FUR TRADE AND FISHERIES 5 Next, individual traders went out from these centers to remote parts, gathering the furs from the natives rather than waiting for them to be brought to the stations. In every case the advent of settlements was the signal for the disappearance of the trade. To-day when the whole continent is known to man, furs are found only in the frozen parts of the north, where the climate forbids ordinary pursuits. In the interior, as well as on the coast, the fur trader marched in advance of the frontier. He explored unknown parts and revealed to the settlements the portions best suited for habitation, he discovered the best means of penetrating the interior, and he established important relations with the Indians. Even earlier than the fur trader was the fisherman. The many indentations of the Atlantic coast abound in mackerel and salmon; but more important still was the cod, whose proper habitat ment of the is the coasts of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. At the Developcoming of the colonists this fish was found as far south as Fisheries. the cape which now bears its name. It was then already well known in Europe; for enterprising fishermen from England and France were taking it on the banks of Newfoundland many years earlier. "The knob headed, richly fat, and succulent codfish," as Weeden calls it, is probably the most popular of our food fishes. Its special advantage is its excellent keeping quality when salted and dried. With mackerel it was widely sold in the Catholic countries of western Europe, where fish was demanded for use on Fridays. The poorer cod and mackerel were sent to the West Indies, where planters bought them for their slaves. The New England fisheries developed rapidly from the first and became the basis of an important foreign trade. Manner of taking the Cod. Taking the cod supported an important sea-going population. The eastern towns of Massachusetts-Boston, Gloucester, Marblehead, Salem, Ipswich-were the centers of the industry. With the establishment of fishing on the coast the cod disappeared in that region; but the New Englander followed it north as far as the Newfoundland banks. A ship of fifty tons and a crew of seven were considered adequate for the business; and if fishing were good, they might expect to take six hundred quintals a year. The men served for shares, and the owner of the boat got a share for his capital. A ship's company was selected for steadiness, agility of mind and body, and companionable qualities. The association was apt to be renewed from season to season, and it promoter the development of reliable and efficient coöperation. The fisheries bred sailors for the merchant marine and later for the navy. With the advance of the eighteenth century capital played a relatively larger part in the cod fisheries; larger ships were used, and wealthy Whaling. men who furnished outfits became a chief factor in the in dustry. Out of this form of fishing grew whaling, which the hardy New Englanders carried to the North, and South, Atlantic, and finally to Pacific waters. The trade in cod and mackerel had the peculiar advantage that it brought specie into the colonies at an early day, when it was much needed. Lumber. Another important resource in the United States is lumber. Forests originally covered the entire Atlantic coast and all of the Mississippi basin but the prairies, which occurred in restricted areas north of the Ohio and in a large territory from the Rocky Mountains to a line somewhat west of the Mississippi. The Pacific coast itself is Forests and well wooded, but the rainless region from the Sierras to the Rockies is largely without forests. The settlers attacked the forests with avidity. Masts for all the shipbuilding countries of Europe, staves and lumber for the treeless West Indies, and naval stores from the Carolina pines were some of the first forest products. As the frontier was extended inward from the coast lumbering assumed better organized forms, saw mills lined the rivers, and forest products became of greater importance. From lumbering the colonists quickly proceeded to shipbuilding, making excellent vessels for their own use and after a while for sale in Europe and the West Indies. As the frontier proceeded westward the attacks on the forests became most profligate. Thus a large part of the timber of the country was wastefully consumed before the people came to realize the importance of preserving it. Soil. In fertility the soil of the United States compares favorably with that of Europe. It is peculiarly rich in limestone, which is favorable to the growth of grain and grass. A large proportion of the land is tillable, and even the mountain ranges of the Atlantic slope may be brought largely into cultivation through sufficient effort. There are few great swamps, the Dismal in North Carolina and the Everglades in southern Florida being the only considerable ones on the Atlantic coast. The openness of the country made settlement easy in the early stages, and it has facilitated the extension of the frontier through the interior. The Glacial All the territory north of the Susquehannah and half of that north of the Ohio was once in the grasp of a great glacier. The effects were: I, to leave the soil full of stones which must be removed before it could be cultivated successfully. This was particularly true of New England, where, it is estimated, an average of thirty days' labor was necessary to clear of stones each acre of land; 2, Glaciers leave behind them a tough clay soil which requires years to bring it into profitable production, but when once subdued it is not easily exhausted. Shaler asserts that he has never known this kind of soil to become worn out through cultivation. The Indians were The New not able to subdue the New England soil, and they were, therefore, not numerous enough seriously to impede the early attempts