the delta of the Ganges, has a
channel deep enough for ocean steamships. The tributaries of the Lena,
Yenisei, and Ob have been of the greatest service in the commercial
development of northern Asia from the fact that their valleys are both level
and fertile.
Because of a high interior and abrupt slopes, the rivers of Africa are not
suitable for navigation to any considerable extent; the channels are
uncertain and the rivers are interrupted by rapids. The Nile has an

occasional steamboat service as far as the "First Cataract," but in high water
the service is sometimes extended farther. The Kongo has a long stretch of
navigable water, but is interrupted by rapids below Stanley Pool. Similar
conditions obtain in the Zambezi. The lower part of the Senegal affords
good navigation. The Niger has in many respects greater commercial
possibilities than other rivers of Africa. It is navigable to a distance of three
hundred miles.
Canals.—Canals easily rank among the most important means of traffic, as
a rule, supplementing other navigable waters. Thus, by means of an
elaborate system of canals, goods are transferred by water, from one river-
basin to another, so that practically all the navigable streams of western
Europe are connected. Canals are extensively used to avoid the falls or
rapids that separate the various reaches of rivers. The water itself by means
of locks lifts the boat to a higher level or transfers it to a lower reach, thus
saving the expense of unloading, transferring, and reloading a cargo.
The manner in which canals supplement the obstructed navigation of a river
is seen in the case of the St. Lawrence. This river is obstructed in several
places by rapids, but by means of canals steamship service connects the
Great Lakes, not only with Quebec, but with ports of the Mediterranean Sea
as well; indeed, it is possible to send a cargo from Duluth, at the head of
Lake Superior, to Odessa or Batum, on the shores of the Black Sea.
The internal water-ways of Canada have been splendidly developed. The
Canadian St. Marys Canal furnishes an outlet to Lake Superior for vessels
drawing twenty-one feet. The Welland Canal connects Lakes Erie and
Ontario. The Rideau Canal and River connect Kingston and Lake Ontario
with the Ottawa, and the latter with its canals is navigable to the St.
Lawrence. With a population of less than six millions the Dominion
Government has spent nearly one hundred million dollars in the
improvement of internal water-ways.

PROFILE OF ERIE CANAL
HORIZONTAL SCALE 100 MILES TO THE INCH, VERTICAL SCALE 1,000 FEET TO
THE INCH

In the United States the possible development of canals has been neglected
and, to a certain extent, stifled by railway building. The Erie Canal, built
before the advent of the railway, connects Lake Erie with tide-water at
Albany, a distance of 387 miles. For many years it was the chief means of
traffic between the Mississippi Valley and the Atlantic seaboard, and
although paralleled by the six tracks of a great railway system, it is still an
important factor in the carriage of grain and certain classes of slow freight.
[9]
The level way that made the canal possible is largely responsible for the
decline of its importance, for the absence of steep grades enables a powerful
locomotive to haul so many cars that the quick transit more than
overbalances a very low ton rate by the canal.
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, designed to connect the Mississippi
Valley with the Atlantic seaboard, fared much worse than the Erie Canal.
Less than two hundred miles have been completed, and practically no work
except that of repair has been done since 1850; the heavy grades between
Cumberland and Pittsburg render its completion improbable.
An excellent system of canals, the Ohio and Erie and the Miami and Erie,
connect the Ohio River with Lake Erie. These canals are in the State of
Ohio and aggregate about six hundred miles in length. They are important
as coal and ore carriers. Several hundred miles of canals were built along
the river-valleys of eastern Pennsylvania before 1840 for carrying coal to
tide-water. Most of them have been abandoned; one, the Delaware &

Hudson Canal Co., survives as a railway. Inasmuch as the coal went on a
down grade from the mines to the markets, it could be carried more
economically by railway than by canal.
Of far greater importance are the St. Marys Canal on the Canadian side, and
the St. Marys Falls Canal on the American side, of St. Marys River. These
canals obviate the falls in St. Marys River and form the commercial outlet
of Lake Superior. The tonnage of goods, mainly iron ore and coal, is about
one-half greater than that of the Suez Canal. About twenty-five thousand
vessels pass through these canals yearly.

The Chicago Ship and Sanitary Canal,[10] from Lake Michigan to Lockport,
on the Illinois River, was designed mainly to carry the sewage of Chicago
which, prior to the construction of the canal, was poured into the lake
through the Chicago River. The completion of the canal turned the course of
the river and caused the water to flow out of the lake, carrying the city's
sewage. It is intended to complete a navigable water-way from Chicago to
St. Louis deep enough for vessels drawing fourteen feet. Its value is
therefore strategic as well as industrial, for by means of it gun-boats may
readily pass from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes.
Oceanic canals are designed both for naval strategic purposes and for
industrial uses. Thus, the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, from the mouth of the Elbe
to Kiel Bay, across the base of Jutland, saves two days between Hamburg
and the Baltic ports. It also enables German war-vessels to concentrate
quickly in either the North or the Baltic Sea. The Manchester Ship Canal
makes Manchester a seaport and saves the cost of trans-shipping freights by
rail from Liverpool. The Corinth Canal across the isthmus that joins the
Peloponnesus to the mainland of Greece affords a much shorter route
between Italian ports and Odessa. The North Holland Ship Canal makes
Amsterdam practically a seaport.
Probably no other highway of commerce since the discovery of the Cape
route around Africa has caused such a great change and readjustment of
trade between Europe and Asia as the Suez Canal. Sailing-vessels still take
the Cape route, because the heavy towage tolls through the canal more than
offset the gain in time. Steamships have their own power and generally take
the canal route, thereby saving about ten days in time and fuel, and about

four thousand eight hundred miles in distance. In spite of the heavy tolls the
saving is considerable. About three thousand five hundred vessels pass
through the canal yearly.
The Suez Canal, constructed by Ferdinand de Lesseps, for some time was
under the control of French capitalists. Subsequently, by the purchase of
stock partly in open market and partly from the Khedive of Egypt, the
control of the canal passed into the hands of the English. The restrictions
placed upon the passage of war-ships is such that the canal would be of
little use to nations at war.

THE ROUTE OF THE PANAMA CANAL

The necessity of an interoceanic canal across the American continent has
become more imperative year by year for fifty years. The discovery of gold
in California caused an emigration from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast
which resulted in a permanent settlement of the latter region. A railway
across the Isthmus of Panama and another across the Isthmus of
Tehuantepec have afforded very poor means of communication between
oceans.

In 1881 work on a tide-level canal across the Isthmus of Panama was
begun, but the plan was afterward changed to a high-level canal. The
change was thought necessary partly on account of the great cost of the
former, and partly because of the difficulties of constructing so deep a cut—
about three hundred and forty feet—at the summit of the Culebra ridge. The
construction company, after spending the entire capital—about one hundred
and twenty million dollars—in accomplishing one-tenth of the work,
became bankrupt. The United States subsequently purchased the franchise.
A canal by way of Lake Nicaragua has also been projected, and two treaties
with Great Britain, whereby the United States agreed to build no
fortifications to guard it, have been made. No work beyond the surveys has
yet been undertaken, however. The cost of each canal is estimated between
one hundred and fifty million and two hundred million dollars. The Panama
route will require about twelve hours for the passage of a vessel; the
Nicaragua route about sixty hours.[11] (See map, p. 270.)
The completion of a canal by either route will cause a readjustment of the
world's commerce far greater than that which followed the construction of
the Suez Canal. By such a route San Francisco is brought nearer to London
than Calcutta now is, and the all-water route between the Atlantic ports of
the United States and those of China and Japan will be shortened by upward
of eight thousand miles. The importance of the Hawaiian Islands, already a
great ocean depot, will be greatly increased, and the latter is becoming one
of the great commercial stations of the world.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
What were some of the effects which resulted from the various embargo and non-intercourse acts that
preceded the war of 1812?
What is the effect upon an industry when all means of getting the products to market are cut off?
In the early history of the country rivers were the most important highways of commerce; obtain an
account of some instance of this in detail.
Certain commodities have been carried about four-fifths of the distance between Moscow and
Vladivostok by water, across Siberia. Illustrate this, using the map of the Russian Empire, plate, p.
342.
What has been the effect of cheap steel on ocean navigation?
Discuss the difference between a screw-steamship and a side-wheeler; a ship and a schooner. How
are vessels steered?

How does a triple-expansion engine differ from an ordinary steam-engine?
Cargoes are carried by water across Europe from Havre to Marseilles, and from The Hague to the
mouth of the Danube; illustrate the route on a map of Europe.
The following instruction occasionally is found in the pilothouse of a vessel—what is its meaning?
"Green to green and red to red—
Perfect safety; go ahead."
From the chart on p. 49 show how a pilot uses the range lights in entering New York Harbor.
The new freighter Minnesota is designed to carry a load of 30,000 tons; how many trains of fifty cars,
each car holding 30,000 pounds, are required to furnish her cargo?
From the map on pp. x-xi describe the new ocean routes that will be created by an interoceanic canal
across the American continent.

FOR COLLATERAL REFERENCE
Photographs or illustrations of various steam and sailing craft.
An Atlantic Coast Pilot Chart—any month.
A map showing the canals of the United States.
A map showing the canals of Europe.

A MODERN LOCOMOTIVE—THE TWENTIETH CENTURY LIMITED AT A SPEED
EXCEEDING NINETY MILES AN HOUR

CHAPTER VI
TRANSPORTATION—RAILWAYS AND RAILWAY
ORGANIZATION; PUBLIC HIGHWAYS

In the United States and western Europe, in spite of the low cost of water
transportation, the railways have almost wholly monopolized the
transportation of commodities. This is due in part to the saving of time in
transit—for under the demands of modern business, the only economy is
economy of time—and in part to prompt delivery at the specified time.
Into a large centre of population like New York, London, or Berlin, many
millions of pounds of perishable food-stuffs must be brought daily for
consumption. Now these food-stuffs must be delivered with promptness,
and no delay can be tolerated. A shipper having half a million pounds of
meat or a hundred thousand pounds of flour or a car-load of fruit to deliver
can take no risks; he sends it by rail, not only because it is the quickest way,
but because experience has shown it to be the most prompt way; as a rule, it
is delivered on the exact minute of schedule time.
Cargoes of silks and teas from China and Japan might be sent all the way to
London by water, but experience has shown a more profitable way. The
consignments are sent by swift steamships to Seattle; thence by fast express
trains to New York; there they are transferred to swift liners that take them
across the Atlantic to European ports. And although this method of
shipment is enormously expensive as compared with the all-water route, the
saving of time and certainty of prompt delivery more than offset the extra
cost of delivery.
In the last half of the nineteenth century the cost of haulage in the United
States by rail decreased so materially that in a few instances only—notably

the Great Lakes and the Hudson River—do inland waters compete with the
railways.[12] This is due in part to better organization of the railways, but
mainly to the substitution of Bessemer steel for iron rails and the great
improvements in locomotives and rolling stock.
The use of a steam-driven locomotive became possible for the first time
when Stephenson used the tubular boiler and the forced draught,[13] thereby
making steam rapidly enough for a short, quick stroke. In 1865 a good
freight locomotive weighing thirty tons could haul about forty box-cars,
each loaded with ten tons. This was the maximum load for a level track; the
average load for a single locomotive was about twenty-five or thirty cars.
Heavier locomotives could not well be used because the iron rails went to
pieces under them.
The invention of Bessemer steel produced a rail that was safe under the
pounding of a locomotive three or four times as heavy as those formerly
employed; it produced boilers that would carry steam at 250 instead of 60
pounds pressure per square inch. As a result, with only a moderate increase
in the fuel burned, a single locomotive on a level track will haul eighty or
ninety box-cars, each carrying nearly seventy thousand pounds.[14]
The application of the double and the triple expansion principle has been
quite as successful with locomotive as with marine engines in saving fuel
and gaining power—that is, it has decreased the cost per ton-mile of hauling
freight and likewise the cost of transporting passengers. Enlarged "fire-
boxes," or furnaces,[15] enable steam to be made more rapidly and to give
higher speed.[16] Only a few years ago forty-eight hours was the scheduled
time between New York and Chicago; now there are about forty trains a day
between these two cities, several of which make the trip in twenty-four
hours or less.
Railway Development.—The railway as a common carrier, having its right
by virtue of a government charter, dates from 1801, when a tramway was
built between Croydon and Wandsworth, two suburbs of London. The rails
were iron straps, nailed to wooden stringers. The charter was carefully
drawn in order to prevent the road from competing with omnibus lines and
public cabs.

When the steam locomotive succeeded horse-power, however, there
followed an era of railway development that in a few years revolutionized
the carrying trade in the thickly settled parts of the United States and
Europe. Short, independent lines were constructed without any reference
whatever to the natural movement of traffic. There seemed but one idea,
namely, to connect two cities or towns. Indeed, the absence of a definite
plan was much similar to that of the interurban electric roads a century
later; local traffic was the only consideration.
At first an opinion prevailed that the road-bed of the railway ought to be a
public highway upon which any individual or company might run its own
conveyances, on the payment of a fixed toll; indeed, in both Europe and the
United States, public opinion could see no difference between the railway
and the canal. The employment of a steam-driven locomotive engine,
however, made such a plan impossible, and demonstrated that the roads
must be thoroughly organized.
At the close of 1850 there were nearly four hundred different railway
companies in England; in the United States about a dozen companies were
required to make the connection of New York City and Buffalo. A few of
these paid dividends; a large majority barely met their operating expenses,
defaulting the interest on their bonds; a great many were hopelessly
bankrupt.
Consolidation of Connecting Lines.—Between 1850 and 1865 a new
feature entered into railway management, namely, the union of connecting
lines. This was a positive advantage, for the operating expenses of the
sixteen lines, now a part of the New York Central, between New York and
Buffalo were scarcely greater than the expenses of one-third that number.
The service was much quicker, better, and cheaper. In England the several
hundred companies were reduced to twelve; in France the thirty-five or
more companies were reduced to six in number.
The consolidation of connecting lines brought about another desirable
feature—the extension of the existing lines.[17] The lines of continental
Europe were extended eastward to the Russian frontier, and to
Constantinople; then the Alps were surmounted. In the United States
railway extension was equally great. The Union and Central Pacific

railways were opened in 1869, giving the first all-rail route to the Pacific
coast. Other routes to the Pacific followed within a few years, one of which,
the Canadian Pacific, was built from Quebec to Vancouver.

A TRUNK SYSTEM—THE VARIOUS BRANCHES EXTEND INTO COAL, GRAIN,
IRON, CATTLE, TIMBER, AND TOBACCO REGIONS

The period from 1864 was one of extensive railway building both in the
United States and Europe. Some of the roads, such as the transalpine
railways of Europe and the Pacific roads of the United States, were greatly
needed. Others that created new fields of industry by opening to
communication productive lands were also wise and necessary; the lands
would have been valueless without them. Not a few lines that were to be
needed in time were built so far ahead of time that they did not even pay
their operating expenses for many years.
Another class of roads was intended for speculative purposes. Thus, there
were instances in which a line occupying a given territory had antagonized
its patrons by poor service, and extortionate charges. Thereupon another
company would obtain a charter—which was then easily done—and build a
competing line in the same territory, the former most likely having scarcely
enough business for one road.[18] The results were almost always the same;

a war of rate-cutting followed; the stockholders of both roads lost heavily;
and one or both went into the hands of receivers.
Competition and Pools.—In many instances the consolidation of roads,
while cutting off disastrous competition in the territory jointly occupied by
the two roads, brought the consolidated road into fierce competition with
another adjacent system. If the roads had practically the same territory but
different terminals the competition was confined mainly to local traffic. On
the other hand, they might have the same terminals but cover different local
territories; in this case the roads must compete for through traffic. Thus the
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy is brought into competition with the Union
Pacific in Nebraska, but inasmuch as the roads have different and widely
distant terminals, their local traffic is easily adjusted. The Chicago,
Burlington & Quincy and the Northwestern have common terminals at
Chicago, St. Paul, Denver, Omaha, and Kansas City. They must therefore
compete with each other, and with half-a-dozen other roads for their
through traffic.
Competition between railways differs greatly from that between two firms.
If one of two firms cannot afford to compete, the manager may discharge
his help, and close doors; he then does not suffer actual loss. But a railway,
being a common carrier, cannot do this; the road must keep its trains
moving or lose its charter. If it cannot carry goods at a profit it must carry
them at cost or at a loss. Even the latter is better than not carrying them at
all, for the operating expenses of the road must go on.
So between 1870 and 1880 most of the railway managements were busy
devising ways to stop a rate-cutting and competition that was ruinous. In
many instances great trunk lines would have consolidated had not State
laws prevented. They could not maintain rates because one or another of the
weaker roads would be compelled to lower their rates in order to meet their
operating expenses. Therefore they were compelled to do one of three
things, namely, to divide the territory, to divide traffic, or to divide earnings.
Either of the two latter plans is called a pool.
Of these two forms of pooling the division of the traffic is the easier, but it
is often unsatisfactory to the patrons of the road. The second plan, the
division of the earnings, is a more difficult matter to adjust because each

road is usually dissatisfied with its proportion. As a matter of fact, however,
the first plan of pooling is very apt to grow into the second.
In several instances pools have been declared illegal by the courts, but, in
general, railway service has been more satisfactory under the pool system
than under any other. They have always aroused popular suspicion,
however, from the fact that they increase power of the railway itself. In
various instances important trunk lines have formed a general company,
each having its separate organization, because they could accomplish under
a combined organization what they could not as independent companies.
The restrictions against pooling have therefore encouraged combination of
competing lines.
Because the railway is an absolute necessity, and because it has power
given neither to individuals nor to other corporations, it is a settled policy
that both the State and general Government should have the power to
regulate its rates, and should in every way prevent unjust discrimination.
Both problems are very difficult, however, and the unintelligent adjustment
of rates has frequently resulted in injustice both to the roads and their
patrons.
A rate per ton-mile for each class of freight is out of question, because a
large part of the cost to the company consists in loading, handling, and
storing the goods. Once aboard the car, it costs but little more to carry a ton
of freight one hundred miles than to move it one mile. The rates per mile,
therefore, are necessarily greater for short distances than for long runs. A
mile-rate based on a ten-mile haul would be prohibitive to the shipper if
applied to a run between Chicago and New York. On the other hand, were
the charges based on the long run, the local rates would be far less than the
cost of the service.[19]
As a result freight rates are based very largely on the cost of the service, and
this is particularly true of local freights. This practice is also modified by
charging what the traffic will bear, and, on the whole, a combination of the
two ideas gives the most reasonable and the fairest method of basing
charges. Thus, a car filled with fine, crated furniture, which is light and
bulky, can afford a higher rate than one filled with scrap-iron. Cars filled
with grain, lumber, coal, or ore are made up in train-loads, and form a part

of the daily haul; they can afford to be taken at a lower rate than the stuffs
of which only an occasional car-load is hauled. In order to adjust this
problem it is customary to divide freights into six general classes.

THE PROBLEM OF FREIGHT RATES

In handling through freights the problems are many, and, if two or more
roads have the same terminal points, a great deal of friction of necessity
results. The longest roads must either make their through rates lower than
local rates between distant points, or lose much of their through business.
They cannot afford to do the latter and the statutory laws may forbid the
former. As a result the laws most likely are evaded, or else openly
disobeyed.[20]
The difficulties in adjusting the matter of the long and the short haul, as has
been shown, have caused the formation of pools and various other traffic
associations, the object of which has been to prevent rate-wars. To this
extent they resulted in positive good, for a rate-war in the end is apt to be as
hurtful to the community as to the railway company. The attempt to settle
such questions has also resulted in a great deal of legislation. Some of this
has been wise and good; but not a little has been hurtful both to the
railroads and to the community. The general result is seen in the great
combination of competing lines and, more recently, of competing systems.
Passenger Service.—Passenger traffic is more easily managed than the
movement of freight. For the greater part the rates are fixed by law. On a
few eastern roads local rates are two cents per mile; in the main, however, a
three-cent rate prevails, except that in sparsely peopled regions the rates are

four and five cents per mile. On many roads 1,000-mile books are sold at
the rate of twenty dollars; on some the rate is twenty-five dollars per book.
Long-distance rates involving passage over several roads are somewhat less
than the local rates. These rates are determined by joint passenger-tariff
associations. Each individual road fixes its own excursion and commutation
rates; one or another of the joint passenger associations determines the rates
where several roads divide the traffic. The latter are usually one, or one and
one-third fares for the round trip.
Except on a few local roads in densely peopled regions the passenger
service is much less remunerative than freight business, and not a few
railways would abolish passenger trains altogether were they permitted to
do so. Rate-cutting between competing roads has not been common since
the existence of joint passenger associations. It is sometimes done secretly,
however, through the use of ticket-brokers, or "scalpers," who are employed
to sell tickets at less than the usual rate; it is also done by the illicit use of
tickets authorized for given purposes, such as "editors'," "clergymen's," and
"advertising" transportation.
In many instances, where several roads have the same terminal points, it is
customary for the road or roads having the quickest service to allow a lower
rate to the others. Thus, of the seven or eight roads between New York and
Chicago, the two best equipped roads charge a fare of twenty dollars on
their ordinary, and a higher rate on their limited, trains. Because of slower
time the other roads charge a sum less by two or three dollars for the same
service. This cut in the rate is called a "differential."
Railway Mileage.—The railways of the world in 1900 had an aggregate of
nearly four hundred and eighty thousand miles distributed as follows:

North America 216,000
Europe 173,000
Asia 36,000
South America and West Indies 28,000
Australasia 15,000
Africa 12,000

In western Europe and the eastern United States there is an average of one
mile of railway to each six or eight square miles of area. In these countries
railway construction has reached probably its highest development, and the
proportion seems to represent the mileage necessary for the commercial
interests of the people.
The railways of the United States aggregate 193,000 miles—nearly one-half
the total mileage of the world. Over this enormous trackage 38,000
locomotives and 1,400,000 coaches and cars carry yearly 600,000,000
passengers and 1,000,000,000 tons of freight. They represent an outlay of
about $5,000,000,000. Owing to the absence of the international problems
that have greatly interfered with the organization of European railways, the
roads of the United States have developed "trunk-system" features to a
higher degree than is found elsewhere.
In the United States and Canada the farms of the great central plain,
together with the coal-mines, are the great centres of production, while the
seaports of the two coasts form great centres of distribution. Most of the
trunk lines, therefore, extend east and west; of the north and south lines
only two are important. The reason for the east-west direction of the great
trunk lines is obvious; the great markets of North America, Europe, and
Asia lie respectively to the east and the west.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE RAILWAYS OF THE UNITED STATES THEIR POSITION
DEPENDS ON THE PRODUCTION OF THE LAND

Railway Ownership.—The ownership of railways is vested either in
national governments or else in corporate companies; in only a few
instances are roads held individually by private owners, and these are
mainly lumber or plantation roads. Thus, the railways of Prussia are owned
by the state; most of those of the smaller German states are owned either by
the state or by the empire; still others are owned by corporate companies
and managed by the imperial government. In their management military use
is considered as first in importance.
In France governmental ownership and management have been less
successful. Plans for an elaborate system of state railways failed, and the
state now owns and operates only 1,700 miles, mainly, in the southwest.
Belgium controls and operates all her lines, but as the latter are short and
the area of the state small, there are no difficulties in the way of excellent
management. In Great Britain all the railways are owned and controlled by
corporate companies. The great transcontinental line of the Russian Empire
was built by the government, but the latter does not own it.

In the United States the railways are now owned by corporate companies.
Some of the western roads were built by Government subsidies;[21] other
roads were built by the aid of States, counties, or cities, which afterward
sold them to corporate companies. The first transcontinental railways
required Government assistance, and could not have been built without it;
nowadays, however, corporate companies find no difficulty in providing the
capital for any railway that is needed.
Inasmuch as the railway is a positive necessity, upon whose existence
depends the transportation of the food daily required in the great centres of
population, the charter of the railway gives the company extraordinary
powers. Most steam railway companies are permitted by the State to
exercise the power of eminent domain—that is, they may seize and hold the
land on which to locate their tracks and buildings, if it cannot be acquired
by the consent of the owners; they may also seize coal and other materials
consigned to them for shipment if such materials are necessary to operate
their lines.
Therefore, in consideration of the unusual powers possessed by the
companies, the various States reserve the right to regulate the freight and
passenger tariffs. They may also compel the companies to afford equal
facilities to all patrons, and take the measures necessary to prevent
discrimination.
The control of the railways by the government may be absolute, as in the
German state of Prussia; or it may consist of a general supervision, as in the
case of the Canadian railways. In almost every European state there is a
director or else a commission to act as a representative between the
railways and the people. In the United States the various States have each a
railway commission, while the general Government is represented by the
Interstate Commerce Commission.
Electric Railways.—The use of electricity as a motive power has not only
revolutionized suburban traffic but it has become a great factor in rural
transportation as well. The speed of the horse-car rarely exceeded five or
six miles per hour, while that of the electric car is about ten miles per hour
in city streets and about twice as great over rural roads. As a result, the
suburban limits of the large centres of population have greatly extended,

and the population of the outlying districts has been increased from four to
ten fold.

ELECTRIC RAILWAY--ROCKY MOUNTAINS

ELECTRIC FREIGHT LOCOMOTIVE—ERIE RAILROAD

From some of the larger cities the electric roads reach out to distances of
one hundred miles or more and have become the carriers of perishable
freight, such as fruit and dairy products. These are not only delivered just as
promptly as though they were sent over the steam roads, but the delivery is
more frequent. Indeed, the marvellous success of the electric interurban
railway is due mainly to the frequency of its service.
Public Roads and Highways.—Carriages propelled by steam, electric, and
gasoline motors have become an important factor in the delivery of goods
in nearly every city of Europe and America. They are not only speedier than
the horse and wagon, but their keeping costs less. They are economical only
on good roads. The bicycle, no longer a plaything, exerted a very decided
effect on transportation when the "pneumatic" or inflated rubber tire came
into use. Through the bicycle came the demand for good roads; and several
thousand miles of the best surfaced roads are built in the United States each
year.
The ordinary highways or roads, the paved streets of the large cities
excepted, are popularly known either as "dirt" roads or "macadamized"
roads, the latter name being applied to about every sort of graded highway
that has been surfaced with broken rock. Most of the roads of western
Europe are of this character. They are laid out with easy grades, and a thick
foundation of heavy stone is covered with smaller pieces of broken rock,
the whole being finished off with a top-dressing of fine material. Once built,
the expense of keeping them in good order is less than that of keeping a dirt
road in bad order.
Most of the country highways of the United States are dirt roads that are
deep with dust in dry weather and almost impassable at the breaking of
winter. Roads of this character are such a detriment that grain farming will
not pay when the farm is distant twenty miles or more from the nearest
railway. Many a farmer pays more to haul his grain to the nearest railway
station than from the railway station to London.
Since it has become apparent that the commercial development of many
agricultural regions depends quite as much on good wagon roads as upon
railways and expensive farming machinery, there has been a disposition to

grade and rock-surface all roads that are important highways.
Intercommunication becomes vastly easier; the cost of transportation is
lessened by more than one-half; and the wear and destruction of vehicles is
reduced to a minimum. In every case the improvement of the road is
designed to increase traffic by making a given power do more work in less
time.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
What have been the effects of Bessemer steel on the carrying power of railways?—on cheapening
freight rates?
What would be some of the effects first apparent were a large city like London or New York suddenly
cut off from railway communication?
What is meant by a tubular boiler?—by a forced draught?—by a switch?—by an automatic coupler?
Ascertain from a railway official the various danger-signals as indicated by lights, flags, and whistle-
blasts.
Why should not crated furniture and coal have the same freight rate?
What is meant by a pool?—by long haul and short haul?—by rebate?
If the rate on a given weight of merchandise is one dollar and fifty cents for five miles, should it be
three hundred dollars for one thousand miles?

FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE
Hartley's Railroad Transportation.
American Railways.

DISTRIBUTION OF VEGETATION

CHAPTER VII
FACTORS IN THE LOCATION OF CITIES AND TOWNS

The population of the world is very unevenly distributed. Not far from nine-
tenths live in lowland plains, below an altitude of 1,200 feet, in regions
where food-stuffs grow. The remainder live mainly in the grass-producing
regions of the great plateaus, the mining regions or the flood-plains and
grassy slopes of the higher montane regions.
Communal Life.—In each of these regions, also, there is a very unequal
massing of population. In part, the various families live isolated from one
another; in part, they gather into cities and villages. In other words the
population of a habitable region may be classed as rural and urban. In the
United States and western Europe, agricultural pursuits encourage rural life,
each family living on its own estate. In Russia, the agricultural population
usually cluster in villages.
The farmer or freeholder who owns or controls his estate, exemplifies the
most advanced condition of personal and political liberty. Only a few
centuries have elapsed since not only the land but also the life of a subject
was the property of the king or the feudal lord, and in those days about the
only people living in isolation were outlaws. In most cases the communal
system, best exemplified in Russia, marks an intermediate stage between a
low and a high state of civilization; in other instances it is necessary in
order to insure safety. German farmers in Siberia usually adopt the village
plan for this reason.
For the greater part, the non-agricultural population of the civilized world is
massed in villages and cities for reasons that have nothing to do with either
civilization or self-defence. The causes that bring about the massing of

urban population are many and their operation is complex. In general,
however, it is to facilitate one or more of several things, namely—the
receiving, distribution, and transportation of commodities, the manufacture
of products, the existence of good harbors, and the existence of minerals
and metals necessary in the various industries.
The Beginnings of Towns and Cities.—The "country town" of agricultural
regions in many ways is the best type of the centre of population engaged in
receiving and disbursing commodities. The farmers living in their vicinity
send their crops to it for transportation or final disposition. The country
store is a sort of clearing-house, exchanging household and other
commodities, such as sugar, tea, coffee, spices, drugs, silks, woollens,
cotton goods, farming machinery, and furniture for farm products. A railway
station, grain elevator, and one or more banks form the rest of its business
equipment.
Usually the town has resulted from a position of easy access. It may be the
crossing of two highways, a good landing-place on a river, the existence of
a fording-place, a bridge, a ferry, a toll gate, or a point that formed a
convenient resting-place for a day's journey. The towns and villages along
the "buffalo" roads are examples almost without number.
The "siding" or track where freight cars may be held for unloading, has
formed the beginning of many a town. The siding was located at the
convenience of the railway company; the village resulting could have
grown equally well almost anywhere else along the line.

THE EFFECT OF POSITION—BUFFALO IS AT THE FOOT OF LAKE ERIE AND THE
HEAD OF ERIE CANAL; AN EXCELLENT HARBOR FACILITATES ITS COMMERCE

In the early history of nearly every country, military posts formed the
beginnings of many centres that have grown to be large cities. Thus, Rome,
Paris, London, the various "chesters"[22] of England, Milan, Turin, Paris,
Chicago, Pittsburg, and Albany were established first as military outposts.
The trading post was most conveniently established under the protection of
the military camp, and the subsequent growth depended partly on an
accessible position, and partly on the intelligence of the men who controlled
the trade of the surrounding regions.
Harbors as Factors in the Growth of Cities.—A good harbor draws trade
from a great distance. Thus, with a rate of 14½ cents on a bushel of wheat
from Chicago, New York City draws a trade from a region having a radius
of more than one thousand miles. In its trade with Chinese ports, Seattle,
the chief port of Puget Sound, reaches as far eastward as London and
Hamburg.
Water-Power as a Factor.—The presence of water-power has brought
about the establishment of many centres that have grown into populous
cities. The water-power of the New England plateau had much to do with

the rapid growth of the New England States. At the time of the various
embargo and non-intercourse acts preceding the war of 1812, a great
amount of capital was thrown into idleness. The water-power was made
available because, during this time, the people were compelled to
manufacture for themselves the commodities that before had been imported.
The manufacturing industry at first was prosecuted in the southern
Appalachians as well as in the New England plateau. It survived in the
latter, partly because of the capital available, and partly owing to the
business experience of the people. In the meantime villages sprang up in
pretty nearly every locality in which there was available water-power.
Since the use of coal and the advent of cheap railway transportation, steam
has largely supplanted water-power, unless the latter is unlimited in supply.
As a result, there is a marked growth of the smaller centres of population
along the various water-fronts. In such cases the advantages of a water-front
offset the loss of water-power.
The Effects of Metals on the Growth of Cities.—The character of the
industry of a region has much to do with the character of its manufactures.
Thus, coal is absolutely essential to the manufacture of iron and steel; and,
inasmuch as from two to eight tons of the former are necessary to
manufacture a ton of steel, it is cheaper to ship the ore to a place to which
coal can be cheaply brought.
The coal-fields are responsible for the greater part of Pittsburg's population,
and almost wholly for that of Scranton, Wilkesbarre, and many other
Pennsylvania towns. Iron and coal are responsible, also, for many cities and
towns in the vicinity of the Great Lakes. Birmingham, Salford, and Cardiff
in Great Britain, Dortmund and Essen in Germany, and St. Étienne in
France have resulted from the presence of coal and iron.
In many instances man is a great factor in the establishment of a centre of
population. Chicago would have been quite as well off in two or three other
locations; its present location is the result of man's energy and is not likely
to be changed. St. Louis might have been built at a dozen different places
and would have fared just as well; the same is true of St. Paul, or of
Indianapolis.

Leavenworth at one time was a more promising city than Kansas City, but
the building of an iron bridge over the Missouri River at the latter place
gave it a start, and wide-awake men kept it in the lead. It has grown at the
expense of Leavenworth and St. Joseph, neither one of which has become a
commercial centre. Cairo, at the junction of the Mississippi and Ohio
Rivers, has the geographical position for a great city; it waits for the man
who can concentrate the commerce there.
Adjustment to Environment.—San Francisco was wisely located at first,
but its grain trade was more economically carried on at Karquinez Strait,
while its oriental trade is gradually concentrating at Seattle. Philadelphia
lost its commercial supremacy when the completion of the Erie Canal gave
return cargoes to foreign vessels discharging at New York City. Oswego,
N.Y., had the advantage of both harbor facilities and water-power, but
Syracuse, with practically no advantages except those of leadership, has far
outstripped it.
Such instances of the readjustment of centres of population have been
common in the past; they will also occur in the future. In nearly every case
the readjustment results from economic causes, the opening of new lines of
transportation, the lowering of the cost of the production of a commodity,
the discovery of new economic processes—all these cause a disturbance of
population, and the latter must readjust itself to new and changed
conditions.
Not all peoples have the necessary intelligence and training at first to adapt
themselves to their environment. For the greater part, the American Indians
were unable to take advantage of the wonderful resources of the continent
in which they lived. The Boers occupied about the richest part of Africa, but
made no use of the natural wealth of the country beyond the grazing
industry; in fact, their nomadic life reduced them to a plane of civilization
materially lower than that of their ancestors.
People of the highest state of civilization do not always adjust themselves to
their environment readily. The people of the New England plateau were
nearly a century in learning that they possessed nearly all the best harbors
of the Atlantic coast of North America. When, however, the great commerce
of the country had been wiped out of existence, it did not take them long to

readjust themselves to the industry of manufacture, the water-power being
the natural resource that made the industry profitable.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
Were the middle Atlantic coast of the United States to undergo an elevation of 100 feet, what would
be the effect on New York City?
Find the factors that led to the settlement of the city or town in which or near which you live. What
caused the settlement of the three or four largest towns in the same county?—of the following places:
Minneapolis, Fall River, New Haven, New Bedford, Cairo (Ill.), Cairo (Egypt), Marseille, Aix-la-
Chapelle, Alexandria (Egypt), Washington (D.C.), Columbus (O.), Johannesburg (Africa), Kimberley
(Africa), Albany (N.Y.), Punta Arenas (S.A.), Scranton (Pa.), Vancouver (B.C.), San Francisco, Cape
Nome?
What circumstances connected with commerce led to the passing of the following-named places:
Palmyra, Carthage, Babylon, Genoa, Venice, Ancient Rome, Jerusalem?

COLLATERAL REFERENCE
Any good cyclopædia.

CHAPTER VIII
THE CEREALS AND GRASSES

Of all the plants connected with the economies of mankind the grasses hold
easily the first place. Not only are the seeds of certain species the chief food
of nearly all peoples, but the plants themselves are the food of most animals
whose flesh is used as meat. Wheat, maize, and rice are used by all except a
very few peoples; and about all the animals used for food, fish and mollusks
excepted, are grain eaters, or grass eaters, or both.
The grasses of the Plains in Texas, the Veldt in South Africa, and the hills of
New Zealand by nature's processes are converted into meat that feeds the
great cities of western Europe and the eastern United States. The corn of the
Mississippi valley becomes the pork which, yielded from the carcasses of
more than forty million swine, is exported to half the countries of the world.
Even the two and one-half billion pounds of wool consumed yearly is
converted grass.
Wheat.—The wheat of commerce is the seed of several species of cereal
grass, one of which, Triticum sativum, is the ordinary cultivated plant. Wild
species are found in the highlands of Kurdistan, in Greece, and in
Mesopotamia, that are identical with species cultivated to-day. It is thought
that the cultivation of the grain began in Mesopotamia, but it is also certain
that it was grown by the Swiss lake-dwellers far back in prehistoric times. It
is the "corn" Joseph's brothers sought to buy when they went to Egypt, and
the records of its harvesting are scattered all over the pages of written
history.

THE GRAIN CROP—MODERN METHODS OF CULTIVATION AND HARVESTING

Of the one and one-half billion people that constitute the world's
population, more than one-third, or about eight times the population of the
United States, are consumers of wheat-bread; and this number is yearly
increasing by twelve million. Moreover, each individual of this aggregate
consumes yearly very nearly one barrel of flour, or about four and one-half
bushels of wheat. In other words, it requires somewhat more than two
billion three hundred million bushels of wheat each year to supply the
world's demand.[23] As a matter of fact the world's crop is yearly consumed
so nearly to the danger-line that very often the "visible supply," or the
amount known to be in the market, is reduced to a few million bushels.
Wheat will grow under very wide ranges of climate, but it thrives best
between the parallels of 25° and 55°. In a soil very rich in vegetable mould
it is apt to "run to stalk." A rather poor clay-loam produces the best seed,[24]
and a hard seed, rather than a heavy stalk, is required.
In the latitude of Kansas the seeds planted in the fall will retain their vitality
through the winter; in the latitude of Dakota they are "winter-killed," as a
rule. Because of this feature two broad classes or divisions of the crop are
recognized in commerce—the winter and the spring varieties. In general,
the spring wheats are regarded as the better, and this is nearly always the
case in localities too cold for winter wheat. There are exceptions to this
rule, however. In the main, winter wheat ripens first, and is therefore first in
the market.[25]

WHEAT

In Europe the plain that faces the North and Baltic Seas, and that part which
extends through southern Russia, yield the chief part of the crop, although
the plains of the Po, the Danube, and Bohemia furnish heavy crops. Russia,
France, Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Italy are all wheat states.
In a normal year all Europe produces a little more than one-half (fifty-five
per cent.) of the world's crop. Russia and France excepted, scarcely another
state produces as much as is consumed. Great Britain consumes her entire
crop in three months; Germany in about six months. France sends a part of
her crop to Great Britain and buys of Russia to fill the deficiency. Russia
consumes but very little of her wheat-crop; it is nearly all sold to the states
of western Europe. All Europe consumes about one billion seven hundred
and ten million bushels, but produces about one billion two hundred and
fifty million; the remainder is supplied by the United States, India,
Argentina, Africa, and Australia.

WHEAT IN UNITED STATES

In the United States the great bulk of the crop comes from the upper
Mississippi valley and Pacific coast States. About one-third is consumed
where it is grown; more than one-third is required for the populous centres
of the east; a little less than one-third is exported, of which about ninety per
cent. goes to Europe.

WHEAT PRODUCTION

Much of this, especially the Pacific coast product, is sold unground, but
each year an increasing amount is made into flour. The flour manufacture of
the United States aggregates somewhat more than 160,000,000 barrels
yearly—the output of 16,000 flour-mills; the Pillsbury mills of Minneapolis
alone have a capacity of 60,000 barrels a week. In Europe the Hungarian
mills and their output of Bohemian flour are the chief competitors of the
United States.
The wheat-crop of the
Pacific coast has
usually been a factor
by itself. On account of
the absence of summer
rains, the kernel is both
plump and hard. After
the threshing process it WHEAT
is sacked and stored in
the fields in which it
has grown.[26] Heretofore much of the sacked wheat has been shipped to
European markets by the Cape Horn route, but in late years a yearly
increasing amount is made into flour and sold in China, Japan, and Siberia.
In 1900 nearly two million barrels were thus sent.
East of the Rocky Mountains, after the grain is harvested much of it is sold
to dealers whose storage elevators[27] are scattered all over the wheat-
growing region, and at all great points of shipment, such as Duluth,
Minneapolis, Buffalo, and the eastern seaports. Before the grain is
transferred to the elevators it is inspected and graded, and the cars which
contain it are sealed. This wheat constitutes the "visible supply." All the
business concerning it is transacted by means of "warehouse receipts," that
have almost the currency of ready money. Banks loan money on them
almost to their market value.
Under normal conditions, the cost of growing and harvesting a bushel of
wheat—including interest on the land and deterioration of the machinery,
etc.—is between fifty and fifty-five cents. The market price, when not
affected by "corners" and other gambling transactions, usually varies
between sixty-two and eighty-five cents. The difference between these

figures is divided between the farmer and the "middlemen," the share of the
latter being in the form of commissions and elevator charges.

STORING PACIFIC COAST WHEAT

In addition to bread-making wheat, certain varieties of grain known as
macaroni wheat have a certain importance in the market. Several varieties
are so hardy that they easily resist extremely cold winters; they will also
grow in regions too dry for ordinary varieties. In this respect they are well
adapted to the plains at the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains. The only
detriment is the lack of a steady market. Macaroni wheat has a very hard
kernel and is rich in gluten. It is used mainly in the manufacture of
macaroni paste, but in Europe, when mixed with three times its weight of
ordinary soft wheat, it is much used in making flour. The small amount now
grown in the United States is shipped mainly to France.
The yield of wheat varies partly with the rainfall, but the difference is due
mainly to skill in cultivation. In western Europe it is from two to three times
as great as in the United States; in Russia and India it is much less.[28]
The yearly consumption of wheat is increasing very rapidly both in the
United States and in Europe; moreover, China is becoming a wheat-
consuming country. In the United States the consumption is increasing so
rapidly that unless either the acreage of the crop, or else the yield per acre,
is materially increased, there will be no surplus for export after the year
1931.

THE WHEAT INDUSTRY—GRAIN ELEVATORS AT BUFFALO, NEW YORK

In the United States the acreage may be somewhat increased by the
irrigation of arid lands now uncultivated, and by the reclamation of
overflowed and swamp lands. There are far greater possibilities, however,
in the employment of methods of cultivation which will double the rate of
present yield. It is doubtful if there can be much increase of acreage in the
States of the Mississippi Valley, where the acreage will of necessity be
lessened rather than increased.
In western Europe there can be no material increase of the acreage or the
rate of yield; in Russia both are possible. The plains of Argentina now yield
a notable quantity—about one hundred million bushels—and the amount
may be increased. Moreover, a large product may be obtained from both
Uruguay and Paraguay, and southern Brazil, neither one of which produces
a considerable quantity. At the present rate of the increase in consumption,
all of the available land, yielding its maximum, will not produce a sufficient
crop at the end of the twentieth century.
Corn.—Maize or Indian corn is the seed of a plant, Zea mays, a member of
the grass family. It is not known to exist in a wild state. The species now
cultivated are undoubtedly derived from the American continent, but
evidence is not wanting to show that it was known in China and the islands

of Asia before the discovery of America.[29] The commercial history of corn
begins with the discovery of America. Next to meat it was the chief food of
the native American; next to wheat it is the chief food-stuff in the American
continent to-day.
Corn requires a rich soil and is not so hardy as wheat. It thrives best in
regions having long summers and warm nights. The growing crop is easily
injured by too much rain. It is an abundant crop in the central Mississippi
Valley, but not near the coast; it is very prolific in Nebraska, but not in
Dakota; it thrives in Italy, Austria, and the Balkan Peninsula, but not in the
British Isles and Germany. It is a very important crop in Australia, and is
the staple grain of Mexico. It is the crop of fourteen-hour days and warm
nights.

CORN

The United States is the chief producer of corn, and from an area of
80,000,000 acres—about that of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois combined—
more than two billion bushels, or four-fifths of the world's crop, are
produced. In the past few years the area planted with corn has not
materially increased, and it is likely to be lessened rather than increased in

the future. From the same acreage, however, the annual yield, now about
twenty-five or thirty bushels per acre, can be more than doubled by the use
of more skilful methods of cultivation.
Corn contains more fatty substance, or natural oil, than wheat, and therefore
has a greater heating power. For this reason it is better than wheat for out-
of-door workers, and it is almost the only cereal food-stuff consumed in
Spanish America. It is also a staple food-stuff in Egypt. Corn has been used
as a bread-stuff in the United States, Italy, and Rumania[30] for a long time.
In recent years, however, its use has become very popular in Europe.

