PREFACE 
THis book is designed for students at any stage during the five 
years or so after they have finished the usual course in elementary 
geography. 
The book has two marked characteristics: First, it is grounded 
on the economic basis expressed in the four terms Primary Production, 
Transportation, Manufacturing, and Consumption. Second, it com- 
bines a large number of stimulating problems with an interesting text 
that guides the pupils and helps them to work out the problems. 
The use of the economic basis is peculiarly effective in reawakening 
the interest of pupils who think that they have already had enough 
geography. Experience shows that it makes them realize the exist- 
ence of great realms which their previous work has not touched. By 
the time the average child has finished the sixth or seventh grade he 
has studied each of the continents twice. Further regional study 
is likely to be irksome, and a really new turn to the subject is needed. 
The study of commercial geography according to the common plan 
of treating one commodity after another gives a new approach, it is 
true. Unfortunately, after a few commodities have been discussed 
the mode of treatment almost inevitably becomes stereotyped; since 
no new principles are brought forward, the pupils lose interest at the 
most critical period. 
The method here employed attacks this difficulty by beginning 
with a geographical treatment of commodities in connection with the 
principles of primary production. Before this has time to become 
tiresome the field of transportation is taken up and a wholly new set 
of principles is introduced. A little later the field of manufacturing 
is introduced, giving a fresh point of view. Finally, the study of the 
field of consumption opens up another field, which maintains the 
student’s interest to the end of the course. 
Interest is also awakened and renewed by means of frequent ques- 
tions, exercises, and problems. These are the result of prolonged 
experiments with normal school students and with classes of children. 
The United States is treated extensively in the problems of every 
chapter, as well as in special chapters. The rest of the world is treated 
more briefly, but each continent receives a special exercise in one of 
the four problem chapters which form the final parts of the four sec- 
tions of the book. Thus material is provided whereby the pupils 
review the regional geography of the whole world, but in such a way 
that it seems to them like a new study, which in fact it is. 
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