258 
Modern Business Geography 
belt in North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. This 
industry requires more skilled labor than the other simple industries 
mentioned in this section, but much less than the cotton manufactur- 
ing of the New England states, where finer thread is spun and finer 
cloth is woven. The chief reasons for its interesting growth are: 
(1) the local supply of raw cotton; (2) the falls and rapids where 
the rivers flow from the hard rocks of the old land to the loose soil of 
the coastal plain; (3) a'labor supply cheaper than that of the north- 
sastern section, and (4) a local southern market for cotton goods. 
No large city has yet developed as a result of the southern cotton 
industry. The two chief cities in this region are not devoted chiefly 
to cotton. Birmingham, because of its proximity to mines of both 
coal and iron, is a center for crude iron and steel. In Atlanta printing 
and publishing rank first, since the city is a state capital and the seat 
of many educational institutions. 
The industrial center of the far South. Farther to the southwest, 
New Orleans is by far the greatest of the southern industrial centers. 
[ts industries depend largely on local raw materials furnished by for- 
ests, rice fields, and sugar and cotton plantations. Hence wooden 
goods, especially shingles, and tanks for sugar, are important products. 
Sugar refining and the making of confectionery hold a high place. 
Each year the city makes many million dollars’ worth of burlap bags 
for use in handling cotton seed, cottonseed meal, rice, and fertilizer. 
Naturally much cottonseed oil is prepared; and New Orleans is the 
chief center for the cleaning and polishing of rice. Because of the warm 
climate, the city likewise makes an unusually large amount of ice. 
The difference between the industries of a southern city like New 
Orleans, which depends largely on plantation products, and a north- 
ern city like Cleveland, which depends largely on the products of 
mines. 1s most interesting. 
Cities of the Western Plains 
The meat-packing cities. Westward from the main manufacturing 
section of the United States the work of St. Louis is continued in a 
group of meat-packing cities. Kansas City, St. Joseph, Des Moines, 
and Omaha are in part a response to the refrigerator car and the other 
methods that have made it possible to preserve meat a long time and 
transport it long distances. They have the advantages of being lo- 
cated (1) in the corn belt, (2) near the edge of the grazing lands, and 
(8) on main routes from the grazing lands to the great markets. Some 
of these advantages are shared in a less degree by a more southerly