1846.] Iron Trade. 195 



of bar iron in a year, while Rensselaer county has the credit of 

 producing 37,000 tons of the same article. The former county 

 does 'produce iron — the latter works it over. Even our cities, 

 according to the census are large iron producers. The city of 

 New York is there said to produce much more cast iron than the 

 county of Essex, and New Orleans is also a producer of iron. 



After our own iron has been thus estimated, at three or four 

 times its real quantity, and is then increased by adding to it much 

 that has been imported, Ave see how erroneous all calculations 

 must be, which adopt this aggregate as the product of our coun- 

 try, and then compare it with our importations of the article. 

 Such a comparison would lead many to suppose, that we should 

 soon supply our own market at least. To approximate the truth 

 we should ascertain the quantity of iron produced from the ore in 

 this country, and then compare it with our importations for a 

 series of 10 or 15 years. Our importations have fallen off the 

 two last years, for the best of all reasons, because we could not 

 obtain it, at least without paying a most exorbitant price. 



But the census furnishes us with another method for estimating 

 the amount of iron produced, which is less fallacious — we refer 

 to the number of men employed in this branch of business. We 

 there find that Essex county, which in this business employs more 

 than any other county in this state, has 415 men engaged in her 

 mines, furnaces, rolling mills and forges; w^hile single iron esta- 

 blishments may be referred to in Wales, which employ 5,000 

 persons. And yet, w^e sometimes hear the owner of a small 

 forge who cannot produce iron fast enough to supply the carts of 

 the city of New York with linch pins, talk of exporting iron to 

 England. 



Although we see the product of iron steadily increasing in this 

 country, we should not infer from this that we are about to supply 

 our market with the article. Its consumption is constantly crowd- 

 ing upon its product ; not merely in consequence of our increasing 

 population, but owing far more to its application to new uses. 

 Nor are these confined to rail roads, mechanical machines and 

 agricultural implements. Its superiority for the construction of 



