FOUR GREAT INDUSTRIES
COTTON
Thus far we have been considering mainly the men engaged in exploration,
in invention, or in the great national struggles through which our country
has passed. But while only a small fraction of the people, as a rule, take
an active and prominent part in the stirring events of history, many more
work hard and faithfully to furnish all with food, clothing, and other
things needful in every-day living. What these many laborers accomplish in
the fields of industry, therefore, has a most important bearing upon the
life and work of men, leaders and followers alike, in other fields of
action. With this thought in mind, let us take a brief glance at a few of
our great industries.
First, go with me in thought to the South, where the cotton, from which we
make much of our clothing, is raised. Owing to the favorable climate of
the Southern States, it being warm and moist, the United States produces
more cotton and cotton of a better quality than any other country in the
world.
No crop, it is said, is so beautiful as growing cotton. The plants are
low, with dark-green leaves, the flowers, which are yellow at first,
changing by degrees to white, and then to deep pink. The cotton-fields
look like great flower-gardens.
As the blossoms die they are replaced by the young bolls, or pods, which
contain the seeds. From the seeds grow long vegetable hairs, which form
white locks in the pods. These fibres are the cotton. When the pods become
ripe and open, the cotton bursts out and covers them with a puff of soft,
white down.
[Illustration: Cotton-Field in Blossom.]
The height of the picking season is in October. As no satisfactory machine
for picking cotton has been invented, it is usually done by hand, and
negroes for the most part are employed. Lines of pickers pass between the
rows, gathering the down and crowding it into wide-mouthed sacks hanging
from their shoulders or waists. At the ends of the rows are great baskets,
into which the sacks are emptied, and then the cotton is loaded into
wagons which carry it to the gin-house.
If damp, the cotton is dried in the sun. The saw-teeth of the cotton-gin,
as we have seen, separate the cotton fibre from the seeds. Then the cotton
is pressed down by machine presses and packed into bales, each usually
containing five hundred pounds, after which it is sent to the factory.
Various processes are employed to free the cotton from dirt and to loosen
the lumps. When it is cleaned, it is rolled out into thin sheets and taken
to the carding-machine. This, with other machines, prepares the cotton to
be spun into yarn, which is wound off on large reels. The yarn is then
ready to be either twisted into thread or woven into cloth on the great
looms.
The United States produces an average of eleven million bales of cotton
every year, and this is nearly sixty-seven per cent of the production of
the whole world. Cotton is now the second crop in the United States, the
first being Indian corn.
WHEAT
Another great industry is the growing of wheat, which is the foundation of
much of our food. Wheat is a very important grain and is extensively
cultivated.
There are a great many varieties, the two main kinds found in the United
States being the large-kernel winter wheat, grown in the East, and the
hard spring wheat, the best for flour-making, which is grown in the West.
Minnesota is the largest wheat-producing State, and I will ask you to go
in thought with me to that Middle-West region. The farms there are very
level, and also highly productive. The big "bonanza" farms, as they are
called, range in size from two thousand to ten thousand acres. Some of
these are so large that even on level ground one cannot look entirely
across them--so large, indeed, that laborers working at opposite ends do
not see one another for months at a time.
[Illustration: A Wheat-Field.]
During the planting and harvesting seasons temporary laborers come from
all over the country. They are well housed and well fed. The farms are
divided into sections, and each section has its own lodging-house,
dining-hall, barns, and so on. Even then, dinner is carried to the workers
in the field, because they are often a mile or two from the dining-hall.
The height of the harvest season is at the end of July.
In the autumn, after the wheat has been harvested, the straw is burned and
the land is ploughed. In the following April when the soil is dry enough
to harrow, the seeds, after being carefully selected and thoroughly
cleaned, are planted. For the harvesting a great deal of new machinery is
purchased every year. One of these huge machines can cut and stack in one
day the grain from a hundred acres of land. Then the grain is threshed at
once in the field, before the rain can do it harm.
[Illustration: Grain-Elevators at Buffalo.]
Through the spout of the thresher the grain falls into the box wagon,
which carries it to the grain-elevator, or building for storing grain.
Here it remains until it is loaded automatically into the cars, which take
it to the great elevator centres. The wheat is not touched by hands from
the time it passes into the thresher until it reaches private kitchens in
the form of flour.
The great elevator centres are Duluth, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Chicago, and
Buffalo. Some elevators in these centres can store as much as a million or
more bushels each. They are built of steel and equipped with steam-power
or electricity. The wheat is taken from grain-laden vessels or cars,
carried up into the elevator, and deposited in various bins, according to
its grade. On the opposite side of the elevator the wheat is reloaded into
cars or canal-boats.
In 1914 the United States produced nine hundred and thirty million
bushels, or between one-fourth and one-fifth of all the wheat produced in
the world.
