306 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 5 



Amount of tolls received from Decem- 

 ber 1st, 1836, to December 1st, 

 1837, 31,125 00 



Increase over 1S36, 12,097 69 



VVfli. Li. SivEKiiETT, Collector. 



It is an interesting fact in the statement irom 

 the collector's office, that the tolls received should 

 have undergone ati annual increase, and that 

 during the year 1837, notwithstanding the mani- 

 fold inconveniences sustained li-om the disorder 

 of the currency, and consequent embarrassments 

 of the commerce, the increase over the preced- 

 ing year should have been at that place alone 

 $12,097 69. 



In fact roads and canals, like just and equitable 

 government, produce in their operation so many 

 unforeseen advantages, it is impossible properly 

 to appreciate them, until their benefits are expe- 

 rienced. And there is scarcely any country, 

 where persons and property enjoy tolerable secu- 

 rity, in which it would be unwise to construct 

 them at any exfiense Av.iliiu liic power of the in- 

 habitants or government to pay. The Ohio and 

 Erie Canal, which passos i!.,iiugh the valley of 

 the Scioto, has more than douhlcd the value of all 

 the arable lands within ten luili-s of ^,^ throughout 

 its whole route, and its bciielicial iniiuence is lelt 

 over a much wider surlace. The income derived 

 from land in many insiaaces has been increased 

 from four to five hundred per cent. 



In addition to a highly ftMtile soil and salubrious 

 climate, recent geoloijical discoveries have shown 

 that Ohio possesses mineral treasures to an incal- 

 culable amount, and chiefly in that part of her 

 territory, that seemed least gified with the means 

 of yielding other productions. Professor W. W. 

 Mather, (principal geologist,) in his report to 

 Joseph Vance, esq. governor of Ohio, says — 

 "From the reconnoissance of the past season, it 

 is estimated that about twelve thousand square 

 miles of the stale are undoubtedly underlain by 

 coal, and five thousand by workable beds of this 

 valuable mineral. In many places several succes- 

 sive beds of the coal are super|)osed one over the 

 other, with sand-stone, iron-ore, shale, or lime- 

 stone intervening. The coal-beds are favorably si- 

 tuaied lljr workino-, as they are (bund in the hills 

 and ravines, where they can be drained with little 

 expense, and without deep shafts and expensive 

 machineiy, like those of Europe, or some parts 

 of our own country. Probably a mean thickness ol' 

 six leet of coal, capable of exploration, over five 

 thousand tqu;ue miles, is a moderate estimate of 

 our resources in this combustible." (p. 1.) 



Dr. S. P. llJldreth, in his report to Professor 

 Mather, (p. 2,) says: "That portion of the coal 

 measures of the valley which lies within this 

 state, occupies a space of about 180 miles in 

 length, by 80 in breadth, extending in a south- 

 westerly and north-westerly direction along the 

 borders of the Ohio, from Tnunbull county to the 

 mouth of the Scioto. These imniense fields will 

 furnish fiiel for a larger population than the soil of 

 Ohio can support for ages ; and when the surface 

 beds are exhausted mucli thicker ones will be 

 found, by sinking shafts to the depth of a few 

 hundred feet, as all coal-beds are thinner in their 

 out-crop, or near their margins, than in the centre 

 of the basin. Of this fact we have proofj not 



only from foreign fields, but from the disclosures 

 made in boring salt-wells in our own state." 



"At a very low calculation (says another mem- 

 ber of the geological corps, C. Briggs, jr.) of the 

 amount of good iron-ore, in the region which has 

 this season been explored, it is equal to a solid un- 

 broken stratum, sixty miles in length, six miles 

 in width, and three leet in thickness. A square 

 mile of this layer being equivalent in round num- 

 bers to 3,000,000 cubic yards — when smelted will 

 yield as many tons of pig iron. This number 

 multiplied by the nutnber of square miles con- 

 tained in the stratum, will give 1,080,000,000 tons, 

 which from these counties alone, (Lawrence and 

 Scioto) will yield annually for 2.700 years, 400,000 

 tons of iron; more than equal to the greatest 

 amount made in England, previous to the year 

 1829."* 



"In reflecting upon the prospective importance 

 of the iron business to Ohio, a (]uestion naturally 

 suggests itself, as to the necessary supply of fuel. 

 Perhaps no fears need be entertained on this 

 head, as the introduction of the hot blast, and the 

 probability that some beds of bituminous coal Will 

 be soon brought into use for the smelting of iron- 

 ores, render it nearly certain, that this branch of 

 industry will never receive a check from an in- 

 sufficient supply of fuel."t 



Another valuable mineral (the buhr stone) is 

 most abundant in the same region. It came into 

 use for millstones about the year 1807. "The 

 early manufiictured millstones were made of a 

 single piece, but these often proving to be of une- 

 qual density, and not making good flour, were 

 abandoned, and stones constructed of separate 

 blocks, cemented with plaster, and coupled to- 

 gether with iron bands. Where these blocks are 

 selected with care by an experienced workman, 

 the flour is said to be equal in quality to tliat made 

 by the French stones. From the year 1814 to 

 1820, the price of a pair of 4| feet stones was 

 S3o0, and a pair of 7 feet sold for .^500, while 

 the foreign article sold for a still higher sum. The 

 4 feet stones now sell for ,§150. The manufac- 

 ture of mill stones is not confined to the waters of 

 Racoon ; but is also carried to a considerable ex- 

 tent in Hopewell township, Muskingum county. 

 The quantity is apparently inexhaustible. — (Geo- 

 logical Survey, p. 33. J 



Limestone exists in tjreat abundance, of various 

 qualities. "The limestones of this series are in- 

 teresting, (says Mr. Briggs,) not only as aflbrding 

 a flux for the iron-ores of this region, and lime for 

 the various uses to which it is usually applied, but 

 are also of great value for aoricultural purposes. 

 * * * Three layers of limestone have been ob- 

 served. The second stratum of limestone is from 

 18 inches to 8 feet thick where it has been ob- 

 served. It is uniformly of a dark color, nearly 

 black, and contains the remains of radiated and 

 molluscous animals of marine origin. This lime- 

 stone breaks out into oblonji blocks, of suitable 

 size for building purposes. The organic rem;uns 

 will add greatly to its beauty when polished." 

 " Since writing the above," (Mr. Briggs adds in a 

 note,) "apiece of this dark fossililerous limestone 

 has been polished. It is nearly or quite equal in 

 beauty to the best Egyptian marble. If it can 



* Geological Survey of the State of Ohio, p. 93-6. 

 t Do. pp. 93 and 94. 



