414 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of the iron produced from it. For ordinary purposes I would not 

 urge the matter upon your special attention ; but at the present 

 time, I regard the development of this iron ore a matter of national 

 importance ; and the results of its devolpment may form an era in 

 our naval warfare, second only to the production of our iron gun- 

 boats. The ground of this startling assertion is the fact that the 

 iron with which our national gunboats are built, will not withstand 

 the force of improved ordnance ; but such plates as can be man- 

 ufactured from this ore, have stood every test that has been applied 

 to them. 



According to private experiments instituted by the English gov- 

 ernment, iron plates manufactured from scrap iron, (the same of 

 which all our gunboats are constructed,) as well as from a variety 

 of ores apparently the most unyielding, were shattered by a 230 lb. 

 shot from an Armstrong gun. The plates which were manufac- 

 tured from iron ore smelted in Woodstock, N. B., alone were left 

 entire — the projectile having simply indented the plates in a slight 

 degree. The trials were made six several times, with the same 

 results. In consequence of these experiments, the British govern- 

 ment uses chiefly the Woodstock iron for the manufacture of the 

 plates — an ore which is obtained only five miles from Maine. 



The Woodstock ore is a compact red hematite, rarely containing 

 over 30 per cent, of metallic iron, but it differs in its general ap- 

 pearance from any ore I have seen west of Maine, and is easily 

 recognized. 



As respects geological position, the ores from New Brunswick 

 and Maine are similarly situated ; nor can there be any doubt 

 that the ore from Maine will yield the same quality of iron as that 

 from New Brunswick. So far as the situation is concerned, the 

 ore in "Wade plantation" is admirably located for mining and 

 smelling. The only misfortune attending its location is its great 

 distance inland — it being ten miles west from Presque Isle ; and to 

 those so familiar as yourselves with the routes of communication in 

 Aroostook county, and its connections with the seaboard, I need 

 say nothing. Only the pig-iron, however, needs to be transported, 

 or the iron in a state of readiness to be put into the furnace and 

 rolled. 



With these facts before me, I could no longer hesitate to believe 

 that steps should be taken at once to erect the proper works for 

 the smelting of this new ore, and for the manufacture of all the 



