MAN'S WORK IN REGIONS OF CYCLONIC STORMS The Location of the Regions of Cyclonic Storms.—In our sur vey of human activities we have now come to the most advanced parts of the world. These are the regions of cyclonic storms. They form two irregular belts. The southern belt includes only the southern part of South America and a small bit of southeastern Australia to gether witlNew Zealand. The northern belt crosses North America and Eurasia at their widest parts. In the western hemisphere it in cludes most of the United States and southern Canada, and in the eastern, most of Europe. The only parts not included are southern Spain, southern Italy, the Balkan Peninsula, and the dry region around the Caspian Sea together with the districts bordering the Arc tic. In Asia the northern cyclonic belt extends into Siberia, where it is followed by the line of the Siberian Railroad, but the cold tundra like regions on the north and the great deserts on the south compress it to such narrow limits that in the far interior it almost disappears. On the eastern coast of Asia, however, it reappears and broadens to include Japan.
Characteristics of a Cyclonic Climate.—Climatically the cyclonic belts have three chief characteristics: (1) Rain falls in moderate abundance at all seasons. (2) The weather is subject to marked changes every few days. These two characteristics are both due to the frequent passage of cyclones followed by anti-cyclones. (3) The seasons are strongly pronounced. The winters are cool or more often cold, and the summers warm or hot. Thus the regions of cyclonic storms are particularly favorable not only to agriculture because of the even distribution of rainfall throughout the year, but to man because of variations of weather both from day to day and from season to season. In the course of a year they experience samples of the climate of almost every part of the world.
The Natural Vegetation of Cyclonic Regions.—The cyclonic regions, in a state of nature, are usually clothed with deciduous forests, but also include the southern fringes of the great coniferous forests of the northern hemisphere. Some parts also consist of grasslands like the prairies. The deciduous forests comprise broad-leaved trees such as the birch, beech, ash, maple, oak, elm, will ()ITV, and poplar. Pines
however, are frequently mixed with them. Such forests prevail in large parts of the eastern United States, England, France, Germany, and neighboring parts of Europe. The variety of the trees is in accord with the variety of crops which can be raised in the cyclonic regions.
The coniferous forests included in the cyclonic area occupy south ern Canada, southern Scandinavia, and central Russia together with certain mountainous sections like Japan.
The grasslands lie in the interior of North America and Eurasia in the same latitude as the deciduous forests. They occur in places where, although rain falls at all seasons, continental influences cause it to be less abundant in winter than in summer. Thus while the American prairies, the plain of Hungary, and parts of the plains of Russia and Siberia have a cyclonic climate favorable for man and agriculture, they are not favorable for trees.
How Cyclonic Regions Dominate Civilization.—Although the regions where cyclonic storms are highly developed occupy only a tenth of the total land surface of the earth, they support a population of 600,000,000 and include the world's most progressive countries, as appears in Fig. 85. This is clear from the following list: , This list includes the only important parts of the world where manufacturing and commerce as well as agriculture are carried on extensively. The inhabitants of the cyclonic regions are so energetic that they raise far more food(thenthose of other regions; they mine most of the minerals, and prepare most of the raw materials. They invent and run the world's machinery, construct its great power plants, and prepare its manufactured goods. They also build rail roads both at home and abroad; they engineer the great tunnels, bridges, and harbor works in every land; and sail their ships to every corner of the seven seas. Moreover, they govern the world, for among them they rule practically all of Africa, and all of Asia except China; while elsewhere their voice is dominant through the League of Nations. All these activities put them in the forefront of civilization.