river, of iron; and when she has performed a few trips, we predict that not many more will be made of wood. "What would tend more, however, perhaps, than any other circumstance to make iron cheaper, and extend the consumption of both domestic and foreign, would be the increase of facility in communication with the interior by railroads. M. de Villefosse properly remarks, What they call, in France, the question of the price of iron, is, properly speaking, the question of the price of wood, and the question of the means of interior communications by means of roads, streams, rivers, and canals.' The cheap and rapid communication of railways is what so bulky an article requires; and the only point to consider is, whether it would be more advantageous to wait until this country can make it, or import it from Great Britain. The manufacture of the heavy-edge rail calls for such a large outlay of capital, so much more experience and manipulation, than any other species of fabrication, that it would retard the progress of the country too seriously, we apprehend, to stand still till the bantling attained maturity. "It has been stated that the heavy-edge rail can be made here, in Maryland, for sixty dollars per ton, which is about the cost of bars laid down at the seaboard. It appears, from English invoices, the heavy T rail has always cost seven dollars twenty-five cents per ton more than the common bar, and that, too, where the manufacture is brought to perfection. "We cannot, therefore, understand how it can be made near the price of common bars here. In consequence of the great demand for railways in Great Britain and the continent, the price now of the T rails is 77. 10s. per ton, or thirty-six dollars per ton, to which add eight dollars for freight, insurance, commission, &c., makes the cost of importation fortyfour dollars per ton. "As the edge rail will replace the flat bar in this country, on 2500 miles, or say 250,000 tons, the difference between forty-four dollars and seventy dollars, the present price, is 6,500,000 dollars. The sum the country would save, if the present duty of twenty-five dollars per ton were abolished. "The importation of 90,000 tons of bar and pig-iron per annum (comparatively crude articles), shows that the country is not yet prepared for the manufacture of the more complicated and expensive edge rail; and, at present, until the avenues of transit have placed the existing works in more complete communication with the various markets, we think a high duty on rails highly inexpedient; besides, the railroads would not only facilitate the progress of the manufacture, by placing the ore, the fuel, and the flux, the furnace, the forge, and the rolling-mill, now in many sections of the country, at some distance from each other, by giving between each a cheaper and easier communication, but they would furnish considerable employment in the making of locomotives, cars, and all kinds of work connected with railways. Many of the richest portions of the union remain undeveloped for want of the means of transportation. Professor Shephard, of Yale college, says, that in many parts of Missouri the iron ore is so devoid of foreign materials, as scarcely to require the preliminary process of roasting, to dissipate the volatile ingredients, or the subsequent addition. of large doses of flux, to effect the withdrawal of other impurities; and, that a mountain exists there, whose circuit is two miles, and whose elevation is 350 feet, consisting of specular iron, so pure that only a few solitary crystals of feldspar can be discovered, which would yield seventy per cent of pure iron, and the region is amply supplied with charcoal. "Unlike the precious metals, which, when once separated from the ore, cease to contribute to the productive industry of the country, iron, through its various transformations, from the ore to the finished utensil, acquires an accession of value, calls for additional mechanical labour, and gives occupation and reward to different avocations. This dormant treasure lies imbedded to an inexhaustible amount, through a vastly extended region; and we will take a rapid glance at its richness and variety. The most valuable-the magnetic oxide of iron-characterises the stratified primary rocks of New England, and is prolonged across New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, to a remarkable degree. It occurs abundantly at Winchester and Franconia, in New Hampshire; at Cumberland, Rhode Island, whence it is taken to Massachusetts to be smelted; at Somerset, in a range of talc slate, twenty miles north of Massachusetts; at Hawles and Bernardstown, in Massachusetts. In New York it occurs in the northern primary district in abundance, especially near the valley of Ausable river. In the Highlands, and in the neighbourhood of Ringwood, thick beds, averaging ten feet of solid ore, are seen-in Morris county, New Jersey, near Succasunny, and at intervals as far as the Delaware river, and on the northern side of Berks and Lancaster counties, Pennsylvania. Its average thickness is from five to twelve feet, and it yields sixty-five yer cent of metallic iron. "In Pennsylvania, where the various ores are profusely distributed, besides the magnetic or oxydulated iron ore, the brown and yellowish argillaceous or hematite ore is found principally along the borders of the limestone valleys, containing from forty-five to fiftyfive per cent of metallic iron; the fossiliferous ore, from the variegated shale formation, containing from forty to sixty per cent of metallic iron; and the ore of the coal region, similar in character to the clay iron-stone of England and Wales, yielding from thirty to fifty per cent of metallic iron, and is highly useful from its general dissemination through those districts where the other ores are not encountered. "Railways would not only cheapen the manufactured article by affording a quick vehicle of conveyance, but open new markets to the iron master, and widen consumption. From the difficulties of transit, the north and west branches of the