Fairbanks' new geography of California, the United States and the world from the point of view of California children

Front matter

COPYRIGHT DEPOSHi

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Hindu cows in the streets of Delhi, India. Compare this picture with the cattle scene on page 17 of this book.

Contents

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' PART I. CALIFORNIA

Chapter Page

PART II. THE UNITED STATES 10 Climate Compared with California. 79

11 People of North America. 87

12 Animal and Fish Life.. 91

13 Growth of Farming. 96

14 Stock Raising Industries. Ill

15 Lumber Industry . 115

16 Manufacturing Industry . 122

17 Growth of Great Cities. 129

18 Advantages of the United States. 134

PART III. THE LANDS BEYOND THE OCEAN Introduction . 140

19 Mediterranean Lands of the Northern Hemisphere. 142

20 Mediterranean Lands of the Southern Hemisphere. 148

21 Food Products Which We Get From Foreign Lands. 153

22 Food and Food Products From the Island of Java. 155

a. Products of the Palm Tree. 162

23 Other Foods and Food Products. 167

b. Rice and Sugar. 167

c. Tea, Coffee, Cocoa. 169

d. Medicinal Substances . 174

24 Clothing Materials . 178

a. Wool. 178

b. Cotton . 182

c. Flax . 185 e. Silk . 193

f. Furs . 195

25 Trees, Plants, Minerals, Etc., From Other Countries. 199

a. Woods and Fibers... 199

b. Minerals and Precious Stones. 201

A READER IN THE GEOGRAPHY OF CALIFORNIA, THE UNITED STATES, AND THE WORLD FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF CALIFORNIA CHILDREN.

PART L

California—The Wonderland

GENERAL PROBLEM.

A large part of California is occupied by mountains, another part is a desert. The largest rivers are navigable for only a short distance, and there are few good harbors. What is the reason that in spite of what seems to be serious disadvantages California has grown in a few years from a thinly settled and almost unknown land to one of the foremost states in the Union? Will not the following facts help us to solve the problem? •

1 st—California has great natural wealth and a variety of scenery. 2nd—California has a healthful and agreeable climate.

3rd—Anyone, no matter what his occupation, can make a home in California and carry on his work amid pleasant sur¬ roundings.

Introduction

1. The first people to come to California in large numbers were miners, attracted by the stores of gold in its mountains.

2. The stockman sought California because of the absence of cold winters and the great extent of land affording forage for his cattle and sheep.

3. Farmers came to California because of the rich soil of the valleys, where, under sunny skies, they could raise almost everything they wished.

4. The fruit grower found in California climates of so many different sorts that they could raise almost every variety of temperate and tropical fruits.

5. The dairyman found in California a land where he could produce and market milk, butter and cheese and could grow cheaply the grain and alfalfa for his cattle.

6. The poultryman found that the climate was favorable to raising chickens and turkeys and eggs and the large cities afforded a good market.

7. The lumberman came to supply the rapidly growing population with lumber for their houses from the heavy for¬ ests that flourished on the mountain slopes.

8. Fishermen make good catches in the broad belt of shal¬ low water that forms a feeding and spawning ground for a great variety of food fishes.

9. The manufacturer once shunned California because he thought it had little fuel and that the water power could not be used because it was so far away in the mountains. Now un¬ limited quantities of fuel oil have been discovered and we have learned how to turn the power of the distant waterfalls into electricity and carry it wherever we wish to use it.

10. Traders found that the harbors of California, though they were limited in number, formed open doors through which produce could be exchanged with all the world.

11. People who were not well came because of the health¬ giving air of the coast, deserts and mountains.

Chapter 1. Why Does California Offer Such An Attractive Climate?