CATTLE-RAISING
The third great industry is that of cattle-raising. To find the ranches we
will go a little farther west, perhaps to Kansas. A wide belt stretching
westward from the one-hundredth meridian to the foot-hills of the Rocky
Mountains is arid land. It includes parts of Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, the
Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. Although the rainfall here is
mostly too light to grow corn and wheat without irrigation, these dry
plains have sufficient growth to support great herds of sheep and cattle,
and supply us with a large part of our beef. Cattle by the hundred
thousand feed on these vast unfenced regions.
On the great ranches of this belt, which, we are told, are fast
disappearing, there are two important round-ups of the cattle every year.
Between times they roam free over vast areas of land. In the spring they
are driven slowly toward a central point. Then the calves are branded, or
marked by a hot iron, with the owner's special brand. These brands are
registered and are recognized by law. This is done in order that each
owner may be certain of his own cattle. In July or August the cattle are
rounded up again, and this time the mature and fatted animals are selected
that they may be driven to the shipping-station on the railroad and loaded
on the cars.
[Illustration: Cattle on the Western Plains.]
The journey to the stock-yards often requires from four to seven days.
Once in about thirty hours the cattle are released from the cars in order
to be fed and watered. Then the journey begins again.
At the stock-yards the cattle are unloaded and driven into pens. From
there the fat steers and cows are sent directly to market. The lean ones
go to farmers in the Middle West who make a specialty of fattening them
for market, doing it in a few weeks.
In the year 1910 there were ninety-six million six hundred and fifty-eight
thousand cattle in the United States. This means that there was one for
every human being in the whole country. But the number of beef-cattle is
decreasing, as the larger ranches where they graze are disappearing, as we
have said, and are being divided into small farms.
COAL
By means of these three industries--cotton, wheat, and cattle--we are
provided with food and clothing. But besides these necessaries, we must
have fuel. We need it both for heat in our households and for running most
of our engines in factories and on trains. Our chief fuel is coal.
To see coal-mining, western Pennsylvania is a good place for us to visit.
Were you to go into a mine there you might easily imagine yourself in a
different world. In descending the shaft you suddenly become aware that
you are cut off from beautiful sunlight and fresh air. You find that to
supply these every-day benefits, which you have come to accept as
commonplace, there are ventilating machines working to bring down the
fresh air from above, and portable lamps, which will not cause explosion,
to supply light, and that, where there is water, provision has been made
for drainage.
The walls of the mine, also, have to be strongly supported, in order that
they may not fall and crush the workers or fill up the shaft. In
deep-shaft mines, coal is carried to the surface by cages hoisted through
the shaft. It is sorted and cleaned above ground.
One of the largest uses of coal is found in the factories where numerous
articles of iron and steel are made. The world of industry depends so much
upon iron that it is called the metal of civilization.
[Illustration: Iron Smelters.]
The iron and coal industries are closely related, for coal is used to make
iron into steel. If you stay in Pennsylvania you may catch a glimpse of
the process by which iron is made usable.
As it comes from the mine it is not pure, but is mixed with ore from which
it must be separated. In the regions of iron-mines you will see towering
aloft here and there huge chimneys, or blast-furnaces, at times sending
forth great clouds of black smoke and at times lighting the sky with the
lurid glow of flames. In these big blast-furnaces, the iron ore and coal
are piled in layers. Then a very hot fire is made, so hot that the iron
melts and runs down into moulds of sand, where it is collected. This
process is called smelting.
The iron thus obtained, though pure, is not hard enough for most purposes.
It must be made into steel. Steel, you understand, is iron which has again
been melted and combined with a small amount of carbon to harden it.
At first this was an expensive process, but during the last century ways
of making steel were discovered which greatly lowered its cost. As a
result, steel took the place of iron in many ways, the most important
being in the manufacture of rails for our railroad systems. Since steel
rails are stronger than iron, they make it possible to use larger
locomotives and heavier trains, and permit a much higher rate of speed and
more bulky traffic. All this means, as you can easily see, cheaper and
more rapid transportation, which is so important in all our industrial
life.
Steel has an extensive use, also, in the structure of bridges, of large
buildings, of steamships and war vessels, as well as in the making of
heating equipment, tools, household utensils, and hundreds of other
articles which we are constantly using in our daily life. If you should
write down all the uses for this metal which you can think of, you would
be surprised at the length of your list.
These four great industries give us a little idea of how men make use of
the products of the farm, the mine, and the factory in supplying human
needs. Each fulfils its place, and we are dependent upon all. That means
that we are all dependent upon one another. There would be little in life
for any one if he were to do without all that others have done for him.
[Illustration: Iron Ore Ready for Shipment.]
There is something which each member of a community can do to make life
better for others. If he does this willingly and well, he co-operates with
his fellow men and assists in the great upbuilding of the nation. And the
amount of _service_ the man or woman, boy or girl can render those about
him is the measure of his worth to his neighborhood, his State, or his
country.
