Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/583

 HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 523 also large. The chief products groMi are wheat, corn and hay. Livestock is raised, making large shipments every year of cattle, hogs and sheep. Considerable attention is given to orchards and gardens. The prin- cipal factories are flouring mills which manu- factmre large quantities of high grade flour, saw mills, planing mills, oi'e reduction works, granite quarries and brick factories. The total of manufactured products in 1910 was $7.305,82.5. Of this amount the products of the smelters furnished .$6,556,423. The other large items were flour and the products of the car shops. St. Francois is surpassed in the value of manufactured products by only one county in the southeast — Jeffei'son. It is first in population, wealth and total value of all products. The railroads in the county are the St. Louis, Iron Moiuitain & Southern main line, the Belmont branch which runs through the county, the Missouri Southern, from Ste. Genevieve to Bismarck, and the Mississippi River & Bonne Terre, from Doe Run to River- side, in Jeiferson county. Besides these the St. Francois County Interurban line runs from De Lassus through Farmington to Flat River. The population of the county is 35,738 and its total taxable wealth is $9,969,403. There are 63 school districts, employing 168 teach- ers, and an enumeration of more than 10,000 children of school age. The principal incorporated towTis in the county are Farmington, the county seat, near the central part of the county and having a population of about 2,673, and Flat River, in the mining district, with a population of 5,012. Besides these incorporated towns there are a number of to-mis in the lead belt with large populations which are not incor- porated. The largest of these is Bonne Terre, with more than 5,000 people. Others are Doe Run, Des Loge, Elvins, Esther and Lead- wood, which are mining centers. Bismarck, on the Iron Mountain Railroad, has a popu- lation of 848 ; and De Lassus, Iron Mountain, Knob Lick, Libertyville and Syenite. Syenite is the site of a great granite quai'ry, the largest in the state, and is situated just west of Knob Lick. Farmington has large manu- facturing interests and is the seat of Carle- ton College, Elmwood Seminary and State Hospital No. 4, for the insane. Ste. Genevieve coimty is fifty miles south of St. Louis, on the Mississippi river. There are 450 square miles of land surface, about one-third of which is cultivated. A large part of the surface is rolling, and much of which is covered with timber, but along the ]Iississippi river and other water courses there are extensive tracts of bottom land. This is alluvial soil and is very fertile and productive. The upland, where it is farmed, is' well adapted to wheat growing. In the alluvial soil corn and fruit are grown. About 60 per cent of the county has timber pro- ducts, the chief timbers being black oak, though there are quantities of white oak, walnut, hickory and pecan. The chief interest of the county is farming. The principal products are wheat and corn, though a large area is given up to the grow- ing of hay. Livestock interests are exten- sive, and considerable attention is given to poultry raising, and dairying and horticul- ture are important items. The mineral in- terests of the county are also extensive, there being deposits of copper, lead, zinc, iron, glass sand, kaolin, marble and building stone. All of these exist in quantities large enough to make mining a commercial possibility. The building stone is especially valuable.