UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



5956 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



eluding coal, oil and gas. The production of all 

 of these is larger in the United States than in 

 any other country in the world. In some dis- 

 tricts of Eastern Pennsylvania are found the 

 principal deposits of hard, or anthracite, coal, 

 now used chiefly for stoves and furnaces. On 

 the western slope of the Appalachian highland, 

 in the Alleghany and Cumberland plateaus and 

 also in the adjacent portion of the interior 

 plain are found enormous quantities of soft, or 



COAL FIELDS 

 Anthracite 



Bituminous 



Subbituminous 



two-thirds of the total output in the United 

 States. The leading coal mining states, in the 

 order of their importance, are Pennsylvania, 



Virginia, Illinois, Ohio and Kentucky. 

 Petroleum was first obtained in this country 

 in Western Pennsylvania, about 1859. Later 

 the production spread south and west, but fell 

 off in the older fields. In recent years immense 

 oil pools have been opened on the Pacific coast 

 and in the Central plain. During 1916 the 

 Oklahoma-Kansas fields had 

 the largest production, with 

 California second, Texas 

 third, and Illinois fourth. 



Natural gas occurs com- 

 monly in connection with pe- 

 troleum, and is the most con- 

 centrated kind of fuel sup- 

 plied ready made by nature. 

 Unfortunately a great share 



bituminous, coal. Farther 

 south and west there are 

 large fields of brown coal, or 

 lignite, which is younger in 

 origin and less valuable than 

 the true bituminous. In the 

 Cordilleran highland and on 

 the Pacific slope there are 

 also areas of coal, but these 

 are small compared to the 

 great fields found in the Appalachians and in 

 the central plain. Taken as a whole, the United 

 States contains a larger area of coal fields than 

 is possessed by all of Europe. There are also 

 important coal deposits in Alaska, though these 

 are as yet little worked. The government- 

 built railroad, authorized by Congress in 1914, 

 will stimulate Alaska's coal-mining industry. 

 In 1912 the Appalachian fields produced over 



; 



~~" 



PETROLEUM AND GAS PI ELDS 

 1 Lima-Indiana J 

 I Gulf 



I Illinois 



1 Mid-Continent Appalachian''/ 



California-Coastal and Southern^ California-San Joaquin Valley 



of it has been wasted, either by escaping into 

 the air unused or by being burned at the well 

 mouth to no purpose. This has been one of the 

 most frightful 'wastes of natural resources of 

 which there is record. Unlike petroleum, natu- 

 ral gas is still produced more extensively in the 

 Appalachians than elsewhere, the most produc- 

 tive state being West Virginia. The maps 

 above give this information in graphic form. 



Wealth in the Farms 



In every part of the world where men have 

 made their homes they have found it neces- 

 sary to adapt the mode of life to the resources 

 which nature placed at their disposal. For ex- 

 ample, the first colonists in the United States 

 were saved from actual starvation only by 



planting corn which they obtained from the 

 Indians. Moreover, this native crop, which 

 grew readily in the forest clearings made by 

 ring-barking the trees, certainly was a great 

 aid in the occupation of America by the white 

 race, alike in the North and in the South. 



