PREFACE 



Coal- and iron-mines are largely responsible for 

 rapid development of the United States. From 

 California, Nevada, Alaska, and elsewhere vast 

 deposits of gold, silver, copper, lead, a multitude 

 of metals, some precious and others base though 

 valuable, have presented enormous wealth to our 

 country. Our great subterranean lakes of oil 

 have made possible the expansion of the gas-en- 

 gine and the automobile to their present state of 

 efficiency. For centuries the banks of Newfound- 

 land have filled our markets with fish. To the 

 forests of Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ore- 

 gon we owe a debt for timber which can never be 

 repaid. From Alaska come sealskins, fertilizer 

 from the phosphatic accumulations of the Caro- 

 linas and Florida, wild hay from the prairies, and 

 so on through the mile-long list. The resources 

 of America are immeasurable. 



But, while we prick up our ears upon being in- 

 formed that this fishery produces so many tons 

 of fish worth so much, or that from that oyster- 

 bed may annually be taken ten million oysters, or 

 that so-and-so's manganese-mine accounted for a 

 hundred car-loads of ore last year, we show little 



