Chapter 17

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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