CORN PRODUCTION

In the United States by far the greater part of the crop is consumed where it
is grown, being used to fatten swine and cattle. The market value of a pound
of corn is about one-third of a cent; converted into pork or beef, however, it
is worth five or six times as much. By feeding the corn to stock, therefore, a
farmer may turn an unmarketable product into one for which there is a
steady demand.
Although corn is not so
essential a staple as
wheat, it has a much
wider range of
usefulness. The starch
made from it is
considered a delicacy
CORN
and is used very largely
in America and Europe
as an article of food. Glucose, a cheap but wholesome substitute for sugar,
is made from it; from the oil a substitute for rubber is prepared; smokeless

powder and other explosives are made from the pith of the stalk; while a
very large part of the product is used in the manufacture of liquor.
Rye.—Rye is the seed of a cereal grass, Secale cereale, a plant closely
resembling wheat in external appearance. Rye will grow in soils that are too
poor for wheat; its northern limit is in latitudes somewhat greater than that
of wheat, also. It is an ideal crop for the sandy plain stretching from the
Netherlands into central Russia, and this locality produces almost the whole
yield. The world's crop is about one and a half billion bushels, of which
Russia produces nearly two-thirds. Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Japan
grow nearly all the rest. It is consumed where it is grown. In the United
States the yearly product is about twenty-five million bushels, about one-
tenth of which is exported to Europe. Rye-bread is almost always sour, and
this fact is its chief disadvantage.
Barley.—Barley is the seed of several species of cereal grass, mainly
Hordeum distichum and Hordeum vulgare. It is one of the oldest-used of
bread-stuffs. It can be cultivated farther north than wheat, and about as far
within the tropics as corn; it has, therefore, very wide limits. Formerly it
was much used in northwestern Europe as a bread-stuff, but in recent years
it has been in part supplanted by wheat and corn. Barley is a most excellent
food for horses, and in California is grown mainly for this purpose. Its chief
use is for the manufacture of the malt used in brewing.
The world's crop of barley is not far from one billion bushels, of which the
United States produces about sixty million bushels. Most of the crop is
grown in the Germanic states of Europe, and in Russia.
Oats.—The oat is the seed of a cereal grass, Avena sativa being the species
almost always cultivated. It is not known where the cultivated species
originated, but the earliest known locality is central Europe, where it was
certainly a domestic plant during the Bronze Age. It seems probable that the
species now cultivated in Scotland at one time grew wild in western
Europe; certain it is that wild species are found in North America.

OATS PRODUCTION

The oat grows within rather wider limits of latitude, and thrives in a greater
variety of soils than does wheat. Grown in a moist climate, however, the
grain is at its best. The oat-crop of the world aggregates more than three
billion bushels, surpassing that of wheat or corn in measurement, but not in
weight. A small portion of this is used as a bread-stuff, but the greater part
is used as horse-food, for which it is remarkably adapted.
In Europe, Russia is the
greatest producer, and
its yearly oat harvest is
about one-quarter of
the world's crop. The
states of northwestern
Europe yield about half OATS
the entire crop; the
wheat-growing area of the United States produces the remaining one-fourth.
Russia and the United States are both exporters, the grain going to western
Europe. By far the greater part of the grain is consumed where it is grown.
Rice.—Rice is the seed of a cereal grass, Oryza sativa. It is claimed to be
native to India, but it is known to have been cultivated in China for more
than five thousand years. It grows wild in Australia and Malaysia.
Rice requires plenty of warmth and moisture. It is cultivated in the warmer
parts of the temperate zone, but it thrives best in the tropical regions. In
China a considerable upland rice is grown, but for the greater part it is

grown in level lowlands that may be flooded with water. The preparation of
the fields is a matter of great expense, for they may require flooding and
draining at a moment's notice. The crop matures in from three to six
months. After threshing, the seed is still covered with a husk, and in this
form it is known as "paddy."

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
Why is not wheat-growing a profitable industry in the New England States?—in the plains at the
eastern base of the Rocky Mountains?—in the southern part of the United States?
What are meant by the following terms: No. 1 spring, a corner, a disk harrow, a cradle, a flail, a
separator, futures, warehouse certificates?
In 1855 the price of a barrel of flour in New York or Boston was about twelve dollars; at the close of
the century it was less than five. Explain how the lessened price came about.
From a census or other report make a list of the ten leading wheat-producing States; the ten that
produce the most corn.
Why are the foreign shipments of oats less than those of wheat?
What are the prices current of wheat, corn, oats, and barley to-day?

FOR STUDY AND REFERENCE
Obtain samples of the different kinds of wheat, oats, barley, corn, millet, and rice. Put the grain in
small, closely stoppered vials; attach the heads of the small grains to sheets of cardboard of the
proper size.
Read "The Wheat Problem"—Chapter I.

PICKING COTTON, ALABAMA

TRANSPORTING COTTON FROM WHARF,
CHARLESTON, S.C.

COTTON PRESS YARD, NEW ORLEANS, LA.

CHAPTER IX
TEXTILE FIBRES

Under the term "textile" are included the fibrous substances that can be
spun into threads, and woven or felted into cloth. Some of these, like the
covering of the sheep, goat, and llama, or the cocoon of the silk-worm, are
of animal origin; others, like cotton furze, the husk of the cocoanut, and the
bast of the flax-plant are vegetable products. Their use in the manufacture
of cloth antedates the period at which written history begins; it probably
begins with the time when primitive man gradually ceased to have the hairy
covering necessary to protect him from the conditions of climate and
weather.
As body coverings all these substances are dependent on a single principle,
namely—they are poor conductors of heat; that is, they do not permit the
natural heat of the body to pass away quickly, nor do they allow sudden
changes of the temperature to reach the body quickly. In other words,
because of the artificial covering which mankind alone requires, bodily heat
is not dissipated more rapidly than it is created; if it were, the covering
would be worthless. A suit of clothes made of steel wire, for instance,
because it conducts heat so rapidly, might chill, or perhaps heat the body
more quickly than the open air.
With respect to warming qualities wool surpasses all other textiles. It is
employed for clothing in every part of the world and by nearly all peoples.
Cotton is used mainly also for body coverings, but it is inferior to wool for
protection against cold. It is used by practically all peoples, savage and
civilized, outside of the frigid zones. Linen is inferior both to cotton and
wool for clothing; its use is also restricted by its great cost. Silk is used
mainly for ornamental cloths. Hemp is used mainly for cordage, and the use

of ramie, jute, and sisal hemp is confined mainly to the manufacture of very
coarse cloths and rugs.
Cotton.—The cotton fibre of commerce is the lint surrounding the seeds of
several species of Gossypium, plants belonging to the same natural order as
the marshmallow and the hollyhock. The cultivated species have been
carried from India to different parts of the world, but cotton-bearing plants
are also native to the American. A native tree-cotton, known as Barbados
cotton, occurs in the West Indies; a herbaceous cotton-plant is known to
have been cultivated in Peru long before the discovery of Columbus.

COTTON-PRODUCING REGIONS

More than four hundred years before the Christian era Herodotus describes
it and mentions a gin for separating the lint from the seed. Nearchus, an
admiral serving under Alexander the Great, brought to Europe specimens of
cotton cloth, and in the course of time it became an article of commerce
among Greek and Roman merchants.

The cotton-plant requires warmth, moisture, and a long season. It also
thrives best near the sea. It grows better, on the whole, in subtropical rather
than in tropical regions, and the difference is due probably to the longer
days and higher temperature of the subtropical latitudes. In the United
States the northern limit is approximately the thirty-eighth parallel. The
seeds are planted, as a rule, during the first three weeks of April and the first
two of May. The plants bloom about the middle of June; the boll or pod
matures during July, and bursts about the first of August. The picking
begins in August.

COTTON IN THE UNITED STATES

The yield and the quality of the textile depend not only on conditions of the
soil, but on locality. In the river flood-plains of the southern United States
the yield is about two bales per acre; on the bluff lands it is but little more
than one, unless unusual care is taken in the preparation of the land. The
islands off the Carolina coast produce a very fine long-staple variety,
commercially known as sea island cotton. A district in China produces a
good fibre of brownish color known as nankeen, named for the city of
Nanking, whence formerly it was exported. The valley of Piura River, Peru,
produces varieties of long-staple cotton that in quality closely resemble silk.

The fibre of ordinary American cotton is about seven-eighths of an inch
long; it is made into the fabrics commercially known as "domestics" and
"prints," or calico. If the fibre averages a little longer than the common
grades it is reserved for canvas. Ordinary Peruvian cotton has a fibre nearly
two inches long; it is used in the manufacture of hosiery and balbriggan
underwear, and also to adulterate wool. The long-staple cotton of the Piura
Valley is bought by British manufacturers at a high price, and used in the
webbing of rubber tires and hose. Egyptian cotton is very fine and is used
mainly in the manufacture of thread and the finer grades of balbriggan
underwear. Sea island fibre is nearly two inches long and is used almost
wholly in the making of thread and lace.
The introduction of cotton cultivation resulted in very far-reaching
consequences both from a political as well as an economic stand-point. The
invention of the steam-engine by Watt gave England an enormous
mechanical power. To utilize this the cotton industry was wrested from
Hindustan; the mills were concentrated in Manchester and Lancashire; the
cotton-fields were transferred to the United States.
As a result, the plains of Hindustan were strewn with the bodies of starved
weavers and spinners, but a great industry grew into existence in England.
The invention of spinning machinery by Arkwright, Crompton, and
Hargreaves, and the gradual improvement of the power-loom, greatly
reduced the cost of making the cloth and, at the same time, enormously
increased the demand for it.

COTTON PRODUCTION

In the United States the consequences were far more serious. The invention
of the engine or "gin" for separating the lint from the seed made cotton

cultivation highly profitable.[31] The negro slaves, who had been scattered
throughout the colonies and the States that succeeded them, were soon
drawn to the cotton-growing States to supply the needed field-labor; and,
indeed, white workmen could not stand the hot, moist climate of the cotton-
fields.
The cotton-mills grew up in the Northern manufacturing States. The
Northern manufacturer needed a tariff on imported goods to protect him
from European competition; the Southern cotton-planter who purchased
much of his supplies abroad was hurt by the tariff. After about sixty years of
strained relations between the two sections there occurred the Civil War
which wiped out nearly one million lives, and rolled up a debt, direct and
indirect, of nearly six billions of dollars.
The world's cotton-crop aggregates from twelve million to fifteen million
bales yearly, of which the United States produces, as a rule, a little more
than three-fourths. Egypt is rapidly taking an important place among cotton-
producing countries, and, with the completion of the various irrigating
canals, will very soon rank next to the United States. India ranks about
third; China and Korea produce about the same quantity. There are a few
cotton-cloth mills in these states, but in Japan the manufacture is increasing,
the mills being equipped with the best of modern machinery. Brazil has a
small product, and Russia in Asia needs transportation facilities only to
increase largely its growing output.
The cotton-crop of the
United States is quite
evenly distributed; one-
third is manufactured at
home; one-third is
purchased by Great
Britain; and the
remaining third goes COTTON
mainly to western
Europe. In the past few years China has become a constantly increasing
purchaser of American cotton. New Orleans, Galveston, Savannah, and
New York are the chief ports of shipment. The imported Egyptian and
Peruvian cotton is landed mainly at New York. Most of the cotton

manufacture is carried on in the New England States, but there is a very
rapid extension of cotton manufacture in the South.
Wool.—The wool of commerce is a term applied to the fleece of the
common sheep, to that of certain species of goat, and to that of the camel
and its kind. There is no hard-and-fast distinction between hair and wool,[32]
but, in general, wool fibres have rough edges, much resembling overlapping
scales which interlock with one another; hair, as a rule, has a hard, smooth
surface. If a mass of loose wool be spread out and beaten, or if it be pressed
between rollers, the fibres interlock so closely that there results a thick,
strong cloth which has been made without either spinning or weaving.
This property, known as "felting," gives to wool a great part of its value,
and is its chief distinction from hair. Some kinds of hair, however, have a
slight felting property, and if sufficiently fine may be spun and woven. The
hair of the common goat is worthless for this purpose, but that of the
Cashmere and Angora species have the properties of wool. The hair of the
Bactrian camel, and also that of the llama, alpaca, and vicuña is soft and
fine, possessing felting qualities that make it very superior as a textile.

WOOL PRODUCING REGIONS

The quality of wool varies greatly according to the conditions of soil,
climate, and the character of the food of the animal. In commerce, however,
the fleeces are commonly graded as "long-staple," "short-staple," "merino,"
and "coarse."
In long-staple wools the fibres are from four to eight inches long; they are
more easily separated by a process much like combing, and are therefore
called "combing" wools. The cotswold, cheviot, and most of the wools of
the British Isles are of this kind; indeed, in fairly moist lowland regions
such as Canada and the United States, there is a tendency toward the
development of a long-staple product. The English long-staple wools are
largely made into worsted cloth, the Scotch cheviot into tweeds, and the
French into the best dress cloth.
If the fibres are materially less than four inches in length, the product is
classed as a short-staple or "carding" wool. By far the greater part of the
wool of the United States, Canada, and Europe is of this class. It is disposed
of according to its fineness or fitness for special purposes, the greater part
being made into cloths for the medium grades of men's clothing.
The finest and softest wool as a rule is grown in arid, plateau regions, and
of this kind of staple the merino is an example. The fibres are fine as silk,
and the goods made from them are softer. The Mission wool of California is
the product of merino sheep, and, indeed, the conditions of climate in
southern California and Australia are such as to produce the best merino
wool. The famous Electoral wool of Saxony is a merino, the sheep having
been introduced into that country from Spain about three hundred years
ago. The merino wools, as a rule, are used in the most highly finished dress
and fancy goods.
The coarse-staple wools are very largely used for American carpets, coarse
blankets, and certain kinds of heavy outer clothing. The Russian Donskoi
wool, some of the Argentine fleeces, such as the Cordoban, and many of
those grown in wet lowlands are very coarse and harsh. The quality is due
more to climatic conditions and food than to the species of sheep; indeed,
sheep that in other regions produce a fine wool, when introduced to this
locality, after a few generations produce coarse wool.

SHEEP FEEDING ON ALFALFA

SHEEP RANCH, UTAH

SHEEP IN THE FEEDING YARD
THE WOOL-GROWING INDUSTRY

The rug wools grown in Persia, Turkestan, Turkey in Asia, and the
Caucasus Mountains are also characteristic. They vary in fineness, and
because they do not readily felt they are the best in the world for rug stock.
The "pile" or surface of the rug remains elastic and stands upright even after
a hundred years of wear. This quality is due mainly to conditions of climate
and soil.

WOOL PRODUCTION

In some instances the wool is obtained by a daily combing of the half-
grown lambs. This process, however, is employed in the rug-making
districts only; in general, the fleeces are clipped either with shears or
machine clippers. In the United States the latter are generally employed,
and but little attempt is made either to sort the fleeces or to separate the
various qualities of wool in the same fleece.
The raw wool always contains foreign matter such as burs and dirt; it is also
saturated with a natural oil which prevents felting. The oil, commonly
called "grease," or "yolk," is an important article of commerce; under the
name of "lanolin" (adeps lanæ) it is used in medicine and pharmacy as a
basis for ointments.
The world's yearly clip is a little more than two and one-half billion pounds,
of which the United States produces about one-eighth. In Europe and the
United States, owing to the increasing value of the land, the area of
production is decreasing; in Australia, South Africa, and Argentina, where
land is cheap, it is increasing. From these three regions wool is exported;
most European countries and the United States buy it. In the latter country
the consumption is about six pounds for each person.
The wools of the
Mediterranean
countries—France,
Spain, Italy, Algiers,
Egypt, etc.—are the
best for fine cloths;
those of central Asia
for rugs and shawls; WOOL
the others are used
mainly in medium and
low grade textiles.
Other Wools.—The Angora goat, originally grown in Anatolia (Asia
Minor), and the Iran States (Persia, Afghanistan, and Baluchistan), furnishes
a beautiful white wool, commercially known as "mohair." Smyrna is an
important market for it, and England is the chief buyer. The Angora goat

has been introduced into South Africa and California, where it is
successfully grown. From the former country there is a large export of
mohair.
Cashmere wool is a fine, downy undercovering, obtained by combing the
fleece of a goat native to the Kashmir Valley in India. A single animal yields
scarcely more than an ounce or two, and the best product is worth about its
weight in gold. It is used in the manufacture of the famous Cashmere
shawls, which are sold at prices varying from five hundred to five thousand
dollars. They are made in Persia and India.
Llama and alpaca wool are fine textile obtained from animals of the camel
kind native to South America. The wool is either black or brown in color. A
considerable part is used for native-made articles, such as saddle-blankets,
etc., but much of it is exported to England.
Most of the "camel's hair" of commerce was originally worn by goats, being
called by its commercial name because of a similarity in texture to that of
the camel's hair. The camel of Turkestan, however, furnishes a silky textile
that is much used. The brown wool often found in Hamadan rugs is natural
camel's hair, and a considerable amount mixed with sheep's wool is used in
certain textiles. The camel's hair of China is made into artists' brushes.
Silk.—The silk of commerce is the fibre spun by the larvæ or caterpillars of
a moth, Bombyx mori, as they enter the chrysalis stage of existence. The
silk-growing industry includes the care and feeding of the insect in all its
stages. The leaves of the white mulberry-tree (morus alba) are the natural
food of the insect, and silk-growing cannot be carried on in regions where
this tree does not thrive. Not all areas that produce the mulberry-tree,
however, will also grow the silk-worm; the latter cannot exist in regions
having very cold winters, and therefore the industry is restricted by climate.
The moth, shortly after emerging from the chrysalis stage, lays from two or
three hundred to seven hundred eggs. These are "hardy"—that is, they will
remain fertile for a long time if kept in a cool, dry place; moisture will
cause them to putrify, and heat to germinate. If well protected, they may be
transported for distances.

In rearing the silk-worm, as soon as the latter is hatched, it is placed on
mulberry-leaves, and for five weeks it does nothing but eat, in that time
consuming many times its weight of food.[33] Then it begins to spin the
material that forms its chrysalis case or cocoon. The outer part of the case
consists of a tough envelope not unlike coarse tissue-paper; the inner part is
a fine thread about one thousand feet long that has been wound around the
body of the worm. This thread or filament is the basis of the silk textile
industry.

Copyright, 1898, by Nature Study Pub. Co.

SILK INDUSTRY

1. Silkworm Eggs
2. Fourth-stage Worm
3. Pupa in Cocoon
4. Cocoon
5. Male Moth
6. Female Moth
7. Unspun Silk
8. Raw Manufactured Silk
9. Manufactured Silk

SILK PRODUCING REGIONS

At the proper time the cocoons are gathered and, if immediately to be used,
are plunged into hot water. This not only kills the chrysalids but softens the
cocoons as well, so that the outer cases may be removed. The cases
removed, the rest of the cocoon is soaked in warm water until the gummy

matter is softened and the fibres are free enough to be reeled. In the latter
process the ends of a number of cocoons, varying from five to twenty, are
caught and loosely twisted into a single strand. The silk thus prepared forms
the "raw silk" of commerce. Sometimes a number of strands of raw silk are
twisted into a coarse thread, thereby forming "thrown silk." For
convenience in handling, both raw and thrown silk are made into large
skeins called hanks, and most of the silk product is exported in this form.
A given quantity of cocoons yields scarcely more than one-tenth its weight
in good raw silk. The remaining part, consisting of broken fibres and cases,
is shredded and spun into silk thread of inferior quality. This material,
commonly called "husks" or "knubs," forms an important item in silk
manufacture, and much of it is exported to Europe and America.

SILK PRODUCTION

According to traditions, not wholly trustworthy, eggs of the silk-worm were
smuggled to India in the head-dress of a Chinese princess. Thence
sericulture slowly made its way westward to Persia, Asia Minor, and the
Mediterranean countries. Wild silk, a coarse but strong product, is grown in
many of these countries, but mainly in China, where it forms an important
export. The Chinese product is commercially known as "tussar" silk. Of the
product of raw silk, about thirty-five million pounds, China yields about
two-fifths, Japan and Italy each one-fifth. The remainder is grown in the
Levant, Spain, and France.
Most of the raw silk of China is exported from Shanghai and Canton; that
of Japan is shipped mainly from Yokohama. Among European countries

Italy is the first producer of raw silk, and France the chief manufacturer. By
the operation of a heavy tariff a considerable manufacture of silk textiles
has grown up in the United States. New York City and Paterson, N.J., are
the chief centres of the industry.
The southern part of the United States offers an ideal locality for
sericulture. Various attempts at silk-worm breeding have failed from lack of
training, but not on account of geographic conditions.
Flax.—The flax of commerce, the basis of linen cloth, is the bast or inner
bark-fibre of an annual plant (Linum usitalissimum, i.e., most useful fibre),
native probably to the Mediterranean basin. It ranks among the oldest
known textiles. Bundles of unwrought fibre have been found in the lake
dwellings of Switzerland, and linen cloth constituted a part of the sepulture
wrappings of the ancient Egyptian dead.
Flax has a very wide range, thriving in the colder parts of Europe as well as
in tropical Asia; it does equally well in the dry summers of California or the
moist regions of the Mississippi Valley. The chief requisite is a firm soil that
contains plenty of nutrition.
After the stalks have passed maturity they are pulled up by hand; "rippled,"
or deprived of their seeds and leaves; "retted," or moistened in soft water
until the bast separates; "broken" and "scutched" by a machine which gets
rid of the woody fibres; and finally the loosened bast fibre is "hetcheled" or
combed in order to separate the long, or "line," threads from the "tow" or
refuse.
Russia produces more than one-half the world's crop, but the finest and
choicest is that known as Courtrai fibre, which is grown in Belgium. This is
thought to be due to the quality of the water in the Lys River. A
considerable amount of flax grown elsewhere in Europe is sent to this part
of Belgium to be retted. Ireland and Germany produce considerable
amounts, and a small quantity is grown in the United States.
The prepared flax is used in the manufacture of linen cloth, and the latter is
almost exclusively used for table-cloths, napkins, shirt-bosoms, collars,
cuffs, and handkerchiefs. France is noted for the manufacture of linen lawns
and cambrics, and Belfast, Ireland, for table-cloths and napkins. Nearly the

whole linen product is consumed in the United States, Canada, and western
Europe; indeed, linen is a mark of western civilization. Great Britain
handles the greater part of the linen textiles.
Hemp.—The true hemp of commerce is the bast or inner bark of a plant,
Cannabis sativa, belonging to the nettle order. It is an annual plant having a
very wide range; it occurs in pretty nearly every country of North America,
Europe, and Asia. In Europe the chief countries producing it for commercial
uses are Russia, France, Italy, and Hungary; in the United States it is grown
in California and the central Mississippi Valley. Russia produces the largest
crop; Italy the finest quality of fibre, the best coming from the vicinity of
Bologna.
The stalks grow three feet or more in height. When cultivated for the fibre
they are pulled from the ground, stripped of their leaves and soaked until
the fibre is free. They are then "retted," or beaten, and the fibre is removed.
After preparation the fibre is used mainly for the manufacture of wrapping-
twine, cordage, and a coarse canvas. Great Britain is the chief purchaser and
manufacturer.
Manila Hemp.—Manila hemp is the name given to a fibre obtained from
the leaves of a plant, Musa textilis, belonging to the banana family. The best
fibres are from six to nine feet in length, of light amber color, and very
strong. The leaves, torn into narrow strips by hand, are afterward scraped by
hand until the fibre is free of pulp. The long and coarser fibres are made
into rope; the shorter fibres are beaten and hetcheled in the same manner as
flax, until fine enough to weave into mats, carpets, and fine cloth. The
fibres that have served their usefulness as rope are pulped and manufactured
into manila paper.
Practically all the manila fibre of commerce—which is not hemp at all—is
grown in the Philippine Islands, and since peace has prevailed, the growth
and production is increasing. The crude fibre is prepared by hand, by
Filipino or by Chinese labor. The manufacture of cordage and paper is done
mainly in the United States and Great Britain. Fine hand-made textiles are
made by a few Filipino natives, but most of the goods of this character are
manufactured in France. Very fine fibre is sometimes used as an adulterant
of silk. Great Britain and the United States are the chief purchasers.

Sisal Hemp.—Sisal hemp, or henequen, is a stout, stringy fibre obtained
from the thick leaves of several species of agave, to which the maguey and
century-plant belong. The cultivated species, from which most of the
commercial product is obtained, is the Agave sisalina, which much
resembles the ordinary century-plant.
The essential feature in the economic production of sisal hemp is machinery
for separating the fibre from the pulp of the leaf. The fibre is whiter,
cleaner, and lighter than jute; moreover, in strength it ranks next to the best
quality of manila hemp. It is used mainly in the manufacture of grain-sacks,
and the twine used on self-binding harvesters. Nearly all the fibre of
commerce is grown in the Mexican state of Yucatan and consumed in the
United States. The cultivation of this material has made Yucatan one of the
most prosperous states of Mexico.
Jute.—Jute is a fibre obtained from the inner bark of a tropical plant,
Corchorus olitorius, belonging to the same order as the linden-tree. The
plant is an annual, growing in various moist, tropical countries, but is
extensively cultivated in India and parts of China for commercial purposes.
The fibre is prepared for manufacture in much the same manner as hemp
and flax. In India it is used mainly for the manufacture of a coarse textile
known as gunny cloth, used as bale-wrappers, and sacks for coffee and rice.
On the Pacific coast states it is used for wheat-sacks. Calcutta is the chief
centre of manufacture, but jute-sacks are extensively manufactured by the
Chinese in California and China.
Ramie.—This fibre, also known as China grass, is the best of two or more
species of nettles, prepared in the same manner as hemp fibre. It is finer and
stronger than jute, and will take dye-stuffs in a superior manner. With the
introduction of machinery for separating and handling the fibre, the
cultivation of the ramie-plant has spread from China to India, Japan, and the
United States. Fine textiles are now manufactured from it, the most
important being carpets, mattings, and American "Smyrna" rugs. The last
are generally sold as jute-rugs, and they are nearly as durable as woollen
floor-covers.
Other Economic Fibres.—The fibre of cocoanut husk is largely employed
in the manufacture of coarse matting. A part of this is obtained from tropical

America, but it is a regular export of British India, where it is known as
coir.
The mid-rib of the screw pine growing in the forests of tropical America
furnishes the material of which "Panama" hats are made. The hats are made
in various parts of Ecuador, Venezuela, and Colombia, and were formerly
marketed in Panama. Hats made of a score of grasses and fibres are also
sold as Panamas.
A plant (Phormium tenax) having leaves somewhat like those of the iris or
common flag furnishes the material of which New Zealand flax is prepared.
It is used mainly in the manufacture of cordage.
Plaiting straw, used in the manufacture of hats and bonnets, is grown
extensively in northern Italy and in Belgium. For this product spring wheat
is very thickly sown in a soil rich in lime. The thick sowing produces a
long, slender stalk; the lime gives it whiteness and strength. Plaiting straw
is also exported from China and Japan. British merchants handle most of
the product.
Cuba bast, a fibre readily bleached to whiteness, is exported to the various
establishments in which women's hats are made.
Esparto grass, also called alfa, grows in Spain and the northern part of
Africa. It was formerly much used in the manufacture of the cheaper grades
of paper, but it has been largely supplanted by wood-pulp for this purpose.
The decline of the esparto grass industry led to no little unrest among some
of the native tribes of northern Africa.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
What fibres were used in cloth-making in Europe before cotton was employed?
What textiles are of necessity made of cotton?
What is a spinning jenny?—a Jacquard loom?
What are the specific differences between cotswold and merino wool?
Why were most of the cloth-making mills of the United States built at first in the New England
States?
How is the silk-making industry encouraged in the United States?

What are the chief linen manufacturing countries?

FOR STUDY AND REFERENCE
Obtain specimens of the cotton seed, boll, raw cotton (sea island, Peruvian, and ordinary), cotton
thread, calico, gingham, domestic, canvas, and some of the fancy textiles such as organdie, lawn, etc.
Obtain specimens of the cocoons of the silk-worm, raw silk gros-grain cloth, pongee, and tussar silk
cloth.
Obtain also specimens of merino cloth, cashmere, cheviot, and other similar goods; compare them
and note the difference.
Examine the fibres of cotton, silk, and wool under a microscope and note the difference.

COFFEE DRYING FIELD, BRAZIL

BRANCH OF COFFEE TREE,
WEST BRAZIL

COFFEE PLANTATION NEAR JOLO,
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

CHAPTER X
PLANT PRODUCTS OF ECONOMIC USE—BEVERAGES
AND MEDICINAL SUBSTANCES

It may be assumed that practically all beverages derived from plants owe
their popularity to the stimulant effects they produce. In coffee, tea, cocoa,
and maté, the stimulant principle is identical with cafein, the active
principle of coffee; in liquors it is a powerful narcotic alcohol; non-potable
substances, tobacco, opium, etc., owe their popularity also to narcotic
poisons.
Coffee.—The coffee "beans" of commerce are the seeds of a tree (Coffea
arabica) probably native to Abyssinia, but now cultivated in various parts
of the world. It was introduced into Aden from Africa late in the fifteenth
century, and from there its use spread to other cities. Rather singularly its
popularity resulted from the strong efforts made to forbid its use.
It was regarded as a stimulant and therefore it was forbidden to followers of
Islam.[34] But its power to prevent drowsiness and sleep during the
intolerably long religious exercises was a winning feature, and so its use
became general in spite of the fulminations against it.
Coffee culture was confined to Arabia until the close of the seventeenth
century; it was then introduced into the Dutch East Indies, and for many
years the island of Java became the main supply of the world. At the present
time, Java is second only to Brazil in coffee production. In the Old World it
is now also cultivated along the Guinea coast of Africa, in Madagascar,
India, and Ceylon. In the New World the chief areas are Brazil, Venezuela,
the Central American States, and the West Indies.

COFFEE PRODUCING REGIONS

The coffee-tree may be cultivated in almost any soil that is fertile; it thrives
best, however, in red soil. Old, decomposed red lavas produce the choicest
beans. Coffee grows in any moist climate in which the temperature does not
range higher than 80° F. nor lower than 55° F. An occasional frost injures
but does not necessarily kill the trees, which grow better in the shade than
in the sunlight. For convenience in gathering the crop, the trees are pruned
until they are not higher than bushes.
The fruit of the coffee-tree is a deep-red berry not quite so large as a cherry.
A juicy pulp encloses a double membrane, or endocarp, and within the latter
are the seeds which constitute the coffee of commerce. Normally there are
two seeds, but in some varieties there is a tendency for one seed to mature,
leaving the other undeveloped; this is the "peaberry" coffee of commerce.
The so-called Mocha coffee is a peaberry.
In their preparation the berries are picked when ripe and deprived of their
pulp. After pulping they are cured in the sun for about a week and then
hulled, or divested of the endocarp, a process requiring expensive
machinery. The coffee is then cleaned, and sacked.

The value of the product depends on two factors, age and the care with
which it is sorted. Formerly, in the Dutch East Indies, coffee-growing, for
the greater part, was a government privilege, and the crop was kept for
several years in storage before it was permitted to be sold—therefore the
term "Old Government" Java. Other coffee was designated as "Private
Plantations." The quality of coffee is greatly improved with age. Brazilian
and other American coffee-beans are rarely seasoned by storage.
American coffees are almost wholly sorted by machinery. This process,
however, merely collects beans of the same size; it still leaves the good and
the bad beans together, though it is to be said that among the largest beans
there are fewer poor ones. In the coffees handled by the Arab dealers all the
sorting is done by hand, the very choice grade selling in the large cities of
Europe for the equivalent of nearly three dollars per pound. All machine-
sorted coffee is greatly improved by a subsequent hand-sorting to remove
the imperfect beans.
The naming of the different kinds of coffee is somewhat arbitrary. Thus,
Brazilian coffees are commercially known as Rio because they are shipped
from the port of Rio de Janeiro; the same name is applied to the product
shipped from Santos. Nearly all Venezuela coffees are called Maracaibo
although they differ much in kind and quality; most Central American
coffee is sold as Costa Rica; most peaberry varieties are known as Mocha;
and most of the East India product is popularly called Java, no matter
whence it comes.

COFFEE PRODUCTION

Of the American coffees Rio constitutes about half the world's product.
After sorting, the larger beans are often marketed as Java coffee, and when
the beans have been roasted it is exceedingly difficult to tell the difference.
The best Maracaibo is regarded as choice coffee, but its flavor is not liked
by all coffee-drinkers. The best Honduras and Puerto Rico coffees take a
high rank and command very high prices, retailing in some instances at
sixty cents per pound. A very choice peaberry is grown in the volcanic soils
of Mexico to which the name of Oaxaca is given; most of it is sold in the
United States as a choice Mocha.
Mocha is the commercial name of a coffee at one time marketed in the
Arabian city of that name. Since the completion of the Suez Canal, Hodeida
has been the chief centre of the Arabian coffee-trade. Formerly most of this
coffee was grown in the Province of Yemen, but now it is brought to
Hodeida, from Egypt, Ceylon, and India.
About all the product is hand-sorted. The choicest is sold in Constantinople,
Cairo, and other cities near by, in some instances bringing five dollars per
pound. Very little, and only that of the most inferior quality, ever finds its
way into western Europe or the United States. Even the best Mocha is not
superior to fine Oaxaca coffee.
Java coffee is renowned the world over for its fine flavor. The best quality
was formerly that which had been held in storage to season for a few years.
The government coffee was generally the better, but some of the private
plantations crop is now equally good. Some of the Sumatra coffees are
equal to the best Java beans.
The Liberia coffees have never been favorites in the United States on
account of their flavor. In Europe they are used for blending with other
varieties.
Of the entire coffee-crop of the world, the United States consumes more
than three-quarters of a billion pounds—a yearly average of very nearly
eleven pounds for each inhabitant. This is nearly three times as much per
inhabitant as is consumed in Germany, and almost fifteen times the average
used in Great Britain. Nearly all the world's crop is consumed in the United
States and western Europe.

Chicory, parched grain, pease, and burnt parsnip are sometimes added as
adulterants to ground coffee. Of those, chicory most nearly resembles
coffee in flavor and taste. It is harmless and usually improves the flavor of
inferior coffee. A tariff recently placed upon chicory has somewhat lessened
the use of it.
Tea.—The tea of commerce consists of the dried and prepared leaves of an
evergreen shrub (Thea chinensis) belonging most probably to the camellia
family. Tea has been a commercial product of China for more than fourteen
hundred years, but seems to have been carried thither from India about five
hundred years before the Christian era; for its virtues were praised by (the
probably mythical) Chinung, an emperor of that period.
The cultivated plants are scarcely higher than bushes, but the wild plant
found in India is a tree fifteen or twenty feet in height. The cultivated plant
is quite hardy; severe winters kill it but ordinary freezing weather merely
retards its growth. It thrives best in red, mouldy soils; the choicest varieties
are grown in new soils. The leaves are not picked until the plants are three
or four years old.
Two general classes of tea are known in commerce—the green and the
black. Formerly these were grown on different varieties of the plant, but in
the newer plantations no distinction is made in the matter of variety; the
color is due wholly to the manner of preparation.
The plants are watched carefully during the seasons of picking, of which
there are three or four each year. The April picking yields the choicest crop
of leaves, and only the youngest leaves and buds are taken.[35] A single
plant rarely yields more than four or five ounces of tea yearly. Each acre of
a tea-garden yields about three hundred and fifty pounds.
After picking, the leaves are partly crushed and allowed to wilt until they
begin to turn brown in color. They are then rolled between the hands and
either dried very slowly in the sun, or else rapidly in pans over a charcoal
fire—a process known as "firing." The former method produces black, the
latter green, tea. The color of the latter is sometimes heightened by the use
of a mixture of powdered gypsum and Prussian blue. In the black teas the
green coloring matter of the leaf is destroyed by fermentation; in the green
teas it remains unchanged.

The greater part of the Chinese tea designed for export is packed rather
loosely in wooden chests lined with sheet-lead, the folds and joints of which
are soldered in order to make the cover both air-tight and moisture-tight. A
full chest contains seventy-five pounds of tea. The Japan product is also
packed in moisture-tight wrappers, the original parcels being usually ten-
pound, five-pound, and pound packages. Similar devices are used in
preparing the India and Formosa teas for ocean shipment.
The chief tea-producing countries are India (including Ceylon) China,
Japan (including Formosa), and Java. A successful tea-garden is in
operation near Charleston, S.C. A small amount is grown in the Fiji and
Samoan Islands. The Ceylon and Formosa teas take a very high rank.

AREA OF TEA PRODUCTION

Great Britain and her colonies consume the bulk of the tea-crop. The
average yearly consumption per person is eight pounds in Australia, six in

Great Britain and Cape of Good Hope, and more than four in Canada. In the
United States and Russia it is less than one pound per person.
Before the opening of the Suez Canal, in 1869, most of the crop for the
English market was despatched by way of Cape of Good Hope. So
important was it to get the consignments to London without loss of time,
that fast clipper ships were built especially for carrying tea. Since the
opening of the canal the crop has been shipped mainly by the Suez route.
A part of the tea required for the United States reaches New York by way of
the Suez Canal, but the movement is gradually changing since the building
of the fast liners that now ply between Asian and American ports. These
steamships carry it to Seattle, or to Vancouver, whence it is distributed by
rail. The increased cost of shipment by this route is more than offset by a
gain of from five to seven days in time.
In some respects the Russian "caravan route" is the most important channel
of the tea-trade. The tea is collected mainly at Tientsin, and sent by camel
caravans through Manchuria to the most convenient point on the Siberian
railway. Not only the shipments of brick tea[36] for the Russian market, but
the choicest products for western Europe also are sent by this route. It is
probably an economical way of shipping the brick tea, but a more expensive
method of shipment for the latter could not be found easily; it is preferred
from the fact that, no matter how carefully sealed, the flavor of tea is
materially injured by an ocean voyage.
It is evident, therefore, that for the tea product alone the Siberian railway
will soon become an important factor in the commerce of Europe.
Shipments of tea are also sent from Canton to Odessa, Russia, but this route
is not less expensive in the long run than the Cape route, and the tea suffers
as much deterioration from the shorter as from the longer voyage.
Cacao.—Cacao, the "cocoa" of commerce, consists of the prepared seeds of
several species of Theobroma, the greater part being obtained from the
Theobroma cacao. The name is unfortunately confused with that of the
cocoa-palm, but there is no relation whatever between the two.
The seeds of the cacao were used in ancient America long before its
discovery by Columbus, and the latter carried the first knowledge of it to

Europe. By the middle of the seventeenth century it was much used in
Spain, and less than a hundred years later it had become the fashionable
drink of western Europe.
The cacao-tree, originally native to Mexico, is now cultivated throughout
tropical America and the West Indies. It is not cultivated to any extent in the
Eastern continent. The fruit consists of large, fleshy pods, which are cut
from the trees usually in June and December. The seeds are then piled in
heaps, or else packed in pits, and allowed to undergo a rapid fermentation
for a period of several days, to which process their flavor is mainly due. The
roasted and broken seeds are the cocoa-nibs of commerce. The husks are
known as cocoa-shells.
A very large part of the cacao product comes from Ecuador, Guayaquil
being perhaps the chief market of the world. The Venezuelan and Brazilian
products, however, are the choicest; these are known in commerce
respectively as Caracas and Trinidad cacao. Spain, Portugal, and France are
the chief purchasers, and in the first-named country the consumption per
person is five or six times as great as in other countries.
Cacao is not only a stimulant beverage, but a food as well; about one-half
its weight is fat, and about one-third consists of starch and flesh-making
substances. The stimulant principle is the same as that occurring in tea and
coffee, but the proportion is considerably less. In preparing the cocoa for
the market, much of the fat is intentionally withdrawn. The fat,
commercially known as "cocoa-butter," and "oil of theobroma," does not
turn rancid.
Chocolate consists of cocoa ground to a paste with sugar and flavoring
matter, and then cast in moulds to harden. It is used mainly in the
manufacture of confectionery. Most of the chocolate is made in France,
Spain, and the United States. More than forty million pounds of cocoa are
yearly consumed in the United States.
Maté.—Maté, yerba maté, or Paraguay tea, is the leaf of a shrub, a species
of holly, growing profusely in the forests of Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina,
and Uruguay. In many instances, the shrub is cultivated. The leaves are
prepared in much the same manner as tea-leaves are, but instead of being
rolled, they are broken by beating.

The maté of commerce has a stimulant principle identical with that of tea
and coffee, which is the only reason for its use. The consumption, about
fifteen thousand tons a year, is confined almost wholly to the countries
named.
Tobacco.—The tobacco of commerce is the prepared and manufactured leaf
of several species of plant, belonging to the nightshade family. Most of the
product is derived from the species known as Virginia tobacco (Nicotiana
tabacum) and the Brazilian species (Nicotiana rustica). The former is
cultivated in the United States, West Indies, the Philippine Islands, and
Turkey; the latter has been transplanted to central Europe and the East
Indies.
The use of tobacco was prevalent in the New World at the time of
Columbus's first voyage, and was quickly introduced into Europe. The
prepared leaf contains a substance, nicotine, which is one of the most
deadly of poisons when swallowed, and an intense narcotic stimulant when
inhaled. On account of the evil effects arising from its introduction, its use
was forbidden by the Church and also by sovereigns of several European
states. The latter, however, finding that its use was becoming general, made
it a Crown monopoly. In Great Britain its cultivation was forbidden in order
to encourage its cultivation in Virginia.
Tobacco does not thrive best in a poor soil, but the latter produces a thin,
half-developed leaf, which in other plants would be called "sickly." It grows
in almost any kind of soil, but requires warm summer nights. In many
instances the tobacco of temperate latitudes yields a more salable leaf when
grown under cover. The flavor is due partly to soil and climate, and partly to
skill in curing. The choicest product is obtained in only a few localities of
limited area. It sometimes happens that the products of two plantations
almost side by side, and similarly situated, are very unlike in character and
quality.
The choicest cigar-tobacco is grown on the Vuelta Abajo district in the
province of Pinar del Rio, Cuba; another very choice Cuban leaf is known
as Partidos. Cuban-made cigars of fine quality are commercially "Havana"
cigars, although tobacco from Manila and Porto Rico is apt to be largely
used in their manufacture. In order to avoid the very heavy duty on cigars,

which is not far from
six dollars per pound, a
great deal of the
Havana tobacco is
exported to points
along the Florida coast,
mainly Key West and
Tampa. The
unmanufactured
tobacco pays a
comparatively small
duty, and the cigars
made from it are
commercially known
as "Key West."
In some parts of
Mexico a fine-flavored
tobacco is grown, but TOBACCO

as the cigars are not
uniform in quality they are not popular. Some of the Brazilian tobacco is a
high-class product, but not much is exported. Porto Rican leaf has a fine
flavor, but is not popular because of its dark color. The demand for it in the
United States is growing, however. Of the leaf grown in the East, that from
Sumatra and the Philippine Islands is by far the best, and the exports are
heavy. Cuban manufacturers purchase the Manila leaf; the Sumatra
wrappers are purchased in the United States.
The choicest cigarette-tobacco is grown in Asiatic Turkey, Transcaucasia,
and Egypt. It is selected with great care, and is "long-cut." The common
grades are made of chopped Virginia tobacco, or of chopped cigar-
trimmings. The cheapest grades consist of refuse leaf mixed with half-
smoked cigar-stumps. The United States leads in the manufacture of
cigarettes, and a large part of the product is sold in China, India, and Japan.
Most of the world's product of snuff is made in the United States, and
nearly all of it is sold abroad.

The United States produces yearly about seven hundred million pounds. A
large part of this is sold to European countries. Great Britain purchases
about four-fifths of the tobacco there consumed from the United States. The
latter country purchases from Europe (mainly the Netherlands) about half as
much as it sells to Europe. Louisville, Ky., is probably the largest tobacco-
market in the world. New York, Baltimore, Richmond, Manila, and Havana
are the chief shipping-ports.
In almost every civilized country tobacco is heavily taxed. In the United
States there is not only a heavy import duty, but an internal revenue in
addition. In Austria, France, Italy, Japan, and Spain the manufacture and
sale is in the hands of the government. The consumption of tobacco varies
greatly. In the Netherlands it averages about seven pounds a year to each
individual; in the United States it is more than four pounds; in central
Europe, three pounds; in Spain, Sweden, Great Britain, and Italy, it is less
than two pounds.
Opium.—The opium of commerce is the hardened juice obtained from the
seed capsules of several species of the poppy-plant. A variety having a large
capsule (Papaver somniferum) is most commonly cultivated for the
commercial production of the substance. Half-a-dozen times during the
season the capsules are scratched or cut; the juice exuding when hard is
picked or scraped off and pressed into cakes.
Opium is not only a narcotic poison, but it has the property of lessening the
pain of disease, and this is its chief use in medicine. In Mohammedan
countries where the use of alcoholic liquors is forbidden as a religious
custom, opium is used as a substitute. In Turkey, Persia, Arabia, and Egypt
the production of opium is an important industry connected with social and
religious life. In British India it is a political factor, being extensively
cultivated as a government monopoly to be sold to the Chinese, who are
probably the chief consumers of it. The Indian Government derives a
revenue sometimes reaching twenty million dollars from this source.
The best quality of opium is marketed at Smyrna, and most of this is
purchased by the United States. A considerable amount of Chinese opium is
imported for the use of the Chinese, and a larger amount is probably
smuggled over the Canadian and Mexican borders. Laudanum is an

alcoholic tincture, and morphine an extractive of opium; both are used as
medicine.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
Consult a good physiology and learn the effects of coffee, tea, tobacco, and opium.
Where and what are the following: Mocha, Java, Maracaibo, Yokohama, Amoy, Canton, Oaxaca,
Hodeida, Rio Janeiro, Santos, Havana; how is each connected commercially with this chapter?
From the map, Fig. 1, trace the route of a cargo of tea overland from China to Great Britain.
Consult an English history or a cyclopædia and learn about the opium war.

