The anthracite coal of this region is used wholly for fuel and steam-making; it is shipped partly by water from Philadelphia, but mainly in specially constructed cars to the various points of consumption. The soft coal is used also for fuel and steam-making, but a large part of the product is converted into coke and used in the steel-plants.
The petroleum of this region is a leading export of the country, the states of western Europe being the chief purchasers. Of agricultural products, hay, dairy products, and tobacco are the only ones of importance. Natural gas is used both as a fuel and in manufactures.
The lake-shore centre of steel manufacture depends largely on the low cost of transporting the iron ore, which in part is offset by the increased cost of coal. The low cost of shipping the manufactured product over nearly level trunk lines is a very substantial gain. South Chicago, Toledo, Sandusky, Lorain, Cleveland, Ashtabula, Conneaut, Erie, and Buffalo are centres of steel manufacture or ore shipment, because they are situated on this great trade-route or line of least resistance.
The coal-mines and iron-making plants of the southern Appalachians have a considerable area. The chief manufacturing centres are Birmingham, Richmond, Roanoke, and Chattanooga. A considerable part of the Virginia ores find their way to the Ohio River steel-mills. Open-hearth steel is an important manufacture in Birmingham. A large part of the ores smelted in the southern Appalachian region are made into foundry iron.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
What are the advantages and the disadvantages of manufacturing cotton textiles in the New England States?
Why have the mining of ore and the manufacture of steel become generally unprofitable in the New England States?
What causes have brought about the lowering of the prices of cotton textiles during the past fifty years?—of shoes?
What makes the manufacture of artificial ice a precarious business north of the latitude of Philadelphia?