globe. Fruits, green and canned, are exchanged with every portion 

 of the earth, and rice is practically as cheap in one portion of the 

 world as another. Live stock is carried across continents and seas, 

 and live chickens are transported economically 3,000 miles ; and dairy 

 products accompany all other articles of commerce. If ten miles from a 

 market on a watercourse was the radius of the profitable area of produc- 

 tion of garden stuffs a century ago, and 3,000 miles is the length of the 

 radius now, the countries at the end of that 3,ooo-mile line are as near to 

 the markets as the gardens were at ten miles. Wheat produced in Cali- 

 fornia may be consumed in London at a lower rate of cost than bread- 

 stuffs produced within thirty miles of that city 100 years ago. When 

 the cost of transportation comes to be applied to the retail cost of any 

 article, it becomes inappreciable ; for illustration, a pound of wheat in 

 Liverpool has less than a quarter of a cent added to its value by trans- 

 portation, even when produced in the most inaccessible wheat fields of 

 the world. The lands devoted to the production of cereals then in these 

 most distant fields are in direct competition with the lands devoted to 

 like production in the markets where cereals are produced. 



All the assistance rendered by climate and soil in the production of any 

 article is the bounteous gift of nature to the cultivator of the soil. 

 Under the old system, when transportation was costly, countries were 

 widely separated. Under the new system, which is carrying the products 

 of the garden, the orchard and the field half round the world, with 

 inappreciable value added on account of its cost, every portion of the 

 world is in immediate competition with all other portions in the pro- 

 duction of the objects of human desire. The competition of soils and 

 climates is immediate!)' present in every market of the world. In these 

 markets, we see the fertility of soils and the favoring conditions of 

 climate competing with the environment of every other portion of the 

 world, where any industrial pursuits are followed. In every market 

 there are immediately present the effects of the systems of labor, the 

 methods of production, the favoring conditions of soil and climate ; they 

 meet face to face ; distance no longer divides them. Their economic 

 presence has become the equivalent of physical contiguity. Now sup- 

 pose that in a single township in some of the valleys of California, you 

 have the rigorous climate of Minnesota. Suppose that within that 

 township, the thermometer descends to ten degrees below zero in Novem- 

 ber, and with the exception of occasional thaws never rises above that . 

 indication until March. Suppose that destructive blizzards, accompa- 

 nied by sleet and snow, rule and reign for six or seven months of the 

 year, would any fruit grower in California be regarded as sane who 

 would plant an orchard within that wintry belt ? Now since communica- 

 tion has become equal to contact, will fruit growing be pursued in any 

 country subjected to the wintry conditions herein described, as against 

 the production of fruit, where spring comes at the end of harvest ? Take 

 as an illustration the cost of producing wheat in California. There are 

 no storms in the harvest period ; this is equal to twenty-five per cent 

 advantage in the production of the crop. 



