In no other country has territorial division of labor developed more rapidly and to a greater extent than in the United States. Here we have a diversity of natural resources, which are utilized to advantage by a people naturally apt and trained above the average. Nowhere else are there, on such a large scale, more fertile farm lands, more productive mines, and more accessible water power. For that reason the United States has become a great manufacturing nation, without losing its position as the leader in agricultural production.

The particular reasons for the superiority of one section over another in any line of industry are fairly easy to understand. In New England, fertile land is scarce, an adequate fuel supply is relatively close at hand, and the population is dense. There we find manufactures. A similar condition exists in New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. The great Mississippi Valley, which is the largest area of fertile land in the world, furnishes foodstuffs in the form of corn, wheat, cattle, and swine. Here also are to be found many manufacturing establishments, for the city population is large and the mineral supply is available and plentiful. The southern and southwestern sections produce cotton; the Pacific Coast, fruit, lumber, and grain; the Rocky Mountain regions, minerals and lumber.