1890-91.1 IRON AND STEEL PRODUCTION IN ONTARIO. 309 



in the immediate future have our ores. This is quite erroneous as I can 

 testify from personal observation and also from the reports of corres- 

 pondents in the annual statistical number of the Engineering and MintJig 

 Journal of this present year. 



Though the increased consumption in the United States during this 

 past year has been enormous, yet the development of new deposits has 

 been so much greater that the supply is more than enough to meet the 

 demand. 



Take the report on the "Lake Superior Iron Ore market in 1891," as 

 an example and we find it stated : " Large deposits of soft ore have 

 been discovered in the Gogebic and Western Menominee district, which 

 owing to their great size and in many cases proximity to the surface, 

 have been worked at a cost much less than was necessary to produce a 

 ton of ore from the old hard ore mines of the Marquette County 

 district ; it can be readily seen that the prices which ore brought on cars 

 at the mine ranged from $r.oo, for the lowest grades, to $3.50 per gross 

 ton for the higher grades. Now no mine produces only the higher 

 grades. The production of most of them consists of a variety of 



grades, ranging from the lowest to the highest Some 



companies only produce the lower grades, etc." 



Also in the case of the Southern States, Tennessee, Alabama and 

 Virginia, the reports are unsatisfactory, it being stated : " It has been 

 evident to all unprejudiced observers that much unwise haste has been 

 made in the South in the production of pig iron, for which thers was no 

 local demand. It is obvious that while 80% of the pig iron produced in 

 the Southern States has to be sent away from home to find a market, 

 competition must be exceedingly severe, and only those plants which are 

 well located and possess every advantage can hope to survive. Numer- 

 ous furnace companies have already fallen by the way and others are 

 now sick unto death." 



With the above facts before us we must once and for all accept as 

 final the fact that our iron ores will not be essential to the United States 

 for many many years to come, and that our best policy is to develop them 

 and use them ourselves. 



SMELTING IN ONTARIO. 



I now come to the advisability of smelting our own iron in Canada 

 and particularly in Ontario. 



So far as available statistics go to show we are practically standing 

 still, if not actually receding, in our manufacture of pig iron, while in 



