The Chairman of the Committee will appreciate your suggestions on the following points: (1) the possibility of establishing a state council in your state; (2) the persons who should cooperate in this movement in your state; (3) methods of increasing an interest in geography-teaching in your state; (4) methods of financing the small but necessary expense of correspondence; (5) any other pertinent suggestions. The inaugurating committee discussed various methods of organization and deemed it inadvisable to attempt, at present, the holding of national meetings. It is hoped that at opportune times this will be possible in connection with such organizations as the National Education Association, The Association of American Geographers, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It is believed that such an organization as proposed will promote the ends desired in an efficient way. An early reply will be appreciated. Geo. J. Miller, State Normal School, Mankato, Minn., Chairman. R. H. Whitbeck, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. Charles R. Dryer, Fort Wayne, Ind. Inaugurating Committee." We believe that this movement is fraught with large possibilities. Every school man knows how genuinely school geography needs improvement. Everybody knows that such improvement can come only through the persistent organized effort of many people in many places. The splendid work accomplished by the History Teachers Association is an example of what efficient organized effort can do. History is now one of the major lines of study in every high school; strong courses of study have been worked out, bibliographies have been prepared, a magazine is supported-financially assisted by the American Historical Society-and well-trained teachers are being supplied. The History Teachers Association, like the English Teachers Association and others in their own fields, is both directly and indirectly a powerful factor for the strengthening of history-teaching in the schools. Geography in the high school is not gaining ground at present, partly because it has not the benefit of such an organization. While it would have been better if a national organization of geography teachers had been formed ten years ago, yet, we may feel gratified that it is now making such headway. A FAVORABLE TIME For a number of reasons the present is a favorable time to initiate the movement for a national organization. The rapid growth of courses in geography in the colleges, particularly in the Middle West, means an increasing supply of qualified teachers. On the popular side, the enormous membership of the National Geographic Society, with its circulation of 400,000 maga zines a month, cannot fail to develop a widespread interest in geographical reading. There is no doubt that this is helping school geography by interesting the family in the subject. On the scientific side, the cooperative work of the American Geographical Society and the Association of American Geographers is full of promise, a promise made all the more encouraging by the addition of Professor Isaiah Bowman to the staff of the American Geographical Society. With three men like Mr. C. C. Adams, Mr. W. L. G. Joerg and Professor Bowman devoting themselves to the American Geographical Society's service, and particularly with the substantial sort of support which is behind them, results of nationwide significance are inevitable. The generous terms upon which this society invited the co-operation of the Association of American Geographers, and the broad-gauge plans which the society is formulating, give a suggestion of splendid things to follow. There has been in recent years a notable growth of state and city geographical societies and geographical clubs, Colorado being the latest addition. to the group. The geographical lecture courses maintained in Washington by the National Geographic Society are so largely attended that each lecture is given both afternoon and evening, in order to accommodate the people who desire to attend. These are some of the evidences that the time is favorable for the organization of a National Council of Geography Teachers. It is not desirable to multiply educational gatherings; perhaps they are already too numerous. What seems to be needed is a central National Council, not too large, made up of the leaders of geography in each state. The members of this Council should be men and women who have vision and enthusiasm; men and women who will gather around them the geography teachers of their respective states, and unite them in a whole-hearted, sustained campaign for better school geography. The study may be given a content rich in human worth, but only by a teacher who has gone far enough into the science to see and feel its worth as an instrument of education. The really effective work of the national organization must be done through state, city, and local organizations. The effectiveness of its efforts will depend upon getting state councilmen who will find in their states persons to take definite responsibility. The real work of uplifting geographyteaching is of two kinds: First, a certain kind of publicity through the educational press, an awakening of school men to the fact that an old study is taking on new life and must be reckoned with. This will lead to a demand for teachers who are qualified to put new life into an old and somewhat neglected study. This change will come slowly but it will come. The second phase of the work lies in improving the facilities for training geography teachers. A very substantial improvement in this line is in progress in the colleges and universities. Professor Dodge's investigation* indicates *Teachers College Record, Mar., 1914, Vol. XV, No. 2, and Journal of Geography, April, 1915, Vol. XIII, p. 257. that the normal schools are still doing too little for geography. The pressure upon these schools from all directions is very severe, but geography is entitled to at least a one-year course in every normal school, and eventually it will get it, if the school principals and superintendents call for properly prepared teachers. They will call for such teachers when public educational sentiment suggests it. The new National organization must awaken this sentiment. There are several educational periodicals in each of the more populous states. Their columns are always open to any worthy movement. The National Council should find men to write geographical articles for these periodicals. The state councils should see that geography is adequately represented on the programs of state and county teachers' associations. Five years of such effort will work a big change in geography-teaching in the progressive schools of the country. Mr. Miller is in correspondence with men in 38 of the states. In 13 states, national councilmen have been selected; in several of these, state organizations have been formed or are being formed. Mr. Miller writes (March 25) that Ohio, Kentucky, and part of California and Pennsylvania will organize in April. The Journal of Geography is glad to place itself at the service of the new organization and to offer its hearty co-operation. EXCURSION TO ALASKA ROFESSOR Lawrence Martin is planning to conduct a party for sum mer field work in