FOR STUDY AND REFERENCE
Obtain samples of the following, preserving them for study and inspection in closely stoppered vials:
Mocha, Java, Rio, and Sumatra coffees; green, black, and gunpowder tea. Soak a tea-leaf a few
minutes in warm water; unroll the leaf and attach it to a white card, for study.
Obtain samples of gum opium, laudanum, and morphine; note the odor of the first two and the taste
of the last. Remember that they are poisonous.
Unroll a cheap cigarette and note the character of the tobacco in it, using a magnifying glass.

CHAPTER XI
GUMS AND RESINS USED IN THE ARTS

Most vegetable juices exposed to the air harden into firm substances,
commonly called gum. Some of these dissolve, or at least soften, in water;
these technically are known as "gums," and usually are so designated in
commerce. Others are insoluble in water, but dissolve readily in alcohol, in
naphtha, in turpentine, or in other essential oils; these are designated as
"gum-resins." Still others yield oils or pitchy substances on distillation;
these are known as "oleo-resins." There are many other dried vegetable
juices, however, that in commerce are not classified among the gums and
resins, and of these the most important is the substance commonly known
as india-rubber.
Rubber and Rubber Products.—"Caoutchouc" is approximately the name
given by Indians of the Amazon forests to a substance that had also been
found in India. Some of it was brought to Europe from the Amazon region
as early as 1736, and for nearly one hundred years no general purpose was
discovered for which it could be used, except to erase lead-pencil marks—
hence the name india-rubber, which has held ever since.
Common rubber is the prepared juice of a dozen or more shrubs and trees,
all of which grow in tropical regions.[37] The belt of rubber-producing
plants extends around the world and includes such well-known species as
the fig, the manihot (or manioc), and the oleander; indeed, it is a condition
of sap rather than a definite species of plant that produces rubber, and the
latter is a manufactured rather than a natural product. The process of
preparing the juice is practically the same in every part of the world.

The rubber-gatherer of the Amazon, who is practically a slave, wades into
the swamp, makes several incisions in the bark of the tree, fashions a rough
trough of clay under it, and waits till the sap fills the clay vessel. When the
sap has been gathered he makes a fire of the nuts of the urucuri palm and
places an inverted funnel over it to concentrate the smoke. He first dips the
end of a wooden spindle into the juice and then holds it in the smoke until
the juice coagulates; this process is repeated until there has formed a ball of
rubber weighing from five to ten pounds. The smoke of the palm-nuts is a
chemical agent that converts the juice into the crude rubber of commerce.
Crude gum, however, is lacking both in strength and elasticity. The process
that makes it a finished product is known as vulcanization. The crude
rubber, having been exported to the manufacturer in the United States or
Europe, is shredded, washed, and cleansed, and partly fused with varying
proportions of sulphur. For a very soft product, such as the inner surface of
tires, only a small proportion is used; where the wear is considerable, a
larger proportion is employed.[38] White clay is sometimes added to give
body to the product; coloring matter is also sometimes added.
By far the greater part of the crude rubber comes from the Amazon forests.
Brazil produces about one-half, but a considerable quantity is obtained in
Acré, the territory formed where the borders of Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru
meet, and now ceded to Brazil. Nearly all this product, that of the Ceará
region excepted, is marketed at Pará and is known as Pará rubber. It is the
best produced. The African product, mainly from the forests of the Kongo,
and Madagascar, and nearly all the East Indian product is sent to Europe.

REGIONS YIELDING RUBBER

The world's product is about one hundred and thirty-three million pounds of
crude rubber. Of this product the United States takes nearly one-half. The
greater part is used in the manufacture of pneumatic tires, hose, and
overshoes. A large part is used for making water-proof cloth,[39] and
considerable is made into the small elastic bands for which there is a
growing use.
Gutta-Percha.—Gutta-percha is obtained from the juices of several plants
(chiefly Dichopsis gutta and Supota mülleri) both of which abound in the
Malay peninsula and the East Indies. It is prepared in a manner somewhat
similar to that employed in making crude rubber; it is also easily vulcanized
by heating with sulphur. It is used to a limited extent in the manufacture of
golf-balls, but mainly as the insulating cover of copper wires used in ocean
telegraph cables. For this purpose it has no known substitute, and its
essential merit is the fact that it is not altered by salt water. Nearly all the
product is shipped from Singapore to England.
Pine-Tree Products.—The various members of the pine and cone-bearing
trees yield valuable essential oils and oleo-resins that are very important in

the arts and sciences. These, in nearly every instance, are prepared from the
sap of the tree.
Oil of turpentine is known as an "essential oil," and in chemical structure
and properties it does not differ from the various essential oils, such as
lemon, orange, peppermint, etc. Commercial turpentine is generally made
from the sap of the long-leafed pine of the Atlantic coast-plain.
The bark of the tree is cut near the foot, and the sap that oozes from the scar
quickly hardens into a gum. The gum, generally known as "crude
turpentine," is distilled and yields about one-fourth its weight of oil or
"spirit" of turpentine. It is a staple article of manufacture in Europe, India,
and the United States, and is used chiefly to dilute the oil paints and
varnishes used in indoor work. The United States supplies about two-thirds
of the world's product, a large part of which is shipped from Savannah and
Brunswick, Ga., to Great Britain.[40]
Resin is the substance remaining after the crude turpentine has been
distilled. It is used in the manufacture of varnish, sealing-wax, and soap.
Finely powdered resin is also mixed with wood-pulp in the manufacture of
wrapping-paper. It gives the latter a glazed surface and renders it almost
water-proof. Most of the world's product of resin comes from the turpentine
district of the United States, and about four-fifths of it is exported to
Europe.
When resin is subjected to distillation at a still higher temperature, resin oil,
a very heavy turpentine, is given off, and a viscous substance known as
pitch remains. A considerable amount of this is still made in the United
States, but the greater part comes from the pine-forests of Russia and
Scandinavia. When pine-wood is distilled, tar is the chief product. In Russia
tar is generally made by burning green logs covered with turf, over a pit.
Creosote, or wood preservative, is made from tar. The various pine-tree
products, creosote excepted, are commonly known as "naval stores," the tar
being used in water-proofing the rigging of vessels, the pitch in calking the
seams in between planks, in the decks and hulls.
Other Resins and Gums Used in the Arts.—Most of the gums and resins
used in the arts and sciences are the hardened sap of plants—in some cases

exuding by natural means from the bark, in others resulting from the
puncture of the bark.
The lac of commerce is due to the puncture of the young branches of a tree,
frequently a fig (Ficus religiosa) growing in the tropical forests of India.
The hardened sap incrusts twigs forming stick-lac; when crushed, washed,
and freed from the woody matter it is seed-lac; when melted and cooled in
flakes it is shell-lac, the form best known in commerce. It is the chief
ingredient in sealing-wax, and is extensively used as a varnish. It is also
used in fireworks on account of its inflammability.
Dammar is the product of a tree growing in the East Indies; it is the basis of
a very fine white varnish. Copal is a term applied to oleo-resins soluble in
turpentine, and used almost universally as varnishes. They come from the
tropical regions of South America, Africa, and from the East Indies. Kauri
is the fossil gum of a cone-bearing tree dug from the ground in northern
New Zealand. Amber is the fossil gum of extinct cone-bearing trees found
mainly along the Baltic coast of Prussia. It is used chiefly for the mouth-
pieces of tobacco-pipes and cigar-holders; the inferior product is made into
varnish. It is sold wherever tobacco is used. Sandarach, found on the north
African coast, is used principally in Europe, being employed as a varnish.
The United States and Great Britain consume most of the foregoing
products.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
Name any elastic substance you know about that is in every way a substitute for rubber.
What has been the relation between rubber and good roads?
Describe the structure of a bicycle tire.
Why are tar, pitch, and turpentine called naval stores?—and what determines the locality in which
they are made?
What is varnish, and for what purposes is it used?

FOR STUDY AND REFERENCE
Obtain specimens of crude rubber, vulcanized rubber, and hard rubber; note carefully the
characteristics of each.
Burn a very small piece of cheap white rubber-tubing in an iron spoon or a fire-shovel; note the
character of the residue.

Obtain specimens of gutta-percha, resin, pitch, turpentine, shellac, copal, dammar, and creosote for
study and inspection.

CHAPTER XII
COAL AND PETROLEUM

The economic history of nearly every country that has achieved eminence
in modern times dates from its use of coal and iron; and indeed the presence
of these substances in workable deposits means almost unlimited power.
The present era is sometimes called the Age of Steel, but the possibilities of
producing steel in enormous quantities, at less than one-fifth its price at the
beginning of the nineteenth century, depended mainly upon the use of
mineral coal instead of charcoal in its manufacture.
Coal consists of accumulations of vegetable matter that were formed in
prior geological ages. Under the action of heat and moisture, and also the
tremendous pressure of the rock layers that afterward covered them, the
vegetable matter was converted to mineral coal.
The aggregate coal-fields of the United States are not far from two hundred
thousand square miles in extent, but of this area not much more than one-
half is workable. In Europe there are estimated to be about one hundred
thousand square miles of coal-lands, of which about half are productive at
the present time. Of this Great Britain has 12,000 square miles, Spain 4,000,
France 2,000, Germany 1,800, and Belgium 500. In Canada there are about
20,000 square miles of coal-land; a part of this is included in the Nanaimo
field on the Pacific coast, but the most important are the Nova Scotia beds,
which form about the only supply for the British naval stations of America.
China has extensive coal-fields.
In character coal is broadly divided into two classes—anthracite or hard,
and bituminous or soft, coal. Anthracite coal occurs in folded and
metamorphic rocks. It is hard and glassy, and does not split into thin layers

or leaves. The beds have been subjected to intense heat and pressure, and
the coal has but a very small amount—rarely more than five per cent.—of
volatile matter; it burns, therefore, with little or no smoke and soot, and on
this account is very desirable as a fuel in cities. Two areas in Colorado and
New Mexico produce small quantities of pure anthracite; practically all the
commercial anthracite comes from three small basins in Pennsylvania. In
quality it is known as "red ash" and "white ash," the former being the
superior.
The yearly output of the anthracite mines is upward of fifty-five million
long tons a year, or somewhat less than five million tons per month. In
winter the rate of consumption is somewhat greater than that of production.
A shortage in the summer production is therefore apt to be keenly felt in the
winter. Before shipment to the market the coal is crushed at the breakers,
sorted in different sizes, and washed.
Most of the anthracite coal-mines are owned by the railway companies
centring at New York and Philadelphia, or else are operated by companies
controlled by the railways. About one-fourth of the output is produced by
independent operators who, as a rule, sell their coal to the railway
companies. The Reading, Pennsylvania, Central of New Jersey,
Lackawanna, Lehigh Valley, Ontario & Western, Erie, and Delaware &
Hudson are popularly known as "coalers" because the larger part of their
eastern business consists in carrying anthracite coal.

A VIEW OF THREE COLLIERIES IN THE ANTHRACITE COAL BASIN NEAR
MAHANOY CITY, PA.

Formerly much of the coal was shipped by canals, but the latter were not
able to compete with the railways, and most of the coal-canals have been
abandoned. The price of anthracite at tide-water (New York) varies from
$3.20 to $4.50 per long ton. At Philadelphia the price is about one-fourth
less. Buffalo is the chief lake-port for anthracite. Steam sizes are about two-
thirds the price of house fuel.

COAL FIELDS IN UNITED STATES

Bituminous, or soft coal furnishes the larger part of the house fuel in the
United States, and nearly all the house coal used in other parts of the world.
It contains from fifteen to more than forty per cent. of volatile matter,
burning with a long and smoky flame. The coal which contains twenty per
cent. or less of volatile matter is a free-burning coal that may develop heat
enough to partly fuse the ash, forming "clinkers"; it is therefore called
"caking" coal, and is not only well adapted for use as fuel and steam-
making, but it is also a good smelting coal.
Coal which contains more than thirty per cent. of volatile matter is known
as "fat" coal and is generally used in the manufacture of coke and
illuminating gas. Western Pennsylvania produces the largest amount of fat
coal, but it is found here and there in nearly all soft-coal regions. A so-
called smokeless bituminous coal occurs in various localities; its low
percentage of volatile matter makes it an excellent house fuel.
Bituminous coal is mined in twenty-five States of the Union, Pennsylvania,
Illinois, West Virginia, and Ohio heading the list. In about half the mines the
coal is cut from the seam by means of machinery and is known as machine-
mined coal. A very large part of the product is consumed within a short

distance of the mines, and this is especially true of the region about the
upper Ohio River.

COAL PRODUCTION

Most of the product is shipped to the large manufacturing cities of the
middle west, where it is used for steam as well as fuel; a very large amount
also is sent down the Ohio in barges to the lower Mississippi River. The
spot value of bituminous coal varies from $0.80 to $1.60 per ton; the
product of the Pacific coast mines, however, is from $3 to $5.
The output of the mines of the United States aggregates about two hundred
and forty million long tons yearly, and this is about one-third of the world's
product. For many years there has been an export trade to Canada, the West
Indies, Central and South America, amounting in 1900 to 8,000,000 tons.
Within a few years, however, the decreased cost of mining due to
machinery, and the low rates of transportation to the seaboard has
developed an export trade to Russia, Germany, and France.
A small amount of coal
is imported into the
United States. A
superior quality of
Australian coal finds a
ready market in Pacific
coast points as far COAL
north as San Francisco,
and large quantities of Nanaimo, B.C., coal are sold in Oregon, Washington,

and California. A small quantity of the "slack" or waste of the Nova Scotia
mines is imported to Boston to be made into coke. The Canadian fields
supply a considerable part of the coal used in Montana.
Coke and Coal-Tar Products.—In the manufacture of iron and steel a fuel
having a high percentage of carbon free from volatile matter is essential.
The great cost of wood charcoal forbids its use, and so a charcoal made
from soft coal is used. Fat coal is heated in closed chambers until the
volatile matter is driven off. The product is "coke"; the closed chamber is an
"oven." The ovens are built of stone or fire-brick, in a long row. They are
usually on an abrupt slope, so that the coal can be dumped into the top,
while the coke can be withdrawn from the bottom, to be loaded into cars.
About three thousand one hundred and forty pounds of coal are required to
make a short ton of coke; from three thousand to five thousand cubic feet of
illuminating gas, together with varying amounts of coal-tar and ammonia,
are driven off and generally wasted. In a few instances "scientific" ovens
are in use for the purpose of saving these products; but in the coal-mining
regions such devices are the exception and not the rule. The great waste of
energy-products in the manufacture of coke is partly offset by the
employment of refuse and slack, which could not be otherwise used.
There are more than five hundred and eighteen thousand coke-ovens in the
United States, of which eighty per cent. are in use. Most of them are in the
region about the upper Ohio River, and nearly half the total number is in the
vicinity of Connellsville. The region around Birmingham, Ala., ranks next
in number. The coke product of the United States is more than twenty
million short tons a year. This is considerably less than the product of Great
Britain, which is upward of twenty-five million tons.
Most of the "scientific" ovens are near or in large cities where the gas, after
purification, is used for illuminating purposes. In some instances the coke,
and not the gas, is a by-product. The coal-tar is used in part for fuel, but a
portion of it goes to the chemical laboratory, where it is made to yield
ammonia, benzine, carbolic acid, and aniline dyes to the value of nearly
seven million dollars.
Graphite.—Graphite, plumbago, or "black lead," as it is popularly named,
is found in many parts of the United States, but only a few localities

produce a good commercial article; these are Ticonderoga, N. Y., which
yields from six hundred to two thousand tons a year, and Chester County,
Pa., which yields a small but increasing amount; a good quality is mined
near Ottawa, Canada. It is extensively mined in Ceylon, and this island
produces the chief bulk of the world's ordinary product. The finest grade
comes from the Alibert mine in Siberia. A good article is manufactured
artificially at Niagara Falls.
Graphite is used as a stove polish and for crucibles; in the main, however, it
is employed in the manufacture of lead[41] pencils; for this purpose only a
very soft mineral, absolutely free from grit, is employed, and the Siberian
output is used almost wholly. One German firm and two American firms
supply most of the pencils used.
Petroleum.—Petroleum is the name given to a natural liquid mineral from
which the well-known illuminating oil "kerosene" is derived, and to obtain
which it is mined. Petroleum is a mixture of various compounds known as
hydrocarbons. Some of these compounds are gaseous, some are liquid, and
some are solid; all of them are articles of commercial value. The petroleum
from different localities differs greatly in appearance and composition.
The pitch that coated Noah's ark, the slime of the builders of the Tower of
Babel, and the slime-pits of the Vale of Siddim all refer to mineral products
associated with petroleum. Under the name of "naphtha" it has been known
in Persia for thirty centuries, and for more than half as long a flowing oil
spring has existed in the Ionian Islands. The Seneca Indians knew of a
petroleum spring near the village of Cuba, N.Y., and used it as a medicine
long before the advent of the white man.
As early as 1850 illuminating oil, known as "coal" oil, was made in the
United States by distilling cannel coal, but this product was supplanted
within a few years by the natural petroleum discovered in Pennsylvania. In
1859 Colonel Drake completed a well bored in solid rock near Titusville,
Pa. The venture proved successful, and in a few years petroleum mining
became one of the great industries of the United States.
Petroleum is known to exist in a great many parts of the world; the United
States and Russia, however, produce practically all the commercial product;
a very small amount is obtained from a horizon on the south slope of the

Carpathian Mountains, situated in Rumania and Galicia, Austria-Hungary.
There are also a few producing wells in Peru, Germany, Italy, Burma,
Argentina, and Sumatra.

PETROLEUM FIELDS IN THE UNITED STATES

In the United States the largest horizon is that of the Appalachian region.
Since 1859 it has produced more than forty million gallons of crude oil. The
Lima, Ind., horizon produces about twenty million barrels. The California
and Texas horizons have become very important factors. The crude
petroleum is transported partly in tank cars, but mainly by means of long
lines of pipe, flowing from one pumping station to another by gravity. There
are pipe-line terminals on the Great Lakes and at Pittsburg, but the principal
are at the refining and exporting stations in New York, Philadelphia, and on
the Delaware River.
A considerable amount is exported to European countries to be there
refined, but in the main the crude oil is refined before exporting it. Some of
the refined oil is exported in barrels, and some in tin cases; the greater part,
however, goes in tank steamers, and from these it is pumped into tank cars
to be distributed. Most of the product is controlled by the Standard Oil
Company, and it reaches nearly every country in the world. It is carried into

Arctic regions on sledges, and over the African deserts by caravans. Great
Britain, Germany, and the Netherlands are the chief purchasers and
distributors. The value of the entire product is about one hundred and
eighty-five million dollars.
The Russian oil-producing region is on and near the Apsheron peninsula, a
small area of Trans-Caucasia, that extends into the Caspian Sea; the region
is commonly known as the Baku field, and in 1900 the production of crude
oil surpassed that of the United States. The petroleum is conveyed by pipe
lines to the refineries at Baku. From this port it is shipped in tank cars by
rail to Batum, whence it is conveyed to the various European markets. A
considerable part of the product is sent by tank steamers to Astrakhan, and
thence up the Volga to Russian markets. Great Britain takes about one-third;
about the same amount is shipped to Port Saïd for China, India, and other
Asian markets; the rest is consumed in central Europe.
Petroleum Products.—The various constituents of crude petroleum differ
greatly in character, some being much more volatile than others. They are
separated by distillation at different temperatures. By this process naphtha,
rhigoline, gasoline, benzine, and other highly inflammable products are
obtained in separate receivers. By a similar process the illuminating or
refined oil and the lubricating oils are also separated. The residuum consists
of a gummy mass from which paraffine and petroleum jelly are extracted.
Naphtha usually contains several volatile compounds, including benzine
and gasoline. It is used as a solvent of grease and also of crude india-rubber,
but chiefly the manufacture of illuminating gas.
Kerosene is the name commonly given to the refined oil. A good quality
should have a fire test of not less than one hundred and fifty degrees; that is,
when heated to that temperature, it should not give off any inflammable gas.
This test is now mandatory in most States.
Lubricating oil is used almost wholly for the lubrication of heavy
machinery. It varies greatly in composition and quality.
Paraffine or petroleum wax has largely superseded beeswax; it is used
mainly in the manufacture of candles and as an insulator for electric wires.

A native mineral paraffine, known as ozocerite, is mined in Utah and
Galicia; it is used as an insulating material.
"Vaseline," "cosmoline," or petroleum "jelly" is very largely used in
pharmacy as the basis of ointments and also as a lubricant for heavy
machinery.
Asphalt is produced by the distillation of petroleum, but the greater part of
the world's product comes from two "pitch lakes"—one in Bermudez,
Venezuela, the other in the island of Trinidad, off the Venezuelan coast. The
former is the larger and produces a superior quality. Small deposits occur
near Los Angeles, Cal., and in Utah. The output of the Venezuelan asphalt is
used almost wholly for street pavement.
Probably no other mineral has had a wider influence on both social and
economic life, and the industrial arts, than petroleum and its compounds.
The kerosene lamp, the aniline dye, the insulation of electric wires, the
lubrication of machinery, the cosmetic, the india-rubber solution, and the
physician's sedative dose represent only a few of the devices that are
derived from petroleum.
Natural Gas.—A natural inflammable gas occurs in or near several of the
petroleum horizons. One important belt extends through western
Pennsylvania and New York, and another through northwestern Ohio and
northeastern Indiana. It is conveyed through pipe-lines and used both as
fuel and for lighting. Natural gas occurs in a great many localities, but is
used commercially only in the regions noted. It is better adapted for making
glass than any other fuel, and on this account extensive glass-making
establishments have concentrated in the natural-gas belt of western
Pennsylvania.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
The statement is sometimes made to the effect that coal is "condensed sunlight"; is it true, or untrue;
and why?
Why are the coal areas of Europe and America also areas of various manufactures?
A recent cartoon had for its title—"John Bull and his coal piles (i.e., coaling stations) rule the world";
show why this statement contains a great deal of truth.
What are some of the advantages of steam-vessels over sailing-vessels?

Whale oil, crude turpentine, kerosene, and gas have been used each in turn for illuminants; what is
the advantage of each over the preceding?
Describe the structure of an ordinary kerosene lamp-burner, an argand burner, a Welsbach burner.
For what are aniline, paraffine, naphtha, and carbolic acid used?

FOR STUDY AND REFERENCE
Obtain specimens of anthracite, bituminous, and cannel coal, and coke for comparison and study.
Obtain specimens of crude petroleum, naphtha, refined oil, aniline dye, paraffine, and carbolic acid;
note the properties of each. Throw away the naphtha after using.
Read Mineral Resources of the United States on the foregoing subjects.

CHAPTER XIII
METALS OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES

The development of modern civilization is directly connected with the
mining and manufacture of the useful metals. Their effect on the affairs of
mankind can be rightly understood only when they are studied in their
relations to one another, as well as to the people who used them. Next to the
discovery of the use of fire, an appreciation of the use of metals has been
the chief thing to develop the intellect of mankind. When human beings
discarded natural caves for artificially constructed dwellings—when they
began to cook their food and clothe their bodies, they required tools. These,
in the main, consisted of the spears and arrow-heads used as weapons of the
chase, and the axes and knives used as constructive tools.
Rough stone gave place to flint because the latter would take a better edge.
For the same reason the people of central Europe sent to the deserts of
central Asia for jade wherewith to make axes and knives. Again, for the
same reason, jade was discarded, because an alloy of copper and tin
produced a bronze that would not only take a sharper edge than stone, but it
was hard enough to cut and dress the latter. Egypt rose to a commanding
position because of her control of the copper mines in the Sinaitic
peninsula, and subsequently of the gold products coming from the upper
Nile.
A meridian drawn through Cairo, Egypt, practically divides the world into
two kinds of civilization. East of this meridian the population is almost
wholly agricultural and, excepting Japan and India, the character of the
civilization has changed but little in the past 2,000 years. West of the line
the population is essentially characterized as metal-workers. It controls the
world—not especially by virtue of a high degree of intellectual

development, but because it has availed itself of the properties and
characteristics of metals and their applications to commerce.
The four metals that have had the greatest influence on western civilization
are gold, silver, iron, and copper. The discovery of gold and silver has
always resulted in a rapid settlement of the regions in which the discoveries
were made, and usually in the building of great industrial centres. Thus, the
discovery of gold in California was the first step in making the United
States a world power. The acquisition of so large an amount of gold caused
an industrial expansion that hurried the Civil War, and led to the
manufacture of iron and steel both for agricultural machinery and railroad
transportation. This, in turn, brought the country so closely in touch with
the affairs of China and Japan, that European and American diplomacy in
eastern Asia are a common concern. The commercial position of Great
Britain is very largely due to her iron mines.
The production of Bessemer steel at a price far less than that of iron at the
beginning of the nineteenth century lowered the cost of transporting
commodities to the extent that large areas, once of necessity very
moderately productive of food-stuffs, are now densely peopled because
food-stuffs can be transported to these regions more economically than they
can be grown there. Thus, owing to the improvements in iron and steel
manufacture, the farmer of Minnesota, the planter of Louisiana, the miner
of Colorado, and the factory operative of Massachusetts have each the same
comforts of living that are enjoyed by all the others, and have them at
scarcely more than half the cost of fifty years ago.

STEEL MANUFACTURE—THE NATIONAL STEEL COMPANY'S SMELTERY AND
ROLLING-MILLS, MINGO JUNCTION, OHIO

The gradual decrease in the production of the silver mines near the present site of Ergasteria
proved a beginning of the fall of Athens; and when gold was discovered in the Perim Mountains of
Macedonia, the seat of Greek power moved thither. Philip of Macedon hoarded the treasure from
the mines of Pangæus, and with the capital thus acquired his son, Alexander the Great, conquered
the East, implanted Hellenic business methods there, and drew the various trade routes between
Europe and Asia under one control.
In the fifteenth century copper from the mines near Budapest and silver from the Schwarz
Mountains of Germany were the resources that made Germanic Europe pre-eminent. The wresting
of the trade in these two metals from Venice caused the rise of Antwerp and brought immense
gains to Lübeck, London, Brussels, Augsburg, and Nuremberg. In the latter part of the nineteenth
century copper again reached a high position of importance from the fact that upon it largely
depends electric motive power and transportation.
Iron.—Iron is one of the most widely diffused of metals. It is abundant in the sun; meteorites
contain from more than ten to eighty or ninety per cent. of it; all earths and rocks contain at least
traces of it; and in various places the deposits of ore in nearly pure form aggregate cubic miles in
extent.
In only a few localities is iron ore found in a metallic or "native" form. Many meteorites consist of
metallic iron mixed with nickel and manganese, and in Greenland a volcanic dyke or ledge of
metallic iron is known to exist. The iron of commerce is derived from "ores," or chemical
compounds of iron and oxygen, or iron and carbon. The cheapness of the product depends upon
the ease with which the ore may be quarried, transported to coal, and smelted. The following are
the ores commonly employed in the production of iron:

Red hematite has a reddish metallic lustre and when pure contains seventy per cent. of iron.[42] It is
the most abundant of the workable ores, and certainly the best for the manufacture of Bessemer
steel. The ores of the Lake Superior region are mainly red hematite, and the latter constitutes more
than four-fifths of the output of the United States.

THE COMPARATIVE PRODUCTION OF IRON AND STEEL

Brown hematite, or limonite, has a chestnut brown color and contains very nearly sixty per cent. of
iron[43]; it includes the "bog" ores, and is very abundant. Not far from one-quarter of the
Appalachian ores are brown hematite; it constitutes about one-eighth of the output of the United
States.
Magnetic iron ore, or magnetite, of which loadstone, a natural magnet, is an example, has a
metallic, steel lustre and contains 72.4 per cent. of iron.[44] Most of the ores obtained in
Pennsylvania and New York are magnetite. The magnetites furnish about one-sixteenth of the
output of the United States.
Carbonate of Iron, or siderite, occurs in a few localities, the ore produced in Ohio being almost
wholly of this kind. It contains when pure about forty-eight per cent. of iron.[45] It constitutes less
than one per cent. of the output of the United States.
Iron pyrites, or sulphide of iron, sometimes called "fools' gold," is a very common mineral. It is
used in the manufacture of sulphuric acid, but is worthless for the production of iron; indeed, the
presence of a very small percentage of sulphur in iron renders the latter worthless for many
purposes.
Extensive deposits of iron are known to exist in very nearly every country in the world, but those
which can be advantageously worked are few in number. In order to be available, the deposits
must be within easy transporting distance of the people who use it, and likewise within a short
distance of the coal used to manufacture it.
For these reasons most of the workable deposits of ore are in or near the great centres of
population in western Europe and the eastern part of the United States; as a matter of fact,
practically all the iron and steel of the latter country is produced in the populous centres of the
Atlantic slopes. In most great steel-making districts it is essential to mix the native ores with
special ores brought from a distance, the latter being used to give strength and hardness to the
resulting metal. Ores from Sweden, and from Juragua, Cuba, are employed for this purpose in the
steel-making establishments of the United States.
In the past few years the United States has jumped from an insignificant position in the production
of iron and steel to the first rank among the iron-producing countries. This great advance is due to
the fortunate geographic position of the iron ore and the coal, and also to the discovery of the
Bessemer process of making steel.

In general it is more economical to ship the ore to the coal than vice versa. The position of the
steel-making plant is largely determined by the cost of moving the coke and ore, together with that
of getting the steel to the place of use. Formerly, iron manufacture in the United States was not
profitable unless the coal, ore, and limestone[46] were very near to one another.
These conditions still obtain in the southern Appalachian mineral fields; the ore and the coal are at
no great distance apart, and a great iron-making industry, in which Birmingham and Bessemer
form the principal centre, has grown into existence. For the greater part the coal is coked; and in
this form less than a ton[47] is sufficient to make a ton of pig-iron. The smelteries and rolling-mills
are built at places where the materials are most conveniently hauled.
In the past few years the iron and steel industry which formerly centred about the navigable waters
at the head of the Ohio River, has undergone a readjustment. Rolling-mills and smelteries exist at
Pittsburg and vicinity, and at Youngstown, New Castle, and other nearby localities, but greater
steel-making plants have been built along the south shores of Lakes Michigan and Erie, all of
which have come about because of reasons that are purely geographic.
Immense deposits of excellent hematite ore in the old mountain-ranges near Lake Superior have
recently become available. For the greater part the ore is very easily quarried. In many instances it
is taken out of the quarry or pit by steam-shovels which dump it into self-discharging hopper-cars.
Thence the ore is carried on a down grade to the nearest shipping-port on the lake. There it is
dumped into huge bunkers built at the docks, and from these it slides down chutes into the holds of
the steam-barges. A 6,000-ton barge is loaded in less than two hours; a car is unloaded in a few
seconds.

MOVEMENT OF IRON ORE

Water transportation is very cheap compared with railway transportation, even when the road is
built and equipped as an ore-hauling road. The ore is therefore carried a distance varying from one

thousand to one thousand five hundred miles for less than it could be loaded, on cars hauled one-
tenth that distance by rail, and unloaded.

STEEL MANUFACTURE—ORE DOCKS

At the south shore of Lake Erie, the ore meets the coke from western Pennsylvania and coal from
the Ohio coal-fields, and as a result new centres of iron and steel manufacture have grown up
along this line of "least resistance." The ore is unloaded at the docks by means of mechanical
scoops and shovels. So cheaply and quickly is it mined and transported that it is delivered to the
smelteries at a cost varying from $1.75 to $3.25 per ton.

LAKE SUPERIOR IRON ORE FIELDS

There are three forms in which iron is used—cast iron, wrought iron, and steel. Cast iron is
crystalline and brittle. The product as it comes from the blast furnace is called pig-iron. In making
such commodities as stoves, and articles that do not require great strength, the pig-iron is again
melted and cast into moulds which give them the required shape. Cast iron contains from one to
five per cent. of carbon.
Wrought iron is malleable, ductile, and very flexible; when pure it is also very soft. It is prepared
by melting pig-iron in furnaces having such a shape that the molten metal can be stirred or

"puddled" in contact with the air. By this means the carbon is burnt out, and while still at a white
heat the pasty iron is kneaded or "wrought," in order to expel other impurities.
Steel is a form of iron which is thought to contain a chemical compound of iron with carbon. It is
stronger than iron and finer in grain. Formerly, steel was made by packing bars of pure iron in
charcoal powder, the whole being enclosed in clay retorts that were heated to whiteness for about
three days. The product obtained by this method is known as cementation steel. It is still used in
the manufacture of cutlery, tools, and fine machinery; it is likewise very expensive. In smelting
certain ores it is easy to burn out the carbon in open furnaces, and "open-hearth" steel is an
important factor.
Just about the beginning of the Civil War, when the railways of the United States were taxed
beyond their capacity to carry the produce of the country, it became apparent that something more
durable than iron must be used for rails. The locomotives, then weighing from twenty-five to
thirty-five tons each, were too light to haul the freight offered the roads; they were also too heavy
for the rails, which split at the ends and frayed at the edges.
The Bessemer process of making steel was the
result of the demand for a better and a cheaper
method. By this process, the iron is put into a
"converter" along with certain Swedish or
Cuban ores to give the product hardness. A
hot blast is then forced into the converter
which not only melts the mass but burns out IRON AND STEEL
the excess of carbon as well. The color of the
flame indicates the moment when the conversion to steel is accomplished.
In 1860, before the establishment of the Bessemer process, steel commanded a price of about one
hundred and twenty-five dollars per ton; at the beginning of the twentieth century steel billets were
about eighteen dollars per ton. In western Europe and the United States there are used about three
hundred pounds of iron and steel per capita; in South America the rate of consumption is about
fifteen pounds; in Asia (Japan excepted) it is probably less than three pounds.
The economic results of low-priced steel are very far-reaching. Steam boilers of steel carry a
pressure of more than two hundred and fifty pounds to each square inch of surface—about four
times as great as in the iron boilers formerly used. Locomotives of eighty tons draw the fast
passenger trains at a speed of sixty miles an hour. Ponderous compounding engines weighing one
hundred and twenty tons haul ninety or more steel freight cars that carry each a load of 100,000
pounds. The iron rails formerly in use weighed about forty pounds per yard; now steel rails of one
hundred pounds per yard are employed on most trunk lines.
In the large commercial buildings steel girders have entirely supplanted timber, while in nearly all
modern buildings of more than six stories in height, the frame is constructed of Bessemer steel.
Indeed, a steel-framed building of twenty-five stories has greater stability than a brick or stone
building of six. Such a structure as the "Flatiron Building" in New York or the Masonic Temple in
Chicago would have been impossible without Bessemer steel.
In ocean commerce cheap steel has worked even a greater revolution. In 1860, a vessel of 4,000
tons displacement was thought to be almost up to the limit. The Oceanic of the White Star Line has
a displacement of about twenty-eight thousand five hundred tons. This is nearly equalled by the

measurement of half a dozen other liners, and is exceeded by the freighters built by Mr. J.J. Hill
for the China trade.

From a copyrighted photograph by C.L. Ritzmann, N.Y.

STEEL MANUFACTURE

THE FULLER (FLATIRON) BUILDING, NEW YORK CITY

HISTORICAL
1619.—Iron works established on Falling Creek, Va.
1643.—First foundry in Massachusetts, at Lynn.
1658.—Blast furnace and forge at New Haven, Conn.
1679.—Father Hennepin discovers coal in Illinois.
1703.—Mordecai Lincoln, ancestor of Abraham Lincoln, establishes iron works at Scituate,
Mass.
1717.—First bar iron exported from American Colonies to West Indies.
1728.—Steel made, Hebron, Ct.
1732.—Father of George Washington establishes furnace in Virginia.
1740.—First iron works in New York, near Hudson.
1750.—Bituminous coal mined in Virginia.
1766.—Anthracite coal discovered in Pennsylvania.
1770.—First rolling-mill in Colonies, Boonton, N.J.
1801–1803.—Lake Champlain iron district, New York, developed.
1812.—First rolling-mill at Pittsburg.
1828.—Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, first steam railway in the United States, begun.
1829.—"Stourbridge Lion," first locomotive in America, used in Delaware & Hudson Railway.
1830.—The T rail invented by Robert L. Stevens.
1830.—First American locomotive, "Tom Thumb," built by Peter Cooper at Baltimore.
1830.—Twenty-three miles of railway in the United States.
1844.—Lake Superior iron ores discovered by William Burt.
1850.—First shipment of Lake Superior ore, ten tons.
1857.—Iron industry founded in Chicago.
1862.—Phoenix wrought iron column, or girder, first made.
1864.—Bessemer steel first made in the United States.
1865.—First Bessemer steel rails in the United States rolled at Chicago.
1890.—First armor-plate made in the United States rolled at Bethlehem, Pa.
1890.—The United States surpasses Great Britain in production of pig-iron.
1900.—The United States leads in the production of open-hearth steel.

Gold.—Gold is one of the metals earliest to be mined. It is mentioned by the ancient profane as
well as by sacred writers. Pictorial representations of fusing and working the metal are sculptured
on early Egyptian tombs, and beautiful gold ornaments have been found that were made by the
prehistoric peoples who once occupied ancient Etruria, in Italy. Columbus found gold ornaments in
the possession of the aboriginal Americans. The Incas of Peru and the Aztecs of Mexico possessed
large quantities of gold.

GOLD MINING

Gold is one of the most widely diffused of metals. Traces of it are found in practically all igneous
and most sedimentary rocks. It occurs in sea-water, and quite frequently in beach-sands. Traces of
it are also usually to be found in alluvial deposits and in the soils of most mountain-folds. In spite

of its wide diffusion, however, all the gold
that has been mined could be stored readily in
the vaults of any large New York bank.
In all probability most of the gold now in use
has been deposited by solution in quartz veins,
the latter usually filling seams and crevices in
granitic or volcanic rocks. Quartz veins
seldom yield very great returns, but they
furnish a steady supply of the metal. The rock
must be mined, hoisted to the surface, and
crushed. The gold is then dissolved by
quicksilver (forming an amalgam from which
the quicksilver is removed by heat), by
potassium cyanide solution, or by chlorine
solution.
In many instances the quartz veins have been
broken and weathered by natural forces. In
such cases the gold is usually carried off by
swiftly running water and deposited in the
channel lower down. In this way "placer"
deposits of gold occur. Placer deposits are
sometimes very rich, but they are quickly
exhausted. The first gold discovered in
California was placer gold. LEACHING (CYANIDE) TANKS DISSOLVING THE GOLD
FROM THE ROASTED ORE
Nearly all the gold mined in the United States
has come from the western highlands. In
1900, Colorado, California, South Dakota (Black Hills), Montana, and Alaska yielded about
seven-eighths of the entire product. The placer mines of Alaska are confined mainly to the beach-
sands and the tributaries of Yukon River. Since 1849 the average annual yield of gold in the United
States is about forty-three million dollars.
The Guinea coast of Africa, Australia, California, the Transvaal of South Africa, and Venezuela
have each stood at the front in the production of gold. The aggregate annual production of the
world has increased from one hundred and sixty million dollars in 1853 to more than three
hundred million dollars in 1900.
A considerable part of the gold product is used in gilding picture-frames, book-titles, sign-letters,
porcelain, and ornamental brass work. Practically, all of this is lost, and in the United States alone
the loss aggregates about fifteen million dollars yearly. The abrasion and unavoidable wear of gold
coin is another great source of loss.
An enormous amount is used in the manufacture of jewelry, most of which is used over and over
again. By far the greater part, however, is used as a commercial medium of exchange—that is, as
coin. For this purpose its employment is wellnigh universal; and indeed this has been its chief use
since the beginning of written history. Gold coin of the United States is 900 fine, that is, 900 parts
of every thousand is pure gold; gold coin of Great Britain is 916-2/3 fine. In each case a small

amount of silver, or silver and copper, is
added to give the coin the requisite hardness.
The coining of gold, and also other metals, is
a government monopoly in every civilized
country.
The fiat value of gold throughout the
commercial world is the equivalent of
$20.6718 per troy ounce of fine metal; an
eagle weighs, therefore, 2580 grains. The real
value, however, is reckoned by a different and
a more accurate standard, namely, the labor of
man, and this, the sporadic finds of placer
gold excepted, has not changed much in two
thousand years or more. The increased
production has scarcely equalled the demand
for the metal; moreover, the longer a mine is
worked the greater becomes the expense of its
operation. Improved processes for the
extraction of gold have not created any
surplus of gold; indeed, the supply is not
equal to the demand; and this fact keeps the
metal practically at a fixed value.
Silver.—Silver is about as widely diffused as
is gold, but it is more plentiful. It is found
sparingly in most of the older rocks and also
in sea-water. It was used by the Greeks for
coinage more than eight hundred years before
the Christian era, and was known to the
Jewish people in very early times. According
to the writer of the Book of Kings (1 Kings x.
21), "It was nothing accounted of in the days
of Solomon," but Tacitus declares that in
ancient Germany silver was even more
valuable than gold. The mines of Laureion
(Laurium) gave the Greek state of Attica its
chief power, and the failure of the mines
marked the beginning of Athenian decline.
Silver is rarely found in a metallic state. For
the greater part it occurs combined with
chlorine ("horn silver"), or with sulphur
("silver glance"), or in combination with
antimony and sulphur ("ruby ore"). The
ranges of the western highland region of the
American continent yield most of the present
supply. The mines of Colorado, Montana,
Utah, and Idaho produce about six-sevenths of

the yield in the United States, which in 1900
was 74,500,000 ounces. In Europe the Hartz
Mountains have been famous for silver for
several centuries.
About four-fifths of the silver bullion is used
in the arts, most of it being manufactured into
ornaments or into table-service called "plate."
A considerable amount is used in
photography, certain silver salts, especially the
chloride and the bromide, changing color by
exposure to the light. The remaining part of
the silver output is made into coin.
The ratio of silver and gold has fluctuated
much in the history of civilization. In the
United States the value of an ounce of fine
silver is fixed at $1.2929, thereby making the
ratio 16 to 1. The silver dollars, 900 fine, were
coined on this basis, weighing 412.5 grains.
With the tremendous output of the silver
mines between 1870 and 1880 the price of
silver fell to such an extent that, in time, most
countries limited the amount of coinage or
demonetized it altogether. In the United States
the purchase of silver bullion for coinage has
been practically suspended, and the silver
purchased is bought at the bullion value—
about fifty cents per troy ounce in 1900. In
Japan the ratio has been officially fixed at 32
to 1.
Copper.—Copper is probably the oldest metal
known that has been used in making tools. An
alloy of copper and tin, hard enough to cut
and dress stone, succeeded the use of flint and
jade, and its employment became so general
as to give the name "bronze" to the age
following that characterized by the use of
stone implements.
Copper is very widely distributed. It occurs in
quantities that pay for mining in pretty nearly
every country in the world. The rise of Egypt
as a commercial power was due to the fact
that the Egyptians controlled the world's trade
in that metal, and it is highly probable that the
conquests of Cyprus at various times were

STOPING OUT A TUNNEL chiefly for the possession of the copper mines
of Mount Olympus.
At the present time there are several great
centres of production which yield most of the
metal used. These are the Rocky Mountain
region, including Mexico; the Lake Superior
region of the United States; the Andean
region, including Chile, Peru, Argentina, and
Bolivia; the Iberian region, consisting of
Spain and Portugal; and the Hartz Mountain
region of Germany. In 1900 they produced
about four hundred and fifty thousand tons, of
which two hundred and eighty thousand were
mined in the United States.
Montana, the Lake Superior mines, and
Arizona are the most productive regions of the
United States, and the mines of these three
localities yield more than half the world's
product. Of these mines the Calumet and
Hecla of the Lake Superior region is the most
famous. It was discovered by Jesuit explorers
about 1660, but was not worked until 1845. It
is one of the most productive mines in the
world, its yearly output averaging fifty million
tons.
The export trade in copper is very important,
amounting at the close of the past century to
about one hundred and seventy thousand short
tons. Of this amount, half goes to Germany
(most of it through ports of the Netherlands), INTERIOR OF MILL
and one-fifth each to France and Great
Britain. The market price to the consumer during the ten years closing the century averaged about
sixteen cents per pound. Most of the product is exported from New York and Baltimore. The head-
quarters of the great copper-mining companies of America are at Boston. The imports of raw ores
and partly reduced ores called "regulus," come mainly from Mexico to New York and Baltimore,
and from Mexico and Japan to Puget Sound ports. The most important American refineries are at
New York and Baltimore.
A part of the copper is mixed with zinc to form brass, an alloy much used in light machinery. A
considerable quantity is rolled into sheets to sheath building fronts and the iron hulls of vessels. By
far the greater part, however, is drawn into wire for carrying electricity, and for this purpose it is
surpassed by silver alone. The decrease in the price of copper in the past few years is due, not to a
falling off in the demand, but to methods of reducing the ores and transporting the product more
economically.
Aluminium.—Aluminium is the base of clay, this mineral being its oxide. It occurs in the various
feldspars and feldspathic rocks, and in mica. The expense of extracting the metal from these

minerals has been so great as to prohibit its commercial use. In 1870 there were probably less than
twenty pounds of the metal in existence, and it was to be found only as a curiosity in the chemical
laboratories. The discovery that the metal could be extracted cheaply from cryolite, a mineral with
an aluminium base, obtained from Ivigtut, Greenland, led to a sparing use of the metal in the
economic arts.
The chief step in the production of the metal dates from the time that the mineral bauxite, a
hydroxide of aluminium and iron, was decomposed in the electric furnace. The process has been
repeatedly improved, and under the patents covered by the Hall process the crude metal is now
produced at a market price of about eighteen cents per pound. The entire production of the United
States is controlled by the Pittsburg Reduction Company, which also manufactures much of the
commercial product of England. The competitor of the Pittsburg Reduction Company is an
establishment in Germany, near Bremen.
Aluminium does not corrode; it is easily rolled, drawn, or cast; and, bulk for bulk, it is less than
one-third as heavy as copper. Because of these properties it has a great and constantly growing
economic value. Because of its greater size, a pound of aluminium wire will carry a greater electric
current than a pound of copper wire of the same length. It therefore has an increasing use as a
conductor of electricity.
Bauxite, the mineral from which the metal is now chiefly extracted, is obtained in two localities.
One extends through Georgia and Alabama; the other is in Arkansas.
Lead.—Lead is neither so abundant nor so widely diffused as iron, copper, and the precious
metals, but the supply is fully equal to the demand. Lead ores, mainly galena or lead sulphide,
occur abundantly in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado, Idaho, and Utah, producing more than half
the total output of the United States. In these localities, in Mexico, and in the Andean states of
South America it is used mainly in the smelting of silver ores.
Metallic lead is used largely in the manufacture of water-pipes, and for this purpose it must be very
nearly pure. It is also rolled into sheets to be used as lining for water-tanks. The fact that the edges
of sheet-lead and the ends of pipes may be readily joined with solder gives to lead a great part of
its economic value. Alloyed with arsenic it is used in making shot; alloyed with antimony it forms
type metal; alloyed with tin it forms pewter and solder.
The greater part, however, is manufactured into the carbonate or "white" lead that is used as a
pigment, or paint. Red lead, an oxide, is a pigment; litharge, also an oxide, is used for glazing the
cheaper kinds of pottery. About two hundred and thirty thousand tons of lead are produced in the
United States and one-half as much is imported—mainly from Mexico and Canada. The linotype
machines, now used in all large printing establishments, have increased the demand for lead.
Other Metals.—Most of the remaining economic metals occur in small quantities as compared
with iron, copper, gold, and silver. Some of them, however, are highly important from the fact that
in various industrial processes no substitutes for them are known.
Quicksilver, or mercury, is the only industrial metal that at ordinary temperatures is a liquid. It is
the base of the substance calomel, a chloride, and corrosive sublimate, a dichloride, both of which
are employed as medicines. It is essential in the manufacture of thermometers and barometers, but
is used chiefly, however, as a solvent of gold, which it separates from the finely powdered ore by
solution or amalgamation. Quicksilver occurs in the mineral cinnabar, a sulphide.

