ALABAMA OF TO-DAY 



LiH'TER FROM HoN. R, R, PoOLE, COMMISSIONER OF AGRICUL- 

 TURE AND Industries, to Gov. W. D. Jelks, in sub- 

 mitting THE PUBLICATION. 



Montgomery, Ala., March, 1906. 



To His Excellency, Hon. W. D. Jelks, 



Governor of Alabama. 



Sir: — I submit herewith the pubHcation, presenting in a 

 measure, the resources and development of Alabama during my 

 administration of the office of Commissioner of Agriculture 

 and Industries, a publication authorized and directed by act of 

 the Legislature. 



The difficulty in compiling a publication which will, even in 

 a degree, present the splendid natural resources. of the State, 

 or adequately portray the wonderful mineral and agricultural 

 development of Alabama in the past six years, must present 

 itself to every man at all conversant with conditions in our 

 State. The best that we may do with a limitation of space as 

 well as of finance, is to set down in type some information that 

 bears upon the unusual richness of Alabama and picture some 

 few of the most remarkable developments of recent years. 



That Alabama, starting late in life, has, in the development 

 of her unparallelled mineral resources, outstripped her sisters 

 of the Union until she is now second in the sisterhood of 

 States in the production of iron and third in the production of 

 coal, may be known to the informed Alabamian, but it is not a 

 matter of knowledge to the general public out of the State or 

 in the State for that matter. Nor is the continued rapid ex- 

 ploitation of our buried treasurers of coal and iron, a develop- 

 ment that will in time place Alabama at the head of the iron 

 making and coal producing States of the Union, known as It 

 should be known. 



