THE ALABAMA OPPORTUNITY. 



199 



most manufacturing States in the near future. Commercia! 

 fertilizers are also one of the leading industries, being manufac- 

 tured in large quantities to meet demands of cotton growers. 



COTTON. 



Cotton is the main crop, and is grown over the entire State ; 

 the State has 56 cotton mills, 25 of which make cloth of some 

 kind, the remainder being confined to making of yarn ; the 

 value of the cotton mills is nine and a half million dollars, 

 employing six thousand laborers, their daily wages being about 

 $3,900, or $1,200,000 a year. The mills of the State spin about 

 three hundred thousand bales of cotton, of which one hundred 

 thousand bales are made into cloth. The manufactured cotton 

 products are valued at $28,000,000 a year. If the total crop 

 of eleven million bales were manufactured here, the total value 

 would be increased to over one hundred million dollars ; 

 bringing forty million dollars' more into the State than now 

 comes from the sale and manufacture of the staple in Alabama. 

 The quality of the staple made here is good, and commands 

 the highest market prices. 



