Part 7

On the Blue Ridge escarpment near the N.E. corner of the state is a water-parting separating the waters which find their way respectively N.W. to the Tennessee river, S.W. to the Gulf of Mexico and S.E. to the Atlantic Ocean; indeed, according to B.M. and M.R. Hall (_Water Resources of Georgia_, p. 2), "there are three springs in north-east Georgia within a stone's throw of each other that send out their waters to Savannah, Ga., to Apalachicola, Fla., and to New Orleans, La." The water-parting between the waters flowing into the Atlantic and those flowing into the Gulf extends from this point first S.E. for a few miles, then turns S.W. to Atlanta, and from there extends S.S.E. to the Florida line. West of where the escarpment dies out, the Great Valley Region and a considerable portion of the Appalachian Mountains Region are drained by the Coosa, the Tallapoosa and their tributaries, into Mobile Bay, but the Cumberland Plateau, like that part of the Appalachian Mountains Region which lies directly N. of the Blue Ridge escarpment, constitutes a part of the Tennessee Basin. The principal rivers of the state are the Chattahoochee and the Flint, which unite in the S.W. corner to form the Apalachicola; the Ocmulgee (whose western tributary, the Towaliga, falls 96 ft. in less than a quarter of a mile), and the Oconee, which unite in the S.E. to form the Altamaha; and the Savannah, which forms the boundary between Georgia and South Carolina. All of these rise in the upper part of the Piedmont Plateau, through which they pursue a rapid course over rocky beds, and are navigable only south of the "fall-line," at which and north of which they furnish an abundance of water-power. The upper Savannah river first flows S.W., then turns abruptly S.E., while the Chattahoochee river rises near this point and continues S.W. This is because the upper Savannah[1] was formerly part of the Chattahoochee, but was captured and turned S.E. by headward growth of the Savannah. As a result of the capture there is a deep gorge along the upper Savannah, especially along the branch called the Tallulah river; and the upper Tallulah, in a series of cascades, 2-2/3 m. long, falls 525 ft. from the former higher level down to the main bed of the upper Savannah, at Tallulah Falls, a summer resort.

The fauna and flora have no distinctive features. (See UNITED STATES.)

_Climate and Soils._--The climate of Georgia, though temperate, differs considerably in different parts of the state. All the nine climate belts in the United States, except that of southern Florida, are represented within its borders. The lowest mean annual temperature, 40 deg. F. and below, is that of some of the mountain tops of northern Georgia; from the mountain-sides to the Piedmont Plateau this mean temperature varies from 45 deg. to 60 deg.; on the Piedmont Plateau from 60 deg. to 65 deg.; and on the Coastal Plain from 60 deg. to 70 deg. The July isotherm of 80 deg. crosses the state a little N. of Augusta and Macon, touching the W. boundary at West Point, Troup county. The mean July temperature for the whole state is 81.8 deg.; for the part S. of the 80 deg. isotherm the average temperature for July is between 80 deg. and 85 deg. The average rainfall for the state is 49.3 in.; the maximum is 71.7 in., at Rabun Gap in the extreme N.E. part of the state; the minimum is 39.4 at Swainsboro, Emanuel county, a little S.E. of the centre of the state.

Georgia is also notable for the variety of its soils. In the Cumberland Plateau and Great Valley Regions are a red or brown loam, rich in decomposed limestone and calcareous shales, and sandy or gravelly loams. In the Piedmont Plateau and Appalachian Mountains Regions the surface soil is generally sandy, but in considerable areas the subsoil is a red clay derived largely from the decomposition of hornblende. By far the greatest variety of soils is found in the Coastal Plain Region. Here the Central Cotton Belt, extending from the "fall-line" as far S. as a line bisecting Early county in the W. and passing through Baker, Worth, Dooly, Dodge, Laurens, Johnson, Jefferson and Burke counties, has three distinct kinds of soil; a sand, forming what is known as the sand-hill region; red clay derived from silicious rock in the red hills; and grey, sandy soils with a subsoil of yellow loam. South of the Cotton Belt is the Lime Sink Region, which includes Miller, Baker, Mitchell, Colquitt and Worth counties, the northern portions of Decatur, Grady, Thomas, Brooks and Lowndes, the eastern parts of Dooly and Lee, and the eastern portions of Berrien, Irwin, Wilcox, Dodge, and some parts of Burke, Screven and Bulloch. The soft limestone underlying this region is covered, in the uplands, with grey, sandy soils, which have a subsoil of loam; in the lowlands the surface soils are loams, the subsoils clays. Adjoining this region are the pine barrens, which extend S. to a line passing through the northern portions of Pierce, Wayne, Liberty, Bryan and Effingham counties. Here the prevailing soils are grey and sandy with a subsoil of loam, but they are less fertile than those of the Lime Sink or Cotton Belts. The coast counties of the S.E. and generally those on the Florida frontier are not suitable for cultivation, on account of the numerous marshes and swamps, Okefinokee Swamp being 45 m. long and approximately 30 m. wide; but the southern portions of Decatur, Grady, Thomas and Brooks counties are sufficiently elevated for agriculture, and the islands off the coast are exceedingly productive.

