PIOTOU, NOVA SCOTIA, October 3, 1854. Between thirty and forty years ago the English government laid claim to and owned all the mines and minerals in the province of Nova Scotia. About that period the exclusive right to work them for sixty years was given to the Duke of York. This right the Duke sold to his creditors in payment of his debts; and they formed a company, which company is now known as the "Albion Mining Company," and are engaged in working the mines at Pictou and Sydney. This company enjoys at the present time the exclusive right to all mines and minerals in Nova Scotia, and will continue to do so for thirty years to come, unless there be some new action on the subject. If a person owns a tract of land, and upon it he discovers a mine of gold, silver or coal, he can only work the latter for his own consumption, the others he cannot work at all. Such is the state of the case at present; but I do not think it will continue very long. Last year I procured the passage of a bill by the legislature of this province, allowing "aliens to hold property in real estate." This will be of great importance at no distant day, and prove the means of introducing American capital and American industry. I know of no country possessing greater inducements for such investment than Nova Scotia. The demand for Pictou coal, this year, has far exceeded any former year; but not one half the quantity wanted has been supplied. I understand the company will make great improvements in their works next year, and greatly increase the quantity of coal to be shipped. Your most obedient servant, S. DE WITT BLOODGOOD. J. H. N. IRON AND ZINC. AMERICAN AND FOREIGN RAILROAD IRON. The demand for iron in the construction of railroads in this country, has hardly commenced as yet, although an immense amount has already been used. The importance of this subject to the iron interest is surpassed by none other. For this reason we have made room for the following article from W. W. Mather, in the Railroad Record, on American and Foreign Iron:— In a former article on "American and Foreign Railroad Iron," the reasons that have operated to prevent the extension of its manufacture in the United States, have been shown to be 1. The American iron-masters are fully employed to supply pig iron for castings and for making merchant iron. 2. Railroad mills require more capital, and where their pig iron is purchased at high prices, do not receive a profit corresponding to the pig iron manufacturer. 3. Large amounts of capital are not easily diverted in the United States from the usual channels of business, very profitable and well understood by those owning or employing it. 4. The long credit given on railroad iron in England by mortgage bonds on the railroads, instead of money or short credit that has been required in the United States, has drawn nearly all the calls for railroad iron in that direction. 5. Any extension of the manufacture of railroad iron in the United States, must be by smelting the iron ore with stonecoal. It is now proposed to show, that with suitable encouragement, the United States, and particularly Ohio, can within a few years supply railroads with American railroad bars as cheaply as the Welsh bars are now furnished, and with as much credit on bonds, and after the works are well established, as cheaply, even if the duty be removed from railroad bars. Of the resources of the United States in iron ores adapted for the manufacture of iron, there is no question. To make railroad iron in competition with South Wales, our iron-masters must come into the market on equal terms as to cost and credit. To come into the market on equal terms as to cost, requires 1st. Abundance of ores, cheap, and of easy working qualities. 2d. Fuel and fluxes for smelting, abundant and contiguous to the furnaces, or at least cheap. 3d. Facilities for easy and cheap transportation and extensive distribution over the country. To come into market on equal terms as to credit requires, 1st, that we should be able to deliver railroad bars at cost of transportation, duties and charges, on Welsh bars now paid for in money, as the cash payment; and 2d, receive the cost of production in railroad bonds for the balance of the market value of the iron. Relative advantages of the East and West for production.-In New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and the Eastern States generally, the ores are very rich, and not so easily reduced as the ores of the coal fields of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and Western Virginia; or else the more easy working ores, such as the hematites and limonitii ores, cannot have the advantage of cheap fuel for their reduction. At many of the furnaces in the Eastern States, all the materials are brought from a distance, and the ores cost $3, $4 or $5, per ton,* charcoal 5, and 7 to 12 cents per bushel,† bituminous coal 25 to 30 cents per bushel,‡ and anthracite 16 to 19 cents per bushel, and at many places 25 to 30 cents per bushel. In Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia and Kentucky, materials for the manufacture of iron are found in many places, either immediately contiguous to each other, or in the immediate neighborhood, so that the coal, iron ore, and limestone for smelting and manufacturing the iron, and the building materials and water are all most convenient for use. Various circumstances modify materially the cost of the production of iron, among which the principal are 1st. The cost of lands for furnace supplies. 