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 CANYON]

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 we