_Minerals._--The mineral resources of Georgia are as varied as its climate and soils, a total of thirty-nine different mineral products being found within its borders. The most important is stone: in 1905 the value of the granite quarried in the state was $971,207 (Georgia ranking fifth in the United States), of the marble $774,550 (Georgia ranking third in the United States, Vermont and New York being first and second); in 1908 the granite was valued at $970,832 (Georgia ranking fifth in the United States), and the marble at $916,281 (Georgia ranking second in the United States, Vermont being first). Generally more than one-fourth of the granite is used for paving; curb, building and monument stone are next in importance in the order named. Stone Mountain (1686 ft.) in De Kalb county near Atlanta is a remarkable mass of light-coloured muscovite granite, having a circumference at its base of 7 m. Stone Mountain granite was first quarried about 1850; it is extensively used as building material in Georgia and other southern states. A laminated granite, otherwise like the Stone Mountain granite, is found in De Kalb, Rockdale and Gwinnett counties, and is used for curbing and building. Biotite granites, which take a good polish and are used for monuments and for decoration, are quarried in Oglethorpe and Elbert counties. Georgia marble was first quarried on a large scale in Pickens county in 1884; the pure white marble of this county had been worked for tombstones near Tate, the centre of the marble belt, in 1840; after its commercial exploitation it was used in the capitol buildings of Georgia, Rhode Island, Mississippi and Minnesota, in the Corcoran Art Gallery, Washington, D.C., and in St Luke's Hospital, New York City. It is sometimes used for the entire building, and sometimes only for decoration. Other colours than the snowy white are found in the main marble belt of the state, which runs from Canton, Cherokee county, 60 m. generally N. to the northern boundary of the state. Other deposits, less well known, are the dark brown and light grey marbles of Whitfield county, which resemble the stone quarried in eastern Tennessee. Limestone and slate are quarried at Rock Mart, Polk county, and there are cement quarries at Cement, near Kingston, Bartow county. Iron deposits occur in Bartow, Polk and Floyd counties, where are the more important brown ores, and (red ores) in Walker and Chattooga counties. The quantity of iron ore mined in Georgia declined from 1890 to 1900; it was 200,842 long tons in 1905 and 321,060 long tons in 1908, when 319,812 tons were brown haematite and 1248 tons were red haematite. Before the discovery of gold in California the Georgia "placers" were very profitable, the earliest mining being in 1829 by placer miners from the fields of Burke county, North Carolina, who began work in what is now White county, and went thence to Habersham and Lumpkin counties. Dahlonega and Auraria, the latter named by John C. Calhoun, who owned a mine there, were the centres of this early gold mining. Work was summarily stopped by Federal troops enforcing the governor's proclamation in 1831, because of the disorder in the mining region; but it was soon renewed and a mint was established at Dahlonega in 1838. After the discovery of gold in California, mining in Georgia was not renewed on anything but the smallest scale until the early 'eighties. In 1908 the gold product was valued at $56,207 (it was $96,910 in 1905) and the silver product at $106. Up to 1909 the gold product of Georgia (see State Geol. Survey _Bulletin 19_) was about $17,500,000. Extensive clay deposits occur in all parts of the state, and are remarkable for their comparative freedom from impurities and for their high fusion point; the most valuable are sedimentary, and form a belt several miles wide across the middle of the state from Augusta to Columbus. In 1908 the clay products of the state were valued at $1,928,611. More asbestos has been found in Georgia than in any other state of the Union; it occurs in the amphibole form throughout the N. part of the state, and most of the country's domestic supply comes from the Sall Mountain mine in White county. Manganese ores, found in Bartow, Polk and Floyd counties, were formerly important; in 1896 4096 long tons were mined, in 1905 only 150 tons, and in 1908 none. Bauxite was found in Georgia first of the United States, near Rome, in 1887; the output, principally from Floyd, Bartow and Polk counties, was the entire product of the United States until 1891, and in 1902 was more than half the country's product, but in 1908, even when combined with the Alabama output, was less than the amount mined in Arkansas. Coal is not extensively found, but the mine on Sand Mountain, in Walker county, was one of the first opened S. of the Ohio river; in 1908 the value of the coal mined in the state was $364,279 (264,822 short tons), the value of coke at the ovens was $137,524 (39,422 short tons), and the value of ammonium sulphate, coal tar, illuminating gas and gas coke was more than $800,000. Copper was mined in Fannin and Cherokee counties before the Civil War. In 1906 the copper mined was valued at $5057. Corundum was discovered on Laurel Creek in Rabun county in 1871, and was worked there and at Trackrock, Union county, especially between 1880 and 1893, but in later years low prices closed most of the mines. The limestone formations furnished most of the lime for domestic use. Sandstone, ochre, slate, soapstone, graphite are also mined, and lead, zinc, barytes, gypsum and even diamonds have been discovered but not exploited.

