PRODUCTION AND INDUSTRY — BOOKS OF REFERENCE 631
The total bonded indebtedness of the State was 13,500,000 dollars on January 1, 1920.
The assessed value of real property in 1919 was 767,653,810 dollars, and of personal property, 372,631,062 dollars.
Production and Industry.— In 1910 the State had 96,685 farms with an area of 10,026,442 acres, of which 5,521,757 acres was improved land. In 1920 the State had 87,289 farms. The total value of all farm property in 1910 was 314,738,540 dollars. The chief agricultural products in 1920 were wheat, 4,250,000 bushels, Indian corn, 22,100,000 bushels, oats, 5,400,000 bushels, hay, 1,000,000 tons, and potatoes, 6,840,000 bushels. The area under tobacco was 13,000 acres ; the yield amounted to 10,400,000 pounds, valued at 2,600,000 dollars. Apples, peaches, plums, and grapes are grown. On January 1, 1921, the domestic animals were 184,000 horses, 13,000 mules, 245,000 milch cows, 366,000 other cattle, 728,000 sheep, and 425,000 swine. In 1919, the wool clip from 539,000 sheep produced 2,943,000 pounds of wooL
West Virginia has extensive mining and quarrying industries, besides great resources in petroleum and natural gas. The State ranks second for mineral production in the United States. The coal area extends over 17,280 square miles, and about 50,960 men are employed in coal mines. The quarries yield sandstone and limestone.
In the State there are important leather industries. According to the census of manufactures of 1910, there were in West Virginia 2,586 manu- facturing establishments with an aggregate capital of 150,923,000 dollars, employing 4,971 salaried officials, and 63,893 wage-earners, wages in the year amounted to 33,000,000 dollars. The cost of the raw material used was 92,878,000 dollars, and the value of the output was 161,950,000 dollars. The statistics of the more important industries in 1910 are given in The Statesman's Year-Book for 1916, p. 632.
In 1917 there were within the State 4,012 miles of railway, besides 660 miles of electric railway track (1919). The more important railway systems are the Pennsylvania, the Baltimore and Ohio, the Chesapeake and Ohio, the Kanawha and Michigan, the Western Maryland, the Coal and Coke, the Norfolk and Western, the Virginian, and the Monongahela Valley. The coal-fields in the west are well opened up by the Ohio and its tributaries, which provide some of the cheapest means of coal carriage in the world.
On June 30, 1920, the amount of savings deposits in the State banks and trust companies was 32,977,166 dollars.
Books of Reference.
Reports of the various Executive Departments of the State. Charleston.
Atkinson (G. W). Prominent Men of West Virginia. 1S90.
Callahan (J. M.), Semi-Centennial History of West Virginia. 1913.
Callahan (Maud F.), Evolution of the Constitution of West Virginia, 1909.
Levi* (V. A), History of West Virginia. 18S9— West Virginia: Its History, Natural Resources, Industrial Enterprises, and Institutions. Compiled for the Louisiana Pur- chase Exposition [contains a copious bibliogTaphv of the State]. Charleston, W. Va. 1904.
WUlty fW. P.), An Inside View of the Formation of West Virginia. 1901.
