fixed annual payment than $1,000,000, and that no surety can be had of always meeting even that charge unless the guaranty of the non-aided and associated lines be added. Practically this proposition has been presented to Congress. The terms are so manifestly favourable to the Government that it seems improbable that Congress will decline to accept them when it gives the subject the consideration required for its proper understanding.

PART IX.

THE SOUTHERN GROUP.

CHAPTER L.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SOUTHERN STATES.

The South embraces that portion of the United States which is bordered in the North by Maryland and the Ohio, in the West by the Mississippi, in the South by the Gulf of Mexico, and in the East by the Atlantic Ocean, and therefore contains the States of Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. These States cover an area of nearly 500,000 square miles, or one-seventh of the great Republic; they contain 15,000,000 inhabitants, equal to one-quarter of the population of the entire country, and represent over one-eighth of the wealth of the Union. The subjoined tables give details :

Table showing Area, Population and Assessed Valuation of the Southern States. Census of 1890.

Table showing Relative Importance of the Southern States, as compared with that of the entire Union.

Census of 1890.

Some of the oldest settlements in the United States are to be found in Virginia, which, with the possible exception of Kentucky, is undoubtedly the most advanced of the commonwealths in this region. Like all Southern States, it is pre-eminently agricultural, but of late industries have developed to such a marvellous extent that before long it will take a prominent position among the manufacturing States of the Union. The Eastern portion of the State, where the waters of Chesapeake Bay have numerous inlets, consists of valleys eminently adapted for the purposes of the farmer. In this part the towns of Richmond, the capital and well-known tobacco market; Norfolk, the terminus of the Norfolk and Western RR.; Portsmouth, one of the principal naval stations; and Newport News, the terminus of the Chesapeake and Ohio, are situated. In the West the country is more rugged, the outposts of the Alleghanies occupying that portion of the State. These mountains abound with minerals, notably coal and iron, to which reference will be made in succeeding chapters; and their summit separates West Virginia from Virginia. This State is bordered in the West and North by the Ohio, and has very much the same characteristics as the Western half of Pennsylvania close by. It produces coal, iron and petroleum, but farming is equally prominent as other industries.

Kentucky is bordered in the West and North by the Ohio, in the South by Tennessee, and in the East by the Cum

berland mountains, which are part of the Alleghanies. The State is chiefly agricultural; the corn crop sometimes reaches 100,000,000 bushels annually, and comes largely from the Western counties; wheat makes up another 12,000,000, and oats 8,000,000 bushels. Kentucky is, however, principally noted for its immense production of tobacco, 280,000,000lbs. out of the world's crop of 1,300,000,000lbs. being grown there. The crop of fragrant weed represents an annual value of over the $10,000,000, and its weight amounts to nearly two-thirds of the total grown in America. Louisville is the principal market whence this produce is carried to Richmond. Among other things the State is noted for its whisky, its colts and its colonels. Mining is progressive, a great portion of the State being underlaid with coal strata; the annual production of the black mineral now reaches some two million tons, while the output of pig iron averages about 50,000 tons. There are also a number of oil wells.

Tennessee lies South of Kentucky, and presents practically the same characteristics, with the sole exception that mining industries are more important. In the East are the Alleghanies with the mining regions around Bristol, Chattanooga, Knoxville, etc; while in the West agriculture predominates, the output including 80,000,000 bushels of corn, 9,000,000of wheat, 8,000,000 of oats, 40,000,000lbs. of tobacco, large quantities of fruit, and many head of live stock. The iron industries of Nashville are well-known, and new towns are springing up almost everywhere in the mountains. The coal fields, which extend from Pennsylvania into Alabama, occupy 5,000 square miles of the Cumberland Plateau, and the output is about 2 million tons annually: while in the West, near the Mississippi, some cotton is grown. The principal towns are Nashville (pop. 80,000), Memphis (70,000), Chattanooga (30,000) Knoxville (23,000) and Jackson (10,000).

North Carolina lies to the South of Virginia, and also grows tobacco and cereals, while from the mountains in the Western portion some minerals are extracted. Wilmington

(pop. 20,000) is the chief town, Raleigh has 13,000, Charlotte 12,000, and Asheville 11,000 inhabitants. Besides some 40,000,000 million bushels of corn the State annually produces 6,000,000lbs. of rice, 40,000,000lbs. of tobacco, and 400,000 bales of cotton.

South Carolina is still more a cotton country, and the yearly production exceeds 800,000 bales. There are extensive rice plantations, and some 70,000,000lbs. of that cereal are now grown. The principal cities are Charleston (pop. 55,000), one of the leading cotton ports of the South, and Columbia (pop. 16,000).

Georgia contains Savannah, the greatest cotton port on the Atlantic coast, (pop. 45,000); Atlanta, a centre of railroads and industries (pop. 70,000); Macon, (25,000); Augusta, (35,000); and Columbus (18,000). Georgia lies in the cotton belt, and has exported as many as 1,000,000 bales of that useful commodity in a year; but the State being divided into three parts of different altitude it has a variety of produce hardly equalled by that of any other Southern State.

Florida with its tropical climate and its extensive swamps has not attracted many settlers, and in consequence takes no very prominent place among American States. Although its settlement dates as far back as 1565, but a small part of its soil is under cultivation, the chief products being tobacco, cotton and tropical fruit. Florida is rapidly coming into favour as a winter resort, its climate at that period of the year being more genial even than that of Southern California.

Alabama, into which the Alleghany mountains extend, is undoubtedly the coming State of the South. It produces immense quantities of cotton and contains an abundance of minerals-a circumstance responsible for the rise of Birmingham, a town destined to become a formidable rival of all other iron centres of the world. Within fifteen years the pig-iron produced in Alabama has increased from 50,000 to 1,000,000 tons; and the cheapness of coal, iron