THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS CHICAGO, ILLINOIS THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY NEW YORK THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA THE MISSION BOOK COMPANY COPYRIGHT 1921 AND 1922 BY All Rights Reserved Published September 1921 Composed and Printed By There has been a notable increase in recent years in the number of universities and colleges which offer instruction in geography, and especially in the numbers of students who elect courses in the subject. As a result, instructors have been confronted by the difficult problem of providing source materials for the use of their students. At the University of Chicago this problem has been especially critical in the course on the "Economic Geography of North America." Source materials in this field are scattered widely through government reports, magazines, and other publications, of which it has been impossible to provide a sufficient number of copies to meet the needs of large groups of students. Furthermore, much of the original literature is unrelated to a geographic discussion, so that it is impracticable to refer beginning students to it. It is hoped that this book will furnish material for an introductory study of the geography of North America and that it will effectively introduce students to the literature of the subject. At the University of Chicago the course on the "Economic Geography of North America" is the third of three units which comprise the first year's work in geography. The preceding units are "Elements of Geography," which is an analysis of the elements of the physical environment in their relation to life, and "Economic and Commercial Geography," which is organized on a commodity basis. As given here, the course on North America is organized on a regional basis and serves as an introduction to regional geography. It is followed by courses on the other major regions of the world. Pedagogically, it is intended that this course constitute a transition from the earlier courses in which much use is made of a text to later courses without texts, in which the lecture method is employed more or less extensively. As the limitations imposed by a small volume made it impossible to reproduce most of the articles in full, it is hoped that instructors using the book will consult the original sources and, when practicable, refer their students to them. All the material included in the book |