embayment lies in the Austro-riparian area of the same zone. Among
wild animals, deer and bear are not uncommon. Opossums,
raccoons, woodchucks, foxes, grey squirrels and fox-squirrels are
common. The game birds include quail (“Bob White”) and
partridges. Prairie chickens (pinnated grouse), pheasants and wild
turkeys, all very common as late as 1880, are no longer to be found
save in remote and thinly-settled districts. A state fish commission
has laboured to increase the common varieties of river fish. So far
as these are an article of general commerce, they come, like frogs,
terrapin and turtles, mainly from the counties of the embayment
region. Mussel fisheries, an industry confined to the Mississippi
river counties from Lincoln to Lewis, are economically important,
as the shells are used in the manufacture of pearl buttons. There
are state fish-hatcheries at St Louis and St Joseph.
Flora.—The most valuable forests are in the southern half of the state, which, except where cleared for farms, is almost continuously wooded. An almost entire absence of underbrush is characteristic of Missouri forests. The finest woods are on the eastern upland and on the Mississippi lowlands. The entire woodland area of the state was estimated at 41,000 sq. m. by the national census of 1900. Ash, oaks, black and sweet gums, chestnuts, hickories, hard maple, beech, walnut and short-leaf pine are noteworthy among the trees of the Carolinian area; the tupelo and bald cypress of the embayment region, and long-leaf and loblolly pines, pecans and live oaks of the uplands, among those characteristic of the Austro-riparian. But the habitats overlap, and persimmons and magnolias of different species are common and notable in both areas. The heavy timber in the south-eastern counties (cypress, &c.), and even scattered stands of such valuable woods as walnut, white oak and red-gum, have already been considerably exploited.
Climate.—Missouri has a continental climate, with wide range of moisture and temperature. The Ozark uplift tempers very agreeably the summers in the south, but does not affect the climate of the state as a whole. The normal mean annual temperature for the entire state is about 54° F.; the normal monthly means through the year are approximately 29·6, 30·3, 42, 55·4, 64·6, 73·2, 77·1, 75·7, 68·2, 57, 42·8 and 33·1° F. The south-eastern corner is crossed by an annual isotherm of 60°, the north-western by one of 50°; and although in the former region sometimes not a day in the year may show an average temperature below freezing-point, at Jefferson City there are occasionally two months of freezing weather, and at Rockport three. Nevertheless, the yearly means of the five districts into which the state is divided by the national weather service exhibit very slight differences: approximately 52·1, 52·7, 54·4, 56·1 and 55·7° F. respectively for the north-west, north-east, central, south-east and south-west. On the other hand, the range in any month of local absolute temperatures over the state is habitually great (normally about 50° in the hottest and 100° or more in the coldest months), and likewise the annual range for individual localities (90° to 140°). Temperatures as high as 100° to 105° and as low as −20° or −30° are recorded locally almost every year, and the maximum range of extremes shown by the records is from 116° at Marble Hill, Bollinger county, in July 1901, to −40° at Warsaw, Benton county, in February 1905. The average fall of snow, which is mostly within the months from November to March inclusive, ranges from about 8 in. in the south-east counties to 30 in. in the north-west counties. The Missouri river is often closed by ice, and the Mississippi at St Louis, partly because it is obstructed by bridges, sometimes freezes over so that for weeks together horses and wagons can cross on the ice.
The average yearly rainfall for the state as a whole is about 39 in., ranging from 53·7 in. in 1898 to 25·3 in. in 1901. The prevailing winds are southerly, although west winds are common in winter. Winds from the north and west are generally dry, cool, clear and invigorating; winds from the south and east warm, moist and depressing. Rainfall comes from the Gulf of Mexico. The south-east winds blow from the arid lands and carry rising temperatures across the state; and the winter anti-cyclones from the north-west carry low temperatures even to the southern border. Missouri lies very frequently in the dangerous quadrant of the great cyclonic storms passing over the Mississippi valley—indeed, northern Missouri lies in the area of maximum frequency of tornadoes.