Nearly one-half the world's product comes from California. The New Almaden mines of Santa
Clara County produce over five thousand flasks (each seventy-six and one-half pounds net); those
of Napa County nearly nine thousand flasks; the mines of the whole State yield about twenty-six
thousand flasks, valued at $1,200,000. Almaden, Spain, and Idria, Austria, produce nearly all the
rest of the output. An average of about fifteen thousand flasks are exported from San Francisco,
mainly to the mines of Mexico, and Central and South America.
Tin is about the only metal of industrial value whose ores are not found in paying quantities in the
United States. Small quantities occur in San Bernardino County, Cal., and in the vicinity of Bering
Strait, Alaska, but it is doubtful if either will ever pay for development. About three-fifths of the
world's product comes from the Straits Settlements on the Malay Peninsula; the nearby islands of
Banca and Billiton also yield a considerable quantity.
The mines of Cornwall, England, have been worked for two thousand years and were probably the
source of the tin that made the "bronze age." The United States imports yearly about twenty
million dollars worth of tin, about half of which comes from the Straits Settlements. This is used
almost wholly for the manufacture of tin plate[48]—that is, sheet-iron coated with tin. Much of the
block tin imported from Great Britain is returned there in the form of tin plate, being manufactured
in the United States much more economically than in Europe.
Nickel occurs in New Caledonia, in Canada, and in the State of Missouri. It is used in the
manufacture of small coins and for plating iron and steel. It is an essential in the metal known as
"nickel steel" which is now generally used in armor-plate and propeller-shafts, about four per cent.
of nickel being added to the steel. Most of the product used in the United States is imported from
Canada.
Manganese, a metal resembling iron, occurs in Russia, Brazil, and Cuba, Russia producing about
half the total output. It is used mainly to give hardness to steel. The propeller-blades of large
steamships are usually made of manganese bronze. The building of war-ships in the United States
during the past few years has led to the extensive use of manganese for armor-plate, and
manganese ores to the amount of more than two hundred and fifty thousand tons were imported in
1900. More than one-half of this came from Russia; most of the remaining half from Brazil.
Zinc is abundant in nearly every part of the world. In the United States the best known mines are in
the Galena-Joplin District, in Missouri and Kansas, which produce about two-thirds of the home
product—mainly from the ore blende, a sulphide. There are also extensive zinc-mining operations
in Illinois, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The lower Rhine District, Great Britain, and Silesia are
the chief European sources. Sheet-zinc is found in nearly every dwelling in the United States, and
zinc-coated or "galvanized" iron has become a domestic necessity. Zinc-white is extensively used
as a pigment. About two hundred and fifty million pounds of crude zinc, or "spelter," are produced
in the United States; forty-five million pounds were exported in 1900, mainly to Great Britain.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
What are the qualities that make iron the most valuable of metals?
In what ways does commerce depend on iron and steel?
What substances are used for food, clothing, or domestic purposes that are not manufactured by the aid of iron?
Ingot or billet steel is rated at about one cent per pound; the hair-springs of watches are worth several thousand dollars per pound;
what makes the difference in their value?
What are the qualities that give to gold its value?

Would all the gold mined in the United States pay the national debt at the end of the Civil War?
What causes have led to the increasing price of copper during the past few years?
What is the market price each of copper, silver, steel rails, and aluminium to-day?

FOR STUDY AND REFERENCE
Obtain specimens of the following iron ores: Hematite, brown hematite, magnetite, carbonate, and pyrites. Note the color and
physical appearance of each; scratch the first four with a very hard steel point and note the color of the streak.
Obtain specimens of pig-iron, cast iron, wrought iron, and cast steel; note carefully the fracture or "break" of each; how does cast
iron differ from wrought iron?
Obtain specimens of the following copper ores: Malachite, azurite, chalcopyrite, and red oxide; wet a very small fragment with an
acid and note the color when it is held in the flame of an alcohol lamp or a Bunsen burner; dissolve a crystal of blue vitriol (copper
sulphate) in water and note what occurs if the end of a bright iron wire be dipped in the solution.
Name the various uses to which nickel, tin, lead, and aluminium are put.
Consult the chapters on these subjects in any cyclopædia.

TRANSPORTING SUGAR-CANE, CUBA

SUGAR-CANE GROWING IN CUBA

HAVEMEYER SUGAR-REFINERY, BROOKLYN, N.Y.

CHAPTER XIV
SUGAR AND ITS COMMERCE

The term sugar is applied rather loosely to a large number of substances characterized by the
quality of sweetness. In a few instances the name is given to certain mineral salts, such as sugar of
lead, but in the main the sugars are plant products very similar in chemical structure to the
starches. They are very closely connected with plant growth, and even in animal life, starchy
substances are changed to sugar in the process of digestion. Although sugar does not sustain life, it
is necessary as an adjunct to other food-stuffs, and it is probably consumed by a greater number of
people than any other food-stuffs except starch and water.
Three kinds of sugar are found in commerce, namely—cane-sugar, grape-sugar, and milk-sugar.
Cane-sugar occurs in the sap of the sugar-cane, sorghum-cane, certain of the palms, and the juice
of the beet. Grape-sugar is the sweet principle of most fruits and of honey. Sugar of milk occurs in
milk, and in several kinds of nuts.
Sugar-Cane Sugar.—Cane-sugar is so called because until recently it was derived almost wholly
from the sap of the sugar-cane (Saccharum officinarum). The plant belongs to the grass family and
much resembles maize before the latter has matured. It is thought to be native to Asia, but it is now
cultivated in nearly all tropical countries in the world.
Practically every moist tropical region in the world, the basins of the Kongo and Amazon Rivers
excepted, is a cane-sugar-producing region. As a rule it is grown in the states under native rule for
home consumption, and in European colonial possessions for commercial purposes. India and
China are probably the foremost in the production of sugar-cane sugar, but the product is not
exported. Cuba, Java, the Gulf coast of the United States, Mauritius, the Philippine and the
Hawaiian Islands produce the most of the supply that enters into commerce.
Beet-Sugar.—During the last quarter of the nineteenth century the demands for sugar increased so
greatly that it became necessary either to raise the price of the commodity, or else to utilize some
plant other than the sugar-cane as a source. After a few years of experimental work it was found
that sugar could be readily extracted from the juice of the common beet (Beta vulgaris). Several
varieties of this plant have been improved and are now very largely cultivated for the purpose.
Beet-sugar and cane-sugar are identical.
Almost all the beet-sugar of commerce comes from northwestern Europe; Germany leads with
nearly one-third the world's product; France, Austria, and Russia follow, each producing about
one-sixth. A small amount is produced in the United States—mainly in California and Michigan.
The area of production, however, is increasing.
Other Cane-Sugars.—Maple-sugar is derived from the sap of several species of maple-trees
occurring mainly in the northeastern United States and in Canada. The sap is obtained by tapping

the trees in early spring, a single tree often yielding several gallons. The value of maple-sugar lies
mainly in its pleasant flavor. It is used partly as a confection, but in the main as a sirup. A very
large part of the maple-sirup and not a little of the sugar is artificial, consisting of ordinary sugar
colored with caramel and flavored with an extract prepared from the maple-tree.
Sorghum-sugar is obtained from a cane known as Chinese grass, or Chinese millet. It has been
introduced into the United States from southeastern Asia and Japan. The sorghum-cane grows well
in the temperate zone, and its cultivation in the Mississippi Valley States has been successful. The
sugar is not easily crystallizable, however, and it is usually made into table-sirup.
Maguey-sugar is derived from the sap of the maguey-plant (Agave Americana). It is much used in
Mexico and the Central American states. The method of manufacture is very crude and the product
is not exported. Palm-sugar is obtained from the sap of several species of palm growing in India
and Africa.
Sugar Manufacture.—Sugar manufacture includes three processes—expressing the sap,
evaporating, and refining. The first two are carried on at or near the plantations; the last is an affair
requiring an immense capital and a most elaborately organized plant. The refining is done mainly
in the great centres of population at places most convenient for transportation. The raw sugar may
travel five or ten thousand miles to reach the refinery; the refined product rarely travels more than
a thousand miles.
After it has been cut and stripped of its leaves the sugar-cane is crushed between powerful rollers
in order to express the juice. The sugar-beet is rasped or ground to a pulp and then subjected to
great pressure. The expressed juice contains about ten or twelve per cent. of sugar. In some
factories the beet, or the cane, is cut into thin slices and thrown into water, the juice being
extracted by the solvent properties of the latter. This is known as the "diffusion" process.
The juice is first strained or filtered under pressure in order to remove all foreign matter and
similar impurities. It is then clarified by adding slacked lime, at the same time heating the liquid
nearly to the boiling point and skimming off the impurities that rise to the surface. The purified
juice is then boiled rapidly in vacuum pans until it is greatly concentrated.
When the proper degree of concentration is reached, the liquid is quickly run off into shallow pans,
in which most of it immediately crystallizes. The crystalline portion forms the raw sugar of
commerce; the remaining part is molasses. The whole mass is then shovelled into a centrifugal
machine which in a few minutes separates the two products.
In purchasing raw sugar, the refiner was formerly at a loss to know just how much pure sugar
could be made from a given weight of the raw sugar. In order to aid in making a correct
determination, the Dutch government formerly prepared sixteen samples put up in glass flasks and
sealed. These samples varied in color according to the amount of pure sugar contained. The pure
solution was known in commerce as No. 16 Dutch standard, and this was generally taken all over
the world as the standard of pure sugar. Within recent years the polariscope, an optical instrument
that determines the percentage of sugar by means of polarized light, has largely replaced the Dutch
standard.
The refineries, as a rule, are built with reference to a minimum handling and transportation of the
raw product. The cane-sugar refineries are mainly at the great seaports, where the raw sugar does
not pay railway transportation. The beet-sugar refineries are in the midst of the beet-growing
districts. So nearly perfect and economically managed are these processes, that raw sugar imported

from Europe or from the West Indies, at a cost of from two and a quarter to two and a half cents
per pound, is refined and sold at retail at about five cents.
The margin of profit is so very close, however, that in the United States, as well as most European
states, the sugar industry is protected by government enactments. In the United States imported
raw sugar pays a tariff in order to protect the cane-sugar industry of the Gulf coast and the beet-
sugar grower of the Western States. The duty at the close of the nineteenth century was about 1.66
cents per pound; or, if the sugar came from a foreign country paying a bounty on sugar exported,
an additional countervailing duty equal to the bounty was also charged.
In the various states of western Europe the beet-sugar industry is governed by a cartel or
agreement among the states, which makes the whole business a gigantic combination arrayed
against the tropical sugar interests. In general, the government of each state pays a bounty on every
pound of beet-sugar exported. The real effect of the export bounty is about the same as the
imposition of a tax on the sugar purchased for consumption at home.
Two-thirds of the entire sugar product are made from the beet, at an average cost of about 2.5 cents
a pound. In the tropical islands the yield of cane-sugar per acre is about double that of beet-sugar
and it is produced for about five dollars less per ton. This difference is in part offset by the fact that
the raw cane-sugar must pay transportation for a long distance to the place of consumption, and in
part by the government bounties paid on the beet product.
Both the political and the economic effects of beet sugar-making have been far-reaching. In
Germany the agricultural interests of the country have been completely reorganized. The uncertain
profits of cereal food-stuffs have given place to the sure profits of beet-sugar cultivation, with the
result that the income of the Germans has been enormously increased. In the other lowland
countries of western Europe the venture has been equally successful. Even the Netherlands has
profited by it.
In the case of Spain, the result of beet-sugar cultivation was disastrous. The price of cane-sugar in
Cuba and the Philippine Islands fell to such a low point that the islands could not pay the taxes
imposed by the mother country. Instead of lowering the taxes and adjusting affairs to the changed
conditions, the Spaniards drove the islands into rebellion, and the latter finally resulted in war with
the United States, and the loss of the colonies. Great Britain wisely adjusted her colonial affairs to
the changed conditions, but the British colonies suffered greatly from beet-sugar competition.
Production and Consumption.—The production and consumption of sugar increased about
sevenfold during the latter half of the nineteenth century, the increase being due very largely to the
decreased price. Thus, in 1850, white (loaf) sugar was a luxury, retailing at about twenty cents per
pound; in 1870 the wholesale price of pure granulated sugar was fourteen cents; in 1902 it was not
quite five cents.
Although the tropical countries are greatly handicapped by the political legislation of the European
states, they cannot supply the amount of sugar required, unless the area of production be greatly
extended. It is also certain that without governmental protection, sugar growing in the temperate
zone cannot compete with that of the tropical countries.
Of the eight million tons of sugar yearly consumed, two-thirds are beet-sugar. The annual
consumption per capita is about ninety pounds in Great Britain, seventy pounds in the United
States, and not far from thirty-five pounds in Germany and France. In Russia and the eastern
European countries it is less than fifteen pounds.

Molasses.—The molasses of commerce is the uncrystallizable sugar that is left in the vacuum pans
at the close of the process of evaporation. The molasses formerly known as "sugar house" is a
filthy product that nowadays is scarcely used, except in the manufacture of rum. The color of
molasses is due mainly to the presence of "caramel" or half-charred sugar; it cannot be wholly
removed by any ordinary clarifying process.
Purified molasses is usually known as "sirup," and much of it is made by boiling a solution of raw
sugar to the proper degree of concentration. A considerable part is made from the sap of the
sorghum-cane, and probably a larger quantity consists of glucose solution colored with caramel.
Maple-sirup, formerly a solution of maple-sugar, is now very largely made from raw cane-sugar
clarified and artificially flavored.
Glucose.—Glucose, or grape-sugar, is the natural sugar of the grape and most small fruits. Honey
is a nearly pure, concentrated solution of glucose. Grape-sugar has, roughly, about three-fifths the
sweetening power of cane-sugar. Natural grape-sugar is too expensive for ordinary commercial
use; the commercial product, on the other hand, is artificial, and is made mainly from cornstarch.
Glucose is employed in the cheaper kinds of confectionery in the United States; most of it,
however, is exported to Great Britain, the annual product being worth about four million dollars.
From the fact that it can be made more economically from corn than from any other grain,
practically all the glucose is made in the United States.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
It frequently happens that the prices of sugar and tin-plate rise and fall together; show how the fruit-crop may cause this fluctuation.
Which of the possessions of the United States are adaptable for cane-sugar?—for beet-sugar?
In what ways has the manufacture of sugar brought about international complications?
What is meant by "Dutch Standard" tests?—by polariscope tests?

FOR REFERENCE AND STUDY
Obtain specimens of rock candy, granulated sugar, raw sugar, and caramel; observe each carefully with a magnifying glass and note
the difference.
World's Sugar Production.

CHAPTER XV
FORESTS AND FOREST PRODUCTS

Outside the food-stuffs, probably no other material is more generally used by human beings than
the products of the forests. More people are sheltered by wooden dwellings than by those of brick
or stone, and more people are warmed by wood fires than by coal. Even in steam-making a
considerable power is still produced by the use of wood for fuel.
Neither stone nor metal can wholly take the place of wood as a building material; indeed, for
interior fittings, finishings, and furniture, no artificial substitute has yet been found that is
acceptable. For such purposes it is carried to the interior of continents and transported across the
oceans; and although the cost has enormously increased, the demand has scarcely fallen off.
Forest Areas.—The great belts of forests girdle the land surface of the earth. A zone of tropical
forest forms a broad belt on each side of the equator, but mainly north of it. This forest includes
most of the ornamental woods, such as mahogany, ebony, rosewood, sandal-wood, etc. It also
includes the most useful teak as well as the rubber-tree and the cinchona. Another forest belt in the
north temperate zone is situated mainly between the thirty-fifth and fiftieth parallels. It traverses
middle and northern Europe and the northern United States.
This forest contains the various species of pine, cedar, and other conifers, the oaks, maples, elms,
birches, etc. Most of the forests of western Europe have been greatly depleted, though those of
Norway and Sweden are still productive. The forests of the United States, extending from Maine to
Dakota, have been so wellnigh exhausted that by 1950 only a very little good lumber-making
timber will be left.
The destruction of forests has been most wasteful. When a forest-covered region is settled, a large
area is burnt off in order to clear the land for cultivation. In many instances the fires are never fully
extinguished until the forest disappears. The timber of the United States has been depleted not only
by frequent fires but in various other ways. The lumbermen take the best trees and these are cut
into building-lumber. The railways follow the lumbermen, cutting out everything suitable for ties.
The paper-makers vie with the tie-cutters, and what is left is the plunder of the charcoal-burner.
Forestry.—In most of Europe the care of the remaining forests is usually a government charge.
Only a certain number of mature trees may be removed each year, and many are planted for each
one removed—in the aggregate, several million each year. In the United States, where the value of
the growing timber destroyed by fire each year nearly equals the national debt, not very much has
been done to either check the ravage or to reforest the denuded areas. Many of the States, however,
encourage tree-planting. In several, Arbor Day is a holiday provided by law.
The general Government has established timber preserves in several localities in the West. The
State of New York has converted the whole Adirondack region into a great preserve. Forest

wardens and guards are employed both to keep fires in check and to prevent the ravages of timber
thieves; excepting the State preserves however, the means of prevention are inadequate for either
purpose.

THE LUMBER INDUSTRY—A LOG JAM

To be valuable for lumber of the best quality, a forest tree must be "clear"; that is, it must be free
from knots at least fifteen feet from the ground. In the case of pines and cedars, the clear part of
the trunk must have a greater length. To produce such conditions, the trees must grow thickly
together, in order that the lower branches may not mature.
The growth of trees thus set is very slow. Isolated pine-trees will reach the size large enough for
cutting in about fifty years, but the lumber will be practically worthless because of the knots. On
the other hand, pine forests with the trees so thickly set as to make a clear, merchantable lumber
require at least a century for maturity.[49] Oak forests require a much greater period.
As a rule, the forest growths of the United States are found in the areas characterized by sandy and
gravelly soils. Thus, the glaciated region of the United States and Canada for the greater part is
forest-covered. The sand barrens along the Atlantic coast usually are forest areas. The older
bottom-lands of most rivers are often forest-covered, especially when their soil is coarse and
sandy.
There are large areas, however, in both the United States and Europe, that are treeless. In some
instances this condition, without doubt, resulted from the fires that annually burnt the grass. With
the cessation of the prairie fires, forest growths have steadily increased.
In other instances these areas are treeless because the seeds of trees have never been planted there.
The high plains at the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains are an example. This region is
deficient in the moisture required to give young trees the vigorous start that will carry them to
maturity. Moreover, the westerly winds and the streams of this region come from localities also
deficient in forestry, and there are therefore no seeds to be carried.
As a rule, the distribution of forests is effected by the winds and by moving water. The prevailing
westerly winds of the temperate zones have carried many species eastward and have extended the

forest areas in that direction. Freshets, floods, and overflows have been even more active in
carrying seeds, sprouts, and even trees into new territories. Waves and currents have likewise
played a similar part. Wherever the soil of the region into which the species have been carried is
moist and nutritious, the forest growth has usually extended.
The Pine Family.—The pine family includes the various species of pine, tamarack, spruce,
hemlock, fir, juniper, larch, cypress, and cedar. A few members of the family thrive in the warmer
parts of the temperate zone, but for the greater part they flourish between the fortieth and sixtieth
parallels. Most of the species found in low latitudes are mountain-trees. They constitute the greater
part of the American and Russian forests. The American pine forest is thought to be the largest in
the world.
The white pine (Pinus strobus) is the most valuable member of the family. Its value is due in part
to the fact that the wood is soft, clear, and easily worked, and in part to the accessibility of the
forests. Not much inroad has yet been made upon the great Russian forest, owing to the fact that
the timber is too far away from seaports and water transportation. Rough lumber becomes too
expensive for use when transported by land, but it will stand the expense of shipment by water
many miles.
The Georgia or long-leafed pine (Pinus palustris) is also commonly called pitch pine, turpentine
pine, and southern pine; it grows chiefly along the south Atlantic coast and in the northern
counties of Georgia. It is harder than white pine and makes excellent flooring.
The sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana) occurs mainly in Oregon and California. The grain is fine and
soft and the trees reach a large girth.
The loblolly pine (Pinus tæda) has a considerably larger area than the Georgia pine, extending into
Indian Territory. The short-leaf pine (Pinus echinata) occurs in small areas from New York to the
Gulf of Mexico, and across to Missouri; it is the Chattahoochee pine of Florida. The pitch pine
(Pinus rigida) occurs in various areas mainly north of the Ohio River and west of the prairies. The
lumber cut annually from these pines aggregates about thirty billion feet.
The common white cedar (Chamæcyparis thyoides) occurs along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts
nearly to the Mississippi. On account of its fine grain it is much used in cabinet work and as a
finishing wood. Red cedar, probably a different species, occurs along the Atlantic coast. It is
largely used in the manufacture of lead-pencils, and the forests are wellnigh exhausted.
The redwoods are confined to the California coast, mainly in the coast ranges, near the ocean.
Ordinary redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) resembles red cedar, is soft, and very fine in grain, and
shrinks but little in seasoning. It is a most valuable timber both for common and for ornamental
use. It very frequently attains a diameter of five or six feet; the big tree sometimes exceeds sixteen
feet in diameter and reaches a height of nearly four hundred feet.
Other Industrial Woods.—The oaks, like the pines, form a nearly continuous belt across the
northern continents, lying mainly south of the pines; they do not extend much south of the thirtieth
parallel. The white oak of the New England plateau and Canada commands a high price on
account of its strength; a considerable quantity is exported.
The "quartering" of the lumber used in ornamental work is produced by sawing the logs, which
have been split in quarters, so that the silver-grain shows on the faces of the boards. The bark of

the oak is rich in tannic acid and it is much used in tanning leather. Cork oak (Quercus suber)
grows mainly in Spain and Algeria.
Black walnut (Juglans nigra) grows in the river-bottoms of the Mississippi Valley and in Texas.
The merchantable supply is not great, and the wood is therefore growing more valuable each year.
Hickory is used where great strength is required, and also for various tool-handles. Maple is
largely employed in making furniture. Ash is a very common wood for tool-handles.
Shade-Trees and Ornamental Woods.—A large number of trees are yearly transplanted, or else
grown from seed, to be used as ornamental shade-trees. For this purpose the elm, maple, acacia
("locust"), linden ("lime"), catalpa, ash, horse-chestnut ("buckeye"), poplar, and willow are most
common in ordinary temperate latitudes, both in Europe and America. In warmer latitudes the
Australian eucalyptus ("red gum" and "blue gum"), magnolia, palmetto, laurel, arbutus, and tulip
are common. The local trade in ornamental trees is very heavy; the trade is local for the reason that
the transportation of them is very expensive.
Tropical Woods and Tree Products.—Many of the tropical woods are in demand on account of
their beautiful appearance, and in many species this quality is combined with strength and
hardness. Mahogany is obtained from Mexico and the Central American states, and also from the
West Indies. The former is classed as "Honduras"; the latter is generally known as San Domingo
mahogany and commands the highest price. Rosewood is obtained from Brazil, and is used almost
exclusively in piano-cases. Both are cut into thin veneers, to be glued to a less expensive body.
Ebony is the heart of a species of persimmon obtained mainly in Ceylon and the East Indies. Very
little of the so-called ebony is genuine, most of the ebony of commerce consisting of fine-grained
hardwood, stained black. Jarrah, an Australian wood, is now very generally used for street-paving,
and for this purpose it has no superior. Teak probably has no equal for strength and durability. It is
not touched by the teredo and other marine worms.
Boxwood (Buxus balearica) is a high-growing tree, native to India, but growing best in the islands
of the Mediterranean. The wood is very hard, of yellowish-brown color, and so fine in grain that it
finds a ready market in nearly every part of the world. Probably the larger part is used by
engravers. A large amount of the wood is also used in the manufacture of folding-rules, and in
inlaying. Constantinople is the principal market, and nearly ten thousand tons of the selected wood
are sold yearly.
Lignum vitæ, or guaiac wood (Guaiacum officinale), grows profusely in the West Indies and along
the Spanish Main. It is used both in medicine and in the arts. Shavings of the wood steeped in
water were once considered a cure-all, hence the name. The wood is very hard, heavy, and is split
with the greatest difficulty. It is therefore much employed in making mallet-heads, tool-handles,
nine-pin balls, and pulley-blocks. In tropical countries it is employed for railway ties. West India
ports are the chief markets, and the United States is the chief consumer.

A LOG RAFT, WINONA, WIS.

HAULING LOGS TO THE RIVER

Copyright, 1898, Detroit Photographic Co.

THE LUMBER INDUSTRY—A LOGGING STREAM, MENOMINEE, WIS.

Logwood is the wood of a tree (Hæmatoxylon campechianum) growing in Central America and the
West Indies. The best quality comes from Campeche, and it is marketed mainly from Central
American ports. It is almost universally used for dyeing the black of woollen and cotton textiles,
and logwood blacks are the standard of color-prints.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
In what structures has timber been supplanted by iron and steel?
In what manufactured article has timber supplanted the use of rags?
When a pine forest is cut away, what kinds of timber are apt to come up in place of the pines?
In what manner does the railway draw upon the forests?—the paper-maker?—the farmer?—the tanner?—the beaver?—the teredo,
or ship-worm?
From what country or countries do the following come: boxwood, rosewood, sandal-wood, cinchona, bog oak, jarrah?

FOR STUDY AND REFERENCE
Make a list of the forestry growing in the State in which you live; so far as possible, obtain a specimen of each wood, prepared so as
to show square, oblique, split, and polished sections; for what purpose, if any, is each used?
Consult "Check-list of Forestry of the United States" (U.S. Department of Agriculture).

CHAPTER XVI
SEA PRODUCTS AND FURS

The world's fish-catch amounts probably to more than one-quarter of a billion dollars in value and
employs upward of a million people; in the United States 200,000 are employed. In some
localities, such as the oceanic islands, far distant from the grazing lands of the continents, the flesh
of fish is about the only fresh meat obtainable. Even on the continents fish is more available and
cheaper than beef. The fish-producing areas pay no taxes; they require no cultivation; moreover,
they do not require to be purchased. In general, fish supplements beef as an article of food; it is not
a substitute for the latter.
The whale-catch excepted, fish are generally caught in the shallow waters of the continental
coasts. The fish, in great schools, resort to such localities at certain seasons, and the seasons in
which they school is the fisherman's opportunity. For the greater part, such shallows and banks are
spawning-places. Most of the fish, however, are caught off the Atlantic coasts of Europe and North
America, these localities being nearest to the great centres of population.
Whales.—The whale is sought mainly in cold waters, and at the present time the chief whaling-
grounds are in the vicinity of Point Barrow. In the first half of the nineteenth century whale-fishing
was an industry involving hundreds of vessels and a large aggregate capital. The industry centred
about New England seaports.
The train-oil obtained from the blubber of the animal was used partly as a lubricant, but mainly for
illuminating purposes. For this purpose, however, it has been superseded by coal-oil, gas, and
electricity. It is still in demand as a lubricant, but the whale-oil of commerce is quite as apt to come
from the blubber of the porpoise or the sea-cow as from the right whale. Whalebone is a horny
substance taken from the animal's jaw, and is worth from three dollars to eight dollars per pound. It
is used chiefly in the manufacture of whips. For other purposes, steel, hard rubber, and celluloid
have taken its place.
The substance called spermaceti is derived from the sperm-whale, an inhabitant of warm ocean-
waters. Spermaceti is identical in its physical properties with paraffine, and the latter is now almost
universally its substitute.
Ambergris, thought to be a morbid secretion or disease of the sperm-whale, is found in the body
cavity of the animal and also in masses floating in the sea. It is used chiefly to give intensity to the
odor of perfumes, and the best quality brings as much as five dollars per ounce. Most of the
ambergris of commerce is obtained from the neighborhood of the Bahama Islands.
Cod.—In the amount of the product the cod-fisheries are the most important. The meat of the fish
is not strong in flavor, and it is cured with little expense. So valuable is the annual catch that the
banks and shallows which the schools frequent are governed by international treaties.

The cod is a cold-water fish, and the fishing-grounds are confined to rather high latitudes. The
coast-waters of the Scandinavian peninsula and the shores of the Canadian coast, especially the
Banks of Newfoundland, are the chief areas. The fishing-grounds of the Canadian coast are closed
to foreign vessels inside a three-mile limit; beyond the limit they are occupied mainly by
Canadian, French, and American fishermen. By the terms of treaties foreign vessels may enter the
three-mile limit under restriction to purchase bait and food-supplies, and to cure their fish.
A large part of the cod-catch is exported. Tropical countries buy much of the product. In such
countries it is more wholesome than meat; it is cheaper; moreover, the salted cod will keep for an
indefinite length of time. A large part of the catch is sold to the Catholic states of Europe and
America, where during certain times the eating of the flesh of animals is forbidden. Gloucester,
Mass., London, England, and Trondhjem, Norway, are great markets for salted fish. The oil from
the liver of the cod is much used in medicine.
Herring, Alewives, and Sardine.—The herring is a much smaller fish than the cod, and,
commercially, is much less important. They school in about the same waters as the cod, but are
caught at a different season, gill-nets being usually employed. Practically no distinction is made
between full-grown herring and alewives of the same size. The fish are usually cured by smoking,
pickling, or salting, and in this form are either exported or sold in interior markets.
The true sardine is found in latitudes a little farther south than the schooling-grounds of the cod.
The most important fisheries are along the coasts of the Latin states of Europe. Sardine fishing is a
great industry all along the New England coast of the United States, but the "sardines" marketed
from this region are young herring. Indeed, nearly all sorts of small fry are sold in boxes bearing
spurious French labels.
Salmon.—Most of the salmon are caught in the rivers flowing into the North Pacific Ocean. The
fish are caught in traps and weirs at the time of the spring run, when they ascend the river to
spawn. The rivers are frequently so congested with the salmon that thousands of tons are caught in
a single stream during the run.
The salmon canneries of the Columbia River are very extensive establishments, but in the past few
years they have been surpassed by the Alaskan fisheries, which produce not far from fifty million
pounds each year. The dressed fish is cooked by steam, canned, and exported to all parts of the
world. The growth and development of the industry has also made an enormous demand on the tin
mines of the world. Canned salmon is the largest fish export of the United States. There are
extensive salmon-fisheries in Norway, Japan, and Russia.
Other Fish.—Mackerel and haddock are caught near the shores of the North Atlantic. Most of the
mackerel-catch is pickled in brine and sold in small kegs known as "kits." The menhaden-catch of
the North Atlantic is converted into fertilizer. The halibut is a large fish that is rarely preserved.
The area in which it is caught is about the same as that of the cod. Shad are usually caught when
ascending the rivers of the middle Atlantic coast. In the United States, Chesapeake, Delaware, and
New York Bays yield the chief supply. The bluefish and barracuda are warm-water fish. The
market for fresh fish has been greatly enlarged by the use of refrigerator-cars.
The sturgeon is captured mainly in the rivers and lakes of the temperate zone. Those of the Black
Sea sometimes attain a weight of 2,000 pounds. The flesh is of less importance than the eggs, of
which caviare is made. Russian caviare is sold all over Europe and America, and not a small part
of the product is made in Maine. The caviare made from the roe of the Delaware River sturgeon is
exported to Germany. The tunny is confined to Mediterranean waters.

The anchovy is caught on the coast of Europe; most of the product is preserved, or made into the
well-known "anchovy sauce." The beche-de-mere, or "sea cucumber," is a product of Australasian
and Malaysian waters. Almost the whole catch is purchased by the Chinese, and it is exported to
all countries having a Chinese population.
Oysters and Lobsters.—The oyster is among the foremost sea products of the United States in
value. The oyster thrives best in moderately warm and sheltered waters. The coves and estuaries
along the middle Atlantic coast produce the best in the world. Chesapeake Bay and Long Island
Sound yield the greater part of the output. In the latter waters elaborate methods of propagation are
carried out, and the yearly crop is increasing both in quality and quantity. The output of the
Chesapeake beds has decreased materially; that of the Long Island Sound beds has increased.
Oysters are plentiful along the Pacific coast of the United States and also in European coast-
waters, but they are inferior in size and quality. The use of refrigerator-cars and vessels has
extended the trade to the extent that fresh oysters are shipped to points 2,000 miles inland; they are
also exported to Europe. Baltimore is the chief oyster-market.
The consumption of the lobster has been so great that the catch of the New England coast has
decreased about one-half in the past fifty years, and the United States is now an importer. Most of
the import, amounting to about one million dollars yearly, comes from Canada. The so-called
lobsters of the Pacific coast of the United States are not lobsters, but crayfish.
Fish Hatcheries.—The demand for fish has grown so great in past years that in many countries
the waters, especially the lakes and rivers, are restocked. The eggs are hatched and the young fry
are fed until they are large enough to take care of themselves. The chief hatchery and laboratory of
the United States Fish Commission is at Woods Holl, Mass. As many as 860,000,000 eggs, small
fry, and adult fish have been distributed in a single year. The State of New York has also a similar
department for restocking its waters.
Sponge.—This substance is practically the skeleton of a low order of animal, growing at the
bottom of the sea. The sponge is cut from the place of attachment, and the gelatinous matter is
washed away after putrefaction. The chief sponge-fisheries are in the neighborhood of Florida and
the Bahama Islands.
Seal.—The fur-seal is an amphibian, found only in cold waters. A few pelts are obtained along the
Greenland coast, but the chief sealing-grounds of the world have been at the Pribilof Islands, in
Bering Sea. The pelts of the young males only are taken. The rookeries of the Pribilof Islands have
been so nearly exhausted, that the killing season has been suspended for a term of years. Much
illicit seal-catching is still going on, however.
The skins are taken to London, via San Francisco, where the fur is dyed a rich brown color;
London is the chief market for dyed pelts; San Francisco for raw pelts; and New York, Paris, and
St. Petersburg for garments. The pelts of the sea-otter are obtained mainly in the North Pacific
Ocean.
Other Furs.—The furs employed in the finest garments are in part the pelts of land animals living
in polar regions. The sable, stone-marten, otter, beaver, and red fox are the most valuable. The
Persian lamb, however, is not a polar animal. The Russian Empire and Canada are the chief
sources of supply. The Hudson Bay Company, with head-quarters at Fort Garry, near Winnipeg,
controls most of the fur-trade of North America; the Russian furs are marketed mainly at Lower
Novgorod. Leipzig, Germany, is also an important fur-market.

Enormous quantities of rabbit-skins from Australia and nutria from Argentina are imported into the
United States and Europe for the manufacture of the felt of which hats are made. The amount of
this substance may be realized when one considers that not far from two hundred million people in
the two countries wear felt hats.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
Note an instance in which the search for deep-sea fishing-grounds has resulted in the discovery of unknown lands.
Why are not whale products as essential now as a century ago?
What international complications have arisen between the United States and Great Britain concerning the cod-fisheries?—the seal-
catch?

NORTH AMERICA

CHAPTER XVII
THE UNITED STATES—THE SEAPORTS AND THE ATLANTIC COAST-
PLAIN

The United States of America together with the possessions included within the domain of the
Republic comprise an area somewhat greater than that of Europe.
With respect to latitude, the position of the main body of the United States is extremely fortunate.
Practically all its area is situated in the warmer half of the temperate zone. Only a small part lies
beyond the northern limit of the corn belt; wheat, oats, and barley are cultivated successfully
throughout four-fifths of its extent in latitude; grass, and therefore cattle and sheep are grown in
nearly every part. Coal, iron, copper, gold, and silver, the minerals and metals which give to a
nation its greatest material power, exist in abundance, and the successful working of these deposits
have placed the country upon a very high commercial plane.
Topographically the United States may be divided into the following regions:
The Atlantic Coast-Plain,
The Appalachian Ranges and the New England Plateau,
The Basin of the Great Lakes,
The Northern Mississippi Valley Region,
The Southern Mississippi Valley and Gulf Coast,
The Arid Plains,
The Plateau Region,
The Pacific Coast Lowlands.

A HARBOR—NEW YORK BAY, AT THE BATTERY

The topographic and climatic features of these various regions have had a great influence not only
on the political history of the country, but their effect has been even greater in determining its
industrial development. They have resulted in the establishment of the various industries, each in
the locality best adapted to it, instead of their diffusion without respect to the necessary conditions
of environment.
The foregoing regions are also approximately areas of fundamental industries. Thus, the New
England plateau supplies the rest of the United States with light manufactures, such as cotton
textiles, woollen clothing, hats, shoes, cutlery, books, writing-paper, household metal wares, etc.,
but sells the excess abroad. The middle and southern Appalachians, with the coal which forms
their chief resource, supply the rest of the country with structural steel, from ores obtained in the
lake regions, and sell the excess to foreign countries.
The northern Mississippi Valley grows nearly one-fourth of the world's wheat-crop. The wheat of
this region and the Pacific coast lowlands supplies the country with bread-stuffs, and exports the
excess to western Europe. The Gulf states, which produce three-fourths of the world's cotton-crop,
supply the whole country and about one-half the rest of the world besides with cotton textiles. The
grazing regions produce an excess of meat for export; the western highlands furnish the gold and
silver necessary to carry on the enormous commerce.
In the last twenty years the imports of merchandise per capita varied but little from $11.50; the
exports per capita varied from about $12 to more than $18.
The Atlantic Coast-Plain and the Seaports.—Throughout most of its extent the Atlantic
seaboard of the United States is bordered by a low coast-plain. Along the northeastern coast of the
United States the coast-plain is very narrow; south of New York Bay it has a width in some places
of more than two hundred miles.
The existence of this plain has had a marked effect on the commercial development of the country.
The sinking or "drowning" of the northern part of it has made an exceedingly indented coast. The
drowned valleys, enclosed by ridges and headlands, form the best of harbors, and nearly all of
them are northeast of New York Bay. South of New York Bay good harbors are comparatively few.
For the greater part they occur only when old, buried river-channels permit approach to the shore.
The most important port of entry in these harbors is New York, and it derives its importance from
two factors. It has a very capacious harbor, into which vessels drawing as much as thirty-five feet
may enter; its situation at the lower end of a series of valleys and passes makes it almost a dead
level route from the Mississippi to the Atlantic seaboard. The importance of New York as the
commercial gateway between European ports and the food-producing region of the American
continent began when the Erie Canal was opened between the Great Lakes and tide-water. The
completion of the canal for the first time opened the rich farming lands of the interior to European
markets. Probably a greater tonnage of freight is carried yearly over this route than over any other
channel of trade in the world.
Not far from two-thirds of the foreign commerce of the country passes through the port of New
York. The water-front of the city has an aggregate length of about three hundred miles, of which
one-third is available for anchorage. The docks and piers, including those of Jersey City and
Hoboken, aggregate about ninety miles in frontage.

About sixteen thousand sea-going craft enter and clear yearly, and an average of nearly twenty
large passenger and freight steamships arrive and clear daily, about one-half of them being foreign.
The latter receive their cargoes from about three thousand freight-cars that are daily switched into
the various freight-yards, a large part of which is through freight from the west.
The port of entry of New York is a centre of population of about four million, and although there
are the industries usually found in great communities, the greater business enterprises practically
reduce themselves to export, import, and exchange. For this reason New York City is the financial,
as well as the commercial centre of the continent. Most of the great industrial corporations of the
country have their head offices in the city. These are financed by more than one hundred banks,
together with a clearing-house whose yearly business amounted in 1902 to considerably more than
seventy billions of dollars.[50]

BOSTON HARBOR

Boston has been one of the leading ports of the United States for considerably more than a century.
It ranks second among the ports of the United States. Regular lines of transit connect it with the
principal ports of Great Britain and Canada. The coast trade is also very heavy. Boston is the
financial and commercial centre of New England; the cotton, woollen, and leather goods passing
through the port find their way to nearly every inhabited part of the world. The city controls a
considerable export trade of food-stuffs from the upper Mississippi Valley. The vessels entering

and clearing at Boston indicate a movement of about four million five hundred thousand tons,
about one-fourth that of New York. The clearing-house exchanges average about six billion dollars
yearly.
Philadelphia, on account of its distance inland, is not fortunately situated for ocean commerce.
Steamships of deep draught reach their docks at the lower end of the city under their own steam,
but sailing-craft pay heavy towage fees. There are regular lines to Liverpool, Antwerp, West Indian
ports, Baltimore, and Boston. Philadelphia is the centre of the anthracite coal trade, and this is the
chief factor of its domestic trade. The imports of fruit from the West Indies, carpet-wool from
Europe, and raw sugar from the West Indies, form the greater part of its foreign business. The
manufactures are mainly carpets and rugs, locomotives and iron steamships, and refined sugar. The
carpet-weaving and the ship-building plants are among the largest in the world. The ocean
movement of freight is more than three million five hundred thousand tons yearly. The business of
the clearing-house in 1902 aggregated nearly six billion dollars.
Baltimore is likewise handicapped by its distance inland. Sailing-vessels, however, require only a
short towage, the docks being scarcely a dozen miles from Chesapeake Bay. The harbor is deep
and capacious. The Pennsylvania and Baltimore & Ohio railway systems have made Baltimore an
important railway centre. The completion of the Gould railway system to the Atlantic seaboard has
made the city second to New York only in the export of corn, wheat, flour, and tobacco. The most
noteworthy local industry is the oyster product, which is the greatest in the world. Nearly ten
thousand people are employed, and during the busy season—from September to the end of April—
about thirty carloads of oysters a day are shipped.

