CHAPTER TWELVE
PROBLEMS IN PRIMARY PRODUCTION
In the preceding chapters the chief primary products of the United
States have been studied. We have seen that in addition to fibers
like cotton these fall into certain great classes which give rise to oc-
cupations such as cereal farming, truck farming, sugar raising, fruit
raising, animal raising, fishing, mining, and lumbering. In this
chapter the principles which have been learned in connection with
these occupations will be applied to the study of the primary produc-
tion of other parts of the Western Hemisphere.
(A) SoutH AMERICA
Because of its scanty population, its newness, and the debilitat-
ing climate in many portions, South America is prominent chiefly
in the field of primary production. The continent has little manu-
facturing, and except in some of the great cities in the southern part,
the people buy relatively little from outside; consequently their
trade is of minor importance in the field of consumption. In the
field of transportation also South America is backward, for except in
the south its railway and steamship lines are relatively few in num-
ber and for the most part poorly equipped.
Let us see how the primary products, together with the geograph-
ical conditions, have influenced the growth of cities. Study of the
maps of products and railways in this book, supplemented by refer-
ence to a good elementary geography and to a relief map, will explain
why some South American cities have grown great and others have
remained small.
(1) THE DEVELOPMENT OF SEAPORTS
Where seaports have developed and why. In studying the coast
of South America to find .out where the seaports have developed and
what primary products have especially aided in their growth, we will
start at Ecuador.
From the southern point of the coast of Ecuador to the Isthmus
of Panama, then from the isthmus around to central Brazil, the coast
of South America is almost everywhere bordered by a low plain,
narrow on the west and wide on the east. It is hot, marshy,
forest-clad, and infested with malaria and yellow fever.
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