The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-03-27

While making some progress fin the
 manufacturing of cotton, Alabama is still far behind several other of the Southern States in that industry, which might be its second greatest source of wealth. There are now about forty
 small cotton mills with a total of s00,- 900 spindles. The largest mill has 75,- 900 spindles. Thirty-five of the sixty
 seven counties have no mills at all, al- though nearly every one of them pro- duces cotton and has large numbers of
 unemployed and available operatives among the white women and girls.
 There might be mill in every county.
 The needed facilities are offered by
 every one of them. and the people now
 have to send north for their cotton cloth. Last year, out of 1,106,s40 bales
 of cotton produced, only 1so. .990 bales
 were consumed in the State. am told
 that every local mill pays good divi-
 dends although many of them are old
 fashioned.
 According to the calculations of the
 geological survey Alabama has yellow
 pine enough to last twenty-eight years
 longer at the present rate of cutting.
 which averages 1.100.000.o00 feet per
 year. Great fortunes have been made
 In this industry, but as now handled 1t
 is only temperory source of wealth.
 The forests are being utterly devastat- ed, and not only the timber, but the naval stores, turpentine and rosin, go with them. It may be said, of course
 that the cleared timber lands may be
 devoted to agriculture, and it Is true
 that they are being sold in small tracts to incoming farmers from the Northern States. Several counties of Southern Alabama are being rapidly settled up in
 that way. But. according to the best estimates, not less than 20 per cent, and some say 30 per cent, of the timber IS wantonly wasted. The forests might be conserved and become a source of
 permanent wealth and perpetual reve-
 nue.
 w. l., Henderson. industrial agent of
 the Southern Railway Company, who is one of the best posted men in this sec
 tion. tells me that 75 per cent of the
 timber and the mills belong to North ern people. He gave me list of sev-
 enteen mills owned by Northern men within 100 miles of Mobile. This is less
 than one-fourth of the actual number
 now in operation. The average amount
 of money invested in lands and mills
 is about half a million dollars and the
 average number of acres of standing
 timber per mill is about 30,000. MT Henderson estimates the pine timber
 now remaining in Alabama at 20,000,0 900 acres, and says that at the present rate
 1t will require about thirty years to cut 1t down. In addition to the pine.
 there is a large acreage of white and
 red oak. hickory. gum, cypress and other varieties of hard wood.
 From Pennsylvania come the Coch-
 rane Lumber Company and the Creola Lumber Company: from Fredonia, New New York. the Frost-Sibley Company; from Michigan. c. W. Zimmerman and the Robinson Lumber Company; from Illinois, the Vredenberg Lumber Com pany of Jacksonville, the National Lumber Company and the Case Lumber the Scott Lumber Company of Milwau- kee. the Mcintyre Lumber Company, Hubbard Bros. and the American Lum- Der Company; from Davenport, Iowa, comes the E. W. Gates Lumber Com pany; from Kansas City, the Fairport
 Lumber Company, and several more
 from other parts of the Northwest Alabama now has 4.2ss miles of rail-
 road. with three new lines under con-
 struction. The river system Is, per haps. more extensive and convenient
 than that of any other State. Two thirds of the sixty-seven counties are | accessible by navigable streams. and the Government of the United States has expended millions of dollars to af- ford the people transportation facili- | ties by water; but very few of them are
 utilized. As told you in a letter from Tuscaloosa, the cargoes carried are of
 ten smaller in value than the cost of
 these internal Improvements.
 The supply of coal and iron in Ala bama Is practically unlimited. Red | Mountain. a solid mass of iron, the
 western slope of which touches the city of Birmingham. Is nearly one hundred | miles long; and the geologists say that | the ore is from 1000 to 2.000 feet deep. It lies on the surface and can be show eled into cars by machinery. There is
 an equal quantity of coal-enough to last for a thousand years. No State has richer natural resources, either III mines, agriculture or timber.
 There are now in Alabama fifty-three national banks and Ill State banks
 Most of them are small institutions | compared with those in the North The
 national banks have an aggregate capi- | tai of $4990,0O0 and nearly $25. .000, ,000 Of depoSits Tba Gfata hanLxs hava O