CHARLESTON HARBOR

The yearly movement of marine freight, entering and clearing, aggregates about three million tons.
In 1902 the clearing-house exchanges aggregated about two and one-quarter billion dollars.
Portland, Me., has good harbor facilities, but is distant from the great lines of traffic. Steamship
lines, which in summer make Montreal a terminal point, occasionally make Portland their winter
harbor. Newport News, Savannah, Charleston, and Brunswick are growing in importance as
clearing ports for the cotton and produce from the region west of them. Norfolk obtains importance
on account of the United States Navy-Yard; it is also the great peanut-market of the world.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
What are the requisites of a good seaport?
What is meant by the draught of a vessel?
For what purposes are pilots?
How are navigable channels marked and designated?
From the Statistical Abstract find six or more of the leading exports from each of the following ports: New York, Boston, Baltimore,
Philadelphia, and the port nearest which you live.

FOR COLLATERAL REFERENCE
Statistical Abstract of the United States.
Statesman's Year-Book.

Industrial Evolution of the United States—Chapter II.

CHAPTER XVIII
THE UNITED STATES—THE NEW ENGLAND PLATEAU AND THE
APPALACHIAN REGION

The manufacturing regions of the United States, which connect the country with the rest of the
world, include mainly the New England plateau and the Appalachian ranges.
The New England Plateau.—This region embraces the New England States and practically
includes all the eastern part of New York and northern New Jersey. The abruptly sloping surface
affords a great wealth of water-power, and the region is one of the most important centres of light
manufacture in the world. This industry resulted very largely from the conditions imposed by the
War of 1812 and its consequent non-intercourse acts.
The interruption of foreign commerce not only cut off the importation of manufactured
commodities, but also made idle the capital employed. Manufacturing enterprises started in
various parts of the United States, but they prospered in this region for three reasons—an
abundance of power, plenty of capital, and business experience. Steam-power is largely
supplanting water-power in the manufacturing enterprises, and in many instances the
establishments have been moved to tide-water in order to get their coal at the lowest rates of
transportation.
Chief among the manufactures are cotton textiles, the yearly output of which is about three
hundred million dollars. About nine-tenths of the cotton goods made are consumed at home. Of the
remainder, China purchases one-half. Great Britain and Canada take one-fourth, the South
American and Central American states purchase most of the remaining output. The great
improvement of spinning and weaving machinery has enabled the cotton manufacturer to export
his wares to about every country in the world.
Boots, shoes, and other leather goods are also important manufactures. The invention of improved
machinery for making shoes has revolutionized the industry to the extent that a pair of stylish
shoes may be purchased anywhere in the United States for about half the price charged in 1880.
Another result is the enormous importation of hides from South American countries and Mexico.
The New England plateau is also the centre of a large number of manufactures that require a high
degree of mechanical skill and intellectual training, such as small fire-arms, machinery, watches
and clocks, jewelry, machine-tools, etc. The location of such industries depends but little upon
climate, topography, or the cost of transportation; it is wholly a question of an educated and trained
people. This region is likely to lose a considerable part of its manufactures of cotton textiles,
inasmuch as the industry is gradually moving to the cotton-growing region. The manufactures
requiring training and skill, however, are likely to remain in the region where they have grown up.

Lawrence, Lowell, Manchester, and Nashua—all on the Merrimac River; Lewiston, Waterville,
Augusta, Woonsocket, and Adams—each situated at falls or rapids—are great centres of cotton
manufacture. Fall River has an abundance of water-power, and at the same time is situated on tide-
water. Having the advantage of good power and cheap transportation, it has probably the greatest
output of cotton textiles of any city in the world. Textile establishments have also grown up in the
cities and towns of the Mohawk Valley, being attracted by the excellent facilities for transportation
and also by the available water-power. Lynn, Brockton, Haverhill, Marlboro, and Worcester are
centres of boot and shoe manufacture; they turn out about two-thirds of the product of the United
States.
Bridgeport and New Haven have very large plants for the manufacture of fire-arms and fixed
ammunition; Waterbury and Ansonia for watches, clocks, and brass goods; Meriden for silverware,
and Waltham for watches. Worcester, Hartford, North Adams, Fitchburg, and Providence have
each a great variety of manufactures. The foreign commerce of these manufacturing centres is
carried on mainly through Boston. New Haven, New Bedford, Providence, Salem, Gloucester, and
New London control each a very large local commerce.
South of New York Bay the Atlantic coast-plain attains an average width of nearly two hundred
miles. The pine forests of this plain yield lumber, tar, pitch, and turpentine. The productive lands
are valuable chiefly for their output of dairy stuffs, fruit, and "garden truck," which find a ready
market in the larger cities. In order to encourage this industry, the railways make special rates for
dairy products, fruit, and vegetables, and afford quick transit for such freight.
Manufacturing industries are rapidly taking shape in this part of the United States. Along the line
where the coast-plain proper joins the foot-hills of the Appalachian ranges, the rivers reach the
lower levels by rapids or falls. The estuaries into which they flow are usually navigable for river-
craft. The manufacturer thus has the double advantage of water-power and low transportation. The
opening of the southern Appalachian coal-mines has also greatly encouraged manufacture in this
region. Richmond, Columbia, Milledgeville, Augusta, and Columbus are thus situated. Their
manufactures are very largely connected with the cotton-crop.
The domestic commerce of the Atlantic seaboard of the United States is probably larger than that
of any other similar region in the world. It is considerably larger than the "round-the-island" trade
of Great Britain. Much of this trade is carried by steam-vessels, but the three-masted schooner is
everywhere in evidence, and these craft carry a very large part of the coal that is moved by water.
This trade is restricted to vessels flying the American flag.
The Appalachian Region.—The middle and southern Appalachian region has become the most
important centre of iron and steel manufacture in the world. This great development has resulted
from several causes, the chief being the existence of coal and unlimited quantities of iron ore on
the one hand, and unusual facilities for cheap transportation on the other. There are practically
three areas of steel manufacture—one along the Ohio River and its tributaries in western
Pennsylvania; another is situated along the south shores of Lake Erie and Lake Michigan; the third
includes the Birmingham district in the southern Appalachians.
The steel-making plants of the Ohio River are located with reference to the transportation of their
products, and therefore are built usually alongside the river. The coal or coke is commonly shipped
in barges of light draught; the manufactured products are carried by rail. The greater part of the ore
is brought from the Lake Superior region. It is shipped at a very small cost from the ore quarries to

the lake-shore, and by rail from the lake-shore to the manufacturing plant. In order to avoid heavy
grades the ore railways are also built along the river-valleys.

STEEL MANUFACTURE—ERECTING SHOP OF THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE
WORKS, PHILADELPHIA

Some of the various steel-making plants are equipped for the manufacture of building or
"structural" steel, others for rails and railway equipments, still others for tin-plate, or for wire, or
for tool steel. In a few mills armor-plate and ordinary plate for steel vessels form the exclusive
product. The diversity of the product has led to the organization of great corporations, each of
which controls half-a-dozen or more plants, the transportation lines necessary to carry the product,
the ore quarries, and the fuel-mines.
The wonderful development of the steel industry in the United States is due to the use of labor-
saving machinery, and to the superb organization. The wages paid for labor are higher than those
paid in European steel-making centres; the cost of living is not materially greater. The price of
steel rails, which in 1880 was forty-eight dollars per ton, in 1900 was about twenty dollars per ton.
Pittsburg, together with Homestead, Carnegie, McKeesport, Duquesne, and Braddock, is the chief
steel-making centre of the Ohio River Valley. There are also large plants at New Castle, Sharon,
Scranton, Johnstown, Bellaire, Youngstown, Mingo Junction, and Wheeling. The steel-plant and
rolling-mills at South Bethlehem are designed especially for the manufacture of the heavy
ordnance used in the army and navy. Nearly all the cities and towns of Pennsylvania, West
Virginia, and eastern Ohio carry on manufacturing enterprises that depend on coal mining and steel
manufacture. The great and diversified manufactures of Philadelphia are due to its fortunate
situation at tide-water, near the coal-mines. Cheap fuel and water transportation have made it one
of the great industrial centres of the world.
The anthracite coal of this region is used wholly for fuel and steam-making; it is shipped partly by
water from Philadelphia, but mainly in specially constructed cars to the various points of
consumption. The soft coal is used also for fuel and steam-making, but a large part of the product
is converted into coke and used in the steel-plants.
The petroleum of this region is a leading export of the country, the states of western Europe being
the chief purchasers. Of agricultural products, hay, dairy products, and tobacco are the only ones of

importance. Natural gas is used both as a fuel and in manufactures.
The lake-shore centre of steel manufacture depends largely on the low cost of transporting the iron
ore, which in part is offset by the increased cost of coal. The low cost of shipping the
manufactured product over nearly level trunk lines is a very substantial gain. South Chicago,
Toledo, Sandusky, Lorain, Cleveland, Ashtabula, Conneaut, Erie, and Buffalo are centres of steel
manufacture or ore shipment, because they are situated on this great trade-route or line of least
resistance.
The coal-mines and iron-making plants of the southern Appalachians have a considerable area.
The chief manufacturing centres are Birmingham, Richmond, Roanoke, and Chattanooga. A
considerable part of the Virginia ores find their way to the Ohio River steel-mills. Open-hearth
steel is an important manufacture in Birmingham. A large part of the ores smelted in the southern
Appalachian region are made into foundry iron.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
What are the advantages and the disadvantages of manufacturing cotton textiles in the New England States?
Why have the mining of ore and the manufacture of steel become generally unprofitable in the New England States?
What causes have brought about the lowering of the prices of cotton textiles during the past fifty years?—of shoes?
What makes the manufacture of artificial ice a precarious business north of the latitude of Philadelphia?
What are the advantages and the disadvantages arising from the location of a manufacturing industry at a seaport?
What is the design of a protective tariff? What are its advantages and disadvantages?
Why are most of the great steel-making plants so remote from the mines of iron ore used in making steel?

FOR COLLATERAL READING
Industrial Evolution of the United States—Chapters III-V.
Mineral Resources of the United States.
Outlines of Political Science—Chapters VIII-X.

CHAPTER XIX
THE UNITED STATES—THE BASIN OF THE GREAT LAKES AND THE
MISSISSIPPI VALLEY

The principal agricultural region of the United States extends from the Appalachian ranges to the
Rocky Mountains. A certain amount of bread-stuffs, meat, and dairy products are grown in nearly
every part of the country for local use, but the grain, meat, and cotton of this region are designed
for export, and are therefore factors in the world's commerce. The basin of the Great Lakes
connects the Mississippi Valley with the Atlantic seaboard.
The Basin of the Great Lakes.—This region includes not only the Great Lakes and the area
drained by the streams flowing into them, but also a considerable region surrounding that
commercially is tributary to the traffic passing over the lakes. This basin itself is a part of a trade-
route destined very shortly to become one of the greatest highways of traffic in the world.
The lakes afford a navigable water-way which, measured due east and west, aggregates nearly six
hundred miles. This route is interrupted at Niagara Falls and at St. Mary's Falls, between Lake
Superior and Lake Huron. On the Canadian side, Welland Canal, Lake Ontario, and the St.
Lawrence connect Lake Erie with tide-water. In the United States the Erie Canal connects the lake
with the Hudson River and New York Bay.
From the head of Lake Superior railway routes of minimum grades—the Great Northern and the
Northern Pacific[51]—cross the continent to Puget Sound, the best harbor approach to the Pacific
coast of the American continent. The harbors of Puget Sound, moreover, are materially nearer the
great Asian ports than any other port of the United States. The level margins of these lakes are
roadbeds for many miles of railway track; in many instances the railways are built on the tops of
terraces that once were shores of the lakes.

DULUTH

Duluth, at the head of Lake Superior, became commercially important when the St. Mary's Falls
Canal was completed. Much of the tremendous tonnage of freight passing through the canal is
assembled at this place. The freight shipped consists mainly of farm products collected from an
area reaching as far west as the Rocky Mountains. There is also a considerable shipment of iron
ores obtained near by. Buffalo, at the lower end of Lake Erie, owes its activity to the trade in
lumber, grain, and other farm products that come from Western lake-ports. It is the eastern
terminus of the lake-commerce and the western terminus of the Erie Canal.
Chicago, at the head of Lake Michigan, has a very heavy lake-trade. The mouth of Chicago River,
the natural harbor of the city, has been improved by a system of basins and breakwaters. The river
itself has been converted into a ship and drainage canal that is connected with the Illinois and
Mississippi Rivers. It is now an outlet instead of a feeder to the lake, and the city built about old
Fort Dearborn has become the greatest railway centre in the world.

GENERAL VIEW OF LOCKS AND CANAL, SAULT STE. MARIE

Milwaukee has a situation in many ways resembling that of Chicago, its harbor being the mouth of
Milwaukee River. Like Chicago, it owes its importance to its lake-trade. Detroit (with Windsor,
Ont.) owes its growth partly to its strategic position on the strait connecting Lake Huron and Lake
Erie, and partly for its position between the lakes. It is an important collecting and distributing
point for lake-freights, and the chief centre of commerce with Canada. Several east-and-west trunk
lines and local lines of railway have freight terminals in the city; it is also the centre of the most
complete system of interurban electric railways in the world. Port Huron (with Sarnia, Ont.) has a
geographic position similar to that of Detroit, and is also an important lake-port. The St. Clair
River is tunnelled at this point. Cleveland, Toledo, Sandusky, and Erie contribute very largely to
the lake-trade. Grand Rapids is the business centre of furniture manufacture of the United States.
The great iron-ore ranges about Lake Superior have had much to do with the growth of the local
lake-trade. This has resulted in the establishment of a large number of shipping-ports near the head
of the lakes, and also a number of receiving ports on the south shores of Lake Erie and Lake
Michigan. Some of the latter have become also great manufacturing centres of structural iron and
steel.
Various centres of industry at a considerable distance from the Great Lakes are contributors to their
trade. Thus, on account of the low rate for grain between Chicago and New York City—about 5¼
cents per bushel—there are yearly very heavy shipments of the grain designed for Liverpool. St.
Paul and Minneapolis are also collecting and distributing centres of lake-freights. A considerable
part of the business of the lake-region is carried on by the Canadians, who have improved their
resources for production and transportation to the utmost.

Copyright, Detroit Photographic Co.
AURORA IRON MINES, IRONWOOD, MICHIGAN

The Northern Mississippi Valley Region.—This region extends from the Appalachian ranges to
the western limit of wheat and cotton growing. On the south it is limited by the cotton-growing
region. Its boundaries are therefore climatic and commercial.
The surface is level; there is a rich, deep soil and an abundant rainfall. It has therefore become one
of the foremost regions of the world in the production of corn, wheat, pork, dairy-stuffs, and
general farm produce. The evolution of farming machinery is the direct result of topographic
conditions. A level, fertile region naturally invites grain-farming on a large scale. This, in turn,
must depend very largely on the ability of the farmer to plant and harvest his crops with the
minimum of expense and time.
Hand-work in harvesting and planting has almost wholly given way to machine-work. Farming
carried on under such conditions requires not only a considerable capital, but close business
management as well. Some of the results have been very far-reaching. The machinery and other
equipments require capital, and this in late years has been borrowed from Eastern capitalists. The
prompt business methods of the money-lender brought about no little friction, and it is only within
recent years that each adjusted himself to the requirements of the other.
The system of machine-farming to a great extent has prevented the subdivision of farms. As a rule,
quarter and half sections represent the size of most of the farms, but tracts varying from five
thousand to ten thousand acres are by no means uncommon. The chief drawback to this method in
the case of wheat-farming, however, is the low yield per acre. The average yield per acre for the
United States, a little more than twelve bushels, is scarcely half the average yield in Europe.
Although the farmer has done much to reorganize his business methods, he has done but little to
maintain the productivity of his land.

THE WHEAT INDUSTRY—HARVESTING WITH McCORMICK SELF-BINDING
REAPERS

The cities and towns of this region are mainly receiving and collecting points for farm produce.
Nearly every village is equipped with elevators and grain-handling machinery; the larger towns, as
a rule, have stock-yards and the necessary facilities for cattle shipment; the large cities are usually
centres of meat-packing. Most of the meat-packing is a necessity; for although cattle may be
shipped alive and beef may be transported in refrigerator ships and cars, pork is not marketable
unless pickled, salted, or smoked. The pork thus exported, aggregating about six hundred million
pounds yearly, must be prepared, therefore, somewhere near the cornfields. Manufacturing
enterprises are operated on a very large scale, but in the main their products are farm-machinery
and the commodities required by a farming population.
Education in agriculture is provided for in nearly every State in the Union. The agricultural
colleges in the States composing this group rank among the best in the world. In addition to the
ordinary courses in such institutions, there are also many experiment stations for the study of
economic plants, cattle diseases, and insect pests.
Chicago is the largest food-market in the world. The industries of the city are almost wholly
connected with the commerce of grain, pork, meat, and other food-stuffs. For the transportation of
these commodities about thirty great trunk lines enter the city and about twelve hundred passenger
trains daily arrive and depart from its stations.
The freight terminals are connected by transfer and belt lines, which receive and distribute the cars
passing between the eastern and the western roads. More than five hundred freight trains,
aggregating about twenty thousand cars, arrive and depart daily.
St. Louis originally derived its importance as a river-port of the Mississippi, having been the
connecting commercial link between the upper and the lower river. In recent years it has become
the metropolis of the southern part of the food-producing region. In addition to the river-trade, still
largely controlled at this point, it is the focus of more than twenty trunk lines of railway. Some of
these, like the trunk lines of Chicago, handle freight exchanged between the East and West; but a
large proportion are receiving and distributing roads for Southern freight.

AUTOMOTIVE POWER IN THE INDUSTRIES OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY

St. Paul and Minneapolis are the metropolis of the upper Mississippi. The former grew from a
trading-post at the head of navigation; the latter gained its commercial prominence from the water-
power at the falls of St. Anthony. The former has become the chief railway and distributing centre
of the northern Mississippi Valley; the latter has the greatest flour-mills in the world, and an
extensive lumber-trade. Both are situated on the trade-route between the United States and Asian
ports, and distribute a part of the trade that comes from them.

The two Kansas Cities,[52] Omaha, South Omaha, and Sioux City are stock-markets and meat-
packing centres. The first two named are collecting and distributing points not only for the
Mississippi Valley, but also for a considerable share of the Pacific Coast trade. Kansas City is also
a transfer station for the cotton destined for China. From this place it is sent by way of Billings to
Seattle, and thence shipped to China.
Cincinnati is the metropolis of the Ohio Valley. Its situation on a bend of the river gives most
excellent landing facilities; the easy grade from the bluff to the bottom-lands along the flood-plain
of Mill Creek makes it accessible to the railways that enter the city. On account of low rates of
transportation by river-barges, about three million tons of coal and one million tons of pig-iron and
steel billets are floated to the city to be manufactured into other steel products. Indianapolis is a
great railway centre, where much of the freight passing between Chicago, Louisville, Cincinnati,
and Pittsburg is exchanged. Columbus (O.) is similarly situated as a railway and farming centre.

CATTLE AND DAIRY PRODUCTS

Louisville is a market of the tobacco region, and has probably a larger business in this industry
than any other city in the world. Davenport, Rock Island, and Moline form a single commercial
centre, the last-named having the largest establishment for the manufacture of ploughs in the
world. Dubuque, Burlington, Quincy, and Muscatine are river-ports, all having a considerable
trade in the lumber that is carried down the river.
The Southern Mississippi Valley and Gulf Coast.—This region receives a generous warmth and
rainfall. Cotton is its staple product, and nearly all the industries are connected with the growth,
shipment, and manufacture of the crop and its side products. The cotton, raw or manufactured, is
sold in about every country in the world.
The commercial part of handling the cotton-crop begins within a very few weeks from the time of
the first picking. The baled cotton is hauled by team from the plantation to the nearest market-
town, an item sometimes greater than the entire freightage from the nearest seaport to Liverpool.
The season for export lasts from September until the middle of January, during which time brokers
are visiting the smaller markets in order to buy it on commission. It is then shipped by rail or by

river to the nearest general market, where it is sold to the foreign buyers and domestic
manufacturers.
New Orleans, the metropolis of the South, has usually the heaviest export of cotton, amounting to
about one billion pounds each year. Much of this is received by water from the various river-ports.
The city is not only a river-port, but an important seaport as well, controlling a large part of the
foreign commerce of the Gulf. Several trunk lines of railway enter the city, which is a receiving
and distributing depot for both Atlantic and Pacific freights. A considerable part of the former are
sent by ocean steamships from New York. An elaborate system of sewerage, well-paved streets,
and a good water-supply—all recently put into operation—have made the city one of the most
attractive in the United States.
Galveston is destined to become a leading port for cotton export. It has the advantage of a fine
harbor on the seaboard, and the disadvantage of a location so low that very heavy south winds
flood the streets with water from the Gulf. The growth of the export trade is due chiefly to the
increasing crop of Texas. Shipments from Galveston begin in September, the Texas crop being the
first to mature. Savannah and New York rank next in their exports. Pensacola and Brunswick are
also important points of export. Memphis, Vicksburg, Shreveport, Houston, and Montgomery are
important collecting stations for the cotton.
About one-third of the crop is retained for manufacture in the United States; one-third is purchased
by Great Britain, one-sixth by Germany, and most of the remainder by France, Italy, Spain, and
Japan. Of the manufactured cotton goods, the Chinese are the heaviest buyers, taking about half
the entire export. Most of the Chinese purchase is landed at Shanghai.
In the main, the manufactures of this region closely concern the cotton industry. The increase in
the manufacture of textile goods has been very great, and a large part of the cotton now
manufactured in the New England States and abroad, in time will be made in the cities and towns
of this section. In addition to the textile goods, cottonseed-oil is an important product. A part of
this is used in the mechanical arts, but the refined oil is used mainly for domestic purposes. A
considerable part of the latter is used to adulterate olive-oil, and in some instances is substituted
for it. The refuse of the seed is made into fertilizer.
Atlanta is one of the foremost cities in the South in the manufacture of cotton textiles and
products. Commercially its situation resembles that of Indianapolis; it is a focal point of the chief
trunk lines of railway in the South, and has the principal railway clearing-house. Like New
Orleans, it is an educational centre and one of the foremost in the South. Macon, Dallas, Fort
Worth, and San Antonio are growing commercial centres.
The manufacture of cane-sugar has been an industry of Louisiana for more than a century. Since
the advent of beet-sugar, however, it has been a somewhat precarious venture, and has depended
for existence very largely upon tariff protection and bounties paid to the American sugar-makers.
Tobacco manufacture centres at Tampa and Key West. Cuban leaf is there converted into cigars.
Fruit culture is a great industry. Millions of melons and great quantities of pineapples, oranges, and
small fruit form the early crop that is shipped North. The orange groves are mainly in Florida. The
crop is exhausted about the time that California oranges are shipped East. A great deal of tropical
fruit is brought from Mexican, Central American, and South American ports. This trade is
controlled mainly at Mobile, which is also a lumber-market.

The Arid Plains and the Grazing Region.—This region includes the high plains approximately
west of the 2,000-foot contour of level, together with a part of the plateaus of the western highland
region. It is essentially one of grazing. Formerly there was an attempt to make wheat-growing the
chief industry, but on account of the limited rainfall not more than three crops out of five reached
maturity.
The earlier cattle-growing was carried on in a somewhat primitive manner; the cattle herded on
open lands, wandering from one range to another, wherever the grazing might be good. The
ownership of the cattle was determined by the brand the animal bore,[53] and the herds were
"rounded up" twice a year to be sorted; at the round-up the "mavericks," or unmarked calves and
yearlings, were branded. In time the ranges became greatly overstocked; the winter losses by
starvation were so heavy that a better system became imperative. "Rustling," or cattle-stealing,
also became a factor in improving the methods of cattle-ranching. The cautious rustler would
purchase a few head of cattle and add to the number by capturing stray mavericks.

A DESERT REGION—TOO DRY FOR THE PRODUCTION OF FOOD-STUFFS

OPEN GRAZING RANGES, IN WESTERN HIGHLANDS

Both the legitimate graziers and the rustlers at first were bitterly opposed to fencing the land. In
time, however, the grazier was compelled to do this, and also to grow alfalfa for winter foddering.
The great open ranges have therefore been broken up and fenced wholly or in part. The fencing,
moreover, has kept a dozen or more of the largest wire-mills in the world turning out a product that
is at once shipped West. As a rule, the top wire is set on insulators and used for telephone
connection.[54] This method of cattle-growing has improved the business in every way. The cattle
are better kept; the loss by winter killing is very small; the "long-horn" cattle have given place to
the best breeds of "meaters," which are heavier, and mature more quickly.

Copyright, 1901, by Detroit Photographic Co.
ON A TEXAS CATTLE RANCH

The success of stock-growing in this region is largely a question of climate. The sparse rainfall
permits the growth of several species of grass that retain nutrition and vitality after turning brown
under the fierce summer heat. Ordinary turf-grass will not live in this region, nor will it retain its

nutrition after turning brown if rain falls upon it. The native grass is not materially affected by a
shower or two; it is fairly good fodder even when buried under the winter's snow. The existence of
this industry, therefore, turns on a very delicate climatic balance.
Of the beef grown in the United States the export product is derived mainly from this region.
Nearly four hundred thousand animals are shipped alive; about three hundred million pounds of
fresh beef are shipped to the Atlantic seaboard in refrigerator-cars and then transferred to
refrigerator-steamships. Two-thirds of the cattle and fresh beef exported are shipped from New
York and Boston.
Upward of one hundred and fifty million pounds of canned and pickled beef are also exported. All
but a very small part of this product is consumed in Great Britain, France, and Germany. The cattle
are collected for transportation at various stations and sidings along the railways that traverse this
region. Cheyenne is one of the largest cattle-markets in the world.
Wool has become a very valuable product, and the sheep grown in this region number about one-
half the total in the United States. The growing of macaroni-wheat is extending to lands that fail to
produce crops of ordinary wheat.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
In what ways does the basin of the Great Lakes facilitate the commerce of the United States?
How has the topography of the Mississippi Valley affected the evolution of farming-machinery?
Why are shippers willing in many cases to pay an all-rail rate on wheat sent to the Atlantic seaboard, nearly three times as great as
the lake and canal rates?
The acre-product of wheat in the United States is about twelve bushels; in western Europe it varies from twenty-five to more than
forty bushels; to what is the difference due?
What is meant by sea-island cotton?—for what reasons is cotton imported from Egypt and Peru into the United States?
In what manner is cotton used in the manufacture of pneumatic tires, and why is it thus used?
What are refrigerator-cars?—refrigerator-steamships? Name some of the regulations required in shipping cattle.
Why have American meats been debarred at times from European markets?
Find the value of cotton and meat exported to the following-named countries: Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, China.

FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE

The Wheat Problem—pp. 191 et seq.
Statistical Abstract.

DIFFICULT RAILROADING—LAS ANIMAS CAÑON

CHAPTER XX
THE UNITED STATES—THE WESTERN HIGHLANDS AND TERRITORIAL
POSSESSIONS

The western part of the United States consists of a succession of high mountain-ranges extending
nearly north and south. The two highest ranges, each about two miles high, enclose a basin-shaped
plateau about one mile high. This basin is commonly called the "plateau region." The rim ranges
are broken in a few places by passes that the transcontinental railways thread. West of the Sierra
Nevada ranges are the fertile Pacific coast lowlands.
The Plateau Region.—This region is generally arid, but on the higher plateaus there is sufficient
rainfall to produce a considerable forestry and grazing. The general conditions of rainfall and
topography forbid any great development of agriculture. Farming is confined to the river-flood-
plains, the parks, and the old lake beds and margins.
A considerable area, estimated at more than two million acres, may be made productive by
irrigation, and the United States Government is undertaking the construction of an elaborate and
extensive system of reservoirs for the impounding of stream and storm waters now running to
waste. The irrigated lands of this region, when their products are accessible to markets, are very
valuable. The river-bottom lands of New Mexico, and the old margins of Great Salt Lake in Utah
are examples. They produce abundantly, and a single acre often yields as much as four or five
acres in regions of plentiful rainfall.
Not much of the crop of this region, the fruit and wool excepted, leaves the vicinity in which it is
grown, on account of the expense of transportation. In the matter of the transportation of their
commodities, the dwellers of the western highland are doubly handicapped. The building of
railways is enormously expensive, and in a region of sparse population there is comparatively little
local freight to be hauled. The difficulties of developing such a region from a commercial stand-
point, therefore, are very great.
Mining is the chief industry of this section, and silver, gold, and copper are its most important
products. Since the discovery of precious metals in the United States, this region has produced
gold and silver bullion to the value of about four billion dollars. This sum is about one-half the
value of the railways of the country,[55] and from 1865 to 1880 a large part of the capital invested
in railway building represents the gold and silver of these mines. In the last twenty years of the
past century they produced an average of about one hundred and twenty-five million dollars per
year, and this average is constantly increasing.
Coal-measures extend along the eastern escarpment of the Rocky Mountains, and these are
destined at no remote day to create a centre of steel and other manufactures. Several of the
railways operate coal-mines in Colorado and Wyoming for the fuel required. A limited supply of
steel is also made, the industry being protected by the great distance from the Eastern smelteries.

GOLD MINING—CRIPPLE CREEK, COLORADO

Denver is the chief active centre of finance of the mining industry in the western highlands,
although many of the great enterprises derive the capital necessary to develop them from New York
and San Francisco. Leadville, Cripple Creek, Butte, Helena, and Deadwood are regions of gold
and silver production. Virginia City is the operating centre of the famous Comstock mines. At
Anaconda is the chief copper-mine of this region. Salt Lake City and Ogden are the centre of the
Mormon agricultural enterprises. Santa Fé, Las Vegas, and Albuquerque are centres of agricultural
interests and stock-growing.
Spokane and Walla Walla are commercial centres of the plains of the Columbia River. The former
is the focal point of a network of local roads that collect the wheat and other farm products of this
region; the latter is the collecting point for much of the freight sent by steamboats down the
Columbia River from Wallula. Railway transportation has largely superseded river-navigation for
all except local freights, however. Boise City is the financial centre of considerable mining
interests.
The Pacific Coast Lowlands.—Climatically this region differs from the rest of the United States
in having a rainy and a dry season—that is, the rainfall is wholly seasonal. In the northern part the
rainfall is sixty inches or more, and rain may be expected daily from the middle of October to
May. In central California the precipitation is about half as much, the rainy season beginning later
and ending earlier. In southern California there are occasional showers during the winter months,
aggregating ten or twenty inches.
The level valley-lands have no superior for wheat-farming, and in but one or two places is the
rainfall insufficient to insure a good crop. In the San Joaquin and southern valleys of California the
harvest begins in May, in the Sacramento Valley in June, and in the Willamette and Sound Valleys
of Oregon and Washington in July. The wheat goes mainly to Great Britain by way of Cape Horn.
It cannot be safely shipped in bulk, and the manufacture of jute grain-sacks has become an
important industry in consequence. The yearly wheat product of this region is not far from eighty
million bushels.
Fruit is a valuable product of the foot-hills of the Sierras, and in southern California oranges,
lemons, and grapes are now the staple crop. In some cases the average yield per acre has reached a
value of five hundred dollars. Some of the largest vineyards in the world are in this region. The

Zinfandel claret wine and the raisins find a market as far east as London, and considerable
quantities are sold in China and Japan. The navel orange, although not native to California, reaches
its finest development in that State. A large part of the fruit-crop of California is handled at
Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, and New York. It is transported in special cars attached to fast
trains.
Wool is an important crop. In the northern part the sheep thrive best in the foot-hills. The valley of
Umpqua River, Ore., produces nearly seventeen million pounds of wool yearly, the staple being an
ordinary variety. California produces nearly as much of the finest merino staple. A considerable
part is manufactured in the mills of the Pacific coast. The Mission Mills blankets made in San
Francisco are without an equal elsewhere.
The discovery of gold by John Marshall in 1848 resulted in a tremendous inflow of people to the
gold-fields of California. It also was a factor in the acquisition of the territory composing the
Pacific coast States. The first mining consisted merely in separating the metal deposited in the bed-
rock of streams by washing away the lighter material. In time the quartz ledges which had
produced the placer gold became the chief factor in gold mining. California is still one of the
leading States in the production of gold. Quicksilver mining is an important feature of the mining
interests of the Pacific coast, and the mines of the coast ranges produce about half the world's
output.
Lumber manufacture is an important industry. Douglas spruce, commonly known as "Oregon
pine," grows profusely on the western slopes of the high ranges, the belt extending nearly to the
Mexican border. It makes a most excellent building-lumber, especially for bridge-timber and
framework. Masts and spars of this material are used in almost every maritime country. Sugar-pine
is less common, but is abundant. It is largely used for interior work. Several species of redwood
occur in central California, confined to a limited area. The wood is fine-grained and makes a most
beautiful interior finish.
San Francisco is the metropolis of the Pacific coast of the United States. It is the terminus of the
Santa Fé and Union Pacific railways, and the centre of a network of local roads. Steamship lines
connect the city with Panama, the Hawaiian Islands, Japan, and Australian ports; coast steamships
reach to the various ports of Alaska, Oregon, and California. It is also the financial as well as the
commercial centre of the Pacific coast. Los Angeles is the centre of the fruit-growing region; its
port is San Pedro. Stockton, Port Costa, and Sacramento, all on navigable waters, are wheat-
markets. Portland (Ore.) is the metropolis of the basin of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers.
Navigation of the former is interrupted by falls or rapids at Dalles and Cascades, but boats ascend
as far as Wallula. The lower Willamette is also made navigable by means of a canal and locks at
Oregon Falls.
Puget Sound is a "drowned valley," with an abundance of deep water. The score or more of harbors
are among the best in the world. Seattle and Tacoma, the leading ports, are terminals of great
transcontinental railways, and also of the most important trade-route across the continent. Lines of
steamships connect Seattle with Japan and China, and the commerce passing through this gateway
is drawn from a territory that extends more than half-way around the world. These ports are
destined to become the chief American ports in the Asian trade.
Alaska.—The most productive industry of the insular part of the territory is the fisheries. For
many years the Pribilof Islands produced practically all the seal-pelts used in the manufacture of

seal-fur garments. So many seals were killed, however, that the species seemed likely to become
extinct, and seal-catching has been forbidden for a term of years.

PUGET SOUND

The discovery of gold along the Klondike River and in the beach-sands of Cape Nome was
followed by the development of surface mines that produced a large amount of gold. For the better
transportation of products, a railway has been completed from Skagway across White Pass to
White Horse, the head of navigation of the Yukon. About twenty steamboats are engaged in the
commerce of the river. Skagway and Dyea are collecting points for the commerce of the Klondike
mines. Juneau has probably the largest quartz-mill in the world.
Porto Rico.—Porto Rico, formerly a Spanish colony, is now a possession of the United States.
The island is about the size of Connecticut and has a population somewhat greater. The industries
are almost wholly agricultural, and nearly the whole surface is under cultivation. Sugar, coffee,
and tobacco are grown for export, and these constitute the chief source of income. The coffee-crop,
about sixty million pounds yearly, is the most valuable product and commands a high price on
account of its superior quality. It is sold very largely to European coffee-merchants, and is

marketed as a "Mocha." Exports of fruit to the United States are increasing. In 1900 the exports to
United States markets, mainly sugar and cattle products, were about six million dollars. The
imports from the United States were chiefly of cotton-prints and rice, to the amount of nearly nine
million dollars. The total export and import trade that year was about twenty million dollars.
The facilities for the transportation of products are not good. The railway lines have a total mileage
of about one hundred and fifty miles. An excellent wagon-road, built by the Spanish Government
from San Juan to Ponce, has been supplemented by several hundred miles of roads built under the
direction of the military authorities. San Juan and Ponce are the leading seaports and centres of
trade.
Hawaiian Islands.—These islands were discovered by a Spanish sailor, Gaetano, in 1549, and
again visited by Captain Cook in 1778. Up to 1893 they formed a native kingdom. In 1893 foreign
influence was sufficient to overthrow the native government, and in 1898 they were formally
annexed to the United States and about the same time organized as a territory. From an early date
the geographic position of the islands has made them a convenient mid-ocean post-station, and
they have therefore become a most important commercial centre.

HYDRAULIC GOLD MINING—CALIFORNIA

Of the various islands composing the group, Hawaii, Maui, Oahu, Kaui, Molokai, Lanai, and
Niihau are inhabited. About one-fifth of the population consists of native Hawaiians; a little more
than one-fifth is white; the remainder is composed of Japanese, Chinese, and Porto Ricans. The
native population is decreasing. About ninety-five per cent. of the property is owned by the white
people—Americans, English, and Germans.
The volcanic soils are the very best sugar-lands, and a large amount of capital is invested in this
industry. The sugar-plantations employ more than forty thousand laborers, all Japanese, Chinese,
and Porto Ricans. The value of the sugar export is nearly twenty-five million dollars yearly; that of
fruit, rice, and hides is about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Coffee is rapidly becoming a
leading product. The bulk of the imports comes from the United States, and consists of clothing,
cotton textiles, lumber, and machinery.

Honolulu, on the island of Oahu, is the capital and commercial centre, and foreign steamships and
sailing-craft are scarcely ever absent from its harbor. Regular steamship service connects this port
with San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, B.C., and the principal ports of China and Japan. It is
connected with the other islands by a system of wireless telegraphy. The city has the best of
schools, business organizations, hotels, and streets.
Pearl Harbor contains a large area of water, most of which is deep enough for the largest vessels
afloat. It is intended to deepen the entrance and establish a United States naval station at this place.
The village of Hilo is the chief port of the island of Hawaii.
The Philippine Islands are an archipelago of about two thousand islands, the two largest of
which, Luzon and Mindanao, are each nearly the size of New York State. Luzon is by far the most
important.
After their cession to the United States (December 10, 1898), they were held under military
control, but this has given place to local self-government as rapidly as the circumstances
permitted. A general school system has been established and is extended wherever practicable. In a
considerable number of the islands civil organization is still impossible.
The following are the principal islands and their mineral resources:

Name Chief Cities and Ports Mineral Resources
Luzon Manila, Lipa, Batangas Coal, gold, copper
Mindanao Zamboanga Coal, gold, copper
Samar Catbalogan Coal, gold
Negros Bacolor Coal
Panay Iloilo Coal, gold, petroleum
Leyte Tacloban Coal, petroleum
Mindoro Calapan Coal, gold
Cebu Cebu Coal, petroleum, gold

The native population is mainly of the Malay race, but there are also many Negritos. Of the native
element the Tagals are the most advanced, and are the dominant people. The foreign population
includes nearly one hundred thousand Chinese, who are the chief commercial factors of the
islands, and the leading industries are controlled by them. There is a considerable population of
Chinese and Tagal mixed blood, commonly known as "Chinese mestizos"; they inherit, in the
main, the Chinese characteristics. The European and American population consists mainly of
officials, troops, and merchant-agents for Philippine products.
The principal products for export are "Manila" hemp, sugar, and tobacco. The hemp is used in the
manufacture of cordage and paper. On account of the great strength of the fibre it has no equal
among cordage fibres. The imports from the United States consist mainly of machinery and cotton
textiles. The total trade of the islands amounted in 1901 to about fifty million dollars, most of
which was shared by Great Britain and the United States.
Coal is mined in the island of Cebu and is abundant in most of the islands. Iron ore, copper, and
sulphur occur, but they have not been made commercially available to any extent. Gold is mined in
the island of Luzon. A stable government only is needed to make these great resources productive.

An abundance of timber is found in most of the islands. Cedar, ebony, and sapan-wood are
available for ornamental purposes; there is also a great variety of economic woods.
Manila is the commercial centre. Manila Bay is one of the finest harbors in the Pacific Ocean, but
much work is necessary to give the water-front a navigable depth for large steamships. With an
improved harbor the city is bound to be a great emporium of Oriental trade. Steamship lines
connect the city with Hongkong, Australia, Japan, Singapore, and Liverpool. There is also a
military transport service to Seattle. A railway to Dagupan extends through the most important
agricultural region. The wagon-roads throughout the island are very poor.
Lipa, Batanzas, Bauan, and Cavité are cities of about forty thousand population, all more or less
connected with the industries of Manila. Iloilo is the second port of importance of the islands, and
is the centre of a considerable export trade in tobacco, hemp, sugar, and sapan-wood. Cebu is also
a port having a considerable trade.
Tutuila, one of the Samoan Islands, was acquired by treaty for use as a coal-depot and naval
station. Pago Pago is a port of call for steamships between San Francisco and Australia. Guam,
one of the Ladrone Islands, is a naval station. These possessions are strategic and are designed to
secure the interests of the United States in the Pacific. An ocean telegraphic cable connects the
Pacific Ocean possessions with the United States and Asia.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
Why are mountain-regions apt to be sparsely peopled?
Why are arid regions sparsely peopled, as a rule?
Why are not gold-mining settlements so apt to be permanent as agricultural settlements?
From the Abstract of Statistics find the production of gold and silver of this region for each ten years ending the last half of the
century.
What causes the difference between the wool clip of southern California and that of the Eastern States?
Follow the route of a grain-carrying ship from San Francisco to Liverpool.
What are the advantages to the United States of the accession of the Hawaiian Islands?—of the Philippine Islands?—of Alaska?
What are the disadvantages?

FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE
Mineral Resources of the United States.
Abstract of Statistics.
U.S. Coast Survey Chart of Alaska.
Map of Hawaiian Islands.
Map of Philippine Islands.

NIAGARA POWER-HOUSE (EXTERIOR)

NIAGARA POWER-HOUSE (INTERIOR)

CHAPTER XXI
CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND

A very large part of Canada is so far north that the ordinary food-stuffs cannot be grown there; the
river-valleys of British Columbia and the basin of the Saskatchewan excepted, there are but few
marks of human industry beyond the fiftieth parallel. The general conditions of topography
resemble those of the United States—a central plain between the high Rocky Mountain ranges in
the west and the lower Laurentian ranges in the east.
Canada is an agricultural country, and because of the great skill with which its resources have been
made commercially available, it is the most important colony of Great Britain. The basin of the
Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River is the most populous part of the country. This region is
highly cultivated and produces dairy products, beef, and the ordinary farm-crops.
From Lake Winnipeg westward, nearly to the Rocky Mountains, the land is a succession of prairies
admirably suited to wheat-growing.[56] The wheat is a hard, spring variety, and the average yield
per acre is about one-fourth greater than the average yield in the United States.
The area of forestry includes the larger remaining part of the great pine belt, together with a very
heavy reserve of merchantable oak-timber. The part of the forest area in Canada aggregates one
and one-quarter million square miles, and yields an annual product of about eighty million dollars;
about one-third of the lumber is exported.
The northerly region of Canada produces furs and pelts. As long ago as 1670, Charles II. granted
to Prince Rupert and a stock company the lands comprising a very large part of Canada around
Hudson Bay, and secured to them the sole right to trap the fur-bearing animals of the region. In
time the company, known as the Hudson Bay Company, transferred all its lands to Canada, and out
of the domain thus annexed various provinces and unorganized districts have been created.
The company now exists as a corporation for the merchandise of furs. For the greater part, Indians
are employed as hunters and trappers, and the pelts are collected at the various trading-posts,
known as "houses" and "factories," to be sent to the head-quarters of the company near Winnipeg.
Nearly every Arctic animal furnishes a merchantable pelt. The cheaper skins are made into
garments in Canada and the United States; those commonly classed as furs are sold in London.
Several other fur companies are also operating in Canada.
The fisheries of the coast-waters and the Great Lakes are among the most productive in the world.
Everything within the three-mile limit of the shore is reserved for Canadian fishermen. The smaller
bays and coves are reserved also within the three-mile limit. Beyond this limit the waters are open
to all, and a fleet of swift gun-boats is necessary to prevent illicit fishing. Salmon, cod, lobsters,
and herring form most of the catch, amounting in value to upward of twenty million dollars yearly.

