194 Iron Trade. [April, 



of Mr. Young's prediction may be postponed until the face of our 

 wide country shall rival the small isle of England in improve- 

 ments. 



In the last volume of Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, article 

 " iron trade," we find an estimate of the amount of iron wanted 

 for our rail roads alone; on which the mere duties, independent 

 of the purchase money, would amount to six and a half millions 

 dollars. True, we shall not import it this year, for we cannot 

 obtain it. Instead of " sending bar iron to England," we find 

 she cannot supply our demand, even with the assistance of all 

 our own manufactures; and the greatest difficulty now encounter- 

 ed in the construction of rail roads, is the absolute impossibility 

 of obtaining a ready supply of iron. 



One cause of our erroneous calculations on this subject, is that 

 of greatly over-estimating the quantity of iron produced in our 

 country. In the U. S. census of 1840, the marshals were required 

 to give the number of furnaces, bloomeries, forges and rolling mills, 

 with the quantity of iron produced by each. In obeying these 

 instructions, the marshals give the amount of iron produced in 

 blast furnaces, which is pig metal; and this pig metal when 

 taken to a foundry and melted in a cupalo furnace, is again esti- 

 mated as iron produced. So if taken to a puddling furnace, 

 where it is reduced to wrought iron, the same result follows, for 

 it is again estimated. From the puddling furnace it goes to the 

 rolling mill, where it is estimated for the third time, as the rolling 

 mill is also supposed to produce iron. Then again, much of the 

 Sweeds, Russian and some kinds of English iron imported, is 

 afterwards rolled in our mills, and this too, is estimated as iron 

 produced in this country. The scrap iron, both the domestic and 

 that which is imported from abroad in large quantities, when 

 worked over is also estimated as iron produced. The Scotch pig 

 and our broken pot metal is subject to the same estimate, every 

 time it is melted, which may sometimes happen twice or thrice a 

 year. 



Owing to this erroneous method of estimating the product of 

 iron in our country, Essex county is found to produce 2,872 tons 