California lies, as can be seen from the map, about half way between the cold and snowy belt around the north pole, and the hot wet belt following the equator. It extends north¬ erly and southerly along the Pacific ocean for about 800 miles, but owing to the influence of this great body of water there is much less difference in temperature between the north and the south than we would expect. How, then, is it that Cali¬ fornia has a climate which varies so greatly in different parts that every plant which is found between the tropics and the arctic circle will grow and thrive here? It is important that we find out the answer to this question, since it will help us to understand why California is such a great and prosperous state.

1. Everyone has noticed that the winds usually blow from some westerly point; in so doing they must pass over the ocean before they reach the land. Everyone has also noticed, if he will stop to think a moment, that these winds are always cool. Since the ocean changes its temperature but little throughout the year and is cool along the whole extent of the California coast, the winds that blow across it are but little warmer at San Diego than they are at Crescent City, near the Oregon line. If we should travel from New York southward along the At¬ lantic coast a distance equal to the length of California we would find a much greater difference in temperature. This is mainly because the winds along the Atlantic coast are common¬ ly from the same westerly direction as in California, but there they are from the land. Call to mind how hot our land winds are in the summer and how cold in winter and you will under¬ stand why the people upon the Atlantic coast suffer so much greater changes in temperature than we do. We conclude then that a coast that has sea winds has an even temperature and one that has land winds has great variations in temperature.

2. We have discovered that the wind by itself would give the coast of California an even temperature, but when we come to study the winds in connection with the position of the mountain ranges, their extent and height, we learn why the climate varies so greatly in different places and why we are able to raise such a wonderful variety of products.

Most of the mountain ranges of California run length¬ wise of the state; that is, in a northerly and southerly direc¬ tion. The San Gabriel and San Bernardino ranges which ex¬ tend east and west are the chief exceptions.

We have only to remember how much warmer it is be¬ hind a beach umbrella when the wind is blowing off the ocean, or that in the winter, when there is a warm rain in the val¬ leys, there is a snow storm upon the mountains, in order to understand what a great influence the mountains have upon California climate. We must not forget, however, that if there were no mountains, but that instead a vast plain stretched in¬ land from the ocean, the cool winds would become warm in summer when they had passed far enough over the land and icy in winter, but the mountains make this change much quicker and sharper.

Mountain ranges border the coast of California nearly its whole length, the exception being the plain-like region to the south and southwest of Los Angeles. The cool winds blowing against these mountains are broken so that the valleys lying behind them become very warm. Neither the sea fog nor the wind can reach them. Thus, if you want to find the hottest place in western California upon a summer day you should go to the east side of one of the lofty Coast Ranges.

This will enable us to understand why the earliest cher¬ ries come from the Capay valley west of Sacramento and close under the lea of a lofty range of mountains. It enables us to understand also why the earliest oranges come from the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys. No cool sea winds or fogs reach the eastern side of these valleys, while the Los Angeles-San Bernardino valley, the largest orange growingregion in the State, is open to the ocean winds and fogs. The same thing also explains why great quantities of raisins are made around Fresno in the San Joaquin valley, and none are made in the Los Angeles-San Bernardino valley, although it is farther south.

From what we have already learned, if one wishes to find the hottest place in California, would he not cross the next range of mountains toward the east? What is this range? Death Valley and its extension south in the Mohave desert, together with Imperial valley, have a great summer heat. In Death Valley one does not attempt to travel in the open sun in summer, but always at night.

3. The varying amount of rainfall in different parts of the State is another factor in climate which has a very great influence upon the distribution of people and what they do.

If you will study the rainfall map you will discover that in the northwestern part of the State 80 inches of rain may fall in a year, while in the southeastern part it is usually not more than two or three inches. Should we not expect to find a great difference in the plants that thrive in two regions with such difference in rainfall? In the northwest corner vesretation is luxuriant and dense. The farmer has to clear the land at great expense before he can grow anything and does not need to employ irrigation. In the deserts of the southeast the vegetation is scanty and has been changed in many curious ways by its struggle to live through the long hot summers. People can not live in the desert unless they can obtain water for irrigation, but when water can be had everything grows with astonishing luxuriance.

