INDUSTRIAL STATISTICS. 



By WILLIAM H. WAUL, Ph.D., 



Philadelphia, Pa. 



The following compilation from the carefully collected 

 statistics of the American iron trade for 1876 is made as 

 nearly as possible uniform with that published in our last 

 year's Record, to render comparison easy : 



PRODUCTION OF PIG-IRON IN 1876. 



The secretary of the American Iron and Steel Association 

 reports that the production of pig-iron in the United States 

 in 1876 was 2,093,236 net tons (a very slight variation from 

 his estimate as furnished to our last), against 2,266,581 

 tons in 1875, 2,689,413 tons in 1874, 2,868,273 tons in 1873, 

 and 2,854,558 tons in 1872. A comparison of these figures 

 shows a decrease in 1876, as compared with 1875, of 173,345 

 tons, or about 8 per cent. Commenting upon his figures, 

 the secretary says: "Since 1873 the year of greatest pro- 

 duction each year has shown a decrease as compared w r ith 

 the preceding years, the percentage of decrease being as fol- 

 lows: 1874, 6 per cent.; 1875, 15 per cent.; 1876,8 per 

 cent. From 1873 to 1876 the decrease has been 775,042 

 tons, or 27 per cent. This is a very great shrinkage, and in- 

 dicates, w 7 ith concurrent low prices, a very great depression 

 in the pig-iron industry of the country. If the rate of de- 

 crease which marked the period from 1873 to 1876 were to 

 be continued, the production of pig-iron in the United States 

 would entirely cease in 1884 less than eight years from the 

 present time ; and our furnace-stacks would only be useful as 

 observatories for the study of astronomy." 



The secretary does not admit, however, that things are so 

 bad as they at first appear, and points to the marked diminu- 

 tion in the percentage of decrease in 1876 as compared with 

 that of 1875, and to the decided diminution of stocks on 

 hand and unsold at the close of 1876 (106,110 tons less than 



