SOUTHERN STATES.

Galveston is a great cotton port.
steamers connect this city with several oe the
large seaports in America.
Fort Worth is a railroad center stad nate
market. It exports grain and flour.

. Houston is an important railroad center. It is,

the chief manufacturing city in southern Texas,
and has a large traffic in lumber and cotton.
Waco is an active business point. It exports
farm products in large amounts.
El Paso is noted for its very rapid growth,
The city is a center of trade corel Mexico.
Other important places are:
‘Beaumont, lumber; Bonham,
cotton; Brownsville, commerce;
Denison, manufactures; Laredo,
coal; Orange, lumber; Paris,
flour, cotton-seed oil; Sherman,
cotton, cotton-seed oil.

LOUISLAN A.

There are no
mountains in
this state, and
‘no hill in it is
more than three
hundred feet high. Much of the eastern por-
tion is lower than the surface of the Missis-
sippi, and broad banks of earth have been
built to keep the river from flooding the

country. These earth walls are called levees.

A large part of the land in the south is too
marshy to be plowed, but every year thousands
of acres of this marsh region are drained and
planted with rice.

Many people in Louisiana are of French
descent and speak. the French language.
France once owned Louisiana, but sold 1 it to
the United States in 1803.1

1 At that time Louisiana included a large section around
New Orleans, east of the Mississippi, and also nearly all the
. vast region lying between the Mississippi river and the Rocky
mountains, except Texas and a strip northwest of this state.

Lines of

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
    

Cutting Sugar Cane.

138

The chief crops are sugar cane, cotton and
rice. In the production of sugar this state
is the first in the Union. Oranges and figs
grow in abundance.

The manufactures include lumber, cotton-
seed oil, clothing and machinery.

Baton Rouge is the capital.

New Orleans is the leading city in the world
in the export of cotton. It is the chief market
for the sugar product of the country. The
manufactures of
this great city
are growing rap-

idly. (See page
102.)
Shreveport

contains mills
and factories and
has an active ex-
port trade in cot-
ton and corn.

Monroe is an
important river
port.

ARKANSAS.

The northwest of Arkansas is a highland
region. The rest of the state is nearly level.

Farming employs most of the people.
Cotton and corn are the leading products.
Much live stock is raised.

Among the lumber exports are pine, oak
and black walnut.

‘This state yields coal, iron, lead, oilstone
and zinc. The mines are, however, worked
but little.

Little Rock is the capital and largest city.
Cotton is the chief export.

Fort Smith has an active trade with the
Indian Territory.

Hot Springs is a famous health resort.