_Agriculture._--The principal occupation in Georgia is agriculture, which in 1900 engaged seven-tenths of the land surface of the state and the labour of three-fifths of the population, ten years old and over, who are employed in profitable occupations. The products are so diversified that, with the exception of some tropical fruits of California and Florida, almost everything cultivated in the United States can be produced. The chief staple is cotton, of which a valuable hybrid called the Floradora, a cross of long and short staple, has been singularly successful. Cotton is raised in all counties of the state except Rabun, Towns and Fannin in the extreme north, and about one-third of the total cultivated land of the state was devoted to it in 1900-1907. In 1899-1904 the crop exceeded that of the other cotton-producing states except Texas, and in 1899, 1900 and 1903 Mississippi, averaging 1,467,121 commercial bales per annum; the crop in 1904 was 1,991,719 bales, and in 1907-1908 the crop was 1,815,834 bales, second only to the crop of Texas. The cause of this extensive cultivation of cotton is not a high average yield per acre, but the fact that before 1860 "Cotton was King," and that the market value of the staple when the Civil War closed was so high that farmers began to cultivate it to the exclusion of the cereals, whose production, Indian corn excepted, showed a decline during each decade from 1879 to 1899. But in the 'nineties the price of the cotton fell below the cost of production, owing to the enormous supply, and this was accompanied by economic depression. These conditions have caused some diversification of crops, and successful experiments in cattle-raising, movements encouraged by the Department of Agriculture and the leading newspapers.

The principal cereals cultivated are Indian corn (product, 53,750,000 bushels in 1908) and wheat; the cultivation of the latter, formerly remunerative, declined on account of the competition of the Western States, but revived after 1899, largely owing to the efforts of the Georgia Wheat Growers' Association (organized in 1897), and in 1908 the yield was 2,208,000 bushels. The sugar-cane crop declined in value after 1890, and each year more of it was made into syrup. In 1908 the tobacco crop was 2,705,625 lb., and the average farm price was 35 cents, being nearly as high as that of the Florida crop; Sumatra leaf for wrappers is grown successfully. The acreage and product of tobacco and peanuts increased from 1890 to 1900 respectively 188% and 319.2%, and 92.6% and 129.9%, and in the production of sweet potatoes Georgia was in 1899 surpassed only by North Carolina. Alfalfa and grasses grow well. Truck farming and the cultivation of orchard and small fruits have long been remunerative occupations; the acreage devoted to peaches doubled between 1890 and 1900. Pecan nuts are an increasingly important crop.

Agriculture in Georgia was in a state of transition at the beginning of the 20th century. Owing to the abundance of land and to negro slavery, exploitative methods of cultivation were employed before the Civil War, and such methods, by which lands after being worked to exhaustion are deserted for new fields, had not yet been altogether abandoned. One reason for this was that, according to the census of 1900, 36.9% of the farms were operated by negroes, of whom 86% were tenants who desired to secure the greatest possible product without regard to the care of the soil. Consequently there were large tracts of untilled "waste" land; but these rapidly responded to fertilization and rotation of crops, often yielding 800 to 1200 lb. of cotton per acre, and Georgia in 1899 used more fertilizers than any other state in the Union. Another feature of agriculture in Georgia was the great increase in the number of farms, the average size of plantations having declined from 440 acres in 1860 to 117.5 in 1900, or almost 75%, while the area in cultivation increased only 15.6% between 1850 and 1900. The tenantry system was also undergoing a change--the share system which developed in the years succeeding the Civil War being replaced by a system of cash rental.

[Illustration: Georgia.]

_Manufactures._--Although excelled by Alabama in the manufacture of mineral products, and by North Carolina and South Carolina in the number and output of cotton mills, in 1900 and in 1905 Georgia surpassed each of those states in the total value of factory products, which was, however, less than the value of the factory products of Louisiana and Virginia among the southern states. The chief features of this industrial activity are its early beginning and steady, constant development. As far back as 1850 there were 1522 manufacturing establishments (35 of which were cotton mills) in the state, whose total product was valued at $7,082,075. Despite the Civil War, there was some advance during each succeeding decade, the most prosperous relatively being that from 1880 to 1890. In 1900 the number of establishments was 7504, an increase of 75.1% over the number in 1890; the capital invested was $89,789,656, an increase of 57.7%, and the value of products ($106,654,527) was 54.8% more than in 1890. Of the 7504 establishments in 1900, 3015 were conducted under the "factory system," and had a capital of $79,303,316 and products valued at $94,532,368. In 1905 there were 3219 factories, with a capital of $135,211,551 (an increase of 70.5% over 1900), and a gross product valued at $151,040,455 (59.8% greater than the value of the factory product in 1900).