Susquehanna, and of Clinton and Essex counties, New York, would consider sixty dollars per ton for bars a poor compensation, but with railways would be able to compete more successfully with foreign supplies. The rolling-mill at Mount Savage owes its existence to the Baltimore and Ohio railway of imported iron. So that, independent of the considerations attached to railways as a means of national defence and a bond of union, the interests of the iron manufacturer seem to demand the free admission of railroad iron. The two establishments now in existence for the manufacture of this branch, cannot possibly supply the demand that will exist for this method of locomotion and conveyance; for it appears that not only will 250,000 tons be required at once of heavy rails to replace the worn out flat rails, but 4378 miles are undertaken for railroads, besides those already in use throughout the United States. "Agriculture, into which the consumption of iron so extensively enters, and which forms the preponderating interests of the country, has sacrificed much to support the protective policy, in the high prices created thereby. The price of most of the products of agriculture is at present depressed, and it would materially relieve its burdens if the duty were in some measure relaxed on all descriptions of iron; and we do not believe, under the existing profitable rates, any moderate reduction would injure a single manufactory within the influence of foreign importations. Besides, the quantity which comes in collision with foreign iron is but a minor proportion of our whole production. Of 300,000 tons wrought iron made in the United States, only one-third, or 100,000 tons is calculated to reach the seaboard; the other two-thirds, or 200,000 tons being despatched to the western markets. "We do not advocate any extravagant or sudden abatement of duties, but it is not just to the interests of the other states, nor the large consuming mass, that any particular branch of national industry should be protected beyond the requisitions of government, for efficient public service, or what is necessary to counteract the regulations of foreign nations; but it is expecting too much from the people to suppose that they will submit to a perpetuity of the system, when the temporary and incidental protection has enabled the domestic to vie with the foreign manufacturer in his own market, and the revenue raised by this means is no longer necessary for the administration. The effect of this abatement would be, that the manufacturer would be obliged to reduce his profits in the price lest he should be undersold by the foreign article; and the consumer would reap the benefit of the competition. We now subjoin the table before alluded to :— IMPORT of Iron and Steel into the United States, from 1828-29, to 1843-44, inclusive, ending on the 30th of September of each Year. 99,300 5,558,366 72,855 3,549,629 112,679 5,916,787 70,544 3,812,370 109,548 4,411,215 104,621 3,734,683 37,071 1,341,565 99,477 3,481,499 2,800 487,334 436 766 18,391 324,086 1,334 597,317 2,771 609,201 2,563 528,716 Total iron and steel. 102,866 6,363,183 74,762 4,036,963 115,637 6,688,596 72,769 4,341,086 112,111 5,020,4161107,392 4,332,000 38,405 1,665,651 102,277 3,968,833 2,225 771,809 2,958 Total iron 487,334 1,907 3,566 804,817 Steel........ The last quarter of 1844 only estimated in part. 461 STATEMENT of Sales made in large Quantities in January and July of 1840 and 1841, respectively, and in January of 1842. 87 to 113 dirs. rolled ........do. Blooms Boiler plates without holes for rivets.... ..lb. Hoops, from one-half to three inches wide ............ton Kentledge do. Mill-cranks .lb. Nails, wrought ..........do. Nails, cut ...........do. Nail-rods, slit ......ton 80 dirs. 70 dirs. 65 dirs. Spike rods, rolled, one-fourth Shovels 8 to 12 dirs. 100 to 125 dirs. 8 to 12 dirs. 94 to 120 dlrs. 7 to 12 dirs. 83 to 110 dlrs. 6 to 11 dlrs. 83 to 110 dlrs. 6 to 11 dlrs, 83 to 116 dirs. 114 to 148 dirs. and one-half inch........ do. 107 to 139 dirs. Slit, for scroll, &c. ........ ton 94 to 120 dlrs. 94 to 120 dlrs. 27 to 35 dlrs. 94 to 120 dirs. 14 to 20 cts. 18 to 30 cts. THE following table, compiled from the United States' census of 1840, exhibits the location of the Coal Regions, and the Quantity of Anthracite and Bituminous produced in each State in 1839: THE following Table exhibits the Quantity of Coal shipped for the different Mining Regions of Pennsylvania, from the commencement of the Trade, together with the Annual Amount of Increase and Consumption, and Quantity remaining over unsold, and disposed of on the line of the Canal: In the Report of the Board of Trade of Schuylkill county, made in the early part of 1842, sanguine anticipations were indulged of an entire consumption, during that year, of the coal then in market. "But, owing to the unprecedented warmth of the latter part of the winter, a large excess remained on hand on the 1st of April. This circumstance, in connexion with the derangement of trade generally throughout the country, had the effect of keeping down the prices of coal so low, that, instead of a profit, there was generally a loss sustained by mining. Fair remunerating prices would be the result of a proper regulation of the supply. And, as an excess is injurious to the collier, and a deficiency prejudicial to the consumer, it is desirable that both extremes should be avoided." There have been 126,554 tons of coal shipped during the past season, from this region direct to New York, in 2243 canal boats. This shows a very large increase over the shipments of the previous year, which only amounted to 78,296 tons. This direct trade to New York has rapidly grown into importance, and is destined to become a very important branch of the Pennsylvania coal trade. The following comparative table, from the Miners' Journal, will show the quantity of coal imported into this country from 1821 to 1842, both years inclusive; also, the quantity of bituminous coal mined and shipped at Richmond, Virginia, and the anthracite coal trade |