56 THE FIRST YEARBOOK 



character and pursuits of the people and their availability as laborers 

 or producers. 



An inspection of the series of brochures published by the Biological 

 Survey of the United States Department of Agriculture, and of kindred 

 reports emanating from that department, or of the reports of the 

 United States Geological Survey, particularly those from the geologic 

 and hydrographic branches, or of the earlier reports of .the Pacific 

 Railroad surveys, reveals clearly the value of geographic training. 

 Few of the writers of these reports had special geographic instruction, 

 and, therefore, only a few had sufficient appreciation of geography in 

 its broadest sense to enable them to systematically describe and discuss 

 all the natural and human phenomena of the region under examina- 

 tion. The reports of those few who have such appreciation are in a 

 class by themselves; they stand apart from the mediocre lists of 

 mammals or birds, agricultural lands, or water, forest, or mineral 

 resources. The reader obtains a clear and connected conception of all 

 the natural features of the region and of their relation to man and his 

 works, and is at once enabled to appreciate more definitely and com- 

 prehensively the meaning and the details of the particular work under 

 consideration. In scarcely any other field of work, unless it be in 

 engineering and in historical and commercial writing, is the value of 

 a thorough geographic training more clearly evidenced. It is to the 

 thoroughness of their geographic education throughout the whole of 

 their school and college career that the Germans are indebted in large 

 measure for the success of their commercial travelers and official repre- 

 sentatives in introducing their wares among foreign peoples. These 

 representatives know beforehand much of the resources and history of 

 the countries to which they may be sent, and are thus able to quickly 

 sympathize with and appreciate the peculiarities of the inhabitants and 

 to adapt themselves thereto. 



From the foregoing it is evident why the more valuable and lasting 

 reports on all of the great scientific and commercial problems of a 

 country are rarely those written by a specialist, but those written by 

 the man of broader geographic or administrative training ; and con- 

 sequently, in such undertakings, the man so taught becomes the leader 

 and the executive, while he relegates to assistants in allied specialties, 

 or to public institutions, the classification of the data which he has 

 collected. » 



The erroneous inference should not be drawn from what has 



