Statistics.—A carefully tabulated statement shows that, in addition to her cotton crop, Georgia produced, in 1876, 23,629,000 bushels of Indian corn, valued at $14,172,000; 2,840,000 bushels of wheat, worth $3,805,600; 5,700,000 bushels of oats, worth $3,876,000; and 23,600 tons of hay, worth $347,628. To these principal crops should be added the timber and naval stores exported from Atlantic outports. In January, 1877, there were in Georgia 118,300 horses, 404,900 oxen and other cattle, 96,200 mules, 270,400 milch cows, 378,600 sheep, and 1,483,100 swine, having a total valuation of $30,815,117. The State is admirably adapted for stock-raising, but, as cotton culture offers the quickest returns, it has hitherto engrossed the attention of planters and farmers. The grain and root crops are largely cultivated for the support of the agricultural population.
The rice crop of Georgia in 1870 was 22,277,380 ℔; tobacco, 288,596 ℔; molasses, 553,192 gals.; wine, 21,927 gals.; sugar, 644 hhds; sweet potatoes, 2,621,562 bush.; Irish potatoes, 197,101 bush.; butter, 4,499,572 ℔; honey, 610,877 ℔; wool, 846,947 ℔, increased in 1878 to about 1,000,000 ℔. The latest official census shows that 6,831,856 acres, valued at $94,559,468, are improved in farms; value of farm implements and machinery, $4,614,701; estimated value of all farm products, $80,390,228; estimated value of manufactured products, $31,196,115. The total valuation of the State in 1870 was $268,169,207, against $645,895,237, in 1860. The decrease is owing to the emancipation of the slaves; but the State is steadily gaining ground in increased acreage cultivated, increased number and value of manufactories, and increased productive capacity everywhere.
Mineral Products.—Georgia was perhaps the El Dorado of which the Spaniards who invaded Florida were in search. Before the gold discovery in California, the “placers” of Northern Georgia were profitably worked for many years; but since 1852 their produce has almost wholly ceased. The gold-bearing region is comprised in the counties of Lumpkin, Habersham, Forsyth, and Hall,—the precious metal being found in the alluvial deposits of the streams, and also intermixed with the quartz rock of the hills. A branch mint was established by the Government at Dahlonega, the shire town of Lumpkin county. In 1853 it coined gold bullion of nearly half a million dollars’ value; but, as in California, the placers, or surface deposits, have become exhausted. Besides this precious metal, Georgia contains, mainly in N. E. or Cherokee Georgia, coal and fossiliferous iron ore distributed along the ridges between the Tennessee and Alabama border. The Cohutta mountains contain copper, and also silver and lead ores. Iron ore, manganese, slate, baryta, and brown hæmatite are found on the western declivity of this range. Between the Cohutta mountains and the Blue Ridge is a vein of marble, and adjacent to it are the gold-bearing schists, which reappear on the south side of the Blue Ridge. Other minerals are granite, gypsum, limestone, sienite, marl, burrstone, soapstone, asbestos, shales, tripoli, fluor-spar, kaolin, porcelain clay, arragonite, tourmaline, emerald, carnelian, ruby, opal, calcedony, agate, amethyst, jasper, garnets, schorl, zircon, rose-quartz, beryl, and even diamonds.
Population.—The latest official census of Georgia (1870) gives a population of 1,184,709 souls, 638,926 being white and 545,142, or nearly one-half, black. This population is distributed among 136 counties, which include 8 cities and 134 incorporated towns. Georgia, which ranks tenth in area, is the twelfth of the Union in respect to population. Though showing an increase of 127,423 persons in the previous decade, which embraced the period of the war with the North, she has fallen behind one in her rank; but indications of prosperity in her agricultural and manufacturing interests warrant the belief that Georgia will show a marked gain in 1880. A large proportion of this anticipated increase may be confidently assigned to the northern section of the State, though the middle section is at present most thickly settled.
Counties.—There are 136 counties in the State, viz.: Appling, Baker, Baldwin, Banks, Bartow, Berrien, Bibb, Brooks, Bryan, Bullock, Burke, Butts, Calhoun, Campbell, Camden, Carroll, Cass, Catoosa, Charlton, Chatham, Chattahoochee, Chattooga, Cherokee, Clarke, Clay, Clayton, Clinch, Cobb, Coffee, Colquitt, Columbia, Cowetta, Crawford, Dade, Dawson, Decatur, De Kalb, Dodge, Dooly, Dougherty, Douglas, Early, Echols, Effingham, Elbert, Emmanuel, Fannin, Fayette, Floyd, Forsyth, Franklin, Fulton, Gilmer, Glasscock, Glynn, Gordon, Greene, Gwinnett, Habersham, Hall, Hancock, Haralson, Harris, Hart, Heard, Henry, Houston, Irwin, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson, Johnson, Jones, Laurens, Lee, Liberty, Lincoln, Lowndes, Lumpkin, Macon, Madison, Marion, M’Duffie, M’Intosh, Meriwether, Miller, Milton, Mitchell, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Murray, Muscogee, Newton, Oglethorpe, Paulding, Pickens, Pierce, Pike, Polk, Pulaski, Putnam, Quitman, Rabun, Randolph, Richmond, Rockdale, Schley, Scriven, Spalding, Stewart, Sumter, Talbot, Taliafero, Tatnall, Taylor, Telfair, Terrell, Thomas, Towns, Troup, Twiggs, Union, Upson, Walker, Walton, Ware, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Webster, White, Whitfield, Wilcox, Wilkes, Wilkinson, and Worth.
