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Mineral Ores and Water Power 



THE SOUTH'S spacious storehouse of raw materials 

 is so surprisingly stocked with metals and minerals, it 

 dumbfounds even the boasters of the old chamber-of- 

 commerce school. We do not commonly think of Texas 

 as second among the states of the Union in the output 

 of minerals, and few would guess that West Virginia 

 stands fourth, or Kentucky, ninth. 



Each year nearly a third of the country's total mineral 

 wealth comes from the thirteen Southern states, adding 

 some two and one-half billion dollars annually to the 

 income side of the South's budget. Southern production 

 of several minerals conspicuously important in modern 

 industry dominates the market. All industrially impor- 

 tant minerals produced in the United States are found 

 in greater or less quantities in the South. 



Sulfur, the source of sulfuric acid, that old war-horse 

 of all chemical operations, and helium, the lightweight, 

 nonflammable gas so essential for lighter-than-air avia- 

 tion, are strictly Southern monopolies. Phosphates, one 

 of the three essential plantfood elements, come almost 



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