Alaska, stopping on the way at the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, the fault lines near San Francisco, and the California exposition. The trip is open to students from other universities and to teachers of geography and geology. It will start the middle of June or first of July for about 2 months. Most of the time will be spent in camp along the fiords and in studying the glaciers of southeastern Alaska, including the Muir, Grand Pacific, Johns Hopkins, and other ice tongues in Glacier Bay near the base of Mt. Fairweather (15,000 feet high), and the Taku, Norris, Eagle, Herbert, Mendenhall, Davidson, Denver, Sawyer, Dawes, Baird, Patterson, LeConte, and the Great Glacier of the Stikine. Examination of faults and other structures in the sedimentary rocks at the border of the coast range batholith, especially in relation to the origin of the fiords. Visits to gold mines, copper mines, marble quarries, gypsum mines, salmon canneries, native villages with totem poles, etc. Possible ascent of Mt. Edgecumbe, a dormant volcano near Sitka. Trip over Canadian Coast Range on White Pass & Yukon Railway. Students without previous training may work for credit in elementary geology and physical geography, while advanced students can take up special problems in physiography, structural geology, stratigraphy, and glacial phenomena. Party limited to 10 men. Total cost probably $500 to $600. For further information address Prof. Lawrence Martin, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. Ο THE EARTH PRODUCTS OF KANSAS By W. J. Sutherland Normal School, Platteville, Wis. NE has only to travel over the "Sun Flower" state to become convinced of the importance of her natural resources. Her soils are rich and her fields of corn and alfalfa, her great cattle ranches and her "fields of wheat so full and fair" give evidence of prosperity and plenty. The following sketch, however, will deal with those resources that are hidden from one's eye as he crosses the state on any one of the great railroads that climb the gentle slopes of the Great Plains. It has to do with the coal, the lead and zinc, the oil, the gas, the salt, the gypsum, the building stones, and valuable clays which are not apparent to the eye and yet are of great value and add to the wealth and importance of the state. COAL The coal fields of Kansas are in the eastern part and cover about 15,000 square miles. The mines that are now being worked are in the southeastern part of the state, in Labette, Cherokee, Crawford, and Bourbon counties. This region produces two-thirds of all the coal mined in the state at the present time. The Cherokee shales contain the largest coal beds in Kansas. It is well known that coal is of vegetable origin. During the coal-forming periods vegetation grew in great abundance and attained gigantic proportions. A subsidence of the earth's crust permitted the sea to encroach upon the land; swamp vegetation flourished; giant lepidodendrids and sigillarids fell in tangled masses and were covered by the muds and sands; there they formed beds of peat which later turned into coal. Again the land was lifted, the waters receded, vegetation appeared, and the whole phenomenon of coal formation was repeated. So it often happens that numbers of coal beds are found varying greatly in thickness and in depth. OIL AND GAS Oil and gas are very important natural resources of Kansas. There are several theories relating to their origin, the one most tenable at present being the organic theory. This theory holds that these substances are products of partial decomposition or destructive distillation of organic matter under water or impervious rocks, and hence away from the oxygen of the air. A familiar example of such a phenomenon is the formation of marsh gas in swamps. Life was abundant in the ancient inland sea, and marine remains formed an ooze on the sea-floor, and this ooze in time hardened into rock. If the resulting rocks were later covered with an impervious stratum, the organic remains would, by the process of distillation, be converted into oil and gas. It often happens that lateral pressure on the earth's crust causes the strata to warp or bend in gentle folds. This condition of porous strata containing marine remains, capped by an impervious layer, is highly favorable to the accumulation of oil and gas. Porous limestone or sandstone strata contain water, oil, and gas. Water, being heavier than oil, will collect in the downward folds or synclines. The gas will rise to the highest level and occupy the upward folds or anticlines. Between the water and gas, in the strata that dip away from the axis of the anticline, will be found the oil. The Midcontinental oil and gas field is one of the most productive in the United States. This field lies in Kansas and Oklahoma. At the height of production in 1905 Kansas produced 12,000,000 barrels of crude oil, besides furnishing natural gas by means of pipe lines to 125 cities and towns, including Kansas City, Atchison, Leavenworth, Lawrence, and Topeka. Practically all of this oil and gas comes from the Lower Carboniferous strata of Allen, Wilson, Neosho, Montgomery, and Chautauqua counties. LEAD AND ZINC The lead and zinc deposits of Kansas are in the extreme southeastern part of the state. They are deposits in the Mississippian strata of the Ozark region. Galena, Kansas, takes its name from lead-sulphide (PbS), as does Galena, Illinois. The Galena region has been one of the rich producers of the Joplin-Galena district. For the past fifteen years the value of its combined output of lead and zinc has varied annually from $1,000,000 to $5,000,000. The origin and mode of occurrence of these minerals are interesting studies. There is little doubt that they were produced from water-solution. "If there was a small amount of lead and zinc in formations which at one time rested upon the present rocks containing ore, and if these formations were removed by ordinary process of erosion, then the little particles of the sulphide of lead, iron, copper, etc., would become oxidized and rendered soluble and would be carried downward by movements of surface waters, only to be precipitated again in a more concentrated form in the lower-lying crevices and openings." GYPSUM AND SALT Another valuable mineral resource of Kansas is gypsum, commercially important as fertilizer, and as the raw material from which plaster of Pariscement plaster-is made. The oldest rock formations of Kansas are of economic importance because they all bear minerals which add much to the value of the natural resources of the state. 1. The Mississippian formations bear deposits of lead and zinc. 2. The Carboniferous formations bear deposits of coal, oil, and gas. 3. The Permian formations bear deposits of gypsum, salt, and clay. Gypsum is formed by the concentration of ocean water. Time was when a part of the coast of our continent was coincident with the eastern boundary of Kansas. Ripple marks found in the shales and coals give evidence of shallow coastal waters. At the close of the Carboniferous times a long arm of the Gulf of Mexico extended far north into the great plateau region, its eastern shore being approximately the east boundary of Kansas. A steady but slow |