The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-04-06
SURVEY OF SOIL IN TALLAPOOSA COUNTY Surveyor Finds Small Yield to
 the Acre TALKS ABOUT JEFFERSON New Map Shows Location of Plants, Residences, Elevation of Land and
 Streams Above the Sea and
 Other Interesting Data.
TALKS ABOUT JEFFERSON

three years. A representative of The
 Age-Herald who was in Dadeville, Tal-
 lapoosa county, recently called on H. c.
 Smith. who had charge of the survey here last summer.
 In discussing his work the surveyor
 showed a large colored map of Jeffer- son county made on the scale of an
 inch to the mile and said that the map
 was made by assembling several of the
 United States geological survey sheets to make one large map covering several square feet. This map, which appears
 to be the most complete of any yet published will be of great interest to all in this county and elsewh ere as
 we'll
 To the industrial man who sees vis-
 ions of iron, steel and railroads-the
 railroads coke ovens, mines and large
 industrial plants are shown. To the en-
 gineer who grades the hills, valleys and levels of the county, are plated
 so that the elevation above sea level
 of any portion of the county can be
 readily approximated. The those who
 pride themselves on the increase of
  at the time of survey are shown, to-
 gether with streets and avenues.
 To those who wish and study water
 levels the elevation of the streams and
 rivers are shown, while to all interested
 in agricultur the location of the varied types of soil are sh own in colors. When asked about Jefferson countys
 water supply the surveyor said that at the junction of the Locust fork and
 Warrior river the elevation was 240 feet above sea level, while Birmingham at the courthouse had an elevation of
 5S1 feet. Thus Birmingham is S51 feet above the river.
 In explaining why so many people
 thought Birmingham was low MT.
 Smith said: "The city is in the middle
 of beautiful anticlinal valley, the
 floor of which is higher than the. valley
 land outside of 1t to the northwest.
 Therefore so many streams finally wend
 their way into the Warrior river" An anticlinal valley was explained as an
 upward fold. wrinkle or bend in the earths crust like hte inverted letter
 U. The top is weakened by weathering
 and now only the rim or sides remain
 It is along this rim that so many rich ore deposits are found between here and Bessemer.
 In response to a query about Bir- ] mingham as a summer resort it would
 appear that there was a good opening
 for health and recreation resorts in the mountains around Birmingham.
 Butler mountain, 1t appears, is 1400 feet high, while Shades and Red noun tains are nearly 1000 feet. The grades
 are not prohibitive and with abun- dance of cheap coal Birmingham only awaits the capital and the builders to be health resort. The cool dry air and salubrious climate 12 months in the year. he pointed out. are already here and each year sees additional northern tourists stopping here to escape the rigors of northern winter.
 T was greatly impressed by the latent possibilities of Jefferson county while l there last summer said the surveyor I The people are talking iron steel. coal 1 and mining, but when these exhaustible | stores are gone the soil will still be | supporting fourishing agricultural | community for there is no such thing as an exhausted soil At present the | tendency Is toward truck growing and | the county is beginning to furnish frac- tion of what it needs for its own con- sumption
 In discussing Tallapoosa county in gen. I eral, MT. Smith said: This county Is l exclusively. an agricultural community and l find the farmers more than usually advanced in agricultural matters and | the growing of crops. While there are deposits of gold, magnetic iron ore, cor mi ,,of marked to any great extent. There are no large cities and it is farming coun- | ty. It appears, however, that a dam for power is being projected on the Tallapoosa river and when this is com | pleted power may be even sold in Bir- mingham. In any event 1t should lend an industrial impetus to the county Coal is an exhaustible commodity. Wa ter power will last as long as the hills 1 receive rain and with the gradual in- crease in the price of coal the balance of commercial power will swing from steam to electric power. Years ago Niagara Falls and Buffalo, N. Y. waged war for commercial supremacy. Buff falo won out because nature at this time had given her an advantage in railroad grades, water communication and cheap fuel. However with the gradual har-
 messing of Niagara a few hundred thous- and horsepower has become available and
  falO. Already it is a smokeess town the electric dynamo does the work. No doubt Birminghams hundreds of square miles of coal in this county even will not be exhausted in ages to come and when 1t does the transmission of electro | power will be so easy that the only ob- servable difference will be the whirr of the already approaching electric age. ''1n our Investigations of the soils here we have become impressed by the fact that the farmers were not getting all out of the soil that they should. The yield of cotton here averages the same as in Jefferson, being about 200 pounds of lint cotton per acre. Now while 1t is bring ing about nine cents per pound we hear farmers in general saying 1t should be 15 cents. It would appear that on any ordinary soil in Alabama with proper culture a bale per acre could be easily raised. From this 1t Is fair to assume that the price of 10 cents is as high as cotton needs to be in order to produce profit. the trouble being that the farm CT does not produce enough. piln who raises bale per acre sold it this year for $45 per acre and had me seed left. Whenever farmer Is met who raises that amount we generally fnd
 him so happy in telling how the value of the product exceeded the price of his land that he has no time to decry low prices, hard times and cotton gam blers in general. Judge Sanel on or
 dinary land with thoughtful modern cul- ture has raised here in Dadeville bale per acre and others have done the same. No legislative enactment can raise cot ton to 15 cents, but the farmer can pro- duce from three-fourths to bale of cot