at colo SOILS AND THEIR PRODUCTS 7 nization. The whites succeeded better, but the difficulty was so great that agriculture progressed slowly in that region. Many of the people turned to other forms of industry, especially to trade and, in later years, to manufactures, for which their excellent water-power was adapted. This struggle with nature, it is believed, has also stimulated thrift, self-restraint, and resourcefulness in the inhabitants; and the establishment of manufactures has promoted town building. The social results have been important. Soil in the South. In the South, on the other hand, the tillable soil was fertile, though more easily exhausted. It was also abundant and cheap, so that the settlers had a tendency to take up large holdings. To work these plantations it was necessary to have a permanent labor supply, persons who would not become landowners themselves in the presence of the unusual opportunity for acquiring farms. No such laboring class could be had from Europe, but it could be found in Africa, and the result was negro slavery. Slave plantations became the rule, and they were so profitable that manufacturing was excluded, trade was reduced to simple forms, and the South was given almost wholly to agriculture. In the Northwest the prairies were easily and rapidly settled. Immigrants quickly became rich farmers. Never was the American frontier more prosperous and more democratic. Cities In the West. were built rapidly, and railroads, commerce, and all the other forms of a complex society were suddenly reared upon the luxuriant state of agricultural prosperity. In California a favorable soil and an equable climate have united to support a great fruit raising industry. The lands adjacent to rivers have played an important part in the history of the country, especially on the Atlantic coast and in the lower Mississippi basin. They were most accessible to the River Botearly inhabitants and had greatest fertility. They were tom Land. the first lands reduced to cultivation, and when they were occupied the settlers turned to the tributary streams, where the bottom. lands were less extensive. When the black borders of this drainage skeleton were taken up and made arable, the higher regions between them were attacked. The best plantations were the river plantations, and because their owners were rich, and could afford to own large tracts, here were found the large plantations. This was somewhat true of the Connecticut, and essentially true of the Hudson and of all the Southern rivers. Food Prod ucts. Raising their own food has never been a problem for Americans, since all parts of the continent are fertile enough for that, -and the colonists, once past the initial scarcity due to difficulty of adjustment to a new location, had no anxiety on this score. They were more concerned with having some staple crop for export which should serve as the basis of wealth. New Eng land could promise little in this respect. Some corn, vegetables, and beef could be spared from home consumption, but high freights to Europe forbade sending them thither. The West Indies and the fishing stations of the North offered but a small market, and the middle colonies were competitors for it. With the increase of transportation facilities much grain was sent abroad from the latter colonies, the precursor of a trade which with the development of the West has become a great factor in our industrial life. Three staple crops developed in the colonial period; tobacco in Virginia and Maryland and rice and indigo in South Carolina and Georgia. Late in the eighteenth century sugar became a Staple Crops. staple in Louisiana. All were profitable and facilitated the rapid development of the regions in which they were grown. After the invention of the cotton gin in 1793 cotton became the leading staple of the country. It was grown throughout the South below Virginia and Kentucky from the foothills of the Alleghanies to the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. With the development of the country many other crops have become vastly important. Of them wheat and corn are of first rank and must be called staples in a large part of the Mississippi basin. In the days of settlement Indian corn was a most prevalent food supply. Besides having excellent nourishing qualities, it was more Indian Corn. easily cultivated in newly cleared ground than any other grain. Following the custom of the Indians, the colonist removed the undergrowth from the forest, killed those trees he did not care to uproot, and dropped the seed in the spaces between stumps and dead trunks. European wheat could not have grown or been harvested under such conditions. Corn has, also, these other advantages; it remains uninjured on the stalk for weeks after it is ripe, it keeps well in indifferent barns, its grain is excellent food for man and many of the domesticated animals, and its fodder is good winter forage. Moreover, it grows well in all parts of the country, whereas wheat cannot be raised with profit in most of the Southern states. The mineral resources of the United States, which are abundant, were little exploited before the revolution. In that period men were Mineral satisfied to clear land, build roads, and develop trade, naturally the first tasks to be done in a new country. Our revolutionary period happened to coincide with one of the turning points in the world's industrial history. The steam engine, the blast furnace, and power machinery came into existence at nearly the same time. Following them came a great demand for coal and the Coal and Iron. metals used in ordinary forms of industry, and the rapid development of manufactures in the early part of the nineteenth century gave an added impulse to the process. The mining of coal and iron on a large scale opened the new period. When these two minerals are found together and close to water transporta |