Modern Economic Problems - Economics Vol. II | Page 5

things composing its
environment, some conception of the situation is to be gained by an
enumeration of goods in their kinds and quantities and by studying
their relations to the life of the people. Objects of wealth may be
grouped in various ways. The following may serve our purpose of a
general survey of our present resources.
§ 8. #Sources of food supply#. The land area of the country in 1910
was about 1,900,000,000 acres, of which 879,000,000 acres were in
farms, this being 46 per cent of the total area. A very small part of the
remainder is used for residential and commercial purposes, the rest
being barren mountains, deserts, swamps, and forests. Of the total in
farms a little more than one-half was improved, 478,000,000 acres
altogether, a per capita average of 5.2 acres; and a little less than
one-half was unimproved, 400,000,000 acres altogether, a per capita
average of 4.3 acres. The improved land produced not merely food but
many kinds of materials, such as cotton, wool, hides, and lumber, while
much of the unimproved land was either in farm wood-lots, or in rough
range pasture. Of course the kinds and amounts of produce per acre
vary with the climate, particularly with sunshine and rainfall; possibly
the proportion of the area of the United States that is true desert and
infertile mountain land is greater than that of any other equal area in the
temperate zones. The actual productive capacity per acre of the lands of
America cannot be expressed in a very helpful way as a general

average per acre, but each area must be carefully studied in respect to
its climate, rainfall, and possibility of irrigation and drainage. It is
evident that a very large number of economic problems must arise in
connection with the land supply for food: such as problems of
land-ownership, taxation, irrigation, drainage, forestry, and
encouragement or limitation of population. We are just beginning to
awaken to the needs in this direction.
The rivers, lakes, and ocean waters near our coasts are other great
sources of food, but no statistics are available to show adequately their
yield. Few of them are in private possession and they do not appear at
all in a total of "capitals," yet they are more important to the nation than
a large part of the land area. They are only beginning to be developed
artificially by the propagation of oysters, clams, and fish. The
development of a proper policy in this matter is one of our economic
problems.
There were in 1910 (mostly on farms) about 64,000,000 beef and dairy
cattle, 60,000,000 swine, 56,000,000 sheep and goats, and there were
raised in the one year nearly 500,000,000 fowls of all kinds.
§ 9. #The sources of heat, light, and power#. The law of the
conservation of energy expresses the fundamental likeness of heat, light,
and power. The principal sources from which man derives these
agencies are coal and falling waters, tho wood is of importance as fuel
in some localities. About 500,000 square miles of land (about 13 per
cent of the area of the country) are underlaid with coal. These deposits
are widely distributed, so that nearly every part of the country is within
500 miles of a mine. The enormous deposits if used at the present
amounts per year would last probably 2,000 to 4,000 years, but if used
at the present increasing rate (doubling the product every ten years)
they would, it has been estimated, last but 150 years. What shall be the
actual rate as between these extremes is a question whose answer
depends on our economic legislation as to ownership, exploitation,
prices, use, and substitution. This is another of our important
socio-economic problems.
The one great available substitute for coal as a source of heat and light

and power is water power. It is estimated that in 1908 but 5,400,000
horse power was being developed from water falls, whereas about
37,000,000 primary horse power[6] was available; but, by the storage
of flood waters so as to equalize the flow, at least 100,000,000 horse
power, and possibly double that amount, could be developed. As it
requires ten tons of coal to develop one horse power a year in a steam
engine by present methods, there is here a potential substitute for coal
equal to two to four times our present annual use of coal (about
500,000,000 tons in 1912).
But this does not mean that it would be economical, at present costs of
mining coal and of building reservoirs, to make this substitution now.
To determine when, how far, and by what methods to develop this
water power from lakes and rivers for the use of the people and to make
this substitution, is another of our great economic problems.
Petroleum and natural gas,