198 THF, ALAP.AMA OPPORTUNITY. 



cecded $179,000,000 in kjoo. Negroes owned or operated 

 94,000 farins, representing- one-fourtli of the entire value. 

 Elevation controls the soil and vegetation of the different sec- 

 tions. The Tennessee V'alley has a dee]), red, caleareen soil ; 

 the mineral belt a red or gray loam, with a heavy clay subsoil; 

 the cotton belt the deep black loam, and ])esides cotton, are well 

 adapted to corn, tobacco, wheat, potatoes, and green forage 

 for cattle. The last census puts Alabama fourth among the 

 cotton-producing States, with ^n.cpo.ooo ])ounds of cotton, 

 valued at $43,768,000; which, with cotton seed, $7,808,000; 

 a total of $51,756,000. Cotton is grown in every county, and 

 35 per cent, of improved lands is devoted to its cultivation. 

 Corn is the most important cereal, ()0 per cent, of the area 

 devoted to grain bi'ing given to it. The haw sweet potatoes, 

 sugar-cane, rice, oat and wheat crops are also of nuich import- 

 ance. Rice is now being extensively raised in the soutliern 

 portion of the State, and is an industr\ that is raiiidly on the 

 increase. 



MANUFACTURING. 



Manufacturing enterprises are coming to the raw material, 

 and they find it in the fields and forests and beneath the sur- 

 face in Alabama. Imv^ui i8()0 to 1900 there was a gain of near- 

 ly i)0 per cent, in manufacturing establishments, an 1 in i()00 

 there were 5,C)Oi) in the State, where less than 3 ])jr cent, of 

 the ])()pnlation is em])loye(l. The gross value of manufactures 

 v.as nearly $83,000,000, of which leading industries showed an 

 output of 80 ]X'r cent., or $67.000,000 ; j)ig iron is the main 

 product of iron and steel, and in i860 the value of the pig iron 

 output was less than $65,000; in 1880 it was $1,405,000; and 

 in 1900 it had reached the enormous amount of more than 

 $13,465,000, supplying most of the pig iron used by English 

 manufacturers'. Alabama is the largest producer of foundrv 

 iron, making railway cars and car wheels, cast iron pipes, 

 stoves, engines, and boilers. In 1900 Alabama had more than 

 cne-tenth of the whole number of active blast furnaces in the 

 United States. The annual cut of lumber is several hundred 

 million feet; Mobile exporting 140,000,000 feet alone. The 

 tanning and finishing of leather has increased tenfold in the 

 past ten vears, and Alabama is destined to be one of the fore- 



