Commercial Geography Part 21

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 princ.i.p.al 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 pa.s.sing 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 Ca.n.a.l, Lake Ontario, and the St.

Lawrence connect Lake Erie with tide-water. In the United States the Erie Ca.n.a.l 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 sh.o.r.es of the lakes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DULUTH]

_Duluth_, at the head of Lake Superior, became commercially important when the St. Mary's Falls Ca.n.a.l was completed. Much of the tremendous tonnage of freight pa.s.sing through the ca.n.a.l is a.s.sembled at this place.

The freight s.h.i.+pped consists mainly of farm products collected from an area reaching as far west as the Rocky Mountains. There is also a considerable s.h.i.+pment 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 Ca.n.a.l.

_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 s.h.i.+p and drainage ca.n.a.l 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GENERAL VIEW OF LOCKS AND Ca.n.a.l, 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 s.h.i.+pping-ports near the head of the lakes, and also a number of receiving ports on the south sh.o.r.es 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 5-1/4 cents per bushel--there are yearly very heavy s.h.i.+pments 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 s.h.i.+pment; the large cities are usually centres of meat-packing. Most of the meat-packing is a necessity; for although cattle may be s.h.i.+pped alive and beef may be transported in refrigerator s.h.i.+ps 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 inst.i.tutions, 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 pa.s.senger trains daily arrive and depart from its stations.

The freight terminals are connected by transfer and belt lines, which receive and distribute the cars pa.s.sing 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 s.h.i.+pped 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 pa.s.sing between Chicago, Louisville, Cincinnati, and Pittsburg is exchanged. _Columbus_ (O.) is similarly situated as a railway and farming centre.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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, s.h.i.+pment, 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 s.h.i.+pped 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 steams.h.i.+ps 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. s.h.i.+pments 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 j.a.pan. 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 subst.i.tuted 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 princ.i.p.al 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 quant.i.ties of pineapples, oranges, and small fruit form the early crop that is s.h.i.+pped North. The orange groves are mainly in Florida. The crop is exhausted about the time that California oranges are s.h.i.+pped 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.