roads tributary to Mobile and Pensacola, and the mills in southeastern Alabama, tributary to Appalachicola, saw chiefly for foreign markets.

All these mills prepare what is called "sawn lumber,” a very desirable class of yellow pine lumber, which has almost completely driven "hewn," or hand prepared timber, out of the foreign markets. These mills are well fitted up and can saw from 40,000 to 150,000 feet of such "timber" per day. The making of such "timber" is comparatively a new indus. try. "Hewn" stuff has been exported for fifty or more years, but "sawn" has gained a name for itself within the past ten years. The seasons have been of varying prosperity and at times very large profits have been made. There has never been a losing season.

The south coast lumber mills saw for the foreign market chiefly, but not exclusively; and they are frequently engaged also in sawing timber.

Most of the flooring mills and the other mills of the State that dress lumber are located in the interior of the State, along the lines of the railroads, but some few are located at Mobile and on the gulf coast.

Most of the product in ceiling and flooring (dressed and matched) goes to the northern and northwestern markets. The product of the coast flooring mills goes mostly eastward, chiefly by water and some by rail.

The mills of the interior of Alabama send out car stuff, such as sills, framing, etc., and, from report, it seems that yellow pine is as good as oak for this purpose. At any rate, a great deal of pine is being used in car building, and the mills in the short leaf pine country are reaping a harvest from the business.

The shingle product of Alabama is almost entirely of yellow pine and cypress, and is marketed in nearly all the States of the Union, and much of it is shipped to foreign ports. The exports of shingles from the port of Mobile, alone, in the year 1891-92 were 175,000,000.

PART FOURTEENTH.

THE IRON AND IRON WORKS OF ALABAMA.

In the extent and quality of its iron ore deposits, Alabama is one of the richest States of the Union, and the knowledge of this great mineral wealth has been, in the past twelve years, the means of attracting to the State a very considerable amount of capital for investment in its iron lands and iron producing enterprises. The greatest activity in the development of the southern pig iron industry during this time was in Alabama, and the State has risen in rank among the States of the Union as a producer of iron ore, from sixth place, in 1880, to second place, in 1889.*

The growth and character of the iron industry in Alabama may be best illustrated by statistics from the United States census of 1890, and the bulletins of the American Iron and Steel Association, published in Philadelphia.

Iron Ore, Production of in Alabama.-By the United States census of 1890, the production of iron ore in the United States during the preceding year (1889) amounted to 14,518,041 tons,† of which Michigan produced 5,856,169 tons, Alabama 1,570,319tons, Pennsylvania 1,560,234 tons, and New York, 1,247,537 tons; total of the four States, 10,234,259 tons or 70.49 per cent. of the total product of the United States in that year.

Of this output in Alabama, 1,190,985 tons we red hematite and 379,334 tons brown hematite.

tons.

* The output of iron ore in Alabama in 1880 was 171,139 tons, and in 1889, 1,570,319

By tons of iron ore in this article, is meant long tons.

According to this census, the capital invested in iron ore mining in Alabama in 1889, amounted to $5,244,906, against $536,442 in 1880, and the number of producing mines was forty-five.

By this same authority, the average cost of mining iron ore in the United States in 1889, was $1.71 per ton; the cost in Alabama (the lowest) being 82 cents per ton, against $2.07 in Michigan, $1.10 in Pennsylvania, and $1.64 in New York. Alabama was the only State in 1889 that produced iron-ore at a less cost than $1.00 per ton. The average expenditure for wages per ton of iron ore mined in the United States in 1889, was in Alabama, (the lowest) 69 cents, against $1.19 in Michigan, 75 cents in Pennsylvania, and $1.00 in New York.

Pig Iron, Production of in Alabama.-According to late bulletins of the American Iron and Steel Association, the total production of pig iron in the United States in 1891, was 9,273,455 tons of 2,000 pounds; of which Alabama produced 891,154 tons, divided-charcoal, 87,344 tons, coke 803,810 tons. By the same authority, the production in Alabama for the first half of the year 1892, was 536,627 tons.

Alabama is now third in rank of the States of the Union as a producer of pig iron.

The production of pig iron in Alabama since 1876, has been as follows: *

Ore Supply. In the order of their relative importance in the production of iron, the Alabama ores stand as follows: 1st. The limonites of the dolomite and the fossiliferous red ores of the Clinton group of the Silurian formation. 2d. The limonites of the sub-carboniferous, metamorphic, and Tuskaloosa formations.

