GEOGRAPHIC MISCELLANEA 167 



pean history is too many-sided to be looked at from more than one point of 

 view at a time, and a composite historical picture is more attractive than in- 

 structive. The author's primary purpose was to instruct, and he accomjilishes 

 that purpose best by successively changing his point of view from capital to 

 capital. 



It may seem hypercritical to pick flaws in so nearly perfect an historical mo- 

 saic, but one would scarcely think the student should have to look in vain for 

 any reference to that most dramatic and porteutous of all diplomatic incidents, 

 the meeting of the King of Prussia and M. Benedetti at Ems, an interview that 

 precipitated the war, and that subsequent disclosures have shown to have been 

 brought about by the wily Bismarck for the express purpose of rendering war 

 inevitable by exposing his sovereign to insult. The absence in the chapter 

 devoted to the United States of any reference to the presidential campaign of 

 1896, with the important issues that it involved and the unprecedented cleav- 

 age of party alignment by which it was rendered memorable, is likewise notice- 

 able. When even the United States Government itself has published a map 

 showing the Oregon country as a part of the Louisiana purchase, it is scarcely 

 to be wondered at that the publishers of the present volume have fallen into a 

 like error. The Government, however, made haste to correct its mistake, and 

 its example will doubtless be followed in the next edition of Professor Gros- 

 venor's book. 



History is the foundation of political geography, and no apology need be 

 offered for reviewing at this length a book not strictly geographical. Professor 

 Grosvenor's modest volume is a contribution of the first importance to both 

 sciences. Its educational value is of the highest, and the book should have a 

 large sale, not only among schools and colleges, but also for use in the family 

 circle. 



J. Hyde. 



GEOGRAPHIC MISCELLANEA 



The wlieat acreage of the United States for 1 899 is estimated by the Statistician 

 of the Department of Agriculture to have been 44,592,51(), yielding 547,.'^0:>,84() 

 bushels, with a value of $.^19,545,259. The corn acreage was 82,108,587, yielding 

 2,078,143,9.33 bushels, valued at $629,210,110; the acreage in oats, 26,341,380, 

 yielding 796,177,713 bushels, valued at $198,167,975. The barley crop is esti- 

 mated at 73, .38 1,563 bushels, the rye crop at 23,961,741 bushels, the potato crop 

 at 228,783,232 bushels, and the hay crop at 56,655,756 tons. 



The opening up of Cuba to American methods in every department of life is 

 being repeatedly emphasized. In this direction the census of the island for 

 1900, taken under the direction of the U. S. War Dei)artment, and the data for 

 which are now being tabulated under the general supervision of Mr Henry 

 Gannett, will prove immediate and effective. As an instance might be cited 

 the establishment of corporate limits to Habana, Matanzas, and other cities on 

 the island. Before the present year not a single town or city in Cuba had dis- 

 tinctive bounds. 