2d. Qualities and quantities of ore and coal. 3d. Cost of stock at the furnace. 4th. Cost of labor at the furnace. 5th. Cost of provisions at the furnace. 6th. Easy and cheap transportation and distribution to various markets. The advantages thus far in the iron manufacture in the United States, have been in the southern part of the iron belt of Ohio, where the ironmasters have all, with a single individual exception, in a long course of years, and in all stages and fluctuations of the iron market, made money and grown rich. *Ores delivered at the furnaces in Southern Ohio cost from 75 cents to $2,50 per ton, but the average of the best ores and the customary price is $2 per ton in the coal and iron district of Southern Ohio. †The average price of bituminous coal in New York from 1821 to 1846 was $9,31 per ton, or about 33 cents per bushel. The cost of bituminous coal delivered at the works in the coal and iron region of Ohio is $0,75 to $1,50 per ton, or 3 to 6 cents per bushel, according to the situation of the works, near or more remote from the mines. The price of anthracite in New York usually ranges from $6,50 to $7,50 per ton, or 16 to 19 cents per bushel, and in Philadelphia has ranged from $7 to $4 per ton, since 1828. This year, coals of all kinds are dearer throughout the eastern slope to the Atlantic. Bituminous coal 22 cents per bushel at Philadelphia, Sept. 12; at Boston same date, $8,25 to $9,25 per ton, 20 to 23 cents per bushel; New York $7 to $8 per ton, 19 to 20 cents per bushel. Charcoal on the Hudson River at the furnaces is worth 12 cents, and the timber, if sold for timber and for fuel, would realize that amount and more. The charcoal of the Berkshire County iron works and the Vermont furnaces, costs from 5 to 7 and 10 cents per bushel delivered. Charcoal at the furnaces in Southern Ohio has heretofore cost about 3 cents per bushel delivered, now with increased prices 34 cents, and in some cases 4 cents. The advantages for the future in the manufacture of railroad iron will, it is believed, be in Ohio, and for the following reasons, viz.: 1st. The abundance and easy access of easy working, good iron ores. 2d. The abundance and easy access of good stonecoal and limestone. 3d. The small cost of stock at the furnaces. 4th. The cheapness and abundance of provisions. 5th. The railroad and water transportation to distribute the iron easily in every direction. 6th. The great amount of iron required in future years, will be in the West, the Northwest and Southwest, in the valleys of the Mississippi and other streams flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. Sites for furnaces, stonecoal iron and railroad iron.-The charcoal iron furnace sites in Ohio are already mostly occupied, or held in reserve for such use; but there are many sites adapted to the manufacture of railroad iron from stonecoal, that are still covered by their native forests, or are partially cultivated as farms, that are capable of producing iron for fifty miles of railroad per acre, or 3,000,000 tons to the square mile, with coal and limestone sufficient in the same lands, or very near, to make the iron. Furnaces can be so located in many places, that the ore and coal can be run from the mines by short tram roads of one fourth to one half mile in length to the tunnel head of the furnace. The coal beds and iron ore beds in Ohio, lie in a nearly horizontal position, and above the level of the valleys, require little or no expense of drainage. Enough of these materials lie thus, to last extensive iron works many years, and below the levels of the streams are quantities to last for ages. The face of the country in the iron belt of Ohio, is well adapted for getting the stock for the furnaces cheaply to the tunnel head. This is one great advantage over many of the Pennsylvania furnaces, which are situated in a more mountainous region, with deeper valleys, and steeper and higher hills. Many bands of black, blue and gray carbonate of iron, like the black-band, and other ores of Wales, of Scotland, and of Staffordshire, abound in the southern counties of the iron belt in Jackson and Lawrence Counties in Ohio, and the coal, limestone, ironstone, fireclay and firestone, are associated. The resources may be considered practically inexhaustible, and Lawrence and Jackson Counties are considered capable of supplying one hundred stonecoal furnaces, each making 4,000 tons of iron per annum for ages of time. Cost of furnaces and rail mills, to supply 500,000 of railroad bars per annum in the United States.