It is good for us to ask ourselves this question: How can I be helpful in
the community where I live, which has done so much for me? If we try to
give faithful service, working cheerfully with others, we are truly
patriotic. Are you a patriot?
SOME THINGS TO THINK ABOUT
1. What are the four great industries taken up in this chapter? Can you
tell in what ways each of these is of special value to us?
2. Use your map in locating the cotton region; the wheat-growing region;
the cattle-raising region.
3. In what ways are coal, iron, and steel especially useful?
4. How are we all dependent upon one another? How may we be truly
patriotic?
THE END
INDEX
Adams, John
Adams, Samuel
Alamo
Anna, Santa
Antietam, battle of
Appomattox Court House, Lee's surrender at
Atlanta, capture of
Backwoodsmen, life among
Barlow, Joel
Bon Homme Richard (bo-nom'-re-shar')
Boone, Daniel
Boone, Squire
"Boston Tea Party"
Brandywine Creek
Bull Run, battle of
Bunker Hill, battle of
Burgoyne (ber-goin'), General, his invasion
Cabinet, the President's
Calhoun, John C.
Camden, battle of
Carson, Kit
Cattle-raising
Cedar Creek, battle of
Cherokee Indians
Civil War
Clark, George Rogers
Clark, William
Clay, Henry
Clermont
Clinton, DeWitt
Coal
Colonies become States
Compromise, Missouri
Compromise of 1850
Concord, battle of
Confederate States of America, organization of
Congress, Continental, first meeting of
second meeting of
Congress, United States
Continental Army
Cornwallis, General
Cotton
Cotton-gin, invention of
Cowpens, battle of
Creek Indians
Custis, Mrs. Martha
Davis, Jefferson
Dawes, William
Declaration of Independence
Donelson, Fort
Dorchester Heights
Douglas, Stephen A.
Early, General, at Cedar Creek
Emancipation Proclamation
Erie Canal
Ferguson, Major
Fitch, John
Flatboat
Florida, purchase of
France aids the Americans
Franklin, Benjamin
Frémont, John C.
French villages, old, life in
Fulton, Robert
Gage, General
Gates, General
George III
Gettysburg, battle of
Gold, discovery of, in California
Grant, Ulysses
Greene, Nathanael
Guilford Court House, battle of
Hale, Nathan
Hamilton, Alexander
Hamilton, Colonel
Hancock, John
Hayne, Senator
Henderson, Richard
Henry, Fort
Henry, Patrick
Hessians
Houston, Sam
Howe, General
Hutchinson, Governor
Independence of the United States
Iron
Jackson, Andrew
Jackson, Thomas J. ("Stonewall")
Jay, John
Jefferson, Thomas
Johnston, Albert Sydney
Johnston, Joseph E.
Jones, John Paul
Kaskaskia (Kas-kas'-ki-a)
Kentucky
King's Mountain, battle of
Knox, Henry
La Fayette (Lä f[=a]-yét)
Lee, Robert E.
Lewis and Clark's Expedition
Lewis, Meriwether
Lexington, battle of
Lincoln, Abraham;
and slavery;
and the Emancipation Proclamation;
assassinated
Lincoln, General
Livingston, Chancellor
Livingston, Robert R.
Long Island, battle of
Louisiana Purchase
McClellan, General
Mandan Indians
Marion, Francis
Meade, General
Mexican Cession
Mexican War
Minutemen
Missouri Compromise
Mohawk Valley
Monroe, James
Morgan, Daniel
Morse, Samuel F.B.
Napoleon I
National Road
Negroes
New Orleans in 1803
Nullification
Old North Church
Old South Church
Pack-horse
Partisan warfare in the South
Pitcairn, Major
Pitt, William
Pittsburg Landing, battle of
Prescott, Samuel
Prescott, William
Protective tariff
Provincial Congress
Putnam, General
Railroad
Randolph, Edmund
Republican Party
Revere, Paul
Revolution, causes of
Robertson, James
Rotch, Benjamin
Rowe, John
Rumsey, John
Scott, General
Secession of South Carolina and ten more slave States
Seminole Indians
Serapis (se-rá-pis)
Sevier, John
Shelby, Isaac
Shenandoah Valley, Sheridan in
Sheridan, Philip H.
Sherman, William Tecumseh
Sherrill, Kate
Shiloh, battle of
Slavery
Smith, Colonel
Sons of Liberty
South Carolina
Stamp Act
Steamboat
Steel
Stephens, Alexander H.
Stuart, J.E.B.
Sutter, Captain
Tariff
Taxation of the Colonies
Tea, tax on
Telegraph
Tennessee
Texas
Tories
Treaty at close of Revolution
Trenton, victory at
Valley Forge, sufferings at
Vicksburg, capture of
Vincennes
Warren, Joseph
Washington, D.C., made the national capital
Washington, George, in the Revolution
as President
Watauga
Webster, Daniel
West, Benjamin
Wheat
Whitney, Eli
Wilderness Road
Yorktown, Cornwallis's surrender at