3d. The magnetites of the metamorphic region, and the carbonates of the coal measures.

Figures mostly from the bulletins of the American Iron and Steel Association. ↑ Tons of 2,000 pounds.

Whether the ores of the third named class will ever be of commercial value remains yet to be shown. The ores enumerated under the second head, though not now worked, have in the past been used in furnaces and forges, and may yet again be mined. At the present time the Silurian formation yields all the iron ore mined in Alabama.

The Clinton or Red Mountain formation occurs on the ridge on each side of the Cahaba, Wills, Roups, Jones, Murphrees, and Browns valleys.

The great bulk of this ore mined in Alabama comes from Red mountain ridge, along the eastern side of Jones valley, from Reeders Gap to Gate City. This outcrop extends in an almost unbroken line through the State from northeast to southwest for sixty miles, and opposite Birmingham is less than half a mile distant from the city limits. There are at least five beds of the ore which seem to extend throughout the Birmingham district, from two to thirty-five feet in thickness and of various qualities. Near Birmingham sections of the outcrop show, in from four to six beds, from twenty to fifty feet of ore, and sketches are shown in Birmingham of a section taken at a point not more than five miles distant from one of the furnace plants with sixty-four feet six inches of ore at the outcrop. It is estimated that there are more than 500,000,000,000 tons of ore in the Red Mountain deposits, with an average analysis of 50 per cent. of metallic iron.

Mr. John H. Porter, of Cincinnati, Ohio, in a paper read before the American Institute of Mining Engineers in 1886, said: "In the South * *the Clinton [ore] is better known than in other places. *** In Pennsylvania the greatest thickness of the Clinton is probably seven feet; and in general one to three feet seems to be considered a fair development. This holds true not only for that State but for every region traversed by the ore, from its northern extremity clear into southern Tennessee. As far as can be determined, it is throughout that extent at best but a single workable stratum, divided, if at all, only by a thin parting. But from southern Tennessee to the disappearance of the outcrop under the alluvial drift of the Black Warrior in Alabama, the ore takes a different character. It splits up into several beds, each often as thick as the whole in the north, and at the same time it decreases in phosphorus

in all of the southern part,

decidedly. In Alabama it assumes more distinctly the character of an anticlinal, with sharply upturned coal measures on each side; and within a few miles of its disappearance under the Black Warrior alluvium it shows what are probably the finest outcrops of Clinton in the country. Jefferson county has the name of making the cheapest iron in the United States, a reputation deserved, but due to the great development of coal and iron ore in the immediate vicinity, rather than to perfection of practice. From Birmingham to Woodstock and Greenpond, twentyfive miles down the valley, the Clinton has its maximum size, and has in some places twenty feet thick of good ore, attaining its maximum at Eureka, where the following section shows its wonderful richness: 1, limestone and sandstone of indefinite thickness; 2, sandy red ore (30 to 32 per cent. iron), 10 to 12 feet; 3, sandstones and shales, 15 feet; 4, soft red ores (51 to 54 per cent. iron), 15 feet; 5, hard red ore (40 per cent. iron), 17 to 18 feet; 6, sandstone, 3 feet; 7, medium soft ore (50 per cent. iron), 3 feet; 8, limestone (siliceous); 9, limestone (good). Total, 34 to 37 feet."

Messrs. A. S. McCreath, of Harrisburg, Pa., and E. V. d'Invilliers, of Philadelphia, Pa., writing for the same institute in 1887, said:

“Clinton ore, or Red mouutain ores, as they are called in Alabama, make up fully 90 per cent. of the ore supply of the Birmingham furnaces. The ore is found in the Red mountain group of rocks, which in this portion of Alabama forms monoclinal hills, on either side of an anticlinal valley of Cambro-Silurian limestone, in which Birmingham is situated. These hills rise 200 to 250 feet above the plain of the valley, their crests practically marking the outcrop of iron ore, and are remarkably regular and persistent as ridges throughout the length of the State, northeast and southwest. The ore-bearing rocks dip southeast and northwest on either side of the anticlinal valley, and, when not faulted, pass regularly beneath the sub-carboniferous measures skirting the Cahaba coal field on the east side and the Warrior coal field on the west. The absence of Oneida sandstone No. IV, and Hudson river slate No. III, intervening between these Red mountain measures and the valley limestone in the north, and the