The output of minerals varies from year to year; since 1900 it has averaged about sixty million
dollars a year. The gold product constitutes nearly one-half and the coal about one-sixth of the total
amount. Nickel, petroleum, silver, and lead form the rest of the output. Iron ore is abundant, but it
is not at present available for production on account of the distance from transportation.
Commerce is facilitated by about eighteen thousand miles of railway and nearly three thousand
miles of canal and improved river-navigation. One ocean-to-ocean railway, the Canadian Pacific,
is in operation; another, an extension of the Grand Trunk, is under way. The rapids and shoals of
the St. Lawrence and Richelieu Rivers are surmounted by canals and locks. Welland Canal
connects Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, and the Canadian lock at St. Mary's Falls joins Lake
Superior to Lake Huron. By means of the lakes and canals vessels drawing fourteen feet may load
at Canadian ports and discharge at Liverpool.
The harbors of the Atlantic coast have two great drawbacks—ice and high tides. Some of the
steamship lines make Portland, Me., their winter terminus. The Pacific coast harbors are not
obstructed by ice. An attempt has been made in the direction of using Hudson Bay and Strait as a
grain-route, but the difficulties of navigation are very great and the route is open only two months
of the year.
Practically all the foreign trade is carried on with Great Britain and the United States. The trade
with each aggregates about one hundred and fifty million dollars yearly. The exports are lumber
and wood-pulp, cheese and dairy products, wheat and flour, beef-cattle, hog products, fish, and
gold-quartz. The chief imports are steel, wool, sugar, and cotton manufactures.
Politically, Canada consists of a number of provinces, each with the usual corps of elective
officers. A governor-general appointed by the Crown of Great Britain is the chief executive officer.
Nova Scotia.—This province is prominent on account of its coal and iron, and also because of its
geographic position. The iron and coal are utilized in steel smelteries and rolling-mills, glass-
factories, sugar-refineries, and textile-mills. It is one of the few localities in the eastern part of the
continent yielding gold. Halifax, the capital, has one of the best harbors of the Atlantic coast of
North America; it is not often obstructed by ice, and is the chief winter port. Halifax is the
principal British naval station of North America, and this fact adds much to its commercial
activity.
Prince Edward Island.—The industries of this province are mainly connected with the coast-
fisheries. During the summer the island is visited by thousands of fishing-vessels for the purpose
of preparing the catch for market. Fertilizer manufactured from the refuse is an incidental product.
Charlottetown is the capital.
New Brunswick.—Fisheries and forest products are both resources of this province. Coal is mined
at Grand Lake, and an excellent lime for export to the United States is made at St. John. Lumber,
wood-pulp, wooden sailing-vessels, cotton textiles, and structural steel for ship-building are
manufactured. A ship railway, seventeen miles long, across the isthmus that connects this province
to Nova Scotia, is under construction. St. John, the capital, is the chief seat of trade.
Quebec.—This province was once a possession of France, and in the greater part of it French
customs are yet about as prevalent as they were a century ago; moreover, the French population is
increasing rapidly. The English-speaking population lives mainly along the Vermont border. As a
rule the English are the manufacturers and traders; the French people are the farmers.

Montreal is the head of navigation of the St. Lawrence for ocean steamships. It is also the chief
centre of manufactures. These are mainly sugar, rubber goods, textiles, light steel wares, and
leather. The last-named goes almost wholly to Great Britain; the rest are consumed in Canada and
the border American States. Quebec is the most strongly fortified city of the Dominion.
Ontario.—This province is a peninsula bordered by Lakes Huron, Erie, and Ontario. Farming is
the chief employment, and barley is an important product. Most of it is used in the manufacture of
malt, and "Canada malt" is regarded as the best. Several of the trunk railways whose terminals are
in the United States traverse this peninsula. Toronto, the capital and commercial centre, is one of
the most rapidly growing cities of North America. Hamilton owes its existence to its harbor and
position at the head of Lake Ontario. Ottawa is the capital of the Dominion. At Sudbury are the
nickel-mines that are among the most productive in the world.
Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.—These provinces include the level prairie lands of the
Saskatchewan and the Red River of the North. They comprise the great grain-field of Canada. A
considerable part of the wheat-growing lands are yet unproductive owing to the lack of railways.
Much of the product is carried to market by the Canadian Pacific and its feeders, but a
considerable part finds its way to the Northern Pacific and Great Northern roads. The coal of
Manitoba and Alberta is an important fuel supply not only to the provinces and states surrounding,
but to the railways above named. A good quality of anthracite coal is also mined in Alberta.
Winnipeg, the metropolis of the region, is one of the great railway centres of Canada.
British Columbia.—British Columbia, the Pacific coast province, has several resources of great
value. The gold mines led to its settlement and commercial opening. The salmon-fisheries are
surpassed by those of the United States only. The beds of lignite coal have produced a very large
part of the coal used in the Pacific coast States. The forests produce lumber for shipment both to
the Atlantic coast of America and the Pacific coast of Asia.
Vancouver, the terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway, is connected with various Asian ports by
fast steamships. Nanaimo, Wellington, and Commox are the centres of the coal-mining industry.
The copper-mines at Rossland produce most of the copper mined in Canada.
Newfoundland.—Although a Crown possession, Newfoundland is not a member of the Dominion
of Canada. The extensive fisheries are its chief resource. The Labrador coast, which is used as a
resort for curing and preserving the catch, is attached to Newfoundland for the purpose of
government. St. Johns is the capital.
The islands of Miquelon and St. Pierre, south of Newfoundland, are a French possession. Fishing
is the ostensible industry, but a great deal of smuggling is carried on.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
What, if any, climatic or topographic boundaries separate Canada and the United States?
Which of the two countries is the more fortunately situated for the production of food-stuffs?
Which will support the larger population?—why?
The harbors of the Labrador coast and of Cape Breton Island are superior to those of the British Islands, situated in about the same
latitude; why do the latter have a commerce far greater than that of the former?
Compare the industries of the eastern, middle, and western regions of Canada with the corresponding regions of the United States.

FOR COLLATERAL REFERENCE

Statesman's Year-Book.
Statistical Year-Book of Canada (official government publication, Ottawa).

CHAPTER XXII
MEXICO—CENTRAL AMERICA—WEST INDIES

Mexico and the Central American states occupy the narrow, southerly part of North America.
Structurally they consist of a plateau about a mile high, bordered on each side by a low coast-plain.
The table-land, or tierra templada, has about the same climate as southern California; the low
coast-plains, or tierra caliente, are tropical.
Mexico.—The United States of Mexico is the most important part of this group. The people are of
mixed Spanish and Indian blood, but there are many families of pure Castilian descent. The latter,
in general, are the landed proprietors; the former constitute the tradesmen, herders, and peons.
There is also a large unproductive class, mainly of Indians, who are living in a savage state. In
general the manners and customs are those of Spain.
The agricultural pursuits are in a backward condition, partly for the want of good system and an
educated people, but mainly for lack of the capital and engineering skill to construct the irrigating
canals that are needed to make the land productive. Maize, rice, sugar (cane and panocha), and
wheat are grown for home consumption.
The agricultural products which connect Mexico with the rest of the world are sisal-hemp
(henequin), coffee, logwood, and fruit. Sisal-hemp is grown in the state of Yucatan, and has
become one of its chief financial resources. Oaxaca coffee is usually sold as a "Mocha" berry. The
logwood goes mainly to British textile makers; and the fruit, chiefly oranges and bananas, finds a
market in the large cities of the United States, to which large consignments of vanilla and tropical
woods are also sent. Cattle are grown on more than twenty thousand ranches, and the greater part
are sent alive to the markets of the United States. The native long-horn stock is giving place to
improved breeds.

MEXICO

Gold and silver are the products that have made Mexico famous, and the mines have produced a
total of more than three billion dollars' worth of precious metal. The native methods of mining
have always been primitive, and low-grade ores have been neglected. In recent years American
and European capital has been invested in low-grade mines, and the bullion production has been
about doubled in value; it is now about one hundred million dollars yearly. Iron ore is abundant,
and good coal exists.
The manufactures, at present of little importance, are growing rapidly. The cotton-mills consume
the home product and fill their deficiency from the Texas crop. All the finer textiles, however, are
imported. Most of the commodities are supplied by the United States, Great Britain, and Germany,
the first-named having about half the trade. Most of the hardware and machinery is purchased in
the United States.
Railway systems, with American terminal points at El Paso, San Antonio, and New Orleans,
extend from the most productive parts of the country. One of the most important railways crosses
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and, in order to encourage commerce, the harbors at Coatzacoalcos
and Salina Cruz have been deepened and improved. This interoceanic route is destined to become
a very important factor in commerce. It shortens the route between European ports and San
Francisco by six thousand miles, and between New York and San Francisco by twelve hundred
miles.[57]
Mexico, the capital, is the financial and commercial centre. Vera Cruz and Tampico are connected
with the capital by railway, but both have very poor port facilities. Steamship lines connect the
former with New York, New Orleans, Havana, and French ports. It is the chief port of the country.
Matamoros on the American frontier has a considerable cattle-trade. The crop of sisal-hemp is
shipped mainly from Progresso and Merida. Acapulco, Manzanillo, and Mazatlan for want of
railway connections have but little trade. The first-named is one of the best harbors in the world.
Guadalajara has important textile and pottery manufactures.

The Central American States.—The physical features and climate of these states resemble those
of Mexico. The Spanish-speaking people live in the table-lands, where the climate is healthful. The
coast-plain of the Atlantic is forest-covered and practically uninhabited save by Indians.
Guatemala is the most important state. A railway from Puerto Barrios, its Atlantic port, through its
capital, Guatemala, to its Pacific port, San José, is nearly completed. British Honduras is a British
territory acquired mainly for the mahogany product, which is shipped from Belize. Honduras has
great resources in mines, cultivable lands, and forests, but these are undeveloped. Salvador is the
smallest but most progressive state.

ROUTE OF PROPOSED NICARAGUA CANAL

Nicaragua is politically of importance on account of the possibilities of an interoceanic canal. A
treaty for this canal, involving both Nicaragua and Great Britain, has already been signed by the
powers interested. Many engineers regard the Nicaragua as preferable to that of the Panama canal.
The shorter distance between New York and the Pacific ports of the United States, a saving of
about four hundred miles, is in its favor. The longer distance of transit and the dangers of
navigating Lake Nicaragua are against it. Costa Rica is favorably situated for commerce, but its
resources are not developed. A railway from Puerto Limon is nearly completed to Puenta Arenas,
an excellent harbor on the Pacific side.
Coffee, hides, mahogany, and fruit are the only products of importance that connect these states
with the rest of the world. About half the trade goes to the United States. The Germans and English
supply a considerable part of the textiles and manufactured articles. The coffee of Costa Rica is a
very superior product. Much of the mahogany and forest products goes to Great Britain. Fruit-
steamers call at the Atlantic ports for bananas, which are sold in New Orleans and the Atlantic
cities.
The West Indies.—The climate and productions of these islands are tropical in character. Sugar,
fruit, coffee, tobacco, and cacao are the leading products. From the stand-point of the planter, the
sugar industry has been a history of misfortunes. The abolition of slavery ruined the industry in
many of the islands belonging to Great Britain. The competition of the beet-sugar made in Europe
drove the Cubans into insurrection on account of the excessive taxes levied by the Spaniards, and
ended in the Spanish-American War.

The fruit-crop—mainly pineapples, oranges, and grapefruit—is shipped to the United States. New
York, Philadelphia, and the Gulf ports are the destination of the greater part of it.
Cuba, the largest island, is one of the most productive regions of the world. The famous "Havana"
tobacco grows mainly in the western part, although practically all Cuban tobacco is classed under
this name. According to popular opinion it is pre-eminently the best in flavor, and the price is not
affected by that of other tobaccos.[58] About two-thirds of the raw leaf and cigars are purchased by
the tobacco manufacturers of the United States. Havana, Santiago, and Cienfuegos are the
shipping-ports; most of the export is landed at New York, Key West, and Tampa.
From 1900 to 1903 the small fraction of the sugar industry that survived the war and the
insurrection was crippled by the high tariff on sugar imported into the United States. The latter,
which was designed to protect the home sugar industry, was so high that the Cubans could not
afford to make sugar at the ruling prices in New York. Hides, honey, and Spanish cedar for cigar-
boxes are also important exports.
The United States is the chief customer of Cuba, and in turn supplies the Cubans with flour, textile
goods, hardware, and coal-oil. Smoked meat from Latin America and preserved fish from Canada
and Newfoundland are the remaining imports. There are no manufactures of importance. The
railways are mainly for the purpose of handling the sugar-crop.
Havana, the capital and financial centre, is connected with New York, New Orleans, and Key West
by steamship lines. Santiago, Matanzas, and Cienfuegos are ports having a considerable trade.
The British possessions in the West Indies are commercially the most important of the European
possessions. The Bahamas are low-lying coral islands, producing but little except sponges, fruit,
and sisal-hemp. Nassau, the only town of importance, is a winter resort. Fruit, sugar, rum, coffee,
and ginger are exported from Kingston, the port of Jamaica. St. Lucia has probably the strongest
fortress in the Caribbean Sea.
Barbados produces more sugar than any other British possession in the West Indies. The raw sugar,
muscovado, is shipped to the United States. Bermuda, an outlying island, furnishes the Atlantic
states with onions, Easter lilies, and early potatoes. From Trinidad is obtained the asphaltum, or
natural tar, that is used for street paving. Brea Lake, the source of the mineral, is leased to a New
York company. Sugar and cacao are also exported from Port of Spain. The products of St. Vincent
and Dominica are similar to those of the other islands.
The French own Martinique (Fort de France) and Guadeloupe (Basse Terre). St. Thomas
(Charlotte Amalie), St. Croix, and St. John are Danish possessions. Various attempts to transfer the
Danish islands to the United States have failed. They are admirably adapted for naval stations. The
island of Haiti consists of two negro republics, Haiti and San Domingo. The only important
product is coffee. Most of the product is shipped to the United States, which supplies coal oil and
textiles in return.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
What part of the United States was formerly a possession of Mexico, and how did it become a possession of the United States?
From a cyclopedia learn the character of the political organization of Mexico and the Central American states.
From the report listed below find what commercial routes gain, and what ones lose in distance by the Nicaragua, as compared with
the Panama canal.

From a good atlas make a list of the islands of the West Indies; name the country to which each belongs, and its exports to the
United States.

FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE
The Statesman's Year-Book.
Great Canals of the World—pp. 4058–4059.

SOUTH AMERICA

CHAPTER XXIII
SOUTH AMERICA—THE ANDEAN STATES

In its general surface features South America resembles North America—that is, a central plain is
bordered by low ranges on the east and by a high mountain system on the west. In the southern
part, midsummer is in January and midwinter in July. The mineral-producing states are traversed
by the ranges of the Andes and all of them except Chile are situated on both slopes of the
mountains.
Colombia.—This republic borders both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. One port
excepted, however, most of its commerce is confined to the shores of the Caribbean Sea. The
lowlands east of the Andes are admirably adapted for grazing, and such cattle products as hides,
horns, and tallow are articles of export. This region, however, even with the present facilities for
transportation, produces only a small fraction of the products possible.
The intermontane valleys between the Andean ranges have the climate of the temperate zone;
wheat and sheep are produced. The chief industrial development, however, is confined to the lands
near the Caribbean coast. Coffee, cacao, and tobacco are grown for export, the business of
cultivation being largely controlled by Americans and Europeans. Rubber, copaiba, tolu, and
vegetable ivory[59] are gathered by Indians from the forests.

A PASS IN THE ANDES

The montane region has long been famous for its mines of gold and silver. The salt mines near
Bogota are a government monopoly and yield a considerable revenue. Near the same city are the
famous Muzo emerald mines.
The rivers are the chief channels of internal trade. During the rainy season steamboats ascend the
Orinoco to Cabugaro, about two hundred miles from Bogota. About fifty steamboats are in
commission on the Magdalena and its tributary, the Cauca. Mule trains traversing wretched trails
require from one to two weeks to transport the goods from the river landings to the chief centres of
population. Improvements now under way in clearing and canalizing these rivers will add about
five hundred miles of additional water-way. The railways consist of short lines mainly used as
portages around obstructions of the rivers.
An unstable government and an onerous system of export taxes hamper trade. Coffee, a leading
product, goes mainly to Europe. Cattle products, and balsam of tolu are purchased mainly in the
United States. Great Britain purchases the gold and silver ores. The chief imports—textiles, flour,
and petroleum—are purchased in the United States. Bogota and Medellin are the largest cities. The
isolation of the region in which they are situated shapes the indifferent foreign policy of the
government. Barranquilla, Sabanilla, and Cartagena are the chief ports.
Panama.—This state, formerly a part of Colombia, includes the isthmus of Panama.
Geographically it belongs to North America, and practically it can be approached from Colombia
by water only. The secession of Panama was brought about by the complications of the isthmian
canal. A treaty with the United States gives the latter sovereign control over the canal and the strip
of land ten miles wide bordering it. Panama and Colon are the two ports of the canal. The United
States exercises police and sanitary regulations in these cities, but it has no sovereignty over them.
Peru.—Peru has great resources, both agricultural and mineral. Cotton is one of the chief
products. The ordinary fibre is excelled only by the sea-island cotton of the United States; the
long-staple fibre of the Piura is the best grown. The former is generally employed for mixing with
wool in the manufacture of underwear, and is sold in the United States and Europe; the latter, used
in the manufacture of thread and the web of pneumatic tires, goes mainly to Great Britain.
Cane-sugar is a very large export crop, Great Britain, the United States, and Chile being the
principal customers. The area of coffee production is growing rapidly. Coca-growing has become
an important industry, and the plantations aggregate about three million trees;[60] a large part of the
product is sent to the chemical laboratories of the United States. A small crop of rice for export is
grown on the coast.
The Amazon forest products yield a considerable revenue. Rubber and vegetable ivory are the
most valuable. Cinchona, or Peruvian bark, however, is the one for which the state is best known;
and there is probably not a drug-shop in the civilized world that does not carry it in stock.[61]
Cattle are grown for their hides, and of these the United States is the chief purchaser. The wool of
the llama, alpaca, and vicuña is used in manufacture of the cloth known as alpaca, and the value of
the shipments to Great Britain usually exceeds one million dollars a year. In the mining regions the
llama is used as a pack-animal, and a large part of the mine products reach the markets by this
means of transportation. The mines yield silver and copper; in the main the ores are exported to
Great Britain to be smelted.
The products already named are the chief exports; the imports are cotton textiles, machinery, steel
wares, and coal-oil. Great Britain has about one-half the foreign trade; the United States controls

about one-fourth. Callao, the port of Lima, is the market through which most of the foreign trade is
carried on. Steamship lines connect it with San Francisco and with British ports. Mollendo is the
outlet of Bolivian trade. The railways are short lines extending from the coast.
Ecuador.—This state has but little commercial importance. The only cultivated products for
export are cacao, coffee, and sugar. The first-named constitutes three-fourths of the exports, and
most of it goes to France. The land is held in large estates, and most of the laboring people are in a
condition of practical slavery. The bread-stuffs consumed by the foreign population and the land
proprietors are imported. Animals are grown for their hides and these are sold to the United States.
Another manufacture that connects Ecuador with the rest of the world is the so-called "Panama"
hat. The material used is toquilla straw, the mid-rib of the screw-pine (Carlodovica palmata). The
prepared straw can be plaited only when the atmosphere is very moist, and much of the work is
done at night. The hats are made by Indians, who are governed by their own ideas regarding style
and shape. They bring from twenty-five to fifty dollars apiece in the American markets, where
nearly all the product is sold.[62]
Mule-paths are the only means of inland communication. There is a considerable local traffic on
the estuaries of the rivers, but this is confined to the rainy seasons. A railway built by an American
company is in operation from Guayaquil, a short distance inland. This city is the chief market for
foreign goods, and it is the only foreign port of the Pacific coast of South America in which the
volume of trade of the United States approximates that of Germany and Great Britain.
Bolivia.—Bolivia lost much of its possible commercial possible future when, after a disastrous
war, its Pacific coast frontage became a possession of Chile. The agricultural lands are
unfortunately situated with reference to the mining population; as a result, a considerable amount
of food-stuffs must be imported from Argentina. Coffee, cacao, and coca are the principal
cultivated products. Rubber from the Amazon forest is the most valuable vegetable product, but a
considerable amount of cinchona bark and ivory nuts are also exported.
The mines, however, are the chief wealth of the state and give it the only excuse for its political
existence. They produce silver, tin, copper, gold, and borate of lime. Inasmuch as a large part of
the ore and ore products must be transported by llamas and mules, only the richest mines can be
profitably worked. With adequate means of transportation, the mines should make Bolivia one of
the most powerful South American states.
Railways already connect Oruro with the sea-coast. A railway now under construction will connect
La Paz (the pass) with the Pacific coast, and also Buenos Aires. Excellent roads to take the place
of the pack-trains are under construction.
Practically all the imports, consisting of cotton and woollen textiles, machinery, and steel wares,
are purchased in Great Britain. The exports are more than double the imports. Most of the goods
pass through the Chilean port Antofagasto, or Mollendo, Peru. La Paz, Oruro, and Sucre are the
chief cities.
The hypothetical state of Acré is situated in the angle where Bolivia, Peru, and Brazil join. The
rubber forests, together with the absence of legal government, led to its existence. The government
is wholly insurrectionary, but it at least uses its powers to encourage the rubber trade.
Chile.—This state comprises the narrow western slope of the Andes, extending from the tropic of
Capricorn to Cape Horn, a distance of about three thousand miles. The resources of the state have

been so skilfully handled, that with the drawback of a very small proportion of cultivable land,
Chile is the foremost Andean state.
The cultivation of the ordinary crops is confined to the flood-plains of the short rivers. These, as a
rule, are from twenty to fifty miles long and a mile or two in width. They are densely peopled and
cultivated to the limit. Between the river-valleys are long stretches of unproductive land.
Within the valleys wheat, barley, fruit, and various food-stuffs are grown. Of these there are not
only enough for home consumption, but considerable quantities are exported to Bolivia, Peru, and
Ecuador. Much of the cultivable land requires to be watered, and the system of irrigation has been
developed with extraordinary skill. The grazing lands are extensive. In the northern part an
excellent quality of merino wool is produced; the greater part of the clip, however, is an ordinary
fibre. The cattle furnish a considerable amount of leather for export.
The conditions which have made the northern part a desert have also given to the state its greatest
resource—nitre.[63] The nitrate occurs in the northern desert region. The crude salt is crushed and
partly refined at the mines, and carried by rail to the nearest port. The working of the nitrate beds
is largely carried on by foreign companies. Nearly all the product is used as a fertilizer in
Germany, France, and Great Britain. Nitrate constitutes about two-thirds of the exports. Iodine and
bromine are also obtained from the nitrates, and the Chilean product yields nearly all the world's
supply.
Copper is extensively mined and, next to the nitrates, is the most valuable product. Great Britain is
the customer for the greater part. Coal occurs in the southern part of the state, and is mined for
export to the various states of the Pacific coast. It is not a good coal for iron smelting, however,
and about three times as much is imported as is exported. A considerable part of the imported coal
comes from Australia, and with it structural steel is made from pig-iron that is also imported.
Chile is well equipped with railways, a part of which has been built and are operated by the state.
The most important line traverses the valley between the Andes and the coast ranges, from
Concepcion to Valparaiso. In this region are most of the manufacturing enterprises.
The imports are chiefly coal, machinery, textile goods, and sugar. The British control about two-
thirds of the foreign trade; the Germans and the French have most of the remainder. The United
States supplies the Chileans with a part of the textiles, a considerable quantity of Oregon pine, and
practically all the coal-oil used.
Valparaiso is the chief business centre of the Pacific coast of South America. Most of the
forwarding business is carried on by British and German merchants. The transandine railway, now
about completed, will make it one of the most important ports of the world. Santiago is the capital.
Concepcion and Talca are important centres of trade. Chillan is the principal cattle-market of the
Pacific coast of South America. Copiapo is the focal point of the mining interests. Iquique is the
port from which about all the nitrates are shipped. Punta Arenas, one of the "end towns" of the
world, is an ocean post-office for vessels passing through the Straits of Magellan. It is about as far
south as Calgary, B.C., is north.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
What will be the probable effect of an interoceanic canal on the commerce of these states?
From the Abstract of Statistics make a list of the exports from the United States to these countries.

From the statistics of trade in the Statesman's Year-Book compare the trade of
the United States with that of other countries in these states.
How have race characteristics affected the commerce and development of
these states?
What is meant by peonage?
What cities of the tropical part of these states are in the climate of the
temperate zone?

FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE
Carpenter's South America.
Vincent's Around and About South America.
Fiske's Discovery of America—Chapters IX-X.
Procure, if possible, specimens of the following: Cacao and its products, ivory
nuts, cinchona bark, crude nitrate, Panama straw, iodine (in a sealed vial), VALPARASIO
llama wool, alpaca cloth, Peruvian cotton.

CHAPTER XXIV
SOUTH AMERICA—THE LOWLAND STATES

The eastern countries of South America are mainly lowland plains. The llanos of the Orinoco and
the pampas of Plate (La Plata) River are grazing lands. The silvas of the Amazon are forest-
covered. In tropical regions the coast-plain is usually very unhealthful; the seaports excepted, most
of the cities and towns are therefore built on higher land beyond the coast-plain.
Venezuela.—The greater part of Venezuela is a region of llanos, or grassy plains, shut off from the
harbors of the Caribbean Sea, by mountain-ranges. On account of their pleasant climate the
mountain-valleys constitute the chief region of habitation. The plains are flooded in the rainy
season and sun-scorched during the period of drought; they are therefore unfit for human
habitation.
Coffee is cultivated in the montane region; and cacao in the lower coast lands. Almost every part
of the coast lowlands is fit for sugar cultivation, and in order to encourage this industry, the
importation of sugar is forbidden. As is usual in similar cases, the domestic sugar is poor in quality
and high in price. Among the forest products rubber, fustic, divi-divi,[64] and tonka beans, the last
used as a perfume, are the only ones of value. The cattle of the llanos, the native long-horns,
furnish a poor quality of hide, and poorer beef. A few thousand head are shipped yearly down the
Orinoco to be sent to Cuba and Porto Rico.
The placer gold-mines of the Yuruari country, a region also claimed by Great Britain, have been
very productive. Coal, iron ore, and asphaltum are abundant. Concessions for mining the two last-
named have been granted to American companies. The pearl-fisheries around Margarita Island,
also leased to a foreign company, have become productive under the new management.
The means of intercommunication are as primitive as those of Colombia. Short railways extend
from several seaports to the regions of production, and from these coffee and cacao are the only
exports of importance. The Orinoco River is the natural outlet for the cattle-region, but the
commerce of this region is small. The lagoon of Maracaibo is becoming the centre of a rapidly
growing commercial region.
Caracas, the capital and largest city, receives the imports of textiles, domestic wares, flour, and
petroleum from the United States and Great Britain. The railway to its port, La Guaira, is a
remarkable work of engineering. Puerto Cabello, the most important port, receives the trade of
Valencia. From Maracaibo, the port on the lagoon of the same name, is shipped the Venezuelan
coffee. Ciudad Bolivar is the river-port of the Orinoco and an important rubber-market.
The Guianas.—The surface conditions and climate of the Guianas resemble those of Venezuela.
The native products are also much the same, but good business organization has made the
countries bearing the general name highly productive. For the greater part, the coast-plain is the

region of cultivation. Sugar is still the most important crop; but on account of the fierce
competition of beet-sugar, on many of the plantations cane-sugar cultivation is unprofitable and
has been abandoned for that of rice, cacao, and tobacco. Great Britain, Holland, and France
possess the country. The divisions are known respectively as British Guiana, Surinam, and
Cayenne, and the trade of each accrues to the mother-country. British Guiana is noted quite as
much for its gold-fields on the Venezuelan border (Cuyuni River) as for its vegetable products.
Georgetown, better known by the name of the surrounding district, Demerara, is the focal point of
business. New Amsterdam is also a port of considerable trade. The gold-mining interests centre at
Bartica.

A CACAO PLANTATION

PREPARING THE BEANS FOR SHIPMENT

CACAO-TREE

MAKING CHOCOLATE

Surinam, in addition to its export of vegetable products, contains rich gold-mines, and these
contribute a considerable revenue. Paramaribo is the port and centre of trade. Phosphates and gold

are among the important exports of Cayenne, whose port bears the same name.
Brazil.—This state, nearly the size of the United States, comprises about half the area of South
America. Much of it, including the greater part of the Amazon River basin, is unfit for the growth
of food-stuffs.
There are three regions of production. The Amazon forests yield the greater part of the world's
rubber supply. The middle coast region has various agricultural products, of which cotton and
cane-sugar are the most important. From the southern region comes two-thirds of the world's
coffee-crop. There are productive gold-mines in the state of Minas Geraes, but this region is best
known for the "old mine" diamonds, the finest produced.
The Amazon rubber-crop includes not only the crude gum obtained in Brazil, but a considerable
part, if not the most, of the crop from the surrounding states. The bifurcating Cassiquiare, which
flows both into Amazonian and Orinocan waters, drains a very large area of forest which yields the
best rubber known. The yield of 1901 aggregated about one hundred and thirty million pounds, of
which about one-half was sold in the United States, one-third in Liverpool, and the rest mainly in
Antwerp and Le Havre. The price of rubber is fixed in New York and London.
The cotton and cane-sugar are grown in the middle coast region. The cotton industry bids fair to
add materially to the prosperity of the state. A considerable part of the raw cotton is exported, but
the reserve is sufficient to keep ten thousand looms busy. About three hundred and fifty million
pounds of the raw sugar is purchased by the refineries of the United States, and much of the
remainder by British dealers.
The seeds of a species of myrtle (Bertholletia excelsa) furnish the Brazil nuts of commerce, large
quantities of which are shipped to Europe and the United States.[65] Manganese ore is also an
important export, and Great Britain purchases nearly all of it.
The coffee-crop of the southern states is the largest in the world; and about eight hundred million
pounds are landed yearly at the ports of the United States. The coffee-crop, more than any other
factor, has made the great prosperity of the state; for while the rubber yield employs comparatively
few men and yields but little public revenue, the coffee-crop has brought into Brazil an average of
about fifty million dollars a year for three-quarters of a century.
Cattle products also afford a considerable profit in the vicinity of the coffee-region. The hides and
tallow are shipped to the United States. For want of refrigerating facilities, most of the beef is
"jerked" (or sun-dried), and shipped in this form to Cuba.
The facilities for transportation, the rivers excepted, are poor. The Amazon is navigable for ocean
steamships nearly to the junction of the Ucayale. The Paraguay affords a navigable water-way to
the mouth of Plate River. Rapids and falls obstruct most of the rivers at the junction of the
Brazilian plateau and the low plains, but these streams afford several thousand miles of navigable
waters both above and below the falls.
Nearly all the railways are plantation roads, extending from the various ports to regions of
production a few miles inland. The most important railway development is that in the vicinity of
Rio, where short local roads to the suburban settlements and the coffee-plantations converge at the
harbor. About fourteen thousand miles of railway are completed and under actual construction. A
considerable part of the mileage is owned and operated by the state, and it has become the policy
of the latter to control its roads and to encourage immigration. One result of this policy is the

increasing number of German and Italian colonies, that establish settlements in every district
penetrated by a new road.
In 1900 the total foreign trade aggregated upward of two hundred and seventy-five million dollars.
The imports consist of cotton and woollen manufactures, structural steel and machinery, preserved
fish and meats, and coal-oil. Great Britain, Germany, the United States, and France have nearly all
the trade. The United States sells to Brazil textiles and coal-oil to the amount of over eleven
million dollars yearly, and buys of the country coffee and rubber to the amount of six times as
much.
Rio de Janeiro, commonly called "Rio," is the capital and commercial centre. Its harbor is one of
the best in South America. Formerly all the coffee was shipped from this port, but the greater part
now goes from Santos. Porto Alegre, the port of the German colonies, has also a growing export
trade.
Bahia, Pernambuco (or Recife), Maceio, Ceará are the markets for cotton, sugar, and tobacco,
much of which is shipped to other Brazilian ports for home consumption. Pará and Ceará
monopolize nearly all the rubber trade. The position of Manaos, at the confluence of several rivers,
makes it one of the most important markets of the Amazon basin, and most of the crude rubber is
first collected there for shipment. Cuyaba is the commercial centre of the mining region; its outlet
is the Paraguay River, and Buenos Aires profits by its trade.
Argentina and the Plate River Countries.—These states are situated in a latitude corresponding
to that of the United States. The entire area from the coast to the slopes of the Andes is a vast
prairie-region. As a result of position, climate, and surface the agricultural industries are the same
as in the United States—grazing and wheat-growing.
Cattle-growing is the chief employment, and the cost per head of rearing stock is practically
nothing. For want of better means of transportation the shipments of live beef are not very heavy;
the quality of the beef is poor, and until recently there have been no adequate facilities for getting
it to market.[66] A small amount of refrigerator beef and a large amount of jerked beef are exported,
however. Near the markets, there are large plants in which the hides, horns, tallow, and meat are
utilized—the last being converted to the famous "beef extract," which finds a market all over the
world.
The sheep industry is on a much better business basis. Both the wool and the mutton have been
improved by cross-breeding with good stock. As a result the trade in mutton and wool has
increased by leaps and bounds; and nearly three million sheep carcasses are landed at the other
ports of Brazil, at Cuba, and at various European states. The wool is bought mainly by Germany
and France, but the United States is a heavy purchaser. The quality of the fibre, formerly very poor,
year by year is improving.
Wheat, the staple product, is grown mainly within a radius of four hundred miles around the mouth
of Plate River. The area of cultivation is increasing as the facilities for transportation are extended
and, little by little, is encroaching on the grazing lands. The wheat industry is carried on very
largely by German and Italian colonists. Flax, grown for the seed, is a very large export crop.
Maize, partly for export and partly for home consumption, is also grown.
The timber resources, chiefly in Paraguay and the Gran Chaco, are very great, but for want of
means of transportation the timber-trade cannot successfully compete with that of Central America
and Mexico. Workable gold and silver ores are abundant along the Andean cordillera; gold, silver,

and copper are exported to Europe. A poor quality of lignite occurs in several provinces, but there
are no available mines yielding coal suitable for making steam. There are petroleum wells near
Mendoza.
Most of the manufactures pertain to the preparation of cattle products, although a considerable
amount of coarse textiles are made in the larger cities from the native cotton and wool. Hats, paper
(made from grass), and leather goods are also made. In general, all manufactures are hampered by
the difficulties of getting good fuel at a low price.
Transportation is carried on along Plate River and the lower parts of its tributaries. The railway has
become the chief factor in the carriage of commodities, however, and the railways of Argentina
have been developed on the plans of North American roads. About twelve thousand miles are in
actual operation, one of which is a transcontinental line, about completed between Buenos Aires
and Valparaiso. Electric railways have become very popular, and the mileage is rapidly increasing.
The import trade, consisting of textile goods, machinery, steel, and petroleum, is carried on with
Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium (mainly transit trade), the United States, and Italy. The
competition between the European states for this trade is very strong, and not a little has been
acquired at the expense of the United States, whose trade has not materially increased.
Buenos Aires is the financial centre of this part of South
America. Among its industries is the largest meat-
refrigerating plant in the world. The harbor at La Plata is
excellent and has drawn a considerable part of the foreign
trade from Buenos Aires. Rosario, Cordoba, Santa Fé, and
Parana are the markets of extensive farming regions.
Mendoza is the focal point of the mining interests.
Paraguay has a large forest area, but for want of means of
transportation it is without value. Even the railway
companies find it cheaper to buy their ties in the United
States and Australia, rather than to procure them in
Paraguay. In spite of the extent of good land, the wheat
and much of the bread-stuffs are purchased from
Argentina. Tobacco and maté are the only export crops,
and they have but little value. The Parana and Paraguay
Rivers are the only commercial outlet of the state.
Uruguay.—Owing to its foreign population Uruguay is
becoming a rich country. The native cattle have been AREA OF THE PRODUCTION AND
improved by cross-breeding with European stock, and the CONSUMPTION OF MATÉ
state has become one of the foremost cattle and sheep
ranges of the world. The value of animal products is not
far from forty million dollars yearly. These go mainly to Europe, and so also does the wheat-crop.
France and Argentina purchase most of the exports and Great Britain supplies most of the textiles
and machinery imported. The trade of the United States is about one-fourth that of Great Britain.
Montevideo is the chief market and port. At Fray Bentos is one of the largest plants in the world
for the manufacture of cattle products.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

What kind of commerce has led to the establishment of the various ports along the Spanish Main?
What advantages has the American fruit-shipper, trading at South American ports, over his European competitor?
What is meant by "horse latitudes," and what was the origin of the name?
In what way may the opening of an interoceanic canal affect the coffee-trade of Brazil?—the nitrate trade of Chile?

FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE
From the Abstract of Statistics find the exports of the United States to each of these countries.
From the Statesman's Year-Book compare the trade of the United States in each of these countries with that of Great Britain,
France, Germany, and Italy.
If possible, obtain specimens of the following: Crude rubber, pampas grass, Brazil nuts (in pod), and raw coffee of several grades
for comparison with Java and Mocha coffees.

CHAPTER XXV
EUROPE—GREAT BRITAIN AND GERMANY

Almost all the commercial activity of Europe is south of the parallel and west of the meridian of
St. Petersburg. Most of the great industries are controlled by Germanic and Latin peoples, and
among these Great Britain and Germany stand first.
Great Britain and Ireland.—The United Kingdom, or Great Britain and Ireland, are commonly
known as the British Isles. The British Empire consists of the United Kingdom and its colonial
possessions; it includes also a large number of islands occupied as coaling stations and for
strategic purposes. All told, the empire embraces about one-seventh of the land area of the world
and about one-fourth its population.
The wonderful power and great commercial development is due not only to conditions of
geographic environment but also to the intelligence of a people who have adjusted themselves to
those conditions. The insular position of the United Kingdom has given it natural protection, and
for more than eight hundred years there has been no successful invasion by a foreign power. Its
commercial position is both natural and artificial. It has utilized the markets to the east and south,
and has founded great countries which it supplies with manufactured products.

THE BRITISH EMPIRE

The position of the kingdom with respect to climate is fortunate. The movement of the Gulf
Stream on the American coast carries a large volume of water into the latitude of the prevailing
westerly winds, and these in turn carry warm water to every part of the coast of the islands. As a
result, the harbors of the latter are never obstructed by ice; those of the Labrador coast, situated in
the same latitude, are blocked nearly half the year.
The high latitude of the islands is an advantage so far as the production of food-stuffs is
concerned. The summer days in the latitude of Liverpool are very nearly eighteen hours in length,
and this fact together with the mild winters, adds very largely to the food-producing power of the
islands.
The highlands afford considerable grazing. Great care is taken in improving the stock, both of
cattle and sheep. In the north the cattle are bred mainly as meat producers; in the south for dairy
products. Durham, Alderney, and Jersey stock are exported to both Americas for breeding
purposes. The sheep of the highlands produce the heavy, coarse wool of which the well known
"cheviot" and "frieze" textiles are made. Elsewhere they are bred for mutton, of which the "South
Down" variety is an example.
The lowland regions yield grain abundantly where cultivated. The average yield per acre is about
double that of the United States, and is surpassed by that of Denmark only. Both Ireland and
England are famous for fine dairy products. These are becoming the chief resource of the former
country, which is practically without the coal necessary for extensive manufacture. The fishing-
grounds form an important food resource.

The cultivated lands do not supply the food needed for consumption. The grain-crop lasts scarcely
three months; the meat-crop but little longer. Bread-stuffs from the United States and India, and
meats from the United States, Australia, and New Zealand make up the shortage. The annual
import of food-stuffs amounts to more than fifty dollars per capita.
The growing of wool and flax for cloth-making became an industry of great importance just after
the accession of Henry VII. With the advent of peace, it became possible to manufacture into cloth
the fibres that before had been sent for that purpose to Flanders. The utilization of the coal and the
iron ore years afterward brought about an economic revolution that was intensified by the
invention of the steam-engine and the power-loom.
These quickly brought the country into the foremost rank as a manufacturing centre. Moreover,
they also demanded the foreign markets that have made the country a maritime power as well—for
an insular country must also have the ships with which to carry its merchandise to its markets.
The development of the manufactures, therefore, is inseparably connected with that of the mineral
and metal industries. From very early times the metal deposits of the country have been a source of
power. Copper and tin were used by the aboriginal Britons long before Cæsar's reconnaissance of
the islands, and it is not unlikely that the Bronze Period was the natural development that resulted
from the discovery of these metals.
Coal occurs in various fields that extend from the River Clyde to the River Severn. The annual
output of these mines at the close of the century was about two hundred and twenty-five million
tons. In the past century the inroads upon the visible supply were so great that the output in the
near future will be considerably lessened. Not far from one-sixth of the output is sold to consumers
in Russia and the Mediterranean countries, but a growing sentiment to forbid any sale of coal to
foreign buyers is taking shape.

BRITISH ISLES

Iron ores are fairly abundant, but the hematite required for the best Bessemer steel is limited to the
region about Manchester and Birmingham. The shortage of this ore has become so apparent within
recent years that Great Britain has become a heavy purchaser of ores in foreign markets. The coal
in the Clyde basin is employed mainly in the manufacture of railway iron, steamship material, and
rolling stock. The manufacture of Bessemer steel is gradually moving to the vicinity of South
Wales, at the ports of which foreign pig-iron can be most cheaply landed. In west-central England
the several coal-fields form a single centre of manufacture, where are located some of the largest
woollen and cotton mills in Europe. It also includes the plants for the manufacture of machinery,
cutlery, and pottery.

The import trade of Great Britain consists mainly of food-stuffs and raw materials.[67] Of the latter,
cotton is by far the most important. Most of it comes from the United States, but the Nile delta,
Brazil, the Dekkan of India, the Iran plateau, and the Piura Valley of Peru send portions, each
region having fibre of specific qualities designed for specific uses. The native wool clip forms only
a small part of the amount used in manufacture. The remainder, more than three million pounds,
comes from Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
The supply of flax is small, and 100,000 tons are imported to meet the wants of the mills. The
greater part is purchased in Russia, but the finer quality is imported from Belgium. Jute is
purchased from India and manufactured into burlap and rugs.
But little available standing timber remains, and lumber must, therefore, be imported. The pine is
purchased mainly in Sweden, Norway, Canada, and the United States. A considerable amount of
wood-pulp is imported from Canada for paper-making. Mahogany for ornamental manufactures is
obtained from Africa and British Honduras. Oak, and the woods for interior finish, are purchased
largely from Canada and the United States.
The export trade of Great Britain consists almost wholly of the articles manufactured with British
coal as the power. These are made from the raw materials purchased abroad, and the stamp of the
British craftsman is a guarantee of excellence and honesty. Of the total export trade, amounting
yearly to about one billion, two hundred million dollars, nearly one-third consists of cotton,
woollen, linen, and jute textiles; one-fifth consists of iron and steel manufactured stuffs made from
British ores. About one-third goes to the colonies of the mother-country, with whom she keeps in
close touch; Germany, the United States, and the South American states are the chief foreign
buyers.
For the handling and carriage of these goods there is an admirable system of railways reaching
from every part of the interior to the numerous ports. The rolling stock and the locomotives are not
nearly so heavy as those used in the United States; the railway beds and track equipment, on the
whole, are probably the best in the world. Freight rates are considerably higher than on the
corresponding classes of merchandise in the United States. The public highways are most
excellent, but the means of street traffic in the cities are very poor.
The harbor facilities at the various ports are of the best. The docks and basins are usually arranged
so that while the import goods are being landed the export stuffs are made ready to be loaded. The
facilities for the rapid transfer of freights have been improved by the reconstruction of the various
river estuaries so as to make them ship-channels. The estuaries of the Clyde, Tyne, and Mersey
have been thus improved, while Manchester has been made a seaport by an artificial canal. The
British merchant marine is the largest in the world, and about ninety per cent. of the vessels are
steamships.
London is the capital; it is also one of the first commercial and financial centres of the world. The
Thames has not a sufficient depth of water for the largest liners, and these dock usually about
twenty miles below the city. The colonial commerce at London is very heavy, especially the India
traffic, and it is mainly for this trade that the British acquired the control of the Suez Canal.
Liverpool is one of the most important ports of Europe, and receives most of the American traffic.
The White Star and Cunard Lines have their terminals at this port.
Southampton is also a port which receives a large share of American traffic. The American and
several foreign steamship lines discharge at that place. Hull and Shields have a considerable part of

the European traffic. Glasgow is one of the foremost centres of steel ship-building. Cardiff and
Swansea are ports connected with the coal and iron trade. Queenstown is a calling point for
transatlantic liners.
Manchester is both a cotton port and a great market for the cotton textiles made in the nearby
towns of the Lancashire coal-field. Leeds and Bradford and the towns about them are the chief
centres of woollen manufacture. Wilton and Kidderminster are famous for carpets. Birmingham is
the centre of the steel manufactures. Sheffield has a world-wide reputation for cutlery. In and near
the Staffordshire district are the potteries that have made the names of Worcester, Coalport,
Doulton, Copeland, and Jackfield famous. Belfast is noted for its linen textiles, and also for some
of the largest steamships afloat that have been built in its yards. Dundee is the chief centre of jute
manufacture.
The German Empire.—The German Empire consists of the kingdoms of Prussia, Bavaria,
Saxony, and Würtemburg, together with a number of small states. The "free" cities of Hamburg,
Bremen, and Lübeck, whose independence was purchased in feudal times, are also incorporated
within the empire. The present empire was formed in 1871, at the close of the war between
Germany and France. The merging of the states into the empire was designed as a political step,
but it proved a great industrial revolution as well.
The plain of Europe which slopes to the north and the Baltic Sea, the flood-plains of the rivers
excepted, is feebly productive of grain. It is a fine grazing region, however, and the dairy products
are of the best quality. Among European states Russia alone surpasses Germany in the number of
cattle grown. The province of Schleswig-Holstein is famous the world over for its fine cattle.
Cavalry horses are a special feature of the lowland plain, and the government is the chief buyer.
The wool product has hitherto been important, but the sheep ranges are being turned into crop
lands, on account of the increase of population in the industrial regions.
The midland belt, however, between the coast-plain and the mountains, is the chief food-producing
part of Germany. Rye and wheat are grown wherever possible, but the entire grain-crop is
consumed in about eight months. The United States, Argentina, and Russia supply the wheat and
flour; Russia supplies the rye.

