Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/424

 364 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI railway renders the shipmeBt of ore to one plant and its reduction there entirely practi- cable. The quantity of ore produced in the lead belt is very great. In the year 1911 there was shipped from the single county of St. Fran- cois, which contains most of the large mines, more than seven million dollars worth of mine products, principally lead. The deposits seem to be practically inexhaustible and the industry bids fair to continue to develop for a good many years even with the ore that is now in sight. There seems no reason to be- lieve that all the ore has as yet been located, there are probably other fields in the district which await development. Farming The time has been, and that not far in the past, when farming in Southeast Missouri de- pended very largely upon a few staple prod- ucts; corn, cotton and wheat were the great products and in some places the only crops grown. This dependence upon a few staples was due in part to distance from the market and to insufficient means of transpoi-tation. Today this dependence upon staple products, however, is disappearing. The improved fa- cilities for transportation have made it pos- sible for farmers to raise other crops than the so-called staples and ship them to market in such a way and at such a cost as to render them valuable. The soil and climate of South- east Missouri are adapted to a variety of farm products and more and more this diver- sity of farm interests is appearing. It is clear to be seen that as farming becomes more diversified the value of farm products will increase and the degree of certainty of a good crop every year will also increase. Outside of those two or three counties which produce enormous quantities of lead and other mineral products, it is clear that for many years the principal interest here will be agriculture. The time will come of course, when manufacturing will be devel- oped. The water power which now goes to waste in many counties of the Southeast will be utilized and there is a sufficient quantity of power capable of development to make cer- tain that manufacturing establishments of many kinds will be supported. River Transportation The histoiy of river transportation in ]Mis- souri is a story of wonderful interest. The time was when it formed practically the only transportation possible. The products of Ste. Genevieve and of the mining region were transported- by canoe or keel boats to New Orleans and then were shipped to vari- ous parts of the world. All the supplies used by the people of Missouri at one time came up the river by the same precarious means of transportation. The application of steam to the propelling of boats brought about a very great increase in the use of the river. From 1817, when the first steamboat made its ap- pearance on the upper Mississippi until the period of rj.ilroad activity which really be- gan in the state just before the Civil war, river transportation grew to almost unpar- alleled proportions. Hundreds of steamers were engaged in the business of transpoi'tiug passengers and goods upon the river. River transportation was cheap, it was reasonably fast, and for these reasons reached a very re- markable development. The building of railroads, however, practi- cally put an end to the use of the river as a means of transportation. Today, instead of the hundreds of boats that once plied its waters, there are only a few, travel has been diverted from the river, steamboats are no