168 COTTOX CULTURE. 



unless it be the black prairies of Texas, which they very 

 much resemble. They are entirely secure from overflow 

 and quite easy of access both by river navigation and 

 railroad ; at least, the access to Mobile and the Gulf of 

 Mexico is ready. The objection in that regard is, that 

 communication towards the North is circuitous and ex- 

 pensive, and in a few years another serious objection with 

 a company or capitalist that proposes to connect the man- 

 ufacture with the production of cotton, will be the lack 

 of fuel. Coal, said to be bituminous in quality and very 

 excellent, exists in Alabama. " A vein of this coal is first 

 seen," says De Bow in his Industrial Resources, " in the 

 bed of the Black Warrior River, near Tuscaloosa, and pur- 

 sues a north-east direction until it crosses the Alabama and 

 Coosa Rivers at, or just above, their falls, and probably 

 thence passes into Georgia." But the bed has never been 

 worked to any considerable extent, and it is still problem- 

 atical whether it is sufficient in width and dip to furnish 

 large amounts. At present, on the Southern borders of 

 this triangle of land there are extensive forests which, for 

 some years at least, will supply all necessary fuel for man- 

 ufacturing and domestic purposes ; so that the difficulty 

 suggested is by no means formidable or insuperable. It 

 is simply a matter to be taken into consideration by the 

 capitalist, who may be seeking an investment in cotton 

 lands, which shall be in all respects most fortunate and 

 judicious. In the Trans-Mississippi region, that is to say, 

 in the river bottoms and black prairies of Texas, there is 

 presented another large body of superior lands, similar to 

 those of Alabama in the color of the soil, almost identi- 

 cally situated in regard to corhmunication with the Gulf, 

 and capable of satisfying any one as to their depth of loam 

 and the permanence of their fertility. They are some- 

 what larger in extent than those of Alabama, and have 

 the advantage of being virgin soil, the greater part of 

 which has never felt the share. It is less favorably situ- 