A road-side scene in a valley of the Northern Coast Ranges. The vegetation is rank because of the heavy rainfall. There are red¬ woods, spruce, sycamore, laurel and many kinds of oaks.

The difference in rainfall is partly due to the fact that the storms which come in from the ocean are more numer¬ ous and severe as one goes north, and partly to the influence of the mountains.

The mountain ranges lying across the path of the ocean storms affect the rains as they do the fogs and temperature. More rain falls on the western slope of the Coast Range than in the San Joaquin valley at its eastern base. More snow and rain fall on the still higher Sierras, because their summits are colder. These high mountains condense so much of the moist¬ ure, as the clouds pass over them, that eastern California gets very little rain and is barren and desert-like. Once in a while rains do fall in the desert and are accompanied by terrific thun¬ der and lightning. The rain sometimes comes in torrents or cloudbursts, which do great damage to the country.

4. Mountains make a variety in climate and add untold wealth to the State through the increase in rainfall caused by their cold summits.

We have all seen the dark clouds hang over the moun¬ tains, while the sun was shining brightly in the lowlands where we live. We have seen the lightning and heard the thunder of the mountain storms during the summer. If you will watch the Weather Bureau reports of winter storms you will often notice that, if an inch of water fell where you live, the moun¬ tain station reported two to four inches. This is true not only of our mountains, but of mountains all over the world, and par¬ ticularly noticeable in lands where the general rainfall is light.

If you will study the map of California you will discover that all the large rivers rise in mountains and that the higher the mountains are the larger the rivers are that rise in them.

The moisture that the air carries over the mountains is condensed to rain or snow, because of the cold, in just the same way as the water particles are condensed upon the outside of a glass of ice water upon a warm summer day.

Although mountains may seem, at first thought, to be of little use, yet when we understand them fully and learn how they make our rivers, without which the land of our valleys could not be cultivated, we appreciate their value.

We have seen that the mountains cut off the moist winds from the valleys to the eastward of them, but at the same time they take much more moisture out of the clouds than would fall if they were not there, and send down rivers to the farmer to make up for lack of rain. Note on the map the rivers that flow down the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains and find out what you can about the prosperous settlements along their course in the desert.

Along the eastern base of the Coast Ranges in the Great Valley, you will not find many permanent streams, because the slope is so short and the crests are not nearly so high as those of the Sierras. Note from the map if there are many towns along the east base of the Coast Ranges.

So many storms pass across the northern end of the State that this section would be fairly well watered if there were no mountains, but the greater part of the interior of California would be uninhabitable desert if there were not somewhere within reach high mountains to collect the rains and send them down streams across this desert to the ocean.

5. Can you think of any other influence which mountains have upon the prosperity and industries of California? Let us talk for a few moments about the cold of their highlands.

Since California lies about half way between the hot and the cold belts, we would not expect to find a cold cli¬ mate there;- in fact, we know the greater part of the low¬ land valleys possesses so mild a climate that all sorts of semi-tropical fruits thrive.

We can see the mountains turn white with snow when winter comes; the snow lasts many months, and if we were to climb some of the higher peaks we would discover that it remains all summer upon the shady slopes. A summer camp¬ ing trip to the summit of one of our lofty ranges shows how very different mountain climate is from valley climate in the same latitude.

At the base of the mountains are orange orchards, which may reach up to 2000 feet. This is as high as the orange thrives in California, because above that the winter nights are too cold. Above the orange orchards and up to perhaps 3000 feet there are peaches, pears and cherries, while apples reach up to 5000 feet. This is as high as the farmer can make his home, but as frosty nights do not prevent grass growing, the stockman can go higher still.

Above where fruit can be raised successfully is the belt in which our great forests are found, where huge trees of many kinds find a climate that is just suited to their needs.

