158 EXPLOITATION OF PLANTS 
In 1914 Production was— 
US.A.. 6. 6. 6 6) 6) +) )=«513,525,477 tons 
Great Britain . . . «. ~ 297,098,017 ,, 
Germany . . . + «+ «+ 270,594,952 », 
France (1913) . . . «© + 45,108,544 4, 
Belgium (1913) . . +. + 25,196,869 ,, 
Germany is rapidly catching up, as can be seen from 
these three tables, and she has huge reserves, the United 
States already immensely exceeds us in thé quantity 
she produces; but neither of these countries are part 
of a widely scattered empire as we are. For the sake 
of a truer comparison between the coal production of 
the British Empire and these two countries, I give below 
that of the various parts of our empire and of Germany 
and the States for 1910. In that year production was— 
By U.S.A. . . « ~ + 445,810,000 ons 
» Great Britain . . . 264,500,000 ,, 
» Germany . . . . 221,980,000 ,, 
»» Canada mt een oe 13,010,000 ,, 
» India . . . « « 12,090,000 ,, 
» Australia . . . . 10,000,000 ,, 
gy os Aftica a. 6 5,500,000 ,, 
>» New Zealand . 2,230,000 ,, 
Having thus reminded you of what coal means to us 
in a practical sense, let us consider: What is Coal ? 
A great variety of incomplete or inaccurate statements 
about it are to be found in dictionaries, encyclopedias, 
and textbooks, but I do not know of any published 
definition which is entirely satisfactory. Hence, 
recently, at the Society of Chemical Industries, I had 
the temerity to define coal provisionally, and for want 
of a better definition for the moment I will offer that. 
“ Ordinary coal is a compact, stratified mass of dis- 
membered ‘ mummified’ plants (which have decayed to 
