Geographic Notes 



39 



an annual rainfall of only ten inches or 

 thereabouts has been conclusively dem- 

 onstrated. Through the introduction 

 of new rices in Louisiana and Texas, 

 the production of rice in this country 

 has been made to about equal the home 

 demand. In the southwest the possi- 



bility of regrassing overstocked range 

 lands has been demonstrated; in the 

 north many new forage crops have been 

 introduced, while in the east it has been 

 shown that some of our choicest fruits 

 can be stored and shipped in such a way 

 as to find a profitable market abroad. 



GEOGRAPHIC NOTES 



IS GERMANY THE CAUSE OF DEN- 

 MARK'S REFUSAL TO SELL HER 

 WEST INDIAN POSSESSIONS? 



GERMANY has always wanted a 

 naval station in the West Indies, 

 but has been unable to obtain one on 

 account of the Monroe Doctrine. 



Some years ago Denmark offered to 

 sell the Danish West Indies to the 

 United States, but the United States 

 Congress did not accept. Recently an- 

 other treaty was made and ratified by 

 the United States Congress, but this 

 time, for some unknown, mysterious 

 reason, Denmark refused to sell. Why ? 



It is well known that Germany has 

 always wanted Denmark, and if by 

 some peaceable means the kingdom of 

 Denmark should become a State of the 

 German Empire, the Danish West In- 

 dies would not have changed sovereigns, 

 but yet the German fleet could have 

 its station there. 



Would the Monroe Doctrine interfere 

 with this arrangement ? 



THE AMOUNT OF WATER HIDDEN 

 BENEATH THE SURFACE 



THE amount of water within the 

 crust of the earth, says Professor 

 Charles S. Slichter, in a paper entitled 

 ' ' The Motion of Underground Waters, ' ' 

 recently published by the U. S. Geolog- 

 ical Survey, is enormous, amounting 

 to 565,000 million million cubic yards. 

 This vast accumulation, if placed upon 

 the earth, would cover its entire sur- 

 face to a uniform depth of from 3,000 



to 3,500 feet. His estimate is based 

 upon the supposition that the average 

 depth which waters can penetrate be- 

 neath the surface is six miles below the 

 land and five miles below the ocean 

 floor. 



Experiments have shown that not 

 only sands and gravels are porous, but 

 rocks supposed to be solid and com- 

 pact may be traversed b}' water. Even 

 so hard a rock as Montello granite, 

 selected for the sarcophagus of the 

 tomb of General Grant on account of 

 its great strength, shows a porosity of 

 0.23 per cent. The most productive 

 water-bearing rocks are found to be the 

 porous sandstones, and in some cases 

 limestones whose inner texture has been 

 chemically dissolved. 



The great mass of ground water slowly 

 percolates through sand and gravel de- 

 posits, sandstone, and other porous ma- 

 terial under a wide extent of territory. 

 Though its motion carries it but a frac- 

 tion of a mile in a year, this ground 

 water is so widespread and often so ac- 

 cessible as to be of the greatest economic 

 importance. 



The water supply in many sections 

 of the United States depends on an un- 

 derstanding of the water deep beneath 

 the surface. Hence the study of un- 

 derground water conditions is one of 

 the most important works of the U. S. 

 Geological Survey. It is carried on in 

 arid regions, where water for irrigation 

 is of the greatest value. In the middle 

 west, where grazing and successful 



