_Louisville_ is a market of the tobacco region, and has probably a larger business in this industry than any other city in the world. _Davenport_, _Rock Island_, and _Moline_ form a single commercial centre, the last-named having the largest establishment for the manufacture of ploughs in the world. _Dubuque_, _Burlington_, _Quincy_, and _Muscatine_ are river-ports, all having a considerable trade in the lumber that is carried down the river. =The Southern Mississippi Valley and Gulf Coast.=--This region receives a generous warmth and rainfall. Cotton is its staple product, and nearly all the industries are connected with the growth, shipment, and manufacture of the crop and its side products. The cotton, raw or manufactured, is sold in about every country in the world. The commercial part of handling the cotton-crop begins within a very few weeks from the time of the first picking. The baled cotton is hauled by team from the plantation to the nearest market-town, an item sometimes greater than the entire freightage from the nearest seaport to Liverpool. The season for export lasts from September until the middle of January, during which time brokers are visiting the smaller markets in order to buy it on commission. It is then shipped by rail or by river to the nearest general market, where it is sold to the foreign buyers and domestic manufacturers. _New Orleans_, the metropolis of the South, has usually the heaviest export of cotton, amounting to about one billion pounds each year. Much of this is received by water from the various river-ports. The city is not only a river-port, but an important seaport as well, controlling a large part of the foreign commerce of the Gulf. Several trunk lines of railway enter the city, which is a receiving and distributing depot for both Atlantic and Pacific freights. A considerable part of the former are sent by ocean steamships from New York. An elaborate system of sewerage, well-paved streets, and a good water-supply--all recently put into operation--have made the city one of the most attractive in the United States. _Galveston_ is destined to become a leading port for cotton export. It has the advantage of a fine harbor on the seaboard, and the disadvantage of a location so low that very heavy south winds flood the streets with water from the Gulf. The growth of the export trade is due chiefly to the increasing crop of Texas. Shipments from Galveston begin in September, the Texas crop being the first to mature. _Savannah_ and _New York_ rank next in their exports. _Pensacola_ and _Brunswick_ are also important points of export. _Memphis_, _Vicksburg_, _Shreveport_, _Houston_, and _Montgomery_ are important collecting stations for the cotton.