We continue on to 8000 and 9000 feet, where the forest trees begin to be smaller and less thrifty. At 11,000 feet only a few stunted ones are found clinging close to the ground to escape the fierce winter winds. We are now in a region that has a climate similar to that of the arctic regions. The win¬ ters are so long and cold, the summer nights so frosty, that only in protected nooks among the rocks a scanty vegetation manages to exist. Here are arctic shrubs and pretty stunted arctic flowers. The animals belong to northern varieties, and the few birds have migrated here only for the nesting season, just as the ducks and geese go far north in the summer to their nesting grounds.

In climbing one of our high mountains one passes through all the different climates which one would encounter in travel¬ ing thousands of miles from the tropics to the arctic region.

The cold winters of the mountains are very important for the growth of California, for they cause snow to fall instead of rain, which would quickly run away to the ocean, while the snow does not melt until the warm sun of spring and sum¬ mer strikes it, and thus affords a supply of water when the farmer needs it. If it were not for the mountain snow-banks the streams would run almost dry in summer and there would be dangerous floods in the winter.

California has, then, because of its situation in the warm temperate latitude, its situation upon the coast, its cool west¬ erly winds, its high mountain ranges, its many storms in the northwest, its almost entire absence of storms in the south¬ east, such a variety of climate that people coming here from almost any part of the earth can find a place for a new home where the climate and productions would be similar to those of their homeland.

WHY IS IT THAT CALIFORNIA DOES NOT GROW THE FRUITS OF THE TROPICS ALTHOUGH THE HEAT OF SOME OF THE INTERIOR VALLEYS IS FULLY AS GREAT AS THAT OF LANDS WHERE THE SUN SHINES DIRECTLY OVERHEAD?

The lowlands of the tropics are not only hot, but also very moist. Since the sun is there almost, or quite overhead throughout the whole year, the temperature remains almost the same. The fact that one season is a little drier than the other is almost the only thing which distinguishes win¬ ter from summer.

California, with its hot regions such as Death Valley and Imperial valley, lies farther from the equator and the seasonal changes are greater. In summer Death Valley is hotter than the lands under the equator, while in winter it frequently be¬ comes cold enough to freeze.

In the tropics the air is moist as well as hot. In Death Valley it is hot and exceedingly dry in summer. Some sub¬ tropical plants, such as the date, thrive in a hot, dry air and are not injured by a little frost. Thus in the Imperial and the Coachella valleys are growing Sahara desert date palms successfully.

Most tropical plants require not only much water but also moist air. The moist hot air we can get only in a conserva¬ tory, and not out of doors. Most tropical plants cannot stand the least touch of frost, and there are likely to be some frosty winter nights in even the hottest valleys of California.

Rice, which comes to us from the tropics, thrives in Cali¬ fornia because it is planted in the spring, like other grains, and matures its seed before cold weather comes in the fall.

Rice fields in the San Joaquin Valley.

Chapter 2

THE MANY SIDED CLIMATE OF CALIFORNIA MAKES IT A LITTLE WORLD IN ITSELF, WHERE ALMOST EVERY¬ THING CAN BE GROWN. HOWEVER, THIS WONDER¬ FUL CLIMATE ALONE DOES NOT EXPLAIN WHY THERE ARE SO MANY OCCUPATIONS CARRIED ON HERE. WE MUST ALSO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE CHARACTER OF THE SURFACE, NATURAL RESOURCES, THE NATURE OF THE RIVERS AND COAST, RAINFALL AND THE EASE OF COMMUNICATION WITH OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD.

A. In How Far Have the Surface Features Aided in Making California a Land of Many Industries?

If California were a vast plain, like much of the Missis¬ sippi Valley, Southern Russia and Argentina, the life, con¬ ditions and industries would be much the same over its whole extent. California is, however, one of the most broken and mountainous countries of the world, but its area is so large that in spite of the mountains there are fertile lowlands large enough to support many millions of farmers and fruit growers.

