PENNSYLVANIA COAL-MINES. 



The coal, on coming up in cars from the mine, is dropped by a slide into the 

 crusher, or grinder, and thence it passes through a sifter, with meshes or sieves 

 of various sizes, like a great bolting-cloth in a flour-mill, through which it is 

 rolled for separation into different classes, falling into as many boxes or parti- 

 tions — and falls thence again into as many different cars, and is thus transported 

 to the seaboard and shipped as before stated, at tide-water, without being handled 

 until it is in the vesscFs hold. 



The great object to which this increased consumption is applied, is in the gen- 

 eration of steam for the numberless purposes for which that magical power is be- 

 ing every day more and more used. 



Let him who thinks he knoAVS something about the coal business of the United 

 States only go, as we did a few weeks since, from Richmond to Pottsville, passing 

 train after train of cars that come rolling along as if the chain were interminable, 

 and, at the end of 100 miles in the gorges of the mountain enter the inexhaustible coal- 

 pits, and he will begin to wake up to some adequate notion of the enterprise and 

 power of a sinsle establishment transporting the products of so many mines, and 

 of the Avealth which has been lying there for ages undeveloped in the bowels of 

 the earth. 



We have not time now to go into the statistics of this trade, as carried on by 

 the prodigious energy and capacity of this company, nor to do justice to their sa- 

 gacious and admirable arrangements. Of these we hope to give some account, 

 as connected with the agricvltural interests of the State ; for it is in that light 

 that such enterprises and operations have interest for us. In the meantime a few 

 items in illustration of the coal trade generally, may prove interesting to some of 

 our readers. 



We have already stated that the anthracite coal trade had risen from a few 

 hundred tons in 1840, to more than a million and a half in 1844. From the 

 Schuylkill region there had come, from 1825 to 1844 by canal, altogether, 5,587,- 

 930 tons. By the railroad, which did not go into operation until 1842, there came 

 that year but 49,290 tons, while in 1841, the canal brought 584,692. But m 1844, 

 the railroad transportation had gone up to 441,491 tons, while the canal bore to 

 market only 398,443. The canal is now idle, undergoing repairs and enlarge- 

 ment. In the meantime, the Reading railroad, with indomitable energy, is aug- 

 menting its means of transportation, and will this year transport, as before said, 

 1,300,000 tons. 



The price of anthracite in New- York appears to have fallen from $8 or $8 50 

 per ton — at which it continued from 1838 to 1841 — to about $5 50, at which it 

 seems to have settled down since the date last mentioned. 



The anthracite coal mined in the whole United States, according to the census 

 of 1840, was 803,489 tons, of 28 bushels to the ton. Capital invested, $4,355,- 

 602 — employins: 3,043 persons. Of this quantity Pennsylvania alone produced 

 859,688 tons. Of bituminous, the quantity was 27,603,191 bushels, of which Penn- 

 sylvania yielded 11,620,654 bushels, while Virginia produced 10,622,345. 



What immense resources does Pennsylvania possess to constitute her, if her 

 means be well and wisely directed — a great and powerful empire in herself ! — 

 inexhaustible in her mineral, her coal, and iron, as in her agricultural wealth. — 

 Proud of her preeminence, and strong in her capabilities, she has not a man of 

 true State pride and sound honest heart, who ought not to blush with shame at 

 the very thought and resent with indignation the bare i/"/<7.s7'er of repudiation ! — 

 An individual who would refuse to pay the last farthing of his own debts under 



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