790 



TENNESSEE. 



is fully developed, and the home market of 

 rail-mills, rolling-mills, nail-mills, and found- 

 ries is created, the Tennessee furnaces can 

 make iron from $5 to $7 per ton cheaper than 

 those in Pennsylvania. The new hot -blast 

 coke-furnace at South Pittsburg, owned by the 

 Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Railroad Company, 

 under the management of Mr. Warner, is re- 

 ported to have made in June ninety-eight tons 

 of iron in one day. This company has a capi- 

 tal of $3,000,000, and owns three furnaces, 

 with an average daily capacity of 200 tons. 

 There is being built at Chattanooga a first-class 

 100-ton furnace, which will be in operation 

 early in 1883. There are 4,326 manufacturing 

 establishments in the State, employing a capital 

 of $20,092,845. In these factories there are 

 employed 19,575 male adult and 1,196 female 

 adult operators, and 1,764 children under fif- 

 teen years of age. The total annual wages 



amount to $5,254,775. The value of the ma- 

 terials consumed is $25,710,125, and the value 

 of the products is $37,074,886. The unsettled 

 financial condition of the State for many years 

 past has undoubtedly retarded the develop- 

 ment of manufactures ; but the success of 

 those which are in operation has proved that 

 with her abundant stores of coal, iron, and 

 timber, her immense water-power, and her 

 contiguity to the great cotton-fields of the 

 Southern States, manufacturing enterprise may 

 be made profitable in Tennessee. At present, 

 Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga are the 

 chief manufacturing places in the State. 



RAILROADS. The following tabular state- 

 ment shows the length of the several railroads 

 in the State ; also the assessed value per mile ; 

 and the aggregate value of all the railroads in 

 the State, compiled from the returns of the 

 railroad assessors for September, 1882: 



Average value per mile, $13,354 80. Increase of mileage over last report, 107'86 miles. 



Increase of value over last report, $10,640,205.72. 



By the purchase from the State of Georgia 

 of the Mason and Brunswick, and by its exten- 

 sion from Mason to Atlanta, thence to Rome 

 and Dalton, Ga., the East Tennessee, Virginia 

 and Georgia Railroad Company will soon con- 

 trol a continuous line from Norfolk, Va., to 

 Brunswick. It also has branches from Knox- 

 ville to the Kentucky line, connecting with the 

 Louisville and Nashville Railroad to Louisville, 

 Ky., with the Selina, Rome and Dalton Rail- 

 road, to Selma, Ala., and Meridian, Miss., and 

 with the Kentucky Central to Cincinnati ; also 

 a branch from Morristown to Paint Rock, on 

 the North Carolina line, where it connects 

 with the Western North Carolina Railroad 

 through North Carolina ta Wilmington. The 

 total mileage directly under its control is 1,432 

 miles, but directly and indirectly it controls 

 2,170 miles. 



AGRICULTURE. Hitherto the agricultural 

 methods in vogue in Tennessee have been very 



primitive, and little attention has been paid to 

 the fertilization of the soil or to improved 

 modes of culture. Within a recent period 

 marked improvement in this particular is per- 

 ceptible, and when it becomes general the pro- 

 ductive power of the arable lands in the State 

 will be doubled. Recently some persons have 

 turned their attention to the rearing of silk- 

 worms, and have succeeded encouragingly. 

 The mulberry thrives in all parts of Tennessee, 

 and the silk which has been produced is said 

 to be of a very fine quality. The Swiss colo- 

 nists at Grutli, on the Cumberland Plateau, 

 have been especially successful in silk-culture. 

 The colony at Rugby, which has been so often 

 represented as a total failure, has been recruit- 

 ed by a number of thrifty families from Ohio, 

 and is now showing signs of healthy vitality. 

 Another thriving colony has been recently es- 

 tablished at Allardt, in Fentress County, by 

 fifty German families from Michigan. A small 



