Commercial Geography / A Book for High Schools, Commercial Courses, and Business Colleges

by Jacques W. Redway

Rivers.—River-valleys are closely connected with the economic development of a country. Navigable rivers are free and open highways of communication. In newly settled countries the river is always the least expensive means of carriage, and often it is the only one available for the transportation of heavy goods.

In late years, since the railway has become the chief means for the transportation of commodities, river transportation has greatly declined. The river-valley, however, has lost none of its importance; in most instances it is a naturally levelled and graded route, highly suitable for the tracks of the railway. As a result, outside of the level lands of the Great Central Plain, not far from eighty per cent. of the railway mileage of the United States is constructed along river-valleys.

Plateaus.—Plateaus are usually characterized by broken and more or less rugged surface features. As a rule they are deficient in the amount of rainfall necessary to produce an abundance of the grains and similar food-stuffs, although this is by no means the case with all.

Most plateaus produce an abundance of grass, and cattle-growing is therefore an important industry in such regions. Thus, the plateaus of the Rocky Mountains are famous for cattle, and the same is true of the Mexican and the South American plateaus. The Iberian plateau, including Spain and Portugal, is noted for the merino sheep, which furnish the finest wool known. The plateau of Iran is also noted for its wool, and the rugs from this region cannot be imitated elsewhere in the world.

Plains.—Plains are of the highest importance to life and its activities. Not only do they present fewer obstacles to intercommunication than any other topographic features, but almost always they are deeply covered with the fine rock-waste that forms the chief components of soil. Plains, therefore, contain the elements of nutrition, and are capable of supporting life to a greater extent than either mountains or plateaus. About ninety per cent. of the world's population dwell in the lowland plains.

The Great Central Plain of North America produces more than one-quarter of the world's wheat, and about four-fifths of the corn. The southern part of the great Arctic plain, and its extension, the plains of the Baltic also yield immense quantities of grain and cattle products. The coast-plains of the Atlantic Ocean, on both the American and the European side, are highly productive.

River flood-plains are almost always densely peopled because of their productivity. The bottom-lands of the Mississippi and the Yangtze Rivers are among the chief food-producing regions of the world. Lacustrine plains, the beds of former lakes, are also highly productive regions. The valley of the Red River of the North is an example, and its wheat is of a very high quality.

Fertile coast-plains and lowlands that are adjacent to good harbors, as a rule are the most thickly peopled regions of the world. In many such regions the density of population exceeds two hundred or more per square mile. The reason is obvious. Life seeks that environment which yields the greatest amount of nutrition with the least expenditure of energy.

The study of a good relief map shows that, as a rule, the Pacific Ocean is bordered by a rugged highland, which has a more or less abrupt slope, and a narrow coast-plain. Indeed, the latter is absent for the greater part. The slopes of the Atlantic, on the other hand, are long and gentle—being a thousand miles or more in width throughout the greater part of their extent. The area of productive land is correspondingly great, and the character of the surface features is such that intercommunication is easy.