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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.
Реферат опубликован: 17/09/2007