The Conecuh and Choctawatchee are shal low streams of the Coastal Plain, used for float ing rafts of logs to the Gulf. Alabama is classed as one of the four great river States of the United States. Its streams furnish steam navigation for nearly 3,000 miles.
Lying between parallels. 31-35, the State has a range of climate from temperate in the northern mountainous portion, to semi tropical in the low-lying counties of the south ern part bordering the Gulf. The annual mean temperature for the entire State is ; average rainfall, 52 inches. Throughout the State there is an average of six months with out frost. All the climate conditions favor the growth of cotton, corn, peanuts and other leguminous plants.
All the Appalachian formations are found here in three divisions : (1) A north west section showing subcarboniferous lime stone masses and coal measures, with strata practically horizontal. (2) A northeast sec tion having metamorphic and calcareous rocks, —Silurian quartzites, marbles, granites and gneisses, the strata often broken into masses of clay interlaminated with quartz seams; the Coosa and Cahaba coal fields showing strata of sandstones, conglomerates, shales and coal beds. (3) A southern section, part of the Gulf Coastal Plain, having drift beds over Creta ceous and Tertiary rocks. The angle between the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers is rich in fossil remains of the Tertiary Age. Consult Geologic Map published by Geological Survey of Ala bama.
The soils are (1) residual, and (2) sedimentary. The residual soils, being derived from underlying rocks, vary from clay to sand, according to the substratum. The Coosa and Tennessee valleys underlaid with limestone are overlaid with fertile red clay, while the adjacent highlands are covered with sandy soil varying in color. The Coastal Plain is composed of many overlapping strata of sedimentary ma terial, limestone, sandstone, clay, each outcrop ping stratum being overlaid with its appropriate soil. Overlying the western and southern part of the State is the remnant of a mantle of sand, gravel and loam in the form of gravelly hills of moderate fertility, but chiefly forested. Be tween the northern mountainous region and the southern plain lies an inner lowland extend ing across the State from east to west. This shallow trough, about 25 miles in width, has been eroded out of the belt of chalky limestone of the Cretaceous deposits, the rock of which has weathered into a dark soil of great depth and fertility. This lowland is the famous Black Belt, having a soil of enduring quality. Most of the rivers of the lowlands have made flood plains of rich alluvial soil.
is the chief branch of the fishing industry, an average an nual yield being 535,000pounds valued at $168,
500. Red snappers, catfish, mullet and shrimp also furnish profitable yields. The average annual value of the total product of the Ala bama fisheries amounts to $387,000.
Minerals and The mineral wealth of the State is enormous, practically all of it lying in (1) and (2) of the geologic regions. The advantage of vast coal, iron, limestone and dolomite (magnesian limestone) deposits lying close together has within the past 20 years raised the State from an almost purely agricultural section to one of the chief manufacturing districts of the Union with its centre at Birmingham. It is said that iron products can be manufactured more cheaply there than anywhere else because of the prox imity of coal, iron and fluxing material. The mineral wealth of Alabama lies chiefly in her rich deposits of coal and iron ore. The former brings her two-thirds of her annual income from mines and quarries, and the latter about one-fourth. Beyond the first value of these raw materials, however, they form the bases of two thriving industries — the manufacture of pig iron and of coke — through both of which the State takes high rank among the mineral-work ing States in the Union. In 1916 Alabama produced 5,976,018 tons of iron ore, which, though it amounted to only about 8 per cent of the total yield of the whole country, placed the State in third place among the iron ore pro ducers — following Minnesota and Michigan— and the yield was five times as much as that of Wisconsin, the fourth in rank in that industry. The incompleteness of the returns for 1916 of the mineral industries of Alabama at this writ ing (October 1917) makes it necessary to revert to the record of 1915 for a unified statement. In 1915, then, the production of raw mineral substances in the State reached a total value of $29,457,407. This was distributed as follows: Coal Stp,o66.043 Iron 6,70,a6d Clay products r,rge,ossi Clamant 891.183 Marble and other stone 719,452 Line 250,227 Sand and gravel 242.336 Graphite 204.572 Miscellaneous 924026 Some of these items, as the clay products, cement and lime, are advanced by treatment beyond the raw stage; the stone is more or less dressed before being placed on the market ; and the graphite is milled.. But it is the custom of the Geological Survey to enumerate such pro ductions among the mineral products of the several States and this practice is followed here. A very considerable secondary value, arising from the conversion of coal into coke, and of iron ore into pig iron should be noted, as inseparably connected with the mineral out put of the State. In 1915 the pig iron pro duced was valued at $23,757,124; and the coke production was valued at $8,505,555.