-It has been estimated that the railroad iron production of the United States in Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and Ohio, for 1854, will be 160,000 tons. The wear and tear of railroads and the double tracks and switches, will require about 100,000 tons of railroad bars, by Mr. Mansfield's estimate,* which is not more than enough. Three thousand miles of new railroads for this year, and the same for some years to come, annually, will require 400,000 tons per This amount in whole, or in part, will require to be imported until our own works can supply the demand. Stonecoal furnaces make, say, 20 tons of pig iron per day; at the rate of 20 tons per day and two hundred days in blast per year, each furnace would make 4,000 tons. Three hundred and forty thousand tons of railroad bars would require about 400,000 tons of pig iron, which would require about 100 stonecoal fur Welsh bars, the wear and tear is found to be 4.1 per cent. on the Schuylkill coal railroad American, do. 1.6 per cent. naces to produce; and 25 rolling mills making 45 tons each per day, three hundred days per year, to manufacture into railroad bars. 100 stonecoal furnaces with coal and ore lands for their supply would cost, with fixtures, etc., at $40,000 each 25 railroad mills complete at say, $80,000 each The investment necessary to produce 337,500 tons $4,000,000 2,000,000 $6,000,000 The duties paid at the custom-house on railroad bars in 1853, was $3,721,600, and as estimated in the year 1854, will be $4,000,000. It thus appears that the duties alone paid on railroad iron in one and a half years, if invested in furnaces, lands and mills, for making railroad bars, would be sufficient fixed capital in iron works to produce in the United States the quantity of railroad iron that is now imported, and bids fair to be annually required in all future time. This amount of iron is now imported at an expense of about $12,400,000, paid in cash down, $16,000,000 in railroad bonds, which draw as interest $1,000,000 annually. Estimated cost of stone coal, pig iron, four hundred tons at one furnace in Ohio. Interest on $40,000 investment in furnaces, lands, buildings, etc., Taxes, incidentals, repairs, etc., 10,000 tons iron ore at $2 to make 4,000 tons iron, Interest on capital $80,000 at 10 per cent. 13,500 tons railroad bars-per $4,000 4,000 20,000 20,000 2,000 8,000 4,000 $62,000 ton, $0,59 Wear and tear of machinery and repairs per ton, 1,50 Boiling furnace expenses per ton, 6,00 Rolling into muck rolls per ton, 0,50 Catching, hooking, dragging out and shearing per ton, Piling, strapping, heating, rolling, catching, drawing and straightening per ton, Incidentals, interest on floating capital, weighing, drayage, discounts, and extras of the boiling furnace, 5,431 Cost of converting pig into railroad bars about, $22,00+ The cost then of railroad bars at the depot or landing would be— This cost of $40,60 per ton is upon the supposition that the furnaces are separate from each other, and from the rail mill, but that four blast furnaces and one rail mill belong to the same company.‡ Stonecoal at some of the furnaces costs only 5 cents, and 2% tons to 3 tons would perhaps be enough, equal to from 62 to 75 bushels per ton of iron. The above details may not be accurate, but the cost of conversion in the aggregate, is believed to be not far out of the way. The writer has had no recent opportunity of conferring with those engaged in this manufacture. If the furnaces are in pairs, the expenses of production would be diminished something If the furnaces and rail mill belong to different companies the account would stand very different, and the pig would cost the rail mill company the market price of say $40 per ton. One and a fifth tons pig to make one ton railroad bars $48; manufacturing into one ton, $22, equals $70. The margin for profit is thus seen to be less by far, not only relatively but absolutely, than for the blast furnace making pig iron, and explains satisfactorily, that so long as the iron market is not glutted with pig, there is comparatively little inducement to make railroad iron, unless the company own both furnaces and mills. The eastern manufacturers are now in this situation, that the pig iron, whether bought or produced, costs nearly $40 per ton, and the western manufacturers also, that buy their pig iron, are in the same situation. Estimated annual production of four stonecoal furnaces and one mill. Four furnaces making 1,000 tons each, at $15,50, One rail mill say from 16,000 tons, 13,500 tons rails, . Cost of 13,500 tons rails at $10,37 per ton, Sale price N. Y. quotations, lowest, $73,50 " 66 $80,00 $248,000 297,000 $545,000 $992,250 $1,080,000 At the above prices, the range of profits for such a company, their works all separate, would range from $447,250 to $535,000. If the works were together, the cost of the railroad iron would be about $37,60 per ton, allowing the cost of ore $2 per ton, of coal 5 cents per bushel; 100 bushels per ton of pig iron, and 60 bushels for converting into railroad bars. Iron men will allow these to be high estimates, and many localities will bear a reduction of ore from $1 to $1,50 per ton, and coal to 3 cents; which would reduce the cost $3,25 to $4,50 per ton of pig, and railroad bars $4,45 to $5,70 per ton, and make railroad bars cost from $31,90 to $33,15, and stonecoal pig $10,75. The sale prices of railroad bars in Wales, were, August 8th, £7 158, £8 58, about August 26th, £7 15s, £8, 5s., about In New York the quotations were, August 23d, railroad bars, September 2d, American railroad bars, $38,75 @ $41,25 $38,75 @ $41,25 $77,50 @ $80,00 $77,50 @ $80,80 It thus appears that in the Pennsylvania and Ohio coal fields, railroad bars can be made in favored localities at $31,90 to $33,15 per ton, and generally at $37,60 to $40,37 per ton, and the sale price be highly remunerative. It also appears that we can make iron, both pig and railroad bar, as cheaply as in South Wales.* more than a dollar per ton; and if all the four furnaces and mill be together the expenses would be about $3 less, or about $37,60 per ton of railroad bars. |