CURRENT GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. INDUSTRIES Of Nice and the Riviera The most important commercial and industrial undertaking in the Department of the Maritime Alps is the perfume industry. The trade in essential oils, concretes, enfleuraged greases, and other primary articles of perfume is centered around Grasse, where there are 60 factories and where over 2,500 persons are employed-this does not include the horticulturists, who cultivate flowers for the factories. Last year witnessed no noticeable advancement in the industry, nor were any new methods introduced. The value of the perfume and primary articles manufactured in 1913 was about $6,500,000, but the competition of the synthetical product has reduced the profits of natural perfume. The crops of violets, jasmines, and orange flowers were abundant, while roses were scarce, but the average market value of the essences produced from these flowers has remained practically the same, with the exception of the oil of geranium, which sold at $6 or $7 a pound-this essence sold for $2.50 a pound in 1910, and from present indications it will fall below $4 in 1914. American perfumers bought large supplies of essential oils before the new tariff act went into effect. The floral industry is carried on by horticulturists the year round. In the spring and summer months they furnish flowers for the perfume factories at Grasse, and in the winter they ship the blossoms to the northern cities. This industry within the past few years has developed to such an extent that during the winter season two special flower trains daily connect the Riviera with the large cities of the north. The estimated value of the flowers raised on the Riviera in 1913 was $12,000,000. Those destined for distant points are packed in willow baskets weighing 6 to 12 pounds each, and then sent by parcel post. About 2,200,000 baskets were shipped in 1913. According to the latest available statistics (1910), there were over 700 gardens, employing over 20,000 hands, and using an area of 20,000 acres. Within the last three years this acreage has considerably increased. The amounts of the various flowers used in 1913 by the perfume factories at Grasse were 4,000 tons of violets, 800 tons of mimosa, 15,000 tons of roses and orange flowers, 12,000 tons of jasmines, 3,000 tons of tube roses, 1,000 tons of acacias, 1,500 tons of carnations, 600 tons of mignonette, and 500 tons of jonquils, including other flowers in small quantities, making an estimated total of at least 45,000 tons used annually in the perfume industry.— [Daily Consular and Trade Reports.] GERMAN TRADE IN A BELGIAN PORT Before the war Antwerp exported more German products than Hamburg and Bremen together.-[Ivan Assada in La Geographie, April, 1913.] THE NEW YORK BARGE CANAL The enlargement of the old Erie Canal has now been under way for more than ten years, and it is expected that the Barge Canal will be opened to traffic sometime during 1915. The dimensions chosen include locks 45 by 328 feet capacity, and the standard barge to pass through the canal will be of 2,000 tons capacity, carrying 100,000 bushels of wheat-exactly 100 times the capacity of the barges used on the original Erie Canal. The Engineer's Office has even considered plans for a barge of 3,000 tons capacity, but it is yet somewhat uncertain whether the full dimensions will be profitably utilized by so large a craft. The depth of the canal over lock sills is 12 feet; the minimum bottom width in earth section is 75 feet; surface width 123 feet. In rock section the bottom width is 94 feet and in river section 200 feet. It is over 6 times longer than the Panama Canal. The eastern terminus is at the Government dam and lock at Troy, now under construction, and replacing the old State dam at that point. The pool created by this dam receives the flow from both the upper Hudson and the Mohawk Rivers, which together drain the southern slope of the Adirondacks. The Mohawk River flows over the fall line at Cohoes just before it enters the Hudson, and from these falls, the largest in the state, a great water power is developed for the industries of the surrounding district. Tide level exists in the Hudson River as far as the Government dam at Troy. The Federal Government is now at work on a channel improvement project from Troy, passing by Albany, and running as far as Hudson-about 40 miles altogether-in which the channel is to be deepened to 12 feet, standardizing with the Barge Canal. Below Hudson as far as the port of New York the river has sufficient natural depth and width for all commercial requirements. In order to reach the river bed above the Cohoes Falls, the Barge Canal ascends by a series of five great concrete locks, rising from 15 feet, the level of the dam breast at Troy, to 184 feet. The Barge Canal ascends from the Crescent level of 184 feet, by eight movable dams, to the Utica level of 404 feet. Passing through the town of Little Falls, the most expensive work on the Barge Canal system was undertaken. At this point the river flows through a narrow rocky gorge, and the new channel had to be blasted from the solid rock and the around the falls made by a single great concrete lock, with the conside: of any canal lock in the world, 40 feet 6 inchesat of any single lock on the Panama Canal. From connects with Oswego on Lake Ontario, descendlake level of 244 feet. is left to one side by the new Barge Canal, o that city. West of Syracuse the central lake system, including especially Seneca and Cayuga Lakes, is to be connected with the Barge Canal. From the Seneca and Cayuga level all the way to Lake Erie, with very few exceptions, the Barge Canal follows the line of the old Erie Canal. The greatest engineering work of this western section is at Lockport where the Canal ascends from the Ontario to the Erie level over the so-called Niagara escarpment. The original Erie Canal made this climb at Lockport by a double flight of five locks cut in the solid rock, or ten locks altogether. For the new Barge Canal one side of this double flight is left intact for the passage of small craft in local service, while the second flight has been entirely removed and replaced by a new flight of two locks of the modern dimensions for the passage of the standard barges. The second section of the system connects the Hudson River above Troy with Lake Champlain, and from the lower or northern end of Lake Champlain the traffic descends by the Richelieu River to tide water in the St. Lawrence in Canada, at a point midway between Montreal and Quebec. Terminal Facilities. In connection with this great canal system, the State is also constructing public canal terminals at numerous trade centers for handling the canal traffic. Such terminals especially will be located at Tonawanda on the Erie level, and at Rochester, Syracuse, Oswego, Rome, Utica, Schenectady, Troy and Albany and in New York City. The total cost of the Barge Canal System will approximate $120,000,000, and that of the terminals $20,000,000. Under the constitution and laws in the State of New York, the Canal System and all its terminals are unconditionally free to the public without tolls or terminal charges. A few figures on the New York Barge Canal are appended: Oneida Lake, additional 19 miles. Syracuse and Rochester spurs, 10 miles. Champlain Branch, 61 miles. 