The most important manufacturing industries are those that depend upon cotton for raw material, with a gross product in 1900 valued at $26,521,757. In that year[2] there were 67 mills engaged in the manufacture of cotton goods, with a capital of $24,158,159, and they yielded a gross product valued at $18,457,645; the increase between 1900 and 1905 was actually much larger (and proportionately very much larger) than between 1890 and 1900; the number of factories in 1905 was 103 (an increase of 53.7% over 1900); their capital was $42,349,618 (75.3% more than in 1900); and their gross product was valued at $35,174,248 (an increase of 90.6% since 1900). The rank of Georgia among the cotton manufacturing states was seventh in 1900 and fourth in 1905. Cotton-seed oil and cake factories increased in number from 17 to 43 from 1890 to 1900, and to 112 in 1905, and the value of their product increased from $1,670,196 to $8,064,112, or 382.8% in 1890-1900, and to $13,539,899 in 1905, or an increase of 67.9% over 1900, and in 1900 and in 1905 the state ranked second (to Texas) in this industry in the United States. This growth in cotton manufactures is due to various causes, among them being the proximity of raw material, convenient water-power, municipal exemption from taxation and the cheapness of labour. The relation between employer and employee is in the main far more personal and kindly than in the mills of the Northern States.

The forests of Georgia, next to the fields, furnish the largest amount of raw material for manufactures. The yellow pines of the southern part of the state, which have a stand of approximately 13,778,000 ft., yielded in 1900 rosin and turpentine valued at $8,110,468 (more than the product of any other state in the Union) and in 1905 valued at $7,705,643 (second only to the product of Florida). From the same source was derived most of the lumber product valued[3] in 1900 at $13,341,160 (more than double what it was in 1890) and in 1905 at $16,716,594. The other important woods are cypress, oak and poplar.

Fourth in value in 1905 (first, cotton goods; second, lumber and timber; third, cotton-seed oil and cake) were fertilizers, the value of which increased from $3,367,353 in 1900 to $9,461,415 in 1905, when the state ranked first of the United States in this industry; in 1900 it had ranked sixth.

_Communications._--Means of transportation for these products are furnished by the rivers, which are generally navigable as far north as the "fall line" passing through Augusta, Milledgeville, Macon and Columbus; by ocean steamship lines which have piers at St Mary's, Brunswick, Darien and Savannah; and by railways whose mileage in January 1909 was 6,871.8 m. The most important of the railways are the Central of Georgia, the Southern, the Atlantic Coast Line, the Seaboard Air Line, the Georgia and the Georgia Southern & Florida. In 1878 a state railway commission was established which has mandatory power for the settlement of all traffic problems and makes annual reports.

_Population._--The population of Georgia in 1880 was 1,542,180; in 1890 1,837,353, an increase of 19.1%; in 1900 2,216,331, a further increase of 20.6%[4]; in 1910, 2,609,121. Of the 1900 population, 53.3% were whites and 46.7% were negroes,[5] the centre of the black population being a little south of the "fall line." Here the negroes increased, from 1890 to 1900, faster than the whites in eighteen counties, but in northern Georgia, where the whites are in the majority, the negro population declined in twelve counties. Also the percentage of negro illiteracy is higher in northern Georgia than in other parts of the state, the percentage of negro male illiterates of voting age being 38.3% in Atlanta in 1900, and in Savannah only 30.7%. The population of Georgia has a very slight foreign-born element (.6% in 1900) and a small percentage (1.7% in 1900) of people of foreign parentage. The urban population (i.e. the population in places of 2500 inhabitants and over) was 15.6% of the total in 1900, and the number of incorporated cities, towns and villages was 372. Of these only forty had a population exceeding 2000, and thirteen exceeding 5000. The largest city in 1900 was Atlanta, the capital since 1868 (Louisville, Jefferson county, was the capital in 1795-1804, and Milledgeville in 1804-1868), with 89,872 inhabitants. Savannah ranked second with 54,244, and Augusta third with 39,441. In 1900 the other cities in the state with a population of more than 5000 were: Macon (23,272), Columbus (17,614), Athens (10,245), Brunswick (9081), Americus (7674), Rome (7291), Griffin (6857), Waycross (5919), Valdosta (5613), and Thomasville (5322).

The total membership of the churches in 1906 was about 1,029,037, of whom 596,319 were Baptists, 349,079 were Methodists, 24,040 were Presbyterians, 19,273 were Roman Catholics, 12,703 were Disciples of Christ, 9790 were Protestant Episcopalians, and 5581 were Congregationalists.