GERMANY AND SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES

The sugar-beet is by far the most important export crop, and Germany produces yearly about one
million, eight hundred thousand tons, or nearly as much as Austria-Hungary and France combined.
This industry is encouraged by a bounty paid on all sugar exported.[68] A considerable amount of
raw beet-sugar is sold to the refineries of the United States; Great Britain also is a heavy buyer.
The home consumption is relatively small, being about one-third per capita that of the United
States. Silesia, the Rhine Valley, and the lowlands of the Hartz Mountains are the most important
centres of the sugar industry.

Germany is rich in minerals.[69] Zinc occurs in abundance, and the mines of Silesia furnish the
world's chief supply. Most of the lithographic stone in use is obtained in Bavaria. Copper and
silver are mined in the Erz and Hartz Mountains. During the sixteenth century the mines of the
latter region brought the states then forming Germany into commercial prominence and thereby
diverted the trade between the North and Mediterranean Seas to the valleys of the Rhine and Elbe
Rivers.

These two metal products made Germany a great financial power. The Franco-Prussian War added
to Germany the food-producing lands of the Rhine and Moselle, and the provinces of Alsace and
Lorraine. At the same time it gave the Germans organization by welding the various German states
into an empire. As a result there has been an industrial development that has placed Germany in
the class with the United States and Great Britain.
By unifying the various interstate systems of commerce and transportation, the iron and steel
industry has greatly expanded. The chief centre of this industry is the valley of the Ruhr River.
Coal-measures underlie an area somewhat larger than the basin of the river. To the industrial
centres of this valley iron ore is brought by the Rhine and Moselle barges from Alsace-Lorraine
and Luxemburg, and also from the Hartz Mountains.
In the importance and extent of manufactures, Germany ranks next to Great Britain among
European states, and because of the extent of their coal-fields the Germans seem destined in time
to surpass their rivals. The manufacture of textiles is one of the leading industries, and, next to
Great Britain, Germany is the heaviest purchaser of raw cotton from the United States. The Rhine
district is the chief centre of cotton textile manufacture. Raw cotton is delivered to the mills by the
Rhine boats, and these carry the manufactured product to the seaboard. Central and South America
are the chief purchasers.
Woollen goods are also extensively manufactured, the industry being in the region that produces
Saxony wool. In Silesia and the lower Rhine provinces there are also extensive woollen textile
manufactures, but the goods are made mainly from imported wool. Argentina and the other Plate
River countries are the chief buyers of these goods. There is a considerable linen manufacture
from German-grown flax, and silk-making, mainly from raw silk imported from Italy.
The great expansion and financial success of the manufacturing enterprises is due very largely to
the admirable organization of the lines of transportation. The rivers, with their connecting canals,
supplement the railways instead of competing with them. They are utilized mainly for slow
freights, while the railways carry the traffic that demands speed. The possibilities of both inland
water-ways and railway transportation have been utilized by the Germans to the utmost, with the
result of a very low rate both for coal and ore, and for structural iron and steel. The latter is carried
from the various steel-making plants in the Ruhr Valley to the seaboard at a rate of eighty to ninety
cents per ton.[70]

LÜBECK

BREMEN

All this has resulted in a wonderful commercial expansion of the empire. In 1875 Germany was
neither a maritime nor a naval power. At the close of the century it ranked about with the United
States as a naval power, and far surpassed that country in the tonnage of merchant marine. The
German steamship fleet includes the largest and fastest vessels afloat.
German trade may be summed up as an export of manufactured goods and an import of food-stuffs
and raw materials. At the close of the century the annual movement of industrial products
amounted to nearly two and one-half billion dollars. About one-half the trade of the empire is
carried on with Great Britain, the United States, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. A large part of the
foreign trade is carried on through the ports of Belgium and Holland.
Berlin, the capital, is one of the few cities having a population of more than one million. It is not
only a great centre of trade, but it is one of the leading money-markets of Europe; it is also the
chief railway centre. Hamburg and Bremen are important ports of German-American trade, the
former being the largest seaport of continental Europe. Breslau is an important market, into which

the raw materials of eastern Europe are received, and from which they are sent to the
manufacturing districts. The art galleries of Dresden have had the effect of making that city a
centre of art manufactures which are famous the world over. Lübeck is one of the free cities that
was formerly in the Hanse League.
The twin cities, Barmen-Eberfeld, in the Ruhr coal-field, form one of the principal centres of
cotton manufacture in the world. Dortmund is a coal-market. At Essen are the steel-works founded
by Herr Krupp. They are the largest and one of the most complete plants in the world. The output
includes arms, heavy and light ordnance, and about every kind of structural iron and steel used.
About forty thousand men are employed. Chemnitz is an important point, not only of cotton
manufacture, but also of Saxony wools, underwear and shawls being its most noteworthy products.
At Stettin, Danzig, and Kiel are built the steamships that have given to Germany its great
commercial power.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
In what ways are Great Britain and Germany commercial rivals?
What are the advantages of each with respect to position?—with respect to natural resources?
From the Statesman's Year-Book make a list of the leading exports of each;—the leading imports of each. What exports have they
in common?
From the Abstract of Statistics find what commodities the United States sells to each.

FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE
Adams's New Empire—Chapter III.
Gibbins's History of Commerce—Book III, Chapters III-V.

CHAPTER XXVI
EUROPE—THE BALTIC AND NORTH SEA STATES

These states, like Great Britain and Germany, belong to Germanic Europe, and their situation
around the North and Baltic Seas makes their commercial interests much the same. From the
stand-point of commerce Holland might be regarded as an integral part of Germany, inasmuch as a
large part of the foreign commerce of Germany must reach the sea by crossing that state.
Sweden and Norway.—Sweden and Norway occupy the region best known as the Scandinavian
peninsula. The western side faces the warm, moist winds of the Atlantic, but the surface is too
rugged to be productive. The lands suitable for farming, on the other hand, are on the east side,
where, owing to the high latitude, the winters are extremely cold.
The plateau lands are in the latitude of the great pine-forest belt that extends across the two
continents. The forests of the Scandinavian peninsula are near the most densely peopled part of
Europe, and they are also readily accessible. Moreover, the rugged surface offers unlimited water-
power. As a result Norway and Sweden practically control the lumber-market of Europe, and their
lumber products form one of the most important exports of the kingdom. Norway pine competes
with California redwood in Australia. The "naval stores," tar and pitch, compete with those of
Georgia and the Carolinas. The wood-pulp from this region is the chief supply of the paper-makers
of Europe. Next to Russia, Sweden has the largest lumber-trade in Europe. The Mediterranean
states are the chief buyers.
The mineral products are a considerable source of income. Building stone is shipped to the nearby
lowland countries. The famous Swedish manganese-iron ores, essential in steel manufacture, are
shipped to the United States and Europe. For this purpose they compete with the ores of Spain and
Cuba. The mines of the Gellivare iron district are probably the only iron-mines of consequence
within the frigid zone. The ore is sent to German and British smelteries.
The fisheries are the most important of Europe, and this fact has had a great influence on the
history of the people. Centuries ago the people living about the vigs or fjords of the west coast
were compelled to depend almost wholly on the fisheries for their food-supplies. As a result they
became the most famous sailors of the world. They established settlements in Iceland and
Greenland; they also planted a colony in North America 500 years before the voyage of Columbus.
Herring, salmon, and cod are the principal catch of the fisheries, and about four-fifths of the
product is cured and exported to the Catholic European states and to South America.
South of Kristiania farming is the principal industry. Much of the land is suitable for wheat-
growing, but the productive area is so small that a considerable amount of bread-stuffs must be
imported from the United States. On account of the high latitude the winters are too long and
severe for any but the hardiest grains. Dairy products are commercially the most important output

of the farms, and they find a ready market in the popular centres of Europe—London, Hamburg,
Paris, and Berlin.
The lumber, furniture, matches, fish, ores, and dairy products sold abroad do not pay for the bread-
stuffs, coal, petroleum, clothing, and machinery. In part, this is made up by the carrying trade of
Norwegian vessels; the rest of the deficit is more than met by the money which the throngs of
tourists spend during the summer months.
The United States buys from these countries fish and ores to the amount of about three million
dollars a year; it sells them cotton, petroleum, bread-stuffs, and machinery to the amount of about
twelve million dollars.
Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, is the chief financial and distributing centre of the Scandinavian
trade. Its railway system reaches about every area of production. Although having a good harbor of
its own, it must depend on Trondhjem (Drontheim) for winter traffic, because the Baltic ports are
closed by ice three or four months of the year. Kristiania, the capital of Norway, is the export
market of the fish and lumber products.
Göteborg, owing to recently completed railway and canal connections, is becoming an important
port of trade. It is convenient to other European ports, and it is rarely closed by ice. Bergen,
Trondhjem, and Hammerfest derive a heavy income from their fisheries and likewise from the
tourists who visit the coast during midsummer. The last-named port, although farther north than
any town in the world, has an open harbor during the winter.
Denmark.—Denmark is essentially an agricultural state, and almost every square mile of
available land is under cultivation. Even the sand-dunes have been reclaimed and converted into
pasturage. The yield of wheat is greater per acre than in any other country, but as only a small area
is sown, wheat and flour are imported.
About half the area of the state is used in growing fodder for horses and cattle. The dairy products,
especially butter, are unrivalled elsewhere in Europe. The dairy business is largely controlled by a
cooperative association of dairymen and farmers. Pastures, fodder, cattle, sheds, creameries, and
all the processes involved are subject to a most rigid sanitary inspection.
Copenhagen, the capital, is the financial centre of the kingdom. Commercially it is one of the most
important ports of Europe. Various shipments consigned to Baltic ports are landed at this city; here
the cargoes break bulk and are again trans-shipped to their destination. In order to facilitate this
forwarding business, the Crown has made Copenhagen a free port. Steamship lines connect it with
New York, British ports, and the East Indies.
A great deal of farming and dairy machinery is manufactured; coal, cotton goods, and structural
machinery are imported from the United States. Little, however, is exported to that country, almost
all the dairy products being sold to Great Britain and other populous centres of western Europe.
Aalborg and Aarhuus are dairy-markets.
Greenland and Iceland are colonies of Denmark, and the fishing industry of the kingdom is carried
on mainly along the shores of these islands. The furs, seal-skins, seal-oil, and eider-down of
Greenland are a government monopoly. The mineral cryolite occurs at Ivigtut and is mined by
soda-making establishments in the United States. Iceland produces sheep, cattle, and fish; these are
shipped from Reikiavik. The Faroe Islands produce but little save wool, feathers, and birds' eggs.

Belgium.—Probably in no other country of Europe has nature done so little and man so much to
make a great state as in Belgium. The lowland region has been made so fertile by artificial means
that it yields more wheat per acre than any other country except Denmark. The Ardennes highland
in the southeast is naturally unproductive, but it has become one of the great manufacturing centres
of Europe. Less than one-twelfth of the area of the state is unproductive.
The coast, more than twoscore miles in extent, has not a single harbor for large vessels, and the
two navigable rivers, the Scheldt and Meuse, flow into another state before reaching the sea.

HOLLAND AND BELGIUM

The low sand-barrens next the coast have been reclaimed by means of a grass that holds in place
the sand that formerly shifted with each movement of the wind. This region is now cultivated
pasture-land that produces the finest of horses, cattle, and dairy products. The dairy products go
mainly to London. The Flemish horses, like those of the sand-barrens of Germany and France, are
purchased in the large cities, where heavy draught-horses are required. Many of them are sold to
the express companies of the United States.

Bordering the sand-barrens is a belt of land that produces grain and the sugar-beet. Flax is an
important product, and its cultivation has had much to do with both the history and the political
organization of the state. Before the advent of the cotton industry, woollen and linen were
practically the only fibres used in cloth-making. Belgium was then the chief flax-growing and
cloth-making country, and all western Europe depended upon the Flemish looms for cloth. This
industry, therefore, gave the country not only commercial prominence, but was largely responsible
for its political independence as well. Flax is still an important product, and the linen textiles made
in the state are without a superior. Much of the flax is grown in the valley of the River Lys.
One of the most productive coal-fields of Europe stretches across Belgium, and a few miles south
of it are the iron-ore deposits that extend also into Luxemburg and Germany. In addition to these,
the zinc-mines about Moresnet are among the richest in the world. Belgium is, therefore, one of
the great metal-working centres of Europe. A small portion of the coal is exported to France, but
most of it is required in the manufactures.
Liège, Seraing, and Verviers are the great centres of the metal industry. They were built at the
eastern extremity of the coal-field, within easy reach of the iron ores. Firearms, railroad steel, and
tool-making machinery are the chief products of the region, and because of the favorable situation,
these products easily compete with the manufactures of Germany and France.
Ghent is the chief focal point for the flax product, which is converted into the finest of linen cloth
and art fabrics. Much of the weaving and spinning machinery employed in Europe is made in this
city. Mechlin and the villages near by are famous the world over for hand-worked laces.
Expensive porcelains, art tiles, glassware, and cheap crockery are made in the line of kilns that
reaches almost from one end of the coal-field to the other; these products, moreover, are
extensively exported.
The railways are owned and operated by the state. They are managed so judiciously, moreover,
that the rates of carriage are lower than in most European states. The Scheldt is navigable for large
ocean steamers to Antwerp, and this city is the great Belgian port for ocean traffic. The city owes
its importance to its position. One branch of the Scheldt leads toward the Rhine; the other is
connected by a canal with the rivers of France; the main stem of the river points toward London. It
is therefore the meeting of three ways. It is the terminal of the steamships of American, and of
various other lines. It is also the depot of the Kongo trade. Ship-canals deep enough for coasters
and freighters connect Ghent, Bruges, and Brussels with tide-water. These are about to be
converted to deep-water ship-canals.
The foreign commerce of Belgium is much like that of other European states. Wheat, meat, maize,
cotton, and petroleum are imported mainly from the United States; iron ore is purchased from
Luxemburg and Germany, and various raw materials are brought from France. In exchange there
are exported fine machinery, linen fabrics, porcelains, fire-arms, glassware, and beet-sugar. From
the Kongo state, at the head of which is the King of the Belgians, are obtained rubber and ivory.
The rubber is sold mainly to the United States.
Brussels is the capital and financial centre. On account of the state control of the railways, it is also
the directive centre of all the industries pertaining to commerce and transportation.
Holland.—The names Holland and Netherlands mean "lowland," and the state itself has a lower
surface than any other country of Europe. Nearly half the area is at high-tide level or else below it.
A large part, mainly the region about the Zuider[71] Sea, has been reclaimed from the sea.

In the reclamation of these lands stone dikes are built to enclose a given area, and from the basin
thus constructed the water is pumped. The reclaimed lands, or "polders," include not only the sea-
bottom, but the coast marshes as well; even the rivers are bordered with levees in order to prevent
overflows. Windmills are the machinery by which the water is pumped from the polders into the
sea. In no other part of the world is wind-power so extensively used. Almost every acre of the
polders is under cultivation, and these lands grow a very large part of the vegetables and flowers
consumed in the great cities of England, France, and Belgium.
The coast sand-barrens have been converted into pasture-lands that produce draught-horses, beef
cattle, and dairy cattle. The horses find a ready market in the United States and the large European
cities; the dairy cattle not needed at home are exported, the United States being a heavy purchaser.
The beef cattle are grown mainly for the markets of London. Dutch butter is used far beyond the
boundaries of the state, and Edam cheese reaches nearly every large city of Europe and America.
The sugar-beet is extensively cultivated, in spite of the great trade resulting from the cane-sugar
industry of the East Indies. It is more profitable to import wheat from the United States and rye
from Russia in order to use the land for the sugar-beet.
Practically no timber suitable for lumber manufacture exists, and building material therefore must
be imported. Pine is purchased from Russia, Scandinavia, and the United States. Stone is
purchased wherever it may be obtained as return freight, or as ballast. The coast fisheries yield
oysters, herrings, and "anchovies," which are not anchovies, but sprats.
For want of coal and iron there are few manufactures, and the garden and dairy products are about
the only export articles. There is an abundance of clay, and of this brick for road-making, tiles for
building purposes, and porcelains are made. But little of the raw sugar is refined; most of it is sold
to foreign refiners, and the United States is one of the chief customers.
Holland is a great commercial country, and for more than five hundred years the Dutch flag has
been found in almost every large port of the world. Much of the commerce is derived from the
tobacco, sugar, and coffee plantations of the Dutch East Indies.
A very large part of the commerce, however, is neither import or export trade, but a "transit"
commerce. Thus, American coal-oil is transferred from the great ocean tank-steamers to smaller
tank-boats, and is then carried across the state into Germany, France, and Belgium, through the
numerous canals.
This trade applies also to many of the products of the German industries which will not bear a
heavy freight tariff, such as coal, ores, etc. It reaches the Rhine and Rhone river-basins and extends
even to the Danube. Both Switzerland and Austria-Hungary send much of their exports through
Holland. All trade at the various ports and through the canals is free, it being the policy to
encourage and not to obstruct commerce.
Amsterdam, the constitutional capital, is one of the great financial and banking centres of Europe.
The completion of the Nord Holland canal makes the docks and basins accessible to the largest
steamships. Diamond-cutting is one of the unique industries of the city. Since the discovery of the
African mines its former trade in diamonds has been largely absorbed by London.
More than half the carrying trade of the state centres at Rotterdam. By the improvement of the
river estuaries and canals this city has become one of the best ports of Europe, and the tonnage of
goods handled at the docks is enormously increasing. Vlissingen (Flushing) and the Hook are

railway terminals that handle much of the local freights consigned to London. Delft is famous the
world over for the beautiful porcelain made at its potteries.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
How has the topography of each of these states affected its commerce?
How is their commerce affected by latitude and climate?
How has the cultivation of the sugar-beet affected the cane-sugar industry in the British West Indies?
From the Statesman's Year-Book make a list of the leading exports and imports of each country.
From the Abstract of Statistics find the trade of the United States with each of these countries.

FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE
Adams's New Empire—pp. 153–159.
Gibbins's History of Commerce—Book III, Chapters I and VIII.

CHAPTER XXVII
EUROPE—THE MEDITERRANEAN STATES AND SWITZERLAND

The Mediterranean states are peopled mainly by races whose social and economic development
was moulded largely by the Roman occupation of the Mediterranean basin for a period of more
than one thousand years. The occupations of the people have been shaped to a great extent by the
slope of the land and by the mountain-ranges that long isolated them from the Germanic peoples
north of the Alps.
France.—The position of France with respect to industrial development is fortunate. The North
Sea coast faces the ports of Great Britain; the Atlantic ports are easily accessible to American
centres of commerce; the Mediterranean ports command a very large part of the trade of that sea.
The easily travelled overland routes between the Mediterranean and North Seas in very early times
gave the country a commercial prominence that ever since has been retained. Even before the time
of Cæsar it was a famous trading-ground for Mediterranean merchants, and the conquest of the
country was not so much for the spoils of war as for the extension of Roman commercial
influence.
The greater part of France is an agricultural region, and nowhere is the soil cultivated with greater
skill. Although the state is not quite as large as Texas, there are more farms than in all the United
States, their small size making thorough cultivation a necessity. Much of the land is too valuable
for wheat-farming, and so the eastern manufacturing districts depend upon the Russian wheat-
farms for their supply. Northwestern France, however, has a surplus of wheat, and this is sold to
Great Britain.

FRANCE

The sugar-beet is the most profitable crop, and its cultivation is aided indirectly by the
government, which gives a bounty on all exported sugar. The area of sugar-beet cultivation will
probably increase to its limit for this reason.
The French farmer is an artist in the cultivation of small fruits, and the latter form an important
source of revenue. Of the fruit-crop, the grape is by far the most important commercially. French
wines, especially the champagnes, are exported to a greater extent than the wines of any other
country.[72] Most of the wine is sold in Great Britain and the countries north of the grape belt; a
considerable part is sold in the United States and the eastern countries. Champagne, Bordeaux, the
Loire, and the Rhone Valleys are famous wine districts. Wine is also imported, to be refined or to
be made into brandy.
Cattle-breeding, both for meat and for dairy purposes, is extensively carried on. The meat is
consumed at home. Butter is an important export, especially in the northwest, where a large
amount is made for London consumers. This region produces Camembert and Neufchatel cheese,
both of which are largely exported; Brie cheese is made chiefly along the German border. The
Roquefort product, made of ewe's milk, is fermented in limestone caves and cellars. All these
varieties have a large sale, the United States and Great Britain being heavy purchasers.
The Percheron draught-horse is raised for export as well as for home use; mules are extensively
raised for the army wagon-trains of Great Britain and Germany. Sheep are grown for the finer
grades of wool, but so much of the sheep pasture has been given to the cultivation of the sugar-
beet, that a considerable part of the woollen textiles are now made of wool imported from
Argentina. A large part of the eggs and table poultry consumed in London are products of
northwestern France.

The coal-fields of the north produce nearly two-thirds of the total amount consumed. Iron ores are
found near the German border; they are sent to coal-fields in the neighborhood of St. Étienne and
Le Creuzôt to be manufactured into steel. Both coal and iron ore are deficient. To meet the
requirements of consumption, the former is imported from Great Britain, Germany, and Belgium;
the latter, mainly from Germany and Spain.
The manufactures of France have a wide influence. From the coal and iron are derived the intricate
machinery that has made the country famous, the railways, the powerful navy, and the merchant
marine that has made the country a great commercial nation. Because of the great creative skill and
taste of the people, French textiles are standards of good taste, and they find a ready market in all
parts of the world. In textile manufactures more than one million people and upward of one
hundred thousand looms are employed.
The United States is a heavy buyer of the woollen cloths and the finer qualities of dress goods.
Inasmuch as these goods have not been successfully imitated elsewhere, the French trade does not
suffer from competition. The best goods are made from the fleeces of French merino sheep, and
are manufactured mainly in the northern towns. The Gobelin tapestries of Paris are famous the
world over.
The cotton manufactures depend mainly on American cotton. About two-thirds of the cotton is
purchased in the United States, a part of which returns in the form of fine goods that may be
classed as muslins, tulles, and art textiles. The market for such goods is also general. In the
manufacture of fine laces, such as the Point d'Alençon fabrics, the French have few equals and no
superiors. The flax is imported mainly from Belgium.
Silk culture is aided by the government, and is carried on mainly in the south. The amount grown,
however, is insufficient to keep the factories busy, and more than four-fifths of the raw silk and
cocoons are imported from Italy and other southern countries.
The chief imports to France are coal, raw textile fibres, wine, wheat, and lumber. The last two
products excepted, they are again exported in the form of manufactured products. The great bulk
of the imports comes from Great Britain, the United States, Germany, Belgium, Russia, and
Argentina. In 1900 the import trade from these countries aggregated about five hundred million
dollars. The total export trade during the same year was about eight hundred million dollars; it
consisted mainly of high-priced articles of luxury.
The foreign trade is supported by a navy, which ranks second among the world's navies, and a
merchant marine of more than fifteen thousand vessels. Aside from the subsidies given to mail
steamships, government encouragement is given for the construction and equipment of home-built
vessels. It is a settled policy that French vessels shall carry French traffic.
Of the 24,000 miles of railway, about 2,000 miles are owned by the state. The rivers are connected
by canals, and these furnish about 7,000 miles of navigable waters. As in Germany, the water-
routes supplement the railway lines. Practically all lines of transportation converge at Paris.
Paris, the capital, is a great centre of finance, art, science, and literature, whose influence in these
features has been felt all over the world. The character of fine textiles, and also the fashions in the
United States and Europe, are regulated largely in this city. Marseille is the chief seaport, and
practically all the trade between France and the Mediterranean countries is landed at this port; it is
also the focal point of the trade between France and her African colonies, and a landing-place for
the cotton brought from Egypt and Brazil.

Havre, the port receiving most of the trade from the United States, is the port of Paris. Rouen is the
chief seat of cotton manufacture. Paris and Rheims are noted for shawls. Lille and Roubaix are
centres of woollen manufacture. Lyons is the great seat of silk manufacture.
Italy.—Italy is a spur of the Alps extending into the Mediterranean Sea. From its earliest history it
has been an agricultural state, and, excepting the periods when it has been rent by wars, it has been
one of the most productive countries in the world.
Wheat is extensively grown, but the crop is insufficient for home consumption, and the deficit is
imported from Russia and Hungary. A large part of the wheat-crop is grown in the valley of the Po
River. Flax and hemp are grown for export in this region; and corn for home consumption is a
general product. Cotton is a good crop in Sicily and the south, but the amount is insufficient for
use and must be made up by imports from the United States and Egypt.
Silk, fruit, and vegetables are the staple products that connect Italy commercially with the rest of
the world. About a million people are concerned in the silk industry, and Italy is one of the
foremost countries in the world in the production of raw silk. Most of the crop is produced in
northern Italy; western Europe and the United States are the chief buyers. The silk of the Piedmont
region is the best in quality.
Fruit is the crop next in value to raw silk. Sicilian oranges and lemons, from about twenty millions
of trees, find a ready market in Europe; the oranges come into competition with the California and
Florida oranges of the United States, in spite of the tariff imposed against them by the latter
country. Olives are probably the most important fruit-crop. Both the preserved fruit and the oil are
exported to nearly every civilized people. Much of the oil is consumed at home, very largely
taking the place of meat and butter. Lucca-oil is regarded as the best.

ITALY

The grape-crop is enormous, and the fruit itself is exported. Some of the fruit sold as "Malaga"
grapes throughout the United States during winter months comes from Italy. Chianti wine, from
the vineyards around Florence, has hitherto been regarded as an inferior product, but the foreign
demand for it is steadily increasing. The Marsala wines of Sicily are largely exported.
Among mineral products the iron deposits in the island of Elba are undoubtedly the most valuable,
but they are yet undeveloped to any great extent. The quarries at Carrara produce a fine marble
that has made Italy famous in sculpture and architecture. Much of the boracic acid used in the arts
comes from Tuscany, and the world's chief supply of sulphur comes from the neighborhood of
Mount Etna in Sicily. Of this Americans buy about one-third.
On account of the lack of coal, the manufactures are restricted mainly to art wares, such as jewelry,
silk textiles, and fine glassware. The Venetian glassware, the Florentine and mosaic jewelry, and
the pink coral ornaments are famous the world over. Within recent years, however, imported coal,
together with native lignite, have given steel manufacture an impetus. Steel ships and rails made at
home are meeting the demands of commerce. Goods of American cotton are made for export to
Turkey and South American countries.
Raw silk, wine, olive-oil, straw goods, sulphur, and art goods are exported. Cotton, wheat,
tobacco, and farm machinery from the United States, and coal, woollen textiles, and steel goods
from Great Britain are the chief imports. Most of the foreign trade is with the nearby states. The
raw silk goes to France.
Since the unification of Italy the railways have been readjusted to the needs of commerce. Before
that time the lines were wholly local in character; with the readjustment they were organized into
trunk lines. They enter France through the Mont Cenis tunnel; they reach Switzerland and
Germany by way of St. Gotthard Pass; they cross the Austrian border through Brenner Pass.
Rome, the capital, is a political rather than an industrial centre. Milan, the Chicago of the kingdom,
is the chief market for the crops of northern Italy and a great railway centre. It is also the market
for raw silk. Genoa, the principal port, is the one at which most of the trade of the United States is
landed. Naples monopolizes most of the marine traffic between Italy and Great Britain. Leghorn is
famous for its manufacture and trade in straw goods. A considerable part of the grain harvested in
the Po Valley is stored for shipment at Venice—not in elevators, but in pits. Palermo is the trading
centre of Sicily. Most of the sulphur is shipped from Catania. Brindisi and Ancona are shipping-
points for the Suez Canal route.
Spain and Portugal.—The surface of these states is too rugged and the climate too arid for any
great agricultural development. Less than half the area is under cultivation; nevertheless, they are
famous for several agricultural products—merino wool, wine, and fruit. The merino wool of the
Iberian peninsula has no equal for fine dress goods; it is imported into almost every other country
having woollen manufactures. A considerable amount of ordinary wool is grown, but not enough
for home needs.
The fruit industry is an important source of income. Oranges, limes, and lemons are extensively
grown for exports; among these products is the bitter orange, from which the famous liqueur
curaçao, a Dutch manufacture, is made. The heavy, sweet port wine, now famous the world over,
was first made prominent in the vineyards of Spain and Portugal. Malaga raisins are sold in nearly
every part of England and America. The olive is more extensively cultivated than in any other

state, but both the fruit and the oil are mainly consumed at home—the latter taking the place of
butter. Raw silk is grown for export to France.
Although a larger part of the peninsula must depend on the American and Scandinavian forests for
lumber, there is one tree product that is in demand wherever bottles are used—namely, cork. The
cork is prepared from the bark of a tree (Quercus suber) commonly known as the cork oak,[73]
which grows freely in the Iberian peninsula and northern Africa.

SPAIN AND PORTUGAL

Metals and minerals of economic use are abundant. Iron ore is sold to Great Britain,
France, and Germany. Since the Spanish-American War, however, there have been
extensive developments in utilizing the coal and the ore which before that time had
been sold to other countries.
The undeveloped coal and iron resources are very great, and must figure in the
payment of a national debt that is near the limit of bankruptcy. The state, however, is
entering a period of industrial prosperity.
The most available metal resource is quicksilver. Of this metal the mines in Almaden
produce about one-half the world's supply. The working of these mines is practically a
government monopoly, and the income was mortgaged for many years ahead when
Spain was at war with her rebellious colonies.
Both Spain and Portugal are poorly equipped with means for transportation. The
railways lack organization, and freight rates are excessive. Not a little of the
transportation still depends on the ox-cart and the pack-train. The merchant marine
has scarcely more than a name; the foreign commerce is carried almost wholly in
British or French bottoms. The imports are mainly cotton, coal, lumber, and food-
stuffs—these in spite of the fact that every one save lumber might be produced at
home.

Wine and fruit products, iron ore, and quicksilver are leading exports. Of these the
United States purchases wine and raisins for home consumption and lace and filigree
work for the trade with Mexico. Spain has a considerable trade in cotton goods with
her colonies, the Canary Islands, and the African provinces of Rio de Oro and Adrar.
Portugal likewise supplies her foreign possessions—Goa (India), Macao (China), and
the Cape Verde and Azores Islands—with home products. The chief Portuguese trade,
however, is with Great Britain and Brazil.
Madrid is the capital of Spain. Barcelona is the chief commercial centre. Valencia,
Alicante, Cartagena, and Malaga, are all ports of fruit and wine trade. Oporto has
been made famous for the port wine that bears its name. Probably not one per cent. of
the port now used, however, comes from Oporto, and not many Malaga raisins come
from Malaga.
Switzerland.—This state is situated in the heart of the highest Alps. The southeastern
half is above the altitude in which food-stuffs can be produced, and probably no other
inhabited country has a greater proportion of its area above the limits of perpetual
snow. A considerable area of the mountain-slopes affords grazing. The valley-lands of
the lake-region produce a limited amount of food-stuffs, but not enough for the sparse
population.
Politically, Switzerland is a republic, having the position of a "buffer" state between
Germany, Italy, France, and Austria-Hungary. Racially, the state is divided among
Italians, French, and Germans; as a matter of fact, however, the old Helvetian spirit,
which not even Cæsar could destroy, is still a great factor in dominating the people;
this, with their montane environment, gives the Swiss a very positive nationality.
The agricultural interests of the state are developed to their utmost; two-thirds of the
bread-stuffs, however, are purchased from the United States, the plains of Bohemia,
and Russia. Cherries, apples, grapes, and other fruit are cultivated in every possible
place, and as these can be delivered to any part of western and central Europe within
a day, the fruit industry is a profitable one.
Cattle are bred for dairy purposes, but those for beef must be very largely imported,
Austria-Hungary and Italy selling the needed supply. Goats are raised for their hides,
and the latter are converted into Morocco leather. Of the dairy products, cheese is in
many respects the most important; Gruyère cheese is exported to nearly every
country. On account of the long distance from populous centres milk cannot be
transported; much of it is, therefore, condensed, and in that form exported.
A peculiar feature of the dairy industry is the fact that it is constantly moving. The
dairy herds begin to pasture in the lowlands as soon as the snow melts, and as fast as
the snow line recedes up the mountains the cattle follow. The milk is converted into

butter and cheese wherever the herds may be, and the second crop of grass below
them is cut and cured for winter forage.

In spite of the fact that Switzerland has no available coal,[74] manufacture is pre-
eminently the industry of the state. During the long winters the Alpine herdsman and
his family whittle out wooden toys from the stock of rough lumber laid by for the
purpose. Farther down in the valley-lands the exquisite brocades and muslins are
made on hand-looms, or by the aid of the abundant water-power. Each industrial
district has its special line of manufacture, so that there is scarcely an idle day in the
year.
In the cities and towns of the lowland district, watches, clocks, music-boxes, and fine
machinery are manufactured. For many years Swiss watches were about the only ones
used in the United States, but on account of the competition of American watches this
trade has fallen off. The mechanical music-player, operated by perforated paper, has
also interfered with the trade in music-boxes.
Switzerland is provided with excellent facilities for transportation, and this has done
about as much for the commercial welfare of the state as all other industrial
enterprises. In proportion to its area, the railway mileage is greater than that of the
surrounding states. The roads are well built and the rates of transportation are low.
In addition to the ordinary trip-tickets, monthly time-tickets are issued to travellers,
allowing the holders to travel when and where they please within the limits of the
state on all roads and lake-steamers. These are sold to the traveller for about two-
thirds the price of the 1,000-mile book of the American railway. The carriage roads
have no superiors, and they penetrate about every part of the state below the snow
line; they also cross the main passes of the Alps.
Through one or another of these passes most of the foreign traffic of the state must be
carried. To Genoa and Milan it crosses the Alps via the St. Gotthard tunnel, or the
Simplon Pass;[75] to Paris it goes by the Rhone Valley; between Vienna and
Switzerland, by the Arlberg tunnel; and to Germany or to Amsterdam through the
valley of the Main.
As a result of this most excellent system of transportation, Switzerland is thronged
with visiting tourists at all times of the year; moreover, it has always been the policy
of the Swiss Government not only to provide for them, but also to make the country
attractive to them. The result has shown the wisdom of the policy. Indeed, the foreign
tourist has become one of the chief sources of income of the Swiss people, and the
latter profit by the transaction to the amount of about forty million dollars a year.
About all the raw material used in manufacture must be imported. The cotton is
purchased mainly from the United States, and enters by way of Marseille. The raw

silk is purchased from Italy, China, and Japan. Coal, sugar, food-stuffs, and steel are
purchased from Germany, and this state supplies about half the imports. From the
United States are purchased wheat, cotton, and coal-oil.
The manufactures are intended for export. The fine cotton textiles sold to the United
States are worth far more than the raw cotton purchased therefrom. Silk textiles, straw
wares, toys, watches, jewelry, and dairy products are leading exports. The
surrounding states are the chief buyers, and none of them competes with Switzerland
to any extent in the character of the exports.
Geneva, situated at the head of the Rhone Valley, is the chief trade depot; it is noted
especially for the manufacture of watches, of which many hundred thousand are made
yearly. Zurich is the centre of manufactures of textiles and fine machinery. The silk-
brocade industry is centred chiefly in this city and Basel.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
Why did not France prosper commercially prior to the time of the revolution of 1793?
What are the chief natural advantages of the state in favor of commercial development?
In what ways have the natural disadvantages of Switzerland been overcome?
How has the loss of her colonies affected the industrial development of Spain?
Comparing Spain and Italy, which has the better situation with reference to the Suez Canal traffic?
From the Statesman's Year-Book find the amount of foreign trade of each state.
From the Abstract of Statistics find the trade of each one with the United States.

FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE
Adams's New Empire, pp. 160–168.
Fiske's Discovery of America, Vol. II, Chapter XI.
Procure for inspection specimens of raw silk and also of the choice textile goods made in these states.

CHAPTER XXVIII
EUROPE—THE DANUBE AND BALKAN STATES

The Danube and Balkan states derive their commercial importance partly from the
large area in which bread-stuffs may be produced, and also because the valley of the
Danube has become an overland trade-route of growing importance between the Suez
Canal and the North Sea.
Austria-Hungary.—This empire is composed of the two monarchies, Austria and
Hungary, each practically self-governed, but united under a single general
government. The greater part of the country is walled in by the ranges of the Alps and
the Carpathian Mountains.
The region known as the Tyrol is topographically continuous with Switzerland, and
the people have Swiss characteristics. Galicia, northeast of the Carpathian Mountains,
the fragment of Poland that fell to Austria at the time of partition, is a part of the great
Russian plain. Bohemia, which derives its name from the Keltic peoples, whom
Cæsar called the Boii, comprises the upper part of the Elbe river-basin. Its natural
commercial outlet is Germany, but the race-hatred which the Czechs have for the
Germans, retards commercial progress. Hungary is a country of plains occupying the
lower basin of the Danube. The Huns are of Asian origin. Austria proper occupies the
upper valley of the Danube, adjoining Germany; the country and the people are
Germanic.
To the student of history it is a surprise that a country of such diverse peoples, having
but little in common save mutual race-hatred, should hold together under the same
general government. The explanation, however, is found in the topography of the
region. The basin of the Danube is a great food-producing region, and the upper
valley of the Elbe River forms the easiest passage from the Black to the Baltic Sea.
The topography therefore gives the greater part of the country commercial unity.
The climate and surface of the low plains of Hungary are much the same as those of
Wisconsin and Minnesota. Grain-growing and stock-raising are the chief
employments. High freight rates, a long haul, and the competition of Russia and
Roumania have retarded the development of these industries, however. Bohemia is

likewise a grain-growing country, and the easy route into Germany through the Elbe
Valley makes the industry a profitable one. Bohemia is also in the sugar-beet area.
There is an abundance of coal in Austria, but most of it is unfit for the manufacture of
iron and steel. Steel manufacture, however, is carried on, the industry being protected
by the distance from the German steel-making centres. The lead-mines about Bleiberg
(or "Leadville") are very productive; at Idria are the only quicksilver-mines in Europe
that compete with those of Almaden, Spain. The salt-mines near Krakow are in a
mass of rock-salt twelve hundred feet thick.
Most of the manufactured products are for home consumption. American cotton and
home-grown wool supply the greater part of the textiles. The flour-mills are equipped
with the very best of machinery, and much of the product is for export to Germany
and the countries to the south. The manufactures that have made the state famous,
however, are gloves and glassware, both of which are widely exported. The sand,
fluxes, and coloring minerals of Bohemian glassware are all peculiar to the region,
and the wares, therefore, cannot be imitated elsewhere. The gloves are made from the
skins of Hungarian sheep and goats.
The railways are not well organized, and the mileage is insufficient for the needs of
the country. Ludwig Canal (in Germany) connects the Danube with the Main, a
navigable tributary of the Rhine; the Elbe is navigable from a point above Prague to
the Baltic; the Moravian Gate opens a passage from Vienna northward; the Iron Gate,
through which the Danube flows, is the route to the Black Sea; Semmering Pass and
its tunnel is the gateway to the ports of the Adriatic. These great routes practically
converge at Vienna, which also is the great railway centre of the empire.
The foreign trade consists mainly of the export of food-stuffs (of which sugar and
eggs are heavy items), fine cabinet ware, woollen textiles (made from imported
wool), barley and malt, and fine glassware. Much of the German and Italian wine is
sent to market in casks made of Austrian stock; the coal goes mainly to Italy. The
imports are raw cotton from the United States and Egypt, wool, silk, and tobacco.
Coal is both exported and imported. The United States sells to Austria-Hungary
cotton, pork, and corn—buying porcelain ware, glassware, and gloves, amounting to
about one-fifth the value of the exports.
Vienna, the capital, is the financial centre and commercial clearing-house of central
Europe; it has also extensive manufactures. Budapest is the great focal point of
Hungarian railways and commerce. Prague controls the coal, textile, and glass trade
of Bohemia. Lemberg is the metropolis of Galicia. The states of Liechtenstein,
Bosnia, and Herzegovina are commercially under the control of Austria.
The Lower Danube States.—Roumania and Bulgaria, the plain of the lower Danube,
are enclosed by the Carpathian and Balkan ranges. They constitute a great wheat-field

whose chief commercial outlets are the Iron Gate into Germanic Europe, and the
Sulina mouth of the Danube into the Black Sea. The growing of maize for home
consumption and wheat for export form the only noteworthy industries. Most of the
grain is shipped up the Danube and sold in Great Britain and Germany.
From the Iron Gate to the Black Sea the Danube is held as an international highway,
and the control of its navigation is directed by a commission of the various European
powers, having its head-quarters at Galatz, Roumania.

TURKEY AND GREECE

In the Balkan Mountains is the famous Vale of Roses which furnishes about half the
world's supply of attar-of-roses. The petals of the damask rose are pressed between
layers of cloth saturated with lard. The latter absorbs the essential oil, from which it is
easily removed. About half a ton of roses are required to make a pound of the attar.
Kazanlik, noted also for rugs, is the great market for attar. Galatz and Rustchuk are
grain-markets and river-ports; from the latter a railway extends to Varna, the chief
port of the Black Sea. From Sofia, near the Bulgarian frontier, a trunk line of railway
extends through Budapest to western Europe.
Turkey-in-Europe.—The European part of the Ottoman Empire has long been
politically known as the "Sick Man" of Europe, and so far as the industries and
commerce of the state are concerned, there is no excuse for its separate existence as a
state. Its political existence, however, is regarded as a necessity, in order to prevent

the Russians from obtaining military and naval control of the Mediterranean and
Black Seas, and thereby becoming a menace to all western Europe. Less than one-half
the people are Turks; the greater part of the population consists of Armenians, Jews,
Magyars, and Latins.
Most of the country is rugged and unfit for grain-growing. The internal government is
bad, the taxes are so ruinous that the agricultural resources are undeveloped, and
every sort of farming is primitive. In many instances the taxes levied on the growing
crops become practical confiscation when they are collected. Much of the cultivable
land is idle because there are no means of getting the crops to market.
Grapes and wine, silk, opium, mohair and wool, valonia (acorn cups used in tanning
leather), figs, hides, cigarettes, and carpets are the leading exports, and these about
half pay for the American cotton textiles, woollen goods, coal-oil, sugar, and other
food-stuffs imported. Choice Mocha coffee is imported for home use, and poorer
grades are exported. Most of the foreign commerce is in the hands of English and
French merchants. Armenians, Jews, and Greeks are the native middlemen and
traders.
The native population is subject to the Sultan, whose rule is absolute; most foreign
merchants and residents are permitted by treaties to remain subject to the regulations
of the consuls.
Constantinople is the capital. Its situation on the Bosphorus is such that under any
other European government it would command a tremendous foreign commerce. It is
naturally the focal point of the trade between Europe and Asia. A trunk line of railway
connects the city with Paris. Salonica is the port of western Turkey, and is likewise
connected by rail with western Europe. A great deal of the foreign commerce of the
state is now landed at this port.
The chief possessions of the Ottoman Empire are Asia Minor, Armenia,
Mesopotamia, Syria, and Arabia.
Greece.—Greece is a rugged peninsula, no part of which is more than forty miles
from the sea. The country is without resources in the way of coal, timber, or available
capital. Its former commercial position, in ancient times, was due largely to the silver-
mines near Ergasteria, and subsequently to the gold-mines of eastern Macedonia;
these, however, are no longer productive.
There is but little land suitable for farming, and not far from one-half the bread-stuffs
must be imported. Much of the timber has been destroyed, and this has resulted in a
deterioration not only of the water-power, but of the cultivable lands as well. The
railway lines are short and their business is local; there are practically no trunk line
connections with the great centres of commerce.

The harbors and the natural
position of the country are its
best remaining resources. The
Greeks are born sailors, and the
country is in the pathway of
European and Asian commerce.
Most of the grain-trade between
the Black and Mediterranean
Seas is controlled by Greek
merchants, and the Greeks are
everywhere in evidence in the
carrying trade of the
Mediterranean. The construction
of the Corinthian canal has also
HARBOR OF CONSTANTINOPLE given Greek commerce a
material impetus.
The chief exports are Corinthian grapes—commonly known as "currants"—fruit, and
iron ore from Ergasteria. Great Britain, France, and Belgium are the chief buyers of
the fruit-crop. The exports scarcely pay for the American cotton, Russian wheat, and
the timber products that are purchased abroad. There has been a material growth in
the manufacture of cotton, woollens, and silk in the past few years, much of the work
being done in households. Athens is the capital and largest city. The Piræus and
Patras are the chief ports.
Servia and Montenegro are stock-growing countries. The former has suffered greatly
from misgovernment and the waste of its resources. Wine-cask stock and cattle are
sold to Austria, which has five-sixths of its trade. Belgrade is its metropolis. Tobacco
and live-stock are exported from Montenegro to Austria.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
On a good map of central Europe trace an all-water route from the mouth of the Danube to the ports of the lower
Rhine and the North Sea; what connection have the cities of Ratisbon and Lemberg with this route?
How do the forests of these states affect the wine industry of Germany?
From the Statesman's Year-Book find the amount and movement of the exports and imports of these countries.
From the Abstract of Statistics find the volume of trade of these countries with the United States.

