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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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 5-1/4 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.
[Illustration: _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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: A DESERT REGION--TOO DRY FOR THE PRODUCTION OF
FOOD-STUFFS]
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: _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.
[Illustration: DIFFICULT RAILROADING--LAS ANIMAS CAÑON]