Cities and Towns.—Georgia has no large cities. Savannah, the chief seaport, has a population of about 30,000; Atlanta, the capital, 35,000; Augusta, 23,768; Macon, 10,810; Columbus, 7,401; Athens, 4,251; Milledgeville, 2,750; and Rome, 2,748. The important towns are Albany, Americus, Bainbridge, Brunswick, Cartersville, Covington, Cuthbert, Dalton, Dawson, Eatonton, Fort Valley, Griffin, La Grange, Marietta, Newnan, Thomasville, Valdosta, Washington, and West Point. Columbus, Americus, Atlanta, and Rome, as well as Savannah, are considerable shipping points, for cotton; Athens is the seat of the University of Georgia; Augusta and Columbus are manufacturing centres; Macon has three religious colleges; Darien, Brunswick, and St. Mary’s manufacture and export lumber. Andersonville, in Sumter county, acquired terrible celebrity during the civil war as the site of the chief military prison of the Southern Confederacy. Atlanta is by far the best example of rapid growth the State affords. From a population of 21,189 exhibited by the census of 1870, the city advanced to 35,000 in 1876. It is a railway and manufacturing centre. In the vicinity and for its possession were conducted some of the most important military operations of the secession war.
Manufactures.—Georgia is the foremost Southern State in her railway and manufacturing enterprises. Both have been chiefly developed since the war, from which everything in the south of the Union dates. Her rivers and railways afford abundant facilities for the movement of merchandise as well as crops. Her streams also provide excellent and unfailing water-power. In the development of her industries a great future is predicted for Georgia. Indeed some of the more sanguine claim that she is already becoming a formidable rival of New England in the manufacture of cotton and woollen fabrics.
There are in the State 38 cotton factories, with 123,233 spindles and 2,125 looms. There are 14 woollen factories, with 4,200 spindles and 135 looms. Augusta and Columbus take the lead in the number and capacity of these works, for which certain important advantages are claimed. The water-power is so ample that the mills are run by it alone. The streams do not freeze in winter. The cotton and wool are grown at the factory door, saving to the mill-owner the cost of transporting his raw material from a great distance. Labor is cheaper. Finally, the State, in order to encourage the investment of foreign capital in manufactures, has by law exempted such capital from taxation for ten years. The product of the Georgia mills finds a ready market in the Southern and Western States. It is asserted on good authority that during the years 1875, 1876, and 1877—years of unparalleled depression to the manufacturing interests of the United States—the mills of Georgia, especially those of Augusta and Columbus, were never idle, and paid a handsome return on their invested capital. Besides the 52 factories which convert so large a share of her raw product into cloths, there are 1,375 grain mills, having 1,453 run of stones for corn and 556 for wheat. There are 734 saw-mills, 77 wagon and carriage factories, 6 iron furnaces, 7 iron foundries, 11 lime-kilns, 4 potteries, 68 tanneries, 6 turpentine distilleries, 2 rolling mills, 5 paper-mills, 12 furniture manufactories, 3 rice-mills, &c. The manufacture of rope, bagging, twine, tobacco, ice, sashes and blinds, agricultural implements, boilers and machinery, fertilizers, &c., is carried on more or less extensively. Besides Augusta and Columbus, the largest manufacturing city of the State, there are cotton factories at Athens, Macon, West Point, Decatur, and Atlanta. The latter city also has large iron works. Thomasville, Dalton, Albany, Marietta, and Rome are also manufacturing points.
Commerce.—Large vessels can enter only four harbors, viz., Savannah, Darien, Brunswick, and St. Mary’s. The inlets or sounds which divide the coast islands from each other or from the mainland are generally only navigable for small craft. At mean low tides the bar of the Savannah (Tybee entrance) has 19, the Altamaha 14, that of St. Simon’s sound (entrance to Brunswick) 17, and that of St. Mary’s river 14 feet of water. Savannah, Brunswick, and St. Mary’s are ports of entry. Cotton and lumber are the principal exports. Of the former 610,419 bales of Upland, and 11,309 of Sea-island were exported during the year ending September 2, 1878. The shipment of wool for the same time was 988,389 ℔. These figures should not be taken to represent the crop of the State. The ship-timber, boards, deals, clapboards, &c., are chiefly shipped from the other ports. About 100 vessels, of 22,000 tons burden, are employed in the foreign and coastwise trade. For the year ending December 31, 1878, the total tonnage of the port of Savannah was—entered, 280,995 tons foreign and 385,532 coastwise; cleared, 223,885 foreign and 418,958 coastwise; value of imports $505,596, and of exports $24,014,535. In the district of Brunswick and Darien the entries were 124,711 and the clearances 32,579 tons; value of exports $1,030,943. The St. Mary’s entries were 16,052 tons foreign and 20,065 coastwise; value of exports $120,186, and of imports $1,421.