200 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



Mahogany wood is used for mould- forms at fur- 

 naces, because it is the least subject to warping and 

 splitting. 



Formerly Mr. Udree dealt with his workmen as is 

 customary in Germany ; that is, he furnished them with 

 all necessaries on account. They made use of the op- 

 portunity to run up their accounts, and not being 

 trammeled with families got out of the way ; and so 

 he changed his method. 



America throughout its mountainous parts is richly 

 supplied with iron, and the ore besides is easily to be 

 got out; but with all that, (and the superfluity of wood 

 notwithstanding), the high price of labor at present 

 makes it possible to bring iron from Europe cheaper 

 than it can be furnished by the high-furnaces and 

 forges in America. The owners of iron-works in sev- 

 eral provinces, in Jersey and Pensylvania particularly, 

 attempted without result to bring their governments 

 to forbid the import of foreign iron or by high duties 

 to make it difficult. But this proposal being against 

 the immediate interests of the Assembly-men as well 

 as of their constituencies it was hardly to be expected 

 that they should agree to raise the price of their do- 

 mestic iron and iron-ware. Therefore several of the 

 richer furnace and forge-masters proposed to hinder 

 the further import of foreign iron by coming to an 

 agreement among themselves that whenever iron came 

 in from Europe they would offer their own at a certain 

 loss under the price of the European merchants, so as 

 to frighten them off from any further imports. But 

 they all would not come in, and the few who made the 

 proposal were unwilling to sacrifice themselves for 

 the profit of the rest. However, the Americans were 