Agriculture.—Few states have so great a variety of soils. This variety is due to the presence of different forms of glacial drift, and to the variety of surface rocks. The northern half of the state is well watered and extremely fertile. The south-eastern embayment is rich to an exceptional degree. Speaking generally, the Ozark region is characterized by reddish clays, mixed with gravels and stones, and cultivable in inverse proportion to the amount of these elements; northern Missouri by a generally black clay loam over a clay subsoil, with practically no admixture of stones; the southern prairies, above referred to, share the characteristics of those north of the Missouri. The Mississippi embayment is in parts predominantly sandy, in others clayey; it is mainly under timber. The state as a whole is devoted predominantly to agriculture. Within its borders or close about them are the centres of total and of improved farm acreage, of total farm values, of gross farm income, of the growth of Indian corn, of wheat, and of oats. In 1900 agriculture absorbed the labour of 41·3% of the total working population of the state. Of the area of the state 77·3% was included in that year in farm land (33,997,873 acres); and of this, 67·4% was improved. The average size of a farm was 119·3 acres; 39·9% of all farm families owned a home clear of all incumbrance; and the percentages of farms operated by owners, cash tenants and share tenants were respectively 69·5, 11·0 and 19·5. Negroes worked 1·7% of the total acreage. The total value of farm-property was $1,033,121,897. The aggregate values of farm products in 1899 was $219,296,970, and this total consisted of $117,012,895 in crops (area in crops, 14,827,620 acres), $97,841,944 in animal products, and $4,442,131 of forest by-products of farm operations. Indian corn is the most prominent single crop; in 1899 it was valued at $61,246,305. Of other cereals none except wheat is produced in any quantity as compared with other states. Tobacco is grown over half the area of the state, but especially in the central and north-central counties, and cotton along the Arkansas border counties, but especially in the embayment lowlands. Orchard fruits, small fruits and grapes are produced in large quantities, and a fruit experiment station, the only institution of its kind in the country in 1900, is maintained by the state at Mountain Grove, in Wright county. To a slight extent it is possible to grow fruit of distinctively southern habitat, but even pears (a prominent and valuable crop) are uncertain in returns. Apples are grown to best advantage in the north-west quarter; peaches on the Arkansas border; pears along the Mississippi; melons in the sandy regions of the embayment; small fruits in the south-west. Grapes are mainly grown in the Ozark region, and wine is produced in Gasconade and other central and north-central counties in amounts sufficient to place Missouri, California aside, in the front rank of wine states in the Union. Indian corn and abundant grasses give to Missouri, as to the other central prairie states, a sound basis for her livestock interests. In 1900 the value of her live stock was $160,540,004. Two of the four remount purchasing stations of the United States Army are at St Louis and Kansas City. As a mule market Missouri has no rival. Sheep are herded in the southern Ozarks.
Minerals.—Coal, lead, zinc, clays, building stones and iron are the most important minerals. Cobalt and nickel are associated with lead in the St François field; but though the American output is almost exclusively derived from Missouri the production is small in comparison with the amount derived from abroad. Practically the whole comes from Mine La Motte, in Madison county. Missouri is also the largest producer in the Union of tripoli and of barytes. Copper occurs in various localities, but is of economic importance only in the Ozark uplift; it was first mined in small quantities in 1837. The value of the copper mined in 1906 (based on smelter returns) was $54,347. Mineral waters—muriatic, alkaline chalybeate and sulphuric—occur widely. Various mineral paint bases (apart from lead, zinc, baryta and kaolin) are produced in small quantities. Iron, once an extremely important product, has ceased since about 1880 to be significant in the general production of the country. But it is of great importance to the state, nevertheless, and its production has possibilities much beyond present realization. The ore occurs in two forms, haematites and limonites; the specular hematites often being grouped, for practical purposes, into two classes—those occurring in porphyry and those occurring in sandstone. The haematites are found not only in the archean porphyries but in Cambrian limestone and sandstone, and in the sub-Carboniferous formations; while the limonites are confined almost exclusively to the Cambrian. The bedded haematites and limonites have been little exploited. Mining was begun in Iron and Crawford counties in the second decade of the 19th century; at Iron Mountain in 1846, and at Pilot Knob in the next year. Since 1880 the output of the state has been falling, and the total production up to 1902 did not exceed 9,000,000 tons of ore; in 1906 the output was 80,910 tons. Iron pyrites, which occurs widely and abundantly, has become of value as material for the preparation of sulphuric acid.
The limits of the coal belt have already been defined. The area of the Coal Measures is about 23,000 sq. m., and that of those classed by the National Geological Survey as probably productive is about 14,000 sq. m., or nearly the entire area of the lower measures. The coal is almost wholly bituminous, with very little cannelite. The seams are generally from one to five feet in thickness. Macon, Lafayette and Adair are the leading counties in output; Lexington and Bevier are the leading mining centres. The total output from 1840 to 1902 was about 78,500,000 short tons; the annual output first passed 1,000,000 tons in 1876, and 2,000,000 tons in 1882; and from 1901 to 1905 the yearly output, steadily increasing, averaged 4,196,688 tons, of a value at the mines of $6,266,154; the output in 1908 was 3,317,315 tons, with a Spot value of $5,444,907. Superficial evidences of natural gas and petroleum are abundant in western and north-western Missouri, but these have not been found in commercially profitable quantities. The total value of natural gas from wells in Missouri in 1908 was $22,592. A few small oil wells are open near the Kansas line. Both crude oil and natural gas are drawn from Kansas for the supply of Kansas City and other parts of western Missouri.
Lead occurs in three areas in southern Missouri. In the first, of which St François county is the centre, it occurs generally alone disseminated in Cambrian limestone; in the second, of which the counties immediately south-west of Jefferson City are the centre,
