ific development.

=Geographic distribution of iron ore production.= Iron ores are widely
distributed over the world, but are produced and smelted on a large
scale only in a few places where there is a fortunate conjunction of
high grades, large quantity, proximity of coal, cheap transportation to
markets, and manufacturing enterprise. Over 90 per cent of the iron ore
production of the world is in countries bordering the North Atlantic
basin. The United States produces about 40 per cent, France about 12 per
cent, England about 10 per cent, Germany before the war 15 to 20 per
cent, and Spain, Russia, and Sweden each about 5 per cent. Lesser
producing countries are Luxemburg, Austria-Hungary, Cuba, Newfoundland,
and Algeria; and insignificant amounts are produced in many other parts
of the world. Of the world's iron and steel manufacturing capacity, the
United States has about 53 per cent, Germany 16 per cent, England 14 per
cent, France 10 per cent, the remainder of Europe (chiefly Russia,
Austria-Hungary, and Belgium) 7 per cent. The absence of important iron
ore production and of iron and steel manufacture either in the southern
hemisphere or in any of the countries bordering the Pacific is a
significant feature, when we remember what part iron plays in modern
civilization. Japan, however, is beginning to develop a considerable
iron and steel industry, which promises to use a large amount of ore
from China, Manchuria, and Korea, and possibly to compete in American
Pacific Coast markets.

In the United States about 85 per cent of the production, or one-third
of the world's production, comes from the Lake Superior region, a large
part of the remainder from the Birmingham district, Alabama, and smaller
quantities from the Adirondacks. For the rest of the North American
continent, the only largely producing deposit is that at Belle Isle,
Newfoundland, which is the basis of the iron industry of eastern Canada.
Cuba supplies some ore to the east coast of the United States.

In Europe there are only three large sources of high-grade iron ore
which have heretofore been drawn on largely,--the magnetite deposits of
northern Sweden, the hematites and siderites of the Bilbao and adjacent
districts of northern Spain, and the magnetite-hematite deposits of
southern Russia. The first two of these ores have been used to raise the
percentage of iron in the low-grade ores which are the principal
reliance of western Europe. The Swedish