the probable effect on the food-crops of the United States
were the main body of the country moved twenty degrees north in
latitude? Which would then be the wheat-growing States, the
cotton-producing States?

Illustrate the connection between occupation and altitude above
sea-level.

What difference would it make to the corn-crop were the days and nights
always twelve hours long?

What would be requisite to make Canada a centre of silk production?

Why is not cod-fishing an industry off the east coast of Florida?

Why is the greater part of the Russian Empire destined to be sparsely
peopled?

FOR COLLATERAL REFERENCE

A rain chart of the world.

A chart of isothermal lines.

CHAPTER V

TRANSPORTATION--OCEAN AND INLAND NAVIGATION

Of all the adjustments which come into the lives of a people none has
been so far-reaching as the gradual localization of industries each in
the region best adapted to it. For instance, manufacturing industries
require power, but not fertile soil; therefore the manufacturing
industries seek nearness to fuel or to water-power, and a position
available for quick transportation.

Farming does not require any great amount of natural power; on the
contrary, level land having a great depth of fertile soil is the
essential feature. The farmer must therefore look first of all to
conditions of topography and climate, and secondly to the means of
transporting his crop.

Mining cannot be an industry in regions destitute of minerals; the miner
must therefore go where the mineral wealth is found, without regard to
climate, soil, centres of population, or topography. But two things are
required--the mineral products and the means of getting them to the
people--that is, ready means of transportation.

A century or more ago, each centre of population in the United States
was practically self-sustaining. Each grew its own food-stuffs, and
manufactured the articles used in the household. But very little was
required in the way of transportation. The means of carriage were mainly
ox-carts, pack-horses, and rafts. There was a mutual independence among
the various centres, it is true, but the independence was at the expense
of civilization and the comforts of life.

[Illustration: OCEAN TRANSPORTATION--ROYAL MAIL STEAMSHIP OCEANIC,
WHITE STAR LINE]

Beyond an independence that is more apparent than real, such a plan of
social and industrial organization has but little in it to comme