The State contains Mt. Whitney, the highest mountain in the United States outside of Alaska, and Mt. Shasta, one of the loftiest extinct volcanoes.

The Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges inclose the lozenge¬ shaped San Joaquin-Sacramento valley, the largest fertile and well watered lowland in western North America. The most of this valley is still thinly settled. The island of Java, in the East Indies, which is no larger, supports thirty million people, most of whom depend upon the soil.

There are also many beautiful and fertile valleys among the Coast Ranges. In the south there are the Los Angeles- San Bernardino valley, Imperial valley, San Fernando valley, and numerous others.

Great areas of fertile land in the deserts of eastern Cali¬ fornia remain unproductive for lack of water. Some of these will probably some time get water from the Colorado river.

In the foothills and lower mountains much of the land is too rough and rocky for cultivation. The people who live upon these slopes engage in the mixed occupations of general farm¬ ing, fruit growing and stock raising. Some kinds of fruit, such as apples, pears and prunes, take on a better quality in these higher lands and command a better price in the mar¬ kets. The slopes, too rough for any kind of cultivation, sup¬ port hogs and beef cattle.

2. The surface features influence the character and distribu¬ tion of the stock-raising industry: Great numbers of hogs are raised in the foothills because there they have a large range and almost support themselves. In the valleys, where the land is more valuable, they are not, however, allowed to range but are kept in small enclosures and fed grain, corn and alfalfa, raised by their owners.

Sheep were once allowed to range freely over the public lands, but they did so much damage to vegetation upon the mountains that their pastures are restricted. They dispute with cattle the remote and inaccessible slopes where farming cannot profitably be carried on. The farmer needs good roads to get his products to market, but stock can be driven over rough mountain trails.

Nearly all the region of the Coast Ranges where rains afford grasses was once given over to raising beef cattle. Some of the great ranches still exist and are used as cattle ranges today, but most of them have been cut up into farms,

Cattle grazing in a mountain valley.

so that now there are thousands of homes where once there was only one.

The raising of range cattle is now confined to the rough and rather inaccessible portions of the Sierra Nevada and Klamath mountains, the volcanic plateau in northeastern Cal¬ ifornia, and the mountains of southern California.

B. In How Far Have the Natural Resources Aided in Mak¬ ing California a State of Many Industries?

1. California is rich in deposits of minerals of many kinds:

It was the discovery of gold in the gravels of the streams of the Sierra Nevada mountains that started the rapid growth of California. Mining was the first important industry of the State. The men who sought gold in the gravels were called “placer miners”. These men were followed by “quartz min¬ ers”, who dug deep shafts and long tunnels in the earth as they followed the veins of gold bearing quartz. In other parts of the State, silver, lead, copper and quicksilver mining are carried on.

Mining is important in California, partly because this is a land of mountains. If there were no mountains, upon whose steep sides the rocks that contain the various finerals are ex¬ posed, the soil would cover the rocks so deeply that we would not be able to find these minerals.

But metal mining is not the only kind of mining in Cali¬ fornia. In the desert basins of California are found deposits of salt, soda, borax and nitrates. Long ago, when the climate was wetter than it is now, these basins were occupied by lakes which had no outlets. The various salts which we have men¬ tioned were dissolved in the water, but when this dried up they were left mixed with the mud upon the bottoms.

There are few coal mines in California, for the beds of coal are small and of rather poor quality. Coal is formed from the accumulation of vegetable matter in swamps. Long ago there were vast swamps in the central and eastern part of the United States, and in them was formed the coal that is such a necessity for heating and manufacturing. Califor¬ nia must always have been mountainous, with few swamps in which the material for coal could gather.

Most of the coal used in California is either brought upon ships from distant lands or upon railroads from the Rocky Mountain region. The lack of cheap coal delayed for many years the growth of manufacturing industries.