11 locks. Oswego Branch, 23 miles. 7 locks. Cayuga and Seneca Branch, 27 miles. 4 locks. Cayuga and Seneca Lakes, 65 miles. New dams, 28. Old dams with new crests, 6. Old dams used without change, 5. Bridges, 199. Maximum barge capacity utilizing full lock width, 3,000 tons. Ordinary barge capacity built for two to pass in channel and for two traveling tandem to be locked at one lockage, 1500 tons. Construction work began in April, 1905.-[Abstracted from Commercial America.] SUPPLEMENTARY LIST OF MATERIAL ON GEOGRAPHY which may be obtained free or at small cost. By Mary Josephine Booth, Librarian BIBLIOGRAPHY Commercial and agricultural organizations of the United States, 1913. Miscellaneous ser. 8. Foreign and domestic commerce bur. Wash. Senate doc. 1109. 62nd cong. 3rd sess. or, Sup't of doc. Wash. 15c. Commercial organizations in southern and western cities by G. W. Doonan. 1914. Special agents ser. 79. Foreign and domestic commerce bur. Wash. or, Sup't of doc. Wash. 10c. These two lists of commercial organizations are useful in obtaining names and addresses of chambers of commerce and commercial clubs. They do not list publications. Geography, in Frederick K. Noyes, Teaching material in government publications. pp 32-44. 1913. Bull. 1913, no. 47. Bur. of educ. Wash. or, Sup't of doc. Wash. 10c. Includes physical, political and commercial geography and maps. PERIODICALS The earth, monthly. The earth, 1118 Railway exchange, Chic. 25c a year. *General Directions. Publications of this description are usually issued in the form of well-illustrated pamphlets and, with little expense, will supplement the books on geography used in the class room. They come from several sources, the United States government, the different state governments, railways, steamship lines, manufacturing firms, and chambers of commerce of cities and towns. To find where material of this sort may be obtained requires both time and effort. Each month consult the Monthly Catalogue of United States Public Documents, and the Monthly List of State Publications, both published by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C. Read the advertisements of railways and of steamship companies appearing in magazines and newspapers, which often offer to send descriptive booklets free or for postage. These advertisements change with the seasons and in the course of a year will include almost all parts of the world. In the columns of Public Libraries, The Library Journal, The Wisconsin Library Bulletin, and other periodicals are often found items giving the names of recent pamphlets. Write to your congressman for any desired pamphlets published by the United States government. If he has copies at his disposal, he will send them free, but if not, the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, will supply them for the price stated in this list. The publications of the Pan-American Union may also be obtained free from your congressman. Address the proper department for the state publications, enclosing postage. Write to railways and steamship lines giving the names of the pamphlets desired and enclose postage. If you want to obtain the most recent material, write for a list of publications and choose the ones needed, for new booklets are being frequently issued. Because of the ephemeral nature of many of these publications certain titles given in this list may even now be out of print. Frequently new booklets will be issued to replace them and on this account it is usually better, when writing for a certain title, to add a request for "other similar publications." REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY AFRICA, WEST Colonial west Africa (with map). 1912. Elder Dempster & Co. ltd. Colonial house, Liverpool, England or, 6 St. Sacrament st. Montreal, Canada. 1s. Also other publications. Handbook of information for passengers of the Deutsche Ost-Afrikalinie. 1914. Tourist office, Hamburg-Amer. line, N. Y. or, Ellis, Kislingbury & Co. 4 St. Mary Axe E. C. Lond. ALABAMA Jefferson county and Birmingham Alabama. merce, Birmingham. Also other publications. 1911. Chamber of com Mobile, Alabama. n. d. Chamber of commerce and business league, Mobile. Also other publications. ALASKA Alaska fisheries and fur industries in 1913. (annual). 1914. Doc. 797. Bur. of fisheries, Wash. Alaska, our frontier wonderland. 1914. Alaska bur. Seattle chamber of commerce, Seattle, Wash. 10c. General information regarding Alaska. 1914. Interior dep't, Wash. County and city superintendents of schools may be able to obtain several copies of the material in this list and keep it in a convenient place for the use of teachers under their direction. The first edition of this list was published in the Wisconsin Library Bulletin for January-February, 1912. A revised list was published in the Journal of Geography, January, 1914, a number of the new titles having been suggested by Miss Adelaide R. Hasse, Chief, Public Documents Department, New York Public Library. It was reprinted by the American Library Association Publishing Board, 78 East Washington Street, Chicago. The new titles in this list are largely pamphlets issued by commercial clubs and chambers of commerce. Certain titles are the same as printed in the Journal of Geography, January 1914, but some change has been made in price, frequency of publication, or address. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS The usual abbreviations of states and months are used. |