Commercial Geography Part 22

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 owners.h.i.+p 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A DESERT REGION--TOO DRY FOR THE PRODUCTION OF FOOD-STUFFS]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 s.h.i.+pped 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _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 spa.r.s.e rainfall permits the growth of several species of gra.s.s that retain nutrition and vitality after turning brown under the fierce summer heat. Ordinary turf-gra.s.s will not live in this region, nor will it retain its nutrition after turning brown if rain falls upon it. The native gra.s.s 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 s.h.i.+pped alive; about three hundred million pounds of fresh beef are s.h.i.+pped to the Atlantic seaboard in refrigerator-cars and then transferred to refrigerator-steams.h.i.+ps. Two-thirds of the cattle and fresh beef exported are s.h.i.+pped 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 s.h.i.+ppers 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 ca.n.a.l 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-steams.h.i.+ps? Name some of the regulations required in s.h.i.+pping 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DIFFICULT RAILROADING--LAS ANIMAS CAnON]

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 pa.s.ses 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 spa.r.s.e 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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_, _b.u.t.te_, _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 Fe_, _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 Was.h.i.+ngton in July. The wheat goes mainly to Great Britain by way of Cape Horn. It cannot be safely s.h.i.+pped 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 quant.i.ties are sold in China and j.a.pan.

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 was.h.i.+ng 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 Fe and Union Pacific railways, and the centre of a network of local roads. Steams.h.i.+p lines connect the city with Panama, the Hawaiian Islands, j.a.pan, and Australian ports; coast steams.h.i.+ps 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 ca.n.a.l 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 steams.h.i.+ps connect Seattle with j.a.pan and China, and the commerce pa.s.sing 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.