Now, however, something has been found which takes the place of coal for most purposes. This is petroleum, and Cali¬ fornia has become one of the most important centers in the world for this industry.

In the foothills bordering the central and southern part of the San Joaquin valley, in the Coast Ranges and in the region about Los Angeles there are thousands of wells pro¬ ducing millions of barrels of oil yearly. The heavier varieties of this oil are used for fuel, while from the lighter ones gaso¬ line and lubricating oils are extracted. The drilling of wells, the pumping, refining and shipping of the petroleum has be¬ come the most important mining industry in the State and employs many thousands of men.

The deposits of precious metals were formed in fissures in the rocks as the mountains grew. Hot water crept up through these fissures from far down in the earth, bringing with it different minerals in solution. These minerals were deposited in the fissures or veins.

The story of petroleum is very different from that of either coal or the metals. Those parts of California where petroleum is found were once beneath the ocean. The waters

The Santa Fe Springs Oil District near Los Angeles. Note that the wells have been drilled right in the midst of orange groves.

of this were filled with fish and an infinite number of tiny sea animals and plants. As these animals died their bodies set¬ tled to the bottom and finally became deeply buried beneath sand and mud. After a long time, when these deposits had been turned into rock, the sea bottom was raised and became dry land. The soft parts of the little organisms buried in the rocks gave rise to illuminating gas and petroleum which col¬ lected in any porous rocks which were near at hand. After the sea bottom, with its deposits of gas and petroleum, had become land, the water in some places wore away the rocks until the beds of oil were exposed. In other places gas and petroleum followed little cracks in the rocks upward to the surface, in this manner showing the oil prospector where to erect his derrick and bore. To reach the oil sands some of the wells have been drilled more than a mile deep.

2. California possesses great wealth in her forests: The dif¬ ferences in rainfall over the State do not affect the farming industry as much as one would at first think. The farmer either adapts his crops to the rainfall of the region in which he lives or he joins with other farmers and organizes an irri¬ gation district for the purpose of bringing the needed water from some mountain stream. The natural vegetation, how¬ ever, cannot help itself to water and has to take what the clouds bring; and thus we find just what we expect, and that is a wonderful variation in the nature and character of the plant life between parts where it rains 80 inches yearly and parts where it rains only one to three inches.

If California were wholly a lowland plain, only the north¬ ern and coastal regions would have rain enough for forest growth. Toward the interior, shrubs and grasses would re¬ place the trees and beyond these the country would be a true desert. But since mountains double and triple the rainfall, and California is a land of lofty mountains, we find forest belts scattered through the interior wherever the surface is high and cold enough to condense sufficient rain or snow.

Thus a forest map of California comes pretty close to be¬ ing a rainfall map and tells us quite accurately whether the rainfall in any particular section is heavy or light.

Some of the deserts of the world, such as the Sahara and the deserts of South America, have no rain and are without plants, but our California deserts all get a little rain and support plants of a strange and interesting appearance which have so changed as to get along with very little moisture. Some of these plants, such as the cactuses, store up water. The Mexi¬ can creosote bush has a resinous sap which protects it from evaporation, while other plants have small leaves for the same purpose.

The valleys nearer the coast receive more rain and their vegetation is different. Flowering plants give them a brilliant appearance in the spring; the most noticeable of these flowers is the California poppy, the State flower. Besides the flowers, there are many grasses, which afford forage for stock. The Great Valley is the best example of such valleys. However, this valley is really a plain, because it is of such vast extent. Between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River is another vast plain which is treeless for lack of water. We journey to southeastern Russia and find the treeless Steppes; to northern Siberia, where the plains are treeless because of the cold, or to South America, where the Pampas and Llanos are quite similar.

The Great Valley of California is a type of all these plains, and before the development of irrigation, their industries were similar. In the drier parts of the southern San Joaquin, cattle and sheep raising was once the only industry. Farther north, oats and barley were grown, still farther north wheat afforded good yields.