FOR COLLATERAL REFERENCE
Great Canals of the World—p. 4089.
A good map of central Europe.

RUSSIAN EMPIRE

CHAPTER XXIX
EUROPE-ASIA—THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE

The great plain of Eurasia, which borders about half the circuit of the Arctic Ocean, is
undivided by topographic barriers or boundaries. It is physically a unit.
Russia.—Russia comprises more than one-half the area of Europe; the Russian
Empire embraces about one-half of Europe and Asia combined, and constitutes more
than one-seventh of the land surface of the earth. East and west, from St. Petersburg
to Vladivostok, the distance is about six thousand miles. It has a similar position with
respect to southern Europe and China as has Canada to the United States.
In latitude the country is unfortunately situated. North of the latitude of St. Petersburg
the climate is too cold to grow bread-stuffs; a large part of the country is, therefore,
unproductive. The central belt is forest-covered; the southern part, or "black earth"
belt, comprises the greater part of the productive lands, and this region is the chief
granary of Europe.
Russia is an agricultural country. Maize and rye grown for home consumption, and
wheat for export, are the chief products. Flax is a leading export product, and the
Russian crop constitutes about four-fifths of the world's supply. Lands too remote
from markets for grain-growing produce cattle and sheep, which are grown mainly
for their hides and tallow. The wool of the Don is a very coarse textile that is much
used in the manufacture of American carpets; that of the arid plateaus of the southern
country is a fine rug wool.
Agriculture in Russia is on a much lower plane than in western Europe. Most of the
land is owned in large estates. Individual farming is rare, land tillage being usually a
community affair. A village community rents or purchases a tract of land, and the
latter is allotted to the families composing it, a part of the land being reserved for
pasturage. The business is transacted by "elders," or trustees, who exercise a general
management and supervision over the "mir," or community.
The methods of farming are not the best, and an acre of land produces scarcely one-
third as much as the same area is made to yield in other states. The farming class, or
peasantry, was in a condition of serfdom until within a few years. Poverty unfits them

to compete with farmers of western Europe; moreover, the laws of land ownership
and tenure also serve to discourage farming.
The metal and mineral resources are very great. Iron ore is abundant, and the yearly
output of both is greatly increasing. There are extensive deposits in southern Russia,
in the Ural Mountains, and in Poland. Coal of good quality is plentiful, and coal
mining is encouraged by a heavy tariff on the foreign coal that enters regions where
the home product is available. The most productive coal-fields are those of the lower
Don River and of Poland.
Gold is obtained in various parts of Siberia and in the Ural Mountains, but scarcely
enough is mined for the requirements of coinage. Copper is also mined in the Ural
and Caucasus Mountains. More than nine-tenths of the world's supply of platinum is
also obtained in the Ural Mountains. The petroleum fields of Transcaucasia have a
yearly output a little greater than those of the United States.
The forest area is surpassed only by the timber belt of North America, both of which
are in about the same latitudes. This area, within a very few years, is destined to be
the chief lumber supply of all Europe. Moreover, the forests, the grain-growing lands,
and the iron and coal constitute national resources which are surpassed in no other
countries save the United States and China.
The Russian Government has done much to encourage manufactures. Steel-making in
the Ural district, in Poland, and in the iron regions of the Don has progressed to the
extent that home-made railway material and rolling stock are now generally used.
Farming machinery is made in the cities of the grain-growing region. The
manufacture of cotton, woollen, and linen fabrics has developed to the extent that the
state is becoming an exporter rather than an importer of such goods.
Railway building has progressed under government aid, and about two-thirds of the
37,000 miles of track are owned by the state. The Transsiberian Railway connecting
Vladivostok with the trunk lines of Europe was built by the state both for strategic
and economic purposes. Large bodies of emigrants are carried into Siberia at nominal
rates and are settled on lands that are practically free. The return cargoes consist of
Chinese products—mainly silk textiles and tea—destined for western Europe.
A network of railways covers the grain-growing districts; trunk lines, mainly for
strategic purposes, extend through Russian Turkestan to the Chinese border. For many
years Russia has endeavored to acquire the territory that would afford commercial
outlets to the Indian Ocean and into China. In this the state has been thwarted by two
great powers—Great Britain and Japan. The construction of canals and the
improvements of river-navigation are under government management, and the
internal water-ways aggregate about fifty thousand miles of navigation.

The foreign commerce is changing in character as manufactures develop. Wheat,
flour, timber products, flax, and petroleum are the chief exports. Cotton, tea, wool,
and coal are the leading imports, the first-named coming mainly from the United
States. Germany, Great Britain, France, Holland, and the United States are the chief
European countries utilizing Russian trade. The commerce between Russia and China
is growing rapidly. The Transsiberian railway is its chief northern outlet, and a branch
of this road, now under construction, extends through to the leading commercial
centres of Manchuria, to Port Arthur. A considerable amount of manufactured goods
is sent to Asia Minor and the Iran countries.
The most available ports opening into the Atlantic are on the Baltic Sea, but these are
blocked by ice in winter; the best ports are on the Black Sea, but the Russians do not
control the navigable waters that connect them with the Atlantic.
Much of the internal trade is carried on by means of annual fairs. The most important
of these are held at Nijni, (lower) Novgorod, Kharkof, Kief, and other points. At the
first-named fair goods to the amount of $80,000,000 have changed hands during a
single season, and the annual fair is the recognized common ground on which the
oriental traders meet the buyers of European and American firms.
Unlike the schemes of colonization of other European states, the various possessions
of the Czar are practically in a single area, the dependencies being contiguous. The
lines between them, with few exceptions, are political rather than natural boundaries.
St. Petersburg, the capital, is the centre of finance and trade. Riga is the port from
which most of the lumber is exported; it receives the coal purchased from Great
Britain for the factories of the Baltic coast. The harbor of Riga is not greatly
obstructed by ice. Archangel has an export trade of lumber and flax during the few
months when the White Sea is free from ice. Odessa and Rostof are the grain-markets
of the empire. Astrakhan is the centre of trade for the Iran countries, and Baku is the
petroleum-market. Moscow is the chief focal point of the railways; and in
consequence has become a great centre of manufacture and trade. Warsaw, next to
Moscow, is the most important city.
Siberia.—This great territory resembles Russia in surface and climatic features. Like
the former "west" of the United States, Siberia is the open "east" into which much of
the surplus population of Russia, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries is moving,
attracted by fine farming lands. The European emigrant becomes a producer when
settled in Siberia, and, at the same time, a consumer of Russian manufactures. In five
years more than one million people thus became occupants of the new country in
Siberia. Russian trade is encouraged by a heavy tariff on foreign goods brought into
Siberia.

Tobolsk, Tomsk, and Semipalatinsk are collecting stations for Siberian products, and
each is built on navigable waters. Irkutsk receives the caravan trade that goes from
Peking through Urga and Kiakhta, the frontier post of Chinese trade. Vladivostok is
the great Pacific outlet and the terminus of the Transsiberian Railway. It is ice-bound
in winter. Harbin, in Manchuria, China, is a Russian trading post of great commercial
importance.
Bokhara and Khiva are Russian vassal states. The former was acquired chiefly as a
trade-route. A railway from Krasnovodsk on the Caspian Sea extends through Merv,
Bokhara, and Samarkand to Kashgar, where it meets the caravan trade from central
China. The building of this railway has caused a great development of cotton-growing
in these countries, which furnish Europe and America with the choice Afghan, Khiva,
and Bokhara rugs.
Transcaucasia, now joined to Russia, is a part of the plateau of Iran. A railway
extends across the country from Batum to Baku, connecting the Black and Caspian
Seas. Transcaucasia is the petroleum region of the East. It is also noted for the
Shirvan, Kabistan, Daghestan, and Kazak rugs which are sold all over Europe and
America. The so-called "Cashmere" rugs are not a product of Kashmir, but are made
in the town of Shemaka. Kabistan rugs are made in Kuba. Kazak fabrics are usually
the sleeping-blankets of the Kazak (Cossack) rough-riders.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
How will the development of the coal, iron, and lumber resources most likely affect the industrial future of
Russia?
Discuss the policy of Siberian immigration;—what are its advantages to German colonists?
From the map accompanying this chapter show how the tributary streams of the great rivers have served to extend
Russian commerce through Siberia.
Note the situation of the cities and towns of Siberia with reference to the rivers.
What effect has the high latitude of Russia on its agricultural industries?
From the Statesman's Year-Book make a list of the leading exports and imports of Russia by articles, and also the
volume of trade with other countries.
From the Abstract of Statistics find the statistics of trade between Russia and the United States.

FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE
Commercial life in Russia—preferably from the article, "Russia," in the Encyclopædia Britannica.
For a rug of the Caucasus type, see illustration, p. 351; compare the Kabistan with the Persian piece—which has
the floral and which the geometric figures?

CHAPTER XXX
THE IRAN PLATEAU AND ARABIA

The countries of the Iran plateau extend from the Mediterranean Sea to the valley of
the Indus River. The Arabian Peninsula is not a part of it, but its climate and general
character are similar. The Iran countries are exceedingly rugged, and a great part of
their surface is more than a mile above sea-level. The climate is one of great
extremes; the summer hot-waves and the winter hurricanes are probably unknown
elsewhere in severity. The greater part of Arabia is an unhabitable desert.

THE IRAN PLATEAU AND ARABIA

The rigorous conditions of surface and climate have placed their stamp upon the
population of the region. They are full of the intelligent cunning and ferocity that
mark people living under such conditions of environment. In many parts the sterile
soil and arid climate force the sparse population into nomadic habits of life and
predatory pursuits. For the greater part, the land hardly yields enough food-stuffs for
the population, and any great development of agriculture is out of the question. The
flood-plain of the Tigris and Euphrates, and a few of the river-valleys are highly
productive.

AN ANTIQUE TREE-OF-LIFE, KERMANSHAH (PERSIAN) RUG

Before the Christian era several trade-routes between Europe and the Orient lay
across this region, and along the caravan routes there were the usual industries
pertaining to commercial peoples. The cities of Sinope, Trebizond, Astrabad, Phasis,
Mashad, and Bactra (now Balkh) grew into existence along one of the northern
routes. Tyre, Nineveh, Tarsus, Palmyra, Babylon, and Persepolis were founded along
one or another of the southern routes. Of these, Trebizond only retains its importance,
being a seaport with a considerable trade. The commerce that once passed over this
route was crushed out of existence during the invasions by Jenghis Khan.

A KABISTAN RUG—CAUCASUS DISTRICT

Of the various industries of the Iran plateau, practically but one extends beyond its
borders, namely, the manufacture of the textile fabrics known as Oriental rugs. These
are unique; they are made of materials, colored with dyes, and are ornamented with
designs that cannot be successfully imitated anywhere else in the world. The filling of
the rugs consists of fine wool, selected not only from particular localities, but also
from certain parts of the fleece. The dye-stuffs are common to other parts of the
world, and their names—indigo, saffron, coccus, madder, and orchil—are familiar.
But both the wool and the dye-stuffs possess qualities imparted to them by soil and
climate that are not found elsewhere.
The absence of floors, and of the furniture found in European dwellings, make the
rugs essential household articles rather than luxuries. The hearth-rug, the bath-mat,
the divan-cover, the sleeping-blanket, and the saddle-mat must be regarded as
necessities. Religion also has its requirements, and the prayer rug, sometimes
ornamented with the hands of the Prophet, is a part of every household equipment,
whether of the nomadic Arab or the wealthy merchant. Each district and people have
their own designs and methods of workmanship, and the rugs of each are easily
distinguished.[76]
For the greater part these are gathered by caravans and conveyed to convenient
shipping-points. Nearly all the cottage-made product is obtained in this manner. As a
rule the rugs are named from the town or district in which they are made. Smyrna and
Constantinople are the chief ports of shipment. Many of them find their way to
European dealers, but New York is probably the largest rug-market in the world. The
great majority are retailed at from ten to fifty dollars each; choice fabrics, however,

bring from three hundred to ten thousand dollars. Oriental rugs are hand-woven, and a
weaver frequently spends several years on a single piece, earning perhaps less than
ten cents a day. The factory-made rugs are inferior to the cottage-manufactured
product.
Turkish Possessions.—Anatolia is the common name of the Turkish possession
formerly known as Asia Minor. The name properly belongs, however, to only a small
part of the region. The Asiatic possessions of the Ottoman Empire comprise Asia
Minor, Armenia, Kurdistan, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Arabia. The Armenians are the
commercial people of the greater part of this region, and although thousands have
been massacred because of Turkish hatred of them, they practically wield the chief
power because of their business enterprise.
During the Roman occupation many miles of roads were built from Constantinople
and other coast-points to the interior. One of these extended to Mesopotamia, and
became a much-travelled route of the trade which centred at Constantinople. Within
recent years German capitalists have built railways along these roads, thereby
creating a considerable export trade in fruit, rugs, and mohair cloth.
Angora and Konieh (Iconium) are important marts. Trebizond is the chief port of the
Black Sea, but it lacks railway connections with the interior. Smyrna is the chief port
of the Mediterranean, and from it are shipped to European and American markets the
fruit and textile fabrics that have made its importance. In Syria, Damascus, one of the
oldest cities in the world, is the centre of a considerable trade in textile manufactures.
Rugs, dates, figs, and damask fabrics are exported to Europe through Beirut, its
seaport, with which it is connected by rail. Much of the stuffs exported is gathered
from Persia. Yafa is the port of Jerusalem. Bagdad is the chief trade-centre of
Mesopotamia.
Arabia.—Arabia is nominally a Turkish possession, but the coast-regions only are
under the control of the Sultan. The interior is peopled by nomadic tribes, who do not
acknowledge the sovereignty of Turkey. The province of Yemen, on the Red Sea, is
about the only noteworthy part of the peninsula. Hides and Mocha coffee, gathered by
Arab traders, are shipped from the port of Hodeida. Mecca is the yearly meeting-
place of thousands of Mohammedan pilgrims, who go thither as a religious duty; it is
also the centre from which Asiatic cholera radiates. Aden, the chief coaling-station of
the British Empire in the Indian Ocean, is also a free port, having a considerable trade
in American cotton and coal-oil.
Although Arabia itself is practically of no commercial importance, the same cannot
be said of the Arabic people. They are keen, thrifty traders, and as brutal in their
instincts as they are keen. The commerce which connects the western part of Asia
with Europe is largely of their making. They collect and transport the goods from the
interior, delivering them to Jewish and Armenian middlemen, who turn them over to

European and American merchants. Arab traders also control the greater part of the
commerce of northern Africa. The slave-trade, which is wholly in their hands, is very
largely the key to the situation. A party of slave-dealers makes an attack upon a
village and, after massacring all who are not able-bodied, load the rest with the goods
to be transported to the coast.
Persia.—Persia is the modernized name of the province now called Fars, or Farsistan.
Within its borders, however, the name Persia is almost unknown; the native people
call the country Iran. In the times of Cyrus, Xerxes, and Darius, Persia was one of the
great powers of the world. The cultivable lands produced an abundance of food-
stuffs. The mines of copper, lead, silver, and iron were worked to their utmost extent,
and the chief trade-routes between Europe and the Orient crossed the country to the
Indus River.
The conquest by Alexander the Great changed the course of trade and diverted it to
other routes, thus depriving the country of much of its revenue; the invasions of the
Arabs left the empire a hopeless wreck. Iran blood dominates the country at the
present time, it is true, but the religion of Islam does not encourage any material
development, and the industries are now purely local. There is no organization of
trade, nor any system of transportation except by means of wretched wagon-roads
with innumerable toll-gates. "Turkish" tobacco, opium, and small fruits are grown for
export; silk and wool, however, are the most important crops. The former is
manufactured into brocaded textiles; the latter into rugs and carpets. There are famous
pearl-fisheries in the Persian Gulf.
Tabriz, situated in the midst of an agricultural region, has important manufactures of
shawls and silk fabrics of world renown. The Tabriz rugs are regarded as among the
finest of the rug-maker's art. Shiraz, the former capital, Kermanshah,[77] and
Hamadan are noted for rug and carpet manufactures. Mashad is the centre of the
trade with Russia. Bushire and Bender-Abbas are seaports, but have no great
importance. Most of the trade with Russia passes through the port of Trebizond.
Afghanistan.—The nomadic tribes that inhabit Afghanistan have but little in
common with the British civilization that is slowly but surely closing in upon them,
and driving them from routes of commerce. A considerable local traffic is carried on
between Bokhara and Herat, and between Bokhara and Kabul through Balkh, all
being fairly prosperous centres of population in regions made productive by
irrigation.
By far the most important route lies between Kabul and Peshawur, at the head of the
Indus River. A railway, the Sind-Pishin, extends along the valley of this river from
Karachi, a port of British India, to Peshawur, also in British India near the Afghan

border, and the route lies thence through Khaibar Pass to Jelalabad and Kabul. A
branch of this road is completed through Bolan Pass nearly to Kandahar.
Kabul, the capital, is a military stronghold rather than a business centre, although it is
a collection depot for the Khiva-Bokhara rugs and carpets that are marketed at
Peshawur. Kandahar has a growing trade resulting from the railway of the Indus
Valley. Herat is the market of the famous Herati rugs. There is no organized
commercial system; a small amount of British manufactures—mainly stuffs for
domestic use—are imported; rugs and dried fruit are the only exports to Europe and
America. The imports enter mainly by way of Karachi, India; the exports are carried
to Europe, for the greater part, by the Russian railway.
The importance of Afghanistan is due to its position as a buffer state between Russia
and British India. The various strategic points for years, therefore, have been military
strongholds. There is an old saying: "Whoso would be master of India must first make
himself lord of Kabul." The meaning of this is seen in the history of Khaibar Pass,
which for many years has been a scene of slaughter; indeed, it has been the chief
gateway between occidental and oriental civilizations for more than twenty centuries.
Since the acquisition of India by Great Britain Afghanistan has been under British
protectoracy.
Baluchistan.—The general features of Baluchistan resemble those of the other parts
of the Iran plateau. The coast has no harbors in the proper sense, but the anchorage
off Gwador has fair protection from storms and heavy winds. The few valleys
produce enough food-stuffs for the half-savage population. There is but little
organization to the government save that which is military in character. The state is a
protectorate of Great Britain.
Rug-making is the only industry that connects Baluchistan with the rest of the world.
Quetta, the largest town, is a military station controlling Bolan Pass. Its outlet is the
Kandahar branch of the Sind-Pishin Railway.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
What climatic factors prevent these countries from being regions of great production?
How do climate and soil affect the character of the wool clip?
How do Arabian horses compare with American thorough-bred stock with respect to usefulness?—how do they
compare with the mustang stock?
Why is Khaibar Pass regarded as the key to India?

FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE
From a cyclopædia (or from McCarthy's History of Our Own Times) read an account of the British disaster at
Kabul.

Study, if possible, one or more rugs of the following kinds, noting the colors, designs, and warp of each: Bokhara
(antique and modern), Anatolian, Kermanshah, and Baluchistan.

CHAPTER XXXI
BRITISH INDIA AND THE EAST INDIES

These countries are in tropical latitudes and in the main are regions of great
productivity. A few native states that have resisted annexation and conquest excepted,
almost the entire area is divided among Great Britain, Holland, and France.

INDIA

British India.—The Empire of India comprises an area half as large as the United
States, situated on the southern slope of Asia. It covers the same latitude as the span
between the Venezuelan coast and the Ohio River; from the Indus to the Siam frontier
the distance is about two thousand miles. It includes also settlements in the Malay
peninsula.

Excepting the plateau of the Dekkan, and the slopes of the Himalayan ranges, most of
the surface consists of plains and low, rolling land covered with a great depth of soil.
Through these rich lands flow four large rivers—the Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra,
and Irawadi, which afford a great deal of internal communication. The Himalaya
Mountains on the north and the Hindu Kush on the northwest practically shut off
communication from the northward, so that all communication in this direction is
concentrated at Khaibar and Bolan Passes, the most important gateways by land
approach.
British India is one of the most populous regions of the world; the average population
per square mile is about one hundred and eighty, a density considerably greater than
that of New York State. The entire population is about three times that of the United
States. Nearly all the food-stuffs grown are required for home consumption; indeed,
dry years are apt to be followed by a shortage of food-stuffs. Years ago famines
followed any considerable deficiency of crops, but since the completion of the
admirable railway systems the necessary food-stuffs are quickly shipped to the
district where the shortage occurs.
The Hindus constitute about three-fourths of the population. Along the northern
border there are many peoples of Afghan and Turkic descent; in Burma there is a
considerable admixture of Mongol blood. An elaborate system of social castes
imposed by the teachings of Brahmanism has made the introduction of western
methods of education and civilization somewhat difficult to carry out. The
educational system of the dominating Brahmanic caste, although of a very high order,
does not fit the people to cope with the commercialism of western civilization.
Five-sevenths of the population are engaged in agricultural labor. Rice, wheat, millet,
meat, and sugar are the chief food-crops. Of these, rice and wheat[78] only are
exported; the others are required for home consumption.
The articles grown for export are jute, cotton, opium, oil-yielding seeds, tea, and
opium. No meat is exported, but hides form a large item of foreign trade.
The jute is used in the manufacture of rugs and grain-sacks. It is cultivated mainly in
the delta-lands of the Ganges-Brahmaputra. A considerable part of the product is now
manufactured in India and in China; some is also shipped to California, to be made
into wheat-sacks; perhaps the larger part is sent to Dundee, Scotland, where it is
woven into textile fabrics. The choicest product is used to mix with silk fibre, or is
employed in the manufacture of rugs and coverings.
Cotton cultivation is rapidly taking first rank among the industries of India, for which
the conditions of soil, climate, and market are admirably adapted. India stands second
in cotton-growing, and the area of production is gradually increasing. Most of the
crop is exported to Europe for manufacture, although there is an increasing amount

sold to Japan. Great Britain is the largest purchaser, and the cotton goods
manufactured at Manchester are reshipped in large quantities to India.
Owing to the low wages paid for labor both in the fields and the mills, cotton
manufacture is a rapidly growing industry in India. In many cases the yarn is
manufactured in India and then sent to China to be made into coarse cloth. Some of
the mills are equipped with machinery made in the United States.
Tea has become one of the most important crops of India. It is grown mainly in
Ceylon and Assam, and is said to have grown wild in the latter state. The quality of
Indian tea is regarded as superior to the Chinese product, and Indian teas have
therefore very largely supplanted those of China, in British consumption.
Silk cultivation and manufacture have been growing rapidly in the past few years; a
considerable part of the product is "tussar," or wild silk. The silk rugs of India are not
equalled anywhere else in the world. Wool is a product of the mountain-regions, but
is almost wholly used in the manufacture of rugs and coverings.
The British occupation of India is commercial rather than political. India furnishes a
most valuable market for British manufactures; it supplies the British people with a
large amount of raw material for manufacture. The general government is
administrative only so far as the construction of railways, irrigating canals, and
harbors, and the organization of financial affairs are concerned.
There are about two hundred and fifty native states included within the territory of
British India. In addition to the native ruler, a British governor or magistrate carries
out the administrative features of the British Government. For administrative
purposes most of the native states are grouped into eight provinces, or "presidencies."
Bengal.—The states of Bengal, mainly in the valley of the Ganges River, produce
most of the rice and wheat. Calcutta, the capital of the empire, is a comparatively
young city. The Hugli at this point is navigable both for ocean and river craft. The
situation of the city is much like that of New York, and it is therefore finely adapted
for commerce. Railways extending from the various food-producing districts and
from other centres of commerce converge at Calcutta. The city is not only the centre
of administration, but the chief focus of commerce and finance as well.
Bombay.—Bombay includes a number of states bordering on the Arabian Sea. The
city of Bombay is built on an island of the same name. Its situation on the west coast
makes it the most convenient port for the European trade that passes through the Suez
Canal. The opening of the route gave Bombay a tremendous growth, and it is destined
to become a great commercial factor in Indian Ocean trade. It is also a great
manufacturing centre for cotton textiles. Ahmedabad, an important military station, is
also an important centre of cotton manufacture and wheat-trade.

Sind.—The native state Sind includes the greater part of the basin of the Indus. Its
importance is military and strategic rather than commercial. The ability of Great
Britain to hold India depends very largely on British control of the Indus Valley and
the passes leading from it. The Sind-Pishin Railway traverses the Indus Valley from
Karachi to Peshawur. Haidarabad, one of the largest cities of India, is the centre of an
agricultural district. Karachi, the port near the mouth of the Indus, next to Khaibar
Pass, is the most important strategic point of India, and one that the Russians for more
than a century have been trying to possess.
Punjab.—The states of the Punjab are mainly at the upper part of the Indus. Amritsar
is an important centre for the manufacture of silk rugs and carpets. A large number of
these are sold in the United States at prices varying from two hundred to six thousand
dollars. The designs for these textiles are often made in New York. Peshawur is
important chiefly as a military station.
Burma.—British Burma includes the basin of the Irawadi River. The uplands are
wheat-fields; the lowlands produce rice. Mandalay is a river-port and commercial
centre. Rangoon is the seaport, with a considerable ship-building industry that results
from the teak forests. Although the Irawadi is navigable for light craft, railways along
the valley have become a necessity; these centre at Rangoon.
The province of Madras is one of the most densely peopled parts of India. The chief
commercial products are cotton and teak-wood. Madras, its commercial centre, has a
very heavy foreign trade in hides, spices, and cotton. The cotton manufactures are
extensive. A yarn-dyed cotton cloth, now imitated both in Europe and the United
States, has made the name famous.
Kashmir.—The native state Kashmir, situated high on the slopes of the Karakorum
Mountains, is known chiefly for the "Cashmere" shawls made there. The shawls are
hand-woven and represent the highest style of the weaver's art. The best require many
years each in the making; they command prices varying from five hundred to five
thousand dollars. This industry centres at Srinagar.
Other British States.—The Straits Settlements are so called because they face the
Straits of Malacca. They include several colonies, chief of which are Singapore,
Penang, and Malacca. The Straits ports are free from export and import duties, a
regulation designed to encourage the concentration of Malaysian products there—in
other words, to encourage a transit trade.
The policy has proved a wise one, and the trade at the three ports—Singapore,
Penang, and Malacca—aggregates about six hundred million dollars yearly. About
two-thirds of this sum represents the business of Singapore. Tin constitutes about half
the exports, a large share going to the United States. Spices, rubber, gutta-percha,

tapioca, and rattan constitute the remaining trade. Rice, cotton cloth, and opium are
the imports.
The Federated Malay States, situated in the Malay peninsula, and the northern part of
Borneo are also British possessions. Their trade and products are similar to the rest of
the Malaysian possessions.
Dutch East India.—The Dutch possessions include nearly all the islands of the
Malay Archipelago and the western part of New Guinea. Of these, Java and Sumatra
are the most important. They are divided into "residencies," and the administering
officers exercise control over the various plantations. In addition, there are numerous
private plantations. The colonial administration is admirable.
Cane-sugar, coffee, rice, indigo, pepper, tobacco, and tea are the chief products. The
sugar industry has been somewhat crippled by the beet-sugar product of Europe. Java
and Sumatra coffees are in demand all over Europe and the United States. Sumatra
wrappers for cigars find also a ready market wherever cigars are manufactured. The
cultivation of cinchona, or Peruvian bark, has proved successful, and this substance is
becoming an important export. The islands of Banka and Billiton (with Riouw) yield
a very large part of the world's supply of tin, much of which goes finally to the United
States. The mother-country profits by the trade of these islands in two ways: the
Dutch merchants are practically middlemen who create and manage the commerce;
the Dutch Government receives an import tax of six per cent., and a small export tax
on nearly all articles except sugar. Batavia is the focal point of the commerce.
Siam.—This kingdom is chiefly important as a buffer state between French and
British India, and little by little has been pared by these nations until practically
nothing but the basin of the Menam River remains. The administration of the state is
progressive, and much of the resources have been developed in the last few years.
Rice and teak are the leading products. The rice is cultivated by native laborers—
much of it by enforced labor—and is sold to Hongkong, British India, and the more
northerly states. It is collected by Chinese middlemen, and by them sold to British
and German exporters. The teak-wood business is managed by British firms. The logs
are cut by natives, hauled to the Menam River, and floated to Bangkok; there they are
squared and sent to European markets. Pepper and preserved fish are also exported.
The Menam River is the chief trade-route, and Bangkok, at its mouth, is the focal
point of trade.
French India.—The French control the region south of China, called French Indo-
China, together with various areas in the peninsula of Hindustan; of these Pondicheri
and Karical are the most important. Indo-China includes the basin of Mekong River,
and rice is the staple product. The most productive rice-fields are the delta-lands of
the Mekong, formerly known as Cochin-China.

From these lands more than half a million tons of rice are exported, the product being
sold mainly at Hongkong and Singapore. Pepper is also an export of considerable
value. France, China, and the Philippine Islands are the final destination of the rice
export. The imports are mainly textiles, machinery, and coal-oil from the United
States. The machinery pertains chiefly to the manufactures of cotton and silk textiles.
On account of cheaply mined coal, there is a considerable growth of this industry.
Saigon is the business centre and port at which the Chinese middlemen meet the
European merchants and forwarders.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
What have been the chief effects of the British occupation of these countries, so far as the natives are concerned?
What is the position of Khaibar Pass with respect to the commerce of India?
How has the building of the Sind-Pishin Railway strengthened British occupation of India?
Singapore and Batavia are the two great focal points of trade in the East India Islands. At the former all trade is
absolutely free; at the latter there is both an import and an export tax. What are the advantages of each policy?
From the Abstract of Statistics find the trade of the United States with these countries.

FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE
From a cyclopædia, preferably the Encyclopædia Britannica, read the following topics:
Caste
Lord Clive
Rattan
Pepper

CHAPTER XXXII
CHINA AND JAPAN

The relative position of China, Russia, and Japan is not unlike that of continental
Europe and Great Britain, and the struggle for supremacy in the Japan and Yellow
Seas is about the same as that which in times past took place in the North Sea. In the
latter case France and Holland were the disturbing powers; in the former, it is Russia.
The Chinese Empire.—A comparison of the Chinese Empire with the United States
shows that the two countries have about the same position and extent of latitude.
There is also about the same proportion of highlands, arid lands, and fertile lowlands.
The similarity of the two countries in geographic conditions is very marked.
The fertile lowland in the east and southeast is one of the most productive regions in
the world, and forms the chief resource of the country; on account of its productivity
it is densely peopled. The arid and mountain lands are peopled mainly by cattle-
herders and nomadic tribes.
China is essentially an agricultural country, and the farms are held in much the same
way as in the United States, but the holdings are so small that agricultural machinery
is not required for their cultivation.
Wheat, millet, and pease are grown throughout the lowlands wherever they can be
cultivated. The cultivation of rice is confined mainly to the coast lowlands. The
amount of food-stuffs produced, however, is scarcely sufficient for home
consumption; indeed, a considerable amount is imported, and the imports year by
year are increasing. This is due not so much to the density of population as to want of
means of transportation of the soil products from inland regions. It is often much
cheaper to import food-stuffs from abroad than to transport them, even from an
adjoining province.
Tea is extensively cultivated, and China exports nearly one-half of the world's
product; the total amount produced is considerably more than half. Most of this goes
to Great Britain and Canada. Raw silk is an important product, and the mulberry-tree
is extensively grown. Cotton is one of the most general crops in the southern part of

the empire, especially along the lower Yangtze. It is a garden-crop, however, and
nearly all of it is consumed.
The mineral wealth is very great, and with proper management will make China one
of the most productive and powerful countries in the world. Coal is found in every
one of the provinces, and the city of Peking is supplied with an excellent quality of
anthracite from the Fang-shan mines, only a few miles distant. It is thought that the
coal-fields are the most extensive in the world. Iron ore of excellent quality is
abundant, and in several localities, notably in the province of Shansi, the two are near
each other.
Foreign capitalists are seeking to develop these resources in several localities. The
Germans have obtained mining concessions in Shantung peninsula, and these involve
the iron ore and coal occurring there. The Peking syndicate, a London company, has
also obtained a coal-mining concession in Shansi.

EASTERN CHINA

For the greater part the manufactures are home industries.[79] Until recently most of
the cotton cloth was made by means of cottage looms, and the beautiful silk brocades
which are not surpassed anywhere else in the world are still made in this manner.
Porcelain-making is one of the oldest industries, and to this day the wares sold in
Europe and America are known as "china." Straw carpet, or matting, and fans for
export are also important exports.

The mill system of manufacture is rapidly gaining ground, however, and foreign
companies find it economical to carry the yarn made in India from American cotton
into China to be made into cloth. In the vicinity of Shanghai alone there are nearly
three hundred thousand spindles. This phase of the industry is due largely to the factor
of cheap labor; the Chinese skilled laborer is intelligent; he does not object to a
sixteen-hour working-day at wages varying from five to twenty cents.
There is no great localization of industrial centres, as in the United States and Europe.
Each centre of population is practically self-supporting and independent from an
economic stand-point. The introduction of western methods, however, is gradually
changing this feature.
All industries of a general character are hampered for want of good means of
transportation. The empire is traversed by a network of unpaved roads; but although
these are always in a wretched condition, an enormous traffic is carried over them by
means of wheel-barrows, pack-animals, and by equally primitive methods.
The numerous rivers form an important means of communication. The Yangtze is
now available to commerce a distance of 2,000 miles, and the opening of the Si Kiang
(West River) adds a large area that is commercially tributary to Canton and
Hongkong. The most important water-way is the Grand Canal, extending from Hang
Chow to Tientsin. This canal is by no means a good one as compared with American
and European standards. It was built not so much for the necessities of traffic, as to
avoid the numerous pirate vessels that infest the coasts. Junks, row-boats, house-
boats, and foreign steam craft are all employed for traffic. The internal water-ways
aggregate about fifteen thousand miles in length.

A TEA-PLANTATION—PICKING THE LEAVES

PREPARING THE LEAVES FOR ROASTING

TEA-BALES FOR EXPORT THROUGH RUSSIA

Of railways there were less than three hundred and fifty miles at the close of the
century, the most important being the line from Tientsin to Peking. About five
thousand miles are projected and under construction by American and European
companies. A branch of the Transsiberian railway is under construction to Port Arthur.
Telegraph and telephone lines have become popular and have been extended to the
interior a considerable distance. There are upward of twenty thousand miles of wire
communication, the most important, in many respects, being a direct overland line
between Peking and European cities. Inasmuch as there are no letters in the Chinese
language, the difficulties in using the Morse code of telegraphy are very great. In
some cases the messages are translated into a foreign language before they are
transmitted; in others, a thousand or more words in colloquial and commercial use are
numbered, and the number is telegraphed instead of the word.
Most of the business between the natives and foreigners is carried on by means of
middlemen, or "compradors," and these include both the commission merchants and
the native bankers. They are intelligent, thrifty, and trustworthy. They are the most

capable merchants in Asia, and have few if any superiors among the merchants of
western nations. A very large part of the retail trade of the Philippine Islands is carried
on by Chinese merchants.
The Chinese Empire consists of China and the five dependencies, as shown in the
following table:

Capital or
State Population
Chief Town
China proper 380,000,000 Peking
Manchuria 7,500,000 Kirin
Tibet 6,000,000 Lassa
Mongolia 2,000,000 Urga
Jungaria 600,000 Kur-kara-usu
Eastern Turkestan 600,000 Yarkand

The five dependencies are mainly arid, unproductive, and sparsely peopled. Their
chief importance consists in the fact that they are "buffer states" between China
proper and European states. They produce little except meat, wool, and live-stock.
China proper is divided into provinces, each governed by a viceroy appointed by the
throne. All business with foreign powers is transacted through a Foreign Office, the
Wai-wu-pu (formerly the Tsung-li-Yamen). The government business is managed by a
Grand Council whose members are advisers to the throne. The government is
controlled mainly by Manchu officials.
Until within a few years China nominally allowed no foreign traders within her
borders; recently, however, about forty cities, commonly known as "treaty ports,"
have been opened to the trade of foreign countries. Goods going inland any distance
are required to pay a "liken" or internal tariff at the border of each province.
Several concessions of territory within recent years have been forced from China by
foreign powers: thus, Great Britain has Hongkong Island (with the peninsula of
Kaulung) and Weihaiwei; Germany has Kiaochou on the bay of the same name;
France has Kwang chau wan harbor. These concessions carry with them the control of
the port and surrounding territory. The German concession includes the right to mine
coal and iron, and to build railways within a territory of much larger extent. At the
close of the war between Russia and Japan, the latter acquired Port Arthur, the
gateway to Manchuria.
Whatever may be the political significance of the opening of the treaty ports and the
granting of the various concessions, the effect has been to increase the trade of the

United States with China about
twenty-fold. The imports from
the United States consist mainly
of cotton and cotton cloth, coal-
oil, and flour. The chief exports
to all countries are tea, silk
goods, and porcelain ware. Most
of those sent to the United States
are landed at Seattle or San
Francisco. Great Britain, through
the port of Hongkong, has a
larger trade than any other
nation. Japan and the United
States have most of the
remaining trade.
Peking, the capital, is politically, HONGKONG
but not commercially, important.
The part occupied by the foreign
legations is modern and well kept. Tientsin, the port of Peking, is a larger city, with
much more business. Canton, the largest city of the empire, and Hongkong, are the
commercial centres of nearly all the British trade. Most of the American and Japanese
trade centres at Shanghai. Niuchwang, on the Manchurian frontier, is important
mainly as a strategic point. Macao, a Portuguese possession, is the open door of
Portugal into China.
The inland divisions of the Chinese Empire have but little commercial importance.
Musk, wool, and skins are obtained from Tibet, into whose capital, Lassa, scarcely
half-a-dozen Europeans have penetrated. The closed condition is due to the
opposition of the Lamas, an order of Buddhist priests. Mongolia is a grazing region
that supplies the Chinese border country with goats, sheep, and horses. It also
supplies the camels required for the caravan tea-trade to the Russian frontiers. Eastern
Turkestan is mainly a desert. Kashgar, the metropolis of the fertile portion, is the
exchange market for Chinese and Russian products. Most of the mineral known as
jade is obtained there. Manchuria is a grazing and wheat-growing country, exporting
food stuffs and ginseng into China. Harbin, a Russian trading post, is connected with
Peking and with European cities by railway.

JAPAN AND KOREA

Korea, formerly a vassal of China, became an independent state after the war
between China and Japan, this step being forced by Russia. The country is a natural
market for Japanese manufactures, and in turn supplies Japan with a considerable
amount of food-stuffs. Chemulpo is the chief centre of its commerce.
Japan.—Japan is an insular empire, the commercial part of which has about the same
latitude as the Atlantic coast of the United States; the empire extends from Formosa
to Kamchatka. It is sometimes called the "Great Britain of the East," and the people
are also called the "Yankees of the East." Structurally, the chain of islands consists of
ranges of volcanic mountains. The abundant rains, however, have made many fertile
river-valleys, and have fringed most of the islands with coast-plains.
Since the opening of Japan to foreigners the Japanese have so thoroughly adapted
themselves to western commercial methods that they have become the dominating
power in eastern Asia. Their influence has been greatly strengthened by a treaty for
defensive purposes with Great Britain. A most excellent army and a modern navy
make the alliance a strong one. The Japanese are better adapted to mould the
commercial policy of China than any other people.
With a population of more than half that of the United States, occupying an area not
larger than the State of California, every square foot of available land must be
cultivated. Yet the Japanese not only grow most of the food-stuffs they consume, but
are able to export rice. There is scant facility for growing beef cattle, but fish very

largely takes the place of beef. The cattle grown are used as draught-animals in farm
labor. Ordinary dairy products are but little used.
Rice, tea, and silk are the staple crops. Rice is grown on the coast lowlands, the west
or rainy side[80] producing the larger crop. The Japanese crop is so superior that the
larger part is exported, while an inferior Chinese grain is imported for home
consumption. The quality of the Japanese rice is due to skilful cultivation.

NATIVE PLOUGHING RICE-FIELDS

IRRIGATING A RICE-FIELD

RICE-FIELDS

Tea has become the staple crop, and is cultivated from Formosa to the forty-fifth
parallel. Tea-farms occupy nearly every acre of the cultivable hill-side areas in some
of the islands, and the soil is enriched with a fertilizer made from fish and fish refuse,
dried and broken. Most of the tea product is made into green tea, and on account of its
quality it commands a high price. Formosa tea is considered the best in the market.
Silk culture is confined almost wholly to the island of Hondo. The raw silk is of
superior quality, and the exported material is used mainly in the manufacture of
ribbons and brocades. A limited amount of cotton is grown, but the staple is short, and
its cultivation is not profitable except in a few localities.
Among the forestry there is comparatively little timber suitable for building purposes,
and a considerable amount of timber is purchased from the mills of Puget Sound.
Bamboo is largely employed for buildings. Camphor is the product of a tree
(Camphora officinarum) allied to the cinnamon and the sassafras. It is cultivated in
the island of Kiushiu. The best gum, however, is now obtained from Formosa, and
this island now controls the world's supply. The camphor product is a government
monopoly leased to a British company.
The lacquer-tree (Rhus vernicifera) grows mainly in the island of Hondo. The sap,
after preparation, forms the most durable varnish known. Black lacquer is obtained by
treating the sap with nutgalls. Lacquered wooden-ware is sold all over Europe and the
United States. The lacquered surface is exceedingly hard and water-proof; it is not
affected by climate.
Gold, porcelain clay, silver, copper, and petroleum are mined. The gold and silver are
used both for coinage and in the arts; the clay has made Japanese porcelains famous.
The copper comes from the most productive mines of Asia; a considerable amount is

exported, but much is used in the manufacture of Japanese bronze goods. Coal is
mined, and this has given a great impetus to manufacture; iron ore is deficient, and
steel must be imported. The quantity of petroleum is increasing yearly, and is
becoming an important factor in the world's product.
Manufacturing industries are giving shape to the industrial future of the country. The
cotton-mills alone employ seventy thousand people and keep more than one million
spindles busy. More than one million operatives are engaged in textile manufactures.
Much of the cloth, both cotton and silk, is still woven on cottage looms. The cotton
cloth is sold mainly in China and Korea; the surplus silk textiles find a ready market
in the United States. The best straw matting used as a floor-covering is now made in
Japan and constitutes a very important export.
Three thousand miles of railway aid the internal industries of the country; several
steamship lines to Hongkong and Shanghai, and one or more each to Vladivostok,
Bombay, San Francisco, Seattle, Honolulu, Australia, and Vancouver (B.C.) carry the
tea, raw silk, and manufactured products to Europe and America. Much, if not most,
of the steamship interests are owned by the Japanese, and the lines are encouraged by
government subsidies. France and the United States buy most of the raw silk. The
latter country purchases most of the tea, sending coal-oil, cotton, leather, and lumber
in return. Great Britain and Germany sell to the Japanese a large part of the textiles
and the machinery they use. The exports to the United States are consigned mainly to
San Francisco, New York and Seattle.
Tokio is the capital; Yokohama is the chief port for American traffic, and the market
for most of the foreign trade. Most of the trade between China and Japan centres at
Nagasaki, which is the Japanese naval station. Osaka and Kioto are the chief centres
of cotton and textile manufactures.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
How has the policy of seclusion affected the commercial development of China?
What has been its effect on the social life of the people?
How did the cultivation of opium in India become a factor in the opening of China to foreign trade?
What is meant by "treaty ports"? Make a list of those shown on the map of eastern China.
Name two Chinese statesmen who have been factors in the relations between China and the United States.
Compare the position of Japan with that of the British Isles with reference to commerce.
What advantages has Japan with reference to latitude?—what disadvantages with reference to cultivable lands?
From the Statesman's Year-Book find the leading exports and imports and the volume of trade of these states.
From the Abstract of Statistics find the leading articles of trade between these states and the United States.

FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE

From a cyclopædia read the following topics: The opium war, Commodore Perry's expedition.

CHAPTER XXXIII
AFRICA

Africa is in a state of commercial transition. During the last quarter of the nineteenth
century the partition of its area among European nations left but few of the names that
formerly were familiar. At the beginning of the twentieth century the British, French,
and Germans controlled the greater part of the continent, although the Portuguese,
Belgians, Italians, and Spanish have various possessions.
The partition of Africa was designed for the expansion of European markets. The
population of Africa is about one hundred and seventy million, and the continent is
practically without manufacturing enterprises. The people, therefore, must be
supplied with clothing and other commodities. In 1900 the total trade of Africa with
the rest of the world was about one and one-third billion dollars, of which the United
States had a little more than two per cent., mainly cotton cloth and coal-oil.
Egypt.—The Egypt of the maps is a region of indefinite extent so far as its western
and southern boundaries are concerned; the Egypt of history is the flood plain of the
Nile. From the Mediterranean Sea to Cairo the cultivable area is not far from one
hundred miles in width; from Cairo to Khartum it varies from three to seven or eight
miles wide.