the earth into zones, one of which, that between 19° and 33° 49' north latitude, was the zone of the founders of religion. He points out that in this zone were born all the great founders of religion and all the philosophers and scholars, himself included. Zoroaster, Moses, Buddha, Christ, and Mohammed were all born in that zone. Regarding the influence of the desert upon the mind, Peschel writes:

All who have been in the desert exalt its beneficent influence on the health and spirits. Aloys Sprenger declares that the air of the desert invigorated him more than that of the high Alps or of the Himalayas. . . . The desert has impressed the Arabs with their remarkable historical character. In the boundless plains the imagination which guides the youth of men is filled with images quite different from those suggested by forest country. The thoughts thus acquired are noble rather than numerous. .. Every traveler who has crossed the deserts of Arabia and Asia Minor speaks enthusiastically of their beauties. All praise their atmosphere and brightness and tell of a feeling of invigoration and a perceptible increase of intellectual elasticity; hence, between the arched heaven and the unbounded expanse of plain, a monotheistic frame of mind necessarily steals upon the children of the desert.

Professor Ellsworth Huntington,1 on the other hand, finds greater stimulus to mental activity in a changeable climate with frequent variations of temperature.

The geographical advantages of the United States. Coming to our own country, we have a combination of most of the geographical factors mentioned by Buckle and others. We have the broken landscape, low mountain ranges, and small rivers of the Atlantic seaboard; the great fertile valley of the Mississippi and its tributaries, the vast plains of the great West, the semidesert conditions of the Southwest, the towering mountain ranges of the Rockies and the Sierras, and the mild climate and gentle slopes of the Pacific coast. If the mind of man is strongly

1The Pulse of Asia. See also "Climatic Changes and Agricultural Exhaustion as Elements in the Fall of Rome," Quarterly Journal of Economics, February, 1917.

influenced by its geographical surroundings, we have an opportunity of developing a many-sided and variegated civilization.

The eastern half of the United States, being virtually surrounded on three sides by water, like the greater part of Europe, is assured of an adequate quantity of moisture; the western half is more or less deficient in moisture, except the extreme northwest corner and certain high mountain altitudes. These arid and semiarid regions, where the streams do not supply water enough for irrigation, may, in places where conditions are favorable, be made to grow crops under methods known as dry farming. The rest will probably be a permanent grazing country. Even our irrigable land, while but a fraction of the total, amounts to a small empire in itself.

A broad strip running from the Atlantic seaboard to the hundredth meridian, and a little north of the middle, comprises the great grain, hay, and live-stock region. Another broad strip, lying south of this, is the Cotton Belt. Along our northern border from Maine to northern New York is a lumber, dairy, and potato region and a natural summer playground for the city people. A continuation of this strip, including the northern halves of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, is an undeveloped region, formerly covered with forest but now largely cut over. Most of it is excellent land for potatoes and small' grains and is capable of feeding a vast population. Another undeveloped strip along the Gulf coast from Florida to Texas, just south of the Cotton Belt, is also largely cut-over timberland. Much of this is ideal land for fruit and truck farming and the growing of such great food crops as sweet potatoes and peanuts. Whenever the demand for food is such as to insure a remunerative price for potatoes, both white and sweet, almost unimaginable quantities can be grown along our northern and southern borders without interfering with the growing of corn, wheat, or cotton in the belts which are especially adapted to these great crops. So far as starchy food is concerned we have opportunities for producing incalculable quantities. Animal products also can be produced in quantities sufficient for a pop

ulation very much greater than the present, though it is easy for unthinking people greatly to exaggerate the possibilities in this direction.

The Mississippi Valley (that is, the whole interior basin of the country) is one of the most productive regions in the entire world. In fact, it is doubtful if any region of equal area can be found anywhere on the globe which contains so great a variety and abundance of natural riches, both on the surface and beneath the surface. This region includes the greater part of our Cotton Belt, and we produce nearly three fourths of the cotton of the world. It includes all of what is known as our Corn Belt; that is, the region where corn is the main crop, though corn is grown in every state in the Union. Corn is not only our most valuable crop but our most valuable single product of any kind or description; we also grow nearly three fourths of the world's production of this, the most magnificent of all crops. In this region also are the great spring-wheat areas of Minnesota and the Dakotas and the winter-wheat area extending from Ohio to the Great Plains, reaching its greatest density in Kansas and Nebraska. While we produce on the average only between a fourth and a third of the world's total wheat crop, we yet produce more than any other single country at the present time. Aside from these major crops, this region is also rich in a number of minor crops and grows practically everything which will grow outside the tropics.

Farm machinery. The reasons for this great productivity are, first, the vast area; second, the uniform fertility of the soil; third, the uniformly level contour, making farm operations relatively easy and inexpensive; fourth, the uniformly favorable climate; and, fifth, the general use of farm machinery. There is probably no single area in the world where so much and such efficient farm machinery is used in order to supplement the labor of men.

In addition to the natural ingenuity of our people, the general smoothness of the land and the favorableness of the climate must be held to account for the use of farm machinery. The

summers (especially the late summer months) in this region. are relatively dry. This has had an important effect in encouraging the use of harvesting and hay-making machinery. In some of the countries of northwestern Europe, where clear, dry weather is rare, the curing of hay and the drying of harvested grain are more difficult problems than with us. The quick curing and rapid methods of harvesting and storing which are familiar to us are there impossible.

Not the least important feature of the geographical situation of any country is the opportunity which it offers for specialization. This is sometimes called the opportunity for trade and commerce. Trade and commerce, however, are good only because they enable each country or each neighborhood to specialize in production; that is, to produce the things for which it is best fitted. This would not be possible without trade and commerce. That is to say, each neighborhood would have to produce everything its people needed if it could not get some of these things from other neighborhoods. When it can get almost anything it needs from other neighborhoods, provided it has something to give in exchange, it can then devote its own energies and resources to the production of those things in which it excels, or for which it is best fitted, and exchange its surplus of those things for other things which it happens to need. Specialization in production depends, therefore, on opportunities for trade and commerce.

A wide area with great diversity of geographical conditions, such as differences of temperature, rainfall, altitude, soil, and mineral deposits, permits great specialization, provided the different localities can exchange products. This is largely a matter of transportation. A small area, with little diversity of resources and, at the same time, isolated with respect to transportation, would be at a great disadvantage. With little diversity of natural resources it would have difficulty in producing everything it needed. Isolated with respect to transportation, it would have difficulty in getting from the outside the things it could not produce at home.

COLLATERAL READING

ELY, RICHARD T., HESS, RALPH H., LEITH, CHARLES K., and CARVER, THOMAS NIXON. The Foundations of National Prosperity. New York, 1917. (Four essays on various aspects of conservation, including the conservation of human resources.)

Marshall, ALFRED. Principles of Economics (fifth edition). New York, 1907. (An exposition of fundamental notions by the leading English economists.) PIGOU, A. G. The Economics of Welfare. London, 1920.

WICKSTEED, PHILIP. The Common Sense of Political Economy, Book I, chaps. i, ii, and iii. London, 1910. (A very keen analysis of leading economic concepts.)