The age-herald., 1902-03-03
Interesting Report Made Up
 from Geological Survey
28O,397 SQUARE MILES
Alabama and Pennsylvania Lie in the Great Appalachian Field and Have Standard Quality of Coal.
 Great Future for South.

| WaSnlngtOn, March 2.-tSpeclaL)-Ih third part of the twenty-second annual report, 19oO-19O1, of the United States 1 Geological Survey, dealing with coal oil and cement, Is now passing through the press. The volume Is the answer to many requests made to the geological survey for information concerning the
 coal supply of the country and Is based
 on geographic. geologic and trade rela-
 tions. The introductory part, by Dr.
 Charles Willard Hayes geologist. dis
 cusses briefly the distribution, develop
 ment, production and markets of the
 coal fields of the United States.
 The total coal areas foot up some
 2S0.397 square miles exclusive of Alaska.
 and exclusive also of vast areas of lig-
 nite coal not strictly comparable with
 the higher grade anthracite and bitumi-
 nous coals. Of this total area approxi-
 mately 55 per cent is probably productive.
 The rank of states in production differs
 greatly from their rank in coal area.
 Thus Pennsylvania, ranking seventh in
 coal area, was easily first in production
 in 1900, with a little over 132,0O0,0O0 short
 tons out of total production of about
 241,J. .0O0 tons. The thing is true
 of the Northern Appalachian field as | whole, which, third in area, ranks first | in tonnage and value of product, a re- l suit due to proximity to market. sufta- 1 bility of coal to fuel requirements and 1 relative quantity of workable coal per l square mile of productive area. The l anthracite field consists of several long, l nn Gi n PppnSVlVania Several small basins of Triasslc rocks in
 the Piedmont region of Virginia and 1 North Carolina, containing an aggregate 1 of about 1000 square miles, are coal bearing
 The Appalachian Field.
 The Appalachian field, sub-divided into northern and southern, extends from northern Pennsylvania $50 miles to cen tral Alabama, embracing portions of l nine states, and containing approximate I ly 70,SOO square miles, of which about 75 l per cent. contains workable coal. The northern interior field lies wholly within
 the state of Michigan with an area of | approximately OOO square miles The
 eastern interior field, lying in Indiana,
 Illinois and Kentucky, has an area of
 5S,000 square miles. It is estimated that
 about 55 per cent of this area is produc- | tive. The western interior and south ! western fields form a practically contlnu-
 ous belt of coal measure rocks, extending | from northern Iowa southwestward 3S0
 miles to central Texas and embracing
 an area of 94OO0 square miles. The Rocky
 Mountain fields extend from the Cana
 dian border southeastward some 1,2OO 1 miles with a maximum breadth of 300 miles. and aggregate ,610 square miles, l The San Carlos field, Fl Paso County | Texas an the Eagle Pass field. extending from Uvalde County, Texas, 75 miles to
 the Rio Grande and across into Mexico, l properly belong to the Rocky Mountain
 field The Pacific coast coal fields have
 total area of about 1000 square miles,
 with the most important deposits in l Washington, few deposits In extreme l western Oregon and in central and south l ern california.
 The Ignite coal deposits which are not l treated of in this series of papers, brace 56, coo square miles in Montana the | Dakotas and Wyoming; and then, in an l area of about equal extent they run in l narrow belt from the Georgia-Alabama line to the Mississippi, and then west of the Mississippi in a broader belt from Little Rock southwestward through Ar kansas, Louisiana and Texas.
 Well Marked Types.
 The Appalachian field presents certain well-marked types of coal which for par ticular purposes are regarded as stand ard. The coal of the Connellsville dis trict of the Pittsburg bed Is the standard 1 for coking coal, as the Pocahontas coal | of West Virginia is the standard for steam coal. The northern interior field 1 of Michigan contains only bituminous coal, fair steaming fuel. In the eastern l interior field the largest part is a soft | bituminous fairly good steam coal; then | there is the block coal in Indiana; and | also numerous small areas of camel coal
 valuable for gas making and for domes-
 tic purposes, in Kentucky. The coal of l the western interior fields is fairly uni | form in composition and makes fair
 steaming fuel. In the southwestern in-
 terior field the coal varies from a soft | bituminOus in Northern Texas to semi | anthracite in Arkansas. In the Rocky 1 Mountain and Pacific fields the coal va 1 ries from Ignite to anthracite. Owing l to location and character of coal, the northern Appalachian field controls the 1 coal trade of the eastern states, sending 1 its coal to the seaboard by the trunk line | railroads. It competes with the interior l coal fields to the west by way of the l Great Lakes and the trunk line railroads and to the south by way of the Ohio 1 River. The Southern Appalachian field l supplies the South Atlantic and Gulf l States as far west as the Mississippi and l Dr. Hayes thinks this field will in time support a large export trade to Central
 and South American ports. and, after
 the Isthmian canal is built, to Pacific
 coast ports also.
 Northern Markets
 The markets for the coal of the north
 ern and eastern interior fields are chiefly
 within their own limits, and they are 1 in more or less of competition with the | Appalachian coal and with the natural
 gas of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. The
 western interior coal field supplies it's
 own markets and those toward the north
 and west, where 1t must compete with the Rocky Mountain fields The south
 western interior field has but little com petition, except from fuel oil in a large | territory toward the south and west. | Practically all the coal fuel used bv tba
 Southern trans-continental railroads. as
 we'll as the Texas roads, comes from the | North Texas and Indian Territory fields | Considering the entire region between tba