are found prevailing limestone springs, the waters of which are pure, clear and cold.

The productions of the county are cotton, corn, wheat, oats, barley, rye, potatoes (sweet and Irish), and peanuts. Garden vegetables of every possible variety thrive almost the year around. The fruits which are grown in Jefferson county have made Birmingham one of the leading fruit markets of the State. Peaches, apples, plums, pears, apricots, pomegranates and grapes are raised in great profusion, and mature to perfection even with indolent culture. Vast sums of money are annually accumulated by fruit growers and vegetable producers in the country surrounding Birmingham. There is scarcely an industry manipulated by man but has an existence in the county of Jefferson.

Stock-raising is receiving attention and will grow apace with the years, as the soil and climate favor the production of grasses and clovers, and the numerous competing railway lines will furnish the speediest transportation to the most favorable markets of the continent. In addition to this, the county is well watered. Locust Fork of the Black Water River flows through the northwest, receiving Five Mile, Village and Valley creeks. The southern and southeastern parts of the county are drained through Shades' Creek, which flows into the Cahaba River.

In every section are to be found forests of pine, oak, ash, hickory, elm, walnut and other valuable woods.

The mineral products of the county are simply marvelous. From present indications the resources of the county will not be exhausted for centuries to come. Mammoth fortunes have been dug from the rocky hills, and yet they seem barely touched by the invading pick-axe. Coal and iron seem to abound in exhaustless quantities. A better estimate of the abundance of these minerals will be had by glancing at the following table of local industries in and about the Magic City, Birmingham:

Pratt Coal & Coke Company's mines are situated six miles northwest of Birmingham; population about 5,000; capacity, 3,000 tons per diem; employs over 1,000 men and boys. This is the most extensively worked mine in Alabama. Colonel E. Ensley, President.

Miner Coal & Iron Company; eight miles northeast; capacity 1,000 tons per day; employs 500 men.

Eureka Iron Company, Oxmoor, six miles south; population exceeds 1,500; furnace number one, capacity, 60 tons per day; furnace number two, capacity, 100 tons per day; employs about 600 men.

Wheeling, Alabama; eight miles southwest; capacity of furnace, 125 tons daily; employs 350 men, and has six miles of railroad to mines.

The New Castle Coal & Coke Company, twelve miles above Birmingham; number of men employed and capacity not given; daily output, about 500 tons.

Alice Furnace Company; furnace number one, 70 tons capacity daily; furnace number two, 125 tons capacity daily; employs more than 500 men; capital, $500,000; T. T. Hillman, President.

Sloss Furnace Company; furnace number one, 80 tons capacity daily; furnace number two, 125 tons capacity daily; employs 600 men; capital, $500,000; J. W. Sloss, President.

Mary Pratt Furnace; DeBardaleben & Underwood, proprietors; charcoal iron furnace; capacity, 60 tons per day; employs 500

men.

Birmingham Rolling Mills Company; twenty-four puddling furnaces, muck mill, merchant bar, large mill and guide mill; employs 450 to 500 men, double turn.

Southern Mining & Transportation Company; capacity, 1,000 tons per day; employs 500 men.

Birmingham Cotton Mills; capital stock, $50,000; use 3,250 spindles, 15 carders and 6 warping mills; employs 70 operators; J. H. Lockhart, President.

Magic City Iron Works; foundry and machine shop; employ 100 men; Beggs & Son, proprietors, who also conduct a planing, mill and sash and blind factory.

Linn Iron Works; manufacture engines, boilers, and all kinds of furnace, mill and plantation machinery; employ 150 to 200

men.

Jefferson Iron Works; same as above; employ about 200 men. W. P. Brewer; manufactures lumber, sash, doors, blinds and furniture; employs 65 to 100 men.

The Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company's workshops at Birmingham give employment to over 1,000 men.

The Georgia Pacific Railway Company employs about 500 men; the Alabama Great Southern and various mineral roads give employment to perhaps 500 additional.

It has besides the furnaces and industries already named the following enterprises:

The largest and best equipped rolling mills south of Richmond, making iron rails and all sorts of bar, plate and sheet-iron-being the only mills in the South that makes sheet-iron-and selling their product all over the South, West and Northwest.

Eight foundries and machine shops, making from blowing engines for furnaces down-machinery, steam-pumps, cast-pipe, jailcells, railroad-frogs, switches and turn-tables, and all manner of small castings. Bridge-works, two in number, one of which makes bolts and nuts also. A chain factory, the first in the South. A stove foundry, making also grates and plumbers' pipe. Another in course of construction, for which the capital comes from Louisville, and which will probably be the largest in the South.

Outside of iron there are these enterprises in the city: A gin factory, a cotton compress, now building; an agricultural implement factory, an ice factory, the capacity of which is to be increased from fifteen to forty-five tons a day; another under way; a brewery, a large flouring mill, pipe works, the largest consumer of pig iron in the South, taking the entire product of two large furnaces the first venture of Pittsburg manufacturers in Alabama; elevator and hoisting machinery works, a tool factory, a very large stove concern.

The manufacture of the finest steel has been undertaken with the same success which has characterized every other institution established at this point. It would be practically impossible within the space allotted to Jefferson county to indicate the numerous industries large and small, prevailing within and about Birmingham.

This great city, which is alike the wonder of the resident and visitor, will no doubt in ten years have drawn to itself a population of 70,000. In addition to its mammoth industries which are