Waters. Alabama's water is one of its most valuable resources. The supply is abundant. Mainly it is soft, pure water that does not require treatment before being used in homes and industries.

Hydroelectric plants line the Coosa, Talla-poosa, Tennessee, Chattahoochee, and Black Warrior rivers. Along the rivers there arc also steam power plants, fed by Alabama's coal. Additional plants are now being built or planned. They will provide ample power for years to come.

Wildlife. Alabama has more than 300 species of birds. Among the largest are bald eagles, hawks, ospreys, and wild turkeys, ducks, and geese. Rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, foxes, and white-tailed deer are found in most of the state, and black bears in some areas. Fresh-water fish include bass, perch, bluegill, and trout. Some fisheries have been closed by mercury pollution.

In 1955 the tarpon was named the state salt-water fish. It is a big fighting fish found in the warm, blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico. It has no commercial value. The main products of the sea fisheries are shrimp, oysters, and crabs.

THE PEOPLE AND THEIR WORK

There are very few foreign-born people living in Alabama. The majority are descend­

ants of European settlers who came to the area in colonial times. About one third of the people are blacks whose ancestors were brought to the South as slaves. Among the people of Indian heritage, the most active organized group is the Creek Nation East of the Mississippi, at Atmore.

In 1960, for the first time, more Alabam-ians lived in cities than in rural areas. The number of persons who work on farms has dropped steadily since the 1940's. And the number who work in manufacturing and other kinds of jobs has continued to grow.

Industries and Products

For some time the value of products manu­factured in Alabama has been far greater than the value of livestock and crops and of the different kinds of minerals that are pro­duced in the state.

Manufacturing. The mast important indus­tries are the ones that manufacture metals, textiles, chemicals, and forest products. Many of the industries make use of Alabama's own raw materials.

The areas around Birmingham and Gads­den are the only places in the nation where iron ore, coal, and limestone are found close together. These are basic raw materials needed in the making of steel. About 90 per­cent of all the steel making in the South is carried on in Alabama, mostly in and around Birmingham, Anniston, and Gadsden. New factories that make products from iron and steel continue to spring up throughout the state, mainly along the water routes.

Around Mobile, as well as in other areas, there are plants that extract aluminum from bauxite. These plants provide metal for factories in the Tennessee Valley that make aluminum products. A large copper-tubing plant at Decatur, on the Tennessee River, is a new development for Alabama.

The textile industry produces yarn and thread, woven fabrics, clothing, and other goods. Textile mills are spread throughout the state.

WHAT ALABAMA PRODUCES

MANUFACTURED GOODS: Primary metals, paper and related products, chemicals and related products, fabricated metal products, textiles, rubber and plastic products, clothing, processed foods.

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS: Broilers, cattle and calves, soybeans, eggs, peanuts, cotton, milk.

MINERALS: Coal, petroleum, natural gas. Iron ore, cement, stone, sand and gravel, lime.

Many of the chemical industries make use of coal tar, a tar that is left from the process of making coke. Some of the by-products of coal tar are medicines, explosives, dyes, and plastics. The salt deposits near Mobile pro­vide raw material for the making of chlorine products, such as bleaches, disinfectants, and water purifiers. At Muscle Shoals in north­western Alabama there is a federal plant where fertilizers and munitions are developed for the benefit of agriculture and industry.

Alabama ranks among the first five timber producers in the nation. The forests supply lumber for furniture and other wood products as well as wood pulp for the paper industries. The first pulp and paper plant in the state was built at Tuscaloosa in 1929. Other cities that now have large pulp mills are Mobile and Brewton, in southern Alabama, and De-mopolis, in the western part of the state. Most of the pulp is made into finished products such as newsprint, stationery, corrugated boxes, and kraft paper. Kraft paper is the strong brown paper used in grocery bags.

Agriculture. In Enterprise, Alabama, there is a monument to the boll weevil. It is perhaps the only monument in the world to an insect pest. The monument was erected in 1919 after the boll weevil destroyed the cotton crops. It reminds Alabama's farmers of the part that the boll weevil played in teaching them not to depend on cotton alone for their living.

For a long time cotton ranked first among Alabama's crops, but today cotton brings only a fraction of the total income from crops. Alabama also produces substantial amounts of soybeans, peanuts, corn, hay, sweet potatoes and other garden vegetables, and fruits and pecans. Some crops are identified with particular areas. Soybeans are grown extensively in the Black Belt and around Mobile Bay. Peanuts are a main crop in the Wire Grass area. Strawberries are grown commercially around Cullman in Cullman County, Clanton in Chilton County, and Georgiana in Butler County. Clanton is also known for peaches. Truck farming is carried on in many areas.

An interesting fact about Alabama's agriculture is that since 1958 livestock sales have brought more income than crops. Cattle are raised chiefly in the Black Belt and hogs in the Wire Grass area. Poultry raising is concen­trated north of Birmingham. Dairying is carried on throughout the state.

Mining. Alabama is well-known for its production of coal, cement, and limestone. A number of other' minerals are produced in varying quantities including petroleum, iron ore, clays and shale, mica, sand and gravel, bauxite, gold, silver, and manganese. Marble from Alabama's quarries is sold throughout the United States.

The first producing oil well began operating near Gilbertown, in Choctaw County, in 1944. Later, oil was found in Escambia County and near Citronelle, in Mobile County. There arc more than 200 producing wells in southwestern Alabama. In the northwest a large natural gas field is being developed.

Transportation and Communication

Waterways, railroads, highways, and airways connect Alabama to other parts of tlic nation. The port of Mobile connects the state to the seaports of the world.

Waterways. Alabama has the finest river system in the nation. The U.S. Corps of Engineers classifies large portions of its rivers as suitable for navigation. Millions of dollars have been spent to develop the harbor and build docks at Mobile, to widen and deepen the channels of the rivers, and to build public docks along the waterways.