MAN AND NATURE 



but are transported in cars to one of the few great 

 centres, chief of which are the stock yards of Chicago 

 and of Kansas City. At these centres, slaughter houses 

 and meat-packing houses of stupendous magnitude have 

 been developed, capable of handling millions of animals 

 in a year. From these centres the meat is transported 

 in refrigerator cars to the seaboards, and in refrigerator 

 ships to all parts of the world. Beef that grew on the 

 ranges of the far west may thus be offered for sale in 

 the markets of New England villages, at a price that 

 prohibits local competition. 



A more radical metamorphosis in agricultural con- 

 ditions than all this implies could not well be conceived. 

 And when we recall once more that the agricultural con- 

 ditions that obtained at the beginning of the nineteenth 

 century were closely similar to those that obtained 

 in each successive age for a hundred preceding cen- 

 turies, we shall gain a vivid idea of the revolutionizing 

 effects of new methods of work in the most important 

 of industries. It is little wonder that in this short 

 time the world has not solved to the satisfaction of 

 the economists all the new problems thus so suddenly 

 developed. 



Turn now to the manufacturing world. In the days 

 of our great-grandparents almost every household was 

 a miniature factory where cotton and wool were spun 

 and the products were woven into cloth. It was not 

 till toward the close of the eighteenth century just 

 at the time when Watt was perfecting the steam engine 

 that Arkwright developed the spinning-frame, and 

 his successors elaborated the machinery that made 



[21] 



