166 The National Geographic Magazine 



INTERNAL COMMERCE OF THE 

 UNITED STATES 



THE internal commerceof theUnited 

 States for 1902 reached twenty 

 billions of dollars, or, in other words, 

 equaled the entire international com- 

 merce of the world. This is the grati- 

 fying estimate of the Treasury Bureau 

 of Statistics, whose duty it is to gather 

 the facts and figures of our enormous 

 internal trade. Hon. O. P. Austin 

 states that in arriving at this estimate of 

 $20,000,000,000 for the internal com- 

 merce of the United States, the Bureau 

 includes only one transaction in each 

 article produced, while in fact a very 

 large number of the articles produced 

 pass through the hands of several ' ' mid- 

 dlemen ' ' between those of the producer 

 and those of the consumer. The esti- 

 mate is based upon the figures of the 

 census, which put the total value of 

 manufacturesini9ooat$i3,ooo,ooo,ooo, 

 those of agriculture at nearly $4,000,- 

 000,000, and those of minerals about 

 $[,000,000,000. Adding to these the 

 product of the fisheries, the total value 

 of the products of the great industries 

 in 1900 would be eighteen billions of 

 dollars, and the rapid growth in all lines 

 of industry since 1900, especially in 

 manufacturing, seems to justify the con- 

 clusion that even a single transaction in 

 all the products of the country would 

 produce an aggregate for 1902 of fully 

 twenty billions of dollars. Our internal 

 commerce was ten times larger in 1902 

 than in 1850, while our population was 

 only three and one-half times as great. 



RECLAMATION IN WYOMING AND 

 COLORADO 



MR FRED BOND, state engineer 

 of Wyoming, in his latest offi- 

 cial report describes some experiments 

 being made in Colorado and Wyoming 

 to grow wheat without irrigation. 



In 1886 Mr Robert Gauss advanced 

 the theory that wheat could be acclima- 



tized and made to thrive under the arid 

 conditions of Colorado, and some years 

 later began conducting experiments to 

 test his theory. In 1896 he planted 

 some improved Fife wheat, but secured 

 at harvesting time but little more than 

 seed enough for the following year. 

 This seed was planted and the experi- 

 ment continued each year with better 

 and better results. In the spring of 

 1902 Mr Bond obtained a pint of this 

 seed and planted one-half near Chey- 

 enne at an altitude of 6,050 feet above 

 sea-level, and the remainder near Buf- 

 falo, Johnson county, at an altitude of 

 4,700 feet. From the harvest of the 

 first lot Mr Bond obtained 9 % pints, a 

 yield of nineteenfold, and from the sec- 

 ond lot 21 j4 pints, or about forty- three- 

 fold, although there had been no irri- 

 gation of either lot. The effective 

 precipitation at Cheyenne had been 6.38 

 inches and at Buffalo 4.90 inches. 



If experiments on a larger scale are 

 equally successful, if as good wheat 

 and as great results are obtained in 

 practical farming, Mr Gauss has re- 

 claimed an area of nearly 400,000 

 square miles, stretching from the south- 

 ern boundary of Kansas and Colorado 

 to the Canadian boundary. 



DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND 

 LABOR 



T 



HIS new department, after June 

 30, 1903, will include the follow- 

 ing bureaus: 



Bureau of Statistics; 



Coast and Geodetic SurVey; 



Bureau of Immigration; 



Bureau of Navigation; 



Light-House Board and Establish- 

 ment; 



Steamboat Inspection Service; 



U. S. Shipping Commission; 



National Bureau of Standards, trans- 

 ferred from the Treasury Department; 



Census Office, transferred from the 

 Interior Department; 



