182 REPORT—1858. 
showing an inerease of 216,738 tons as compared with the preceding year. The 
quantity of clay ironstone raised in the West Riding, as far as returns had been ob- 
tained, was 207,500 tons. The cold-blast furnaces of the West Riding appeared to 
have produced 63,000 tons of pig iron. The total produce of pig iron of the West 
Riding was estimated at 117,000 tons; the North Riding, 179,838 tons; the total 
produce of pig iron in Yorkshire being 296,838 tons, against 275,600 tons in 1856. 
The production of coals from the different districts of the West Riding, in which there 
are 374 collieries, had been 8,875,440 tons, showing a falling off of 208,185 tons as 
compared with 1856, in which year the coal production of the West Riding amounted 
to 9,083,625 tons. From returns received from 102 quarries in Yorkshire, producing 
stone of various kinds, the value of the stone raised in 1857 was estimated at £105,374. 
Adopting the market value of the metals raised, and making this addition to the sum, 
the following would represent the amount added to our national wealth last year by 
the mining and metallurgical industries of Yorkshire :—Lead, £173,250; pig iron, 
£1,013,142; iron pyrites, £1572; coals, £2,168,860; stone, £105,374: making a 
total of £3,462,198. 
On the Worsted Manufactures of Yorkshire. By Joun James, F.S.A. 
The worsted manufacture was originally established in Yorkshire from two causes 
—Ist, The high rate of wages at Norwich, which led to the employment of the wea- 
vers of the West Riding in producing the coarser kinds of worsted, such as shalloons, 
towards the close of the seventeenth century; 2nd, the introduction of the factory 
system at Bradford, about the year 1800, when it was neglected by the manufacturers 
of Norwich, whereby, after a time, one by one of its staple fabrics was transferred to 
the North. The author referred to the care with which the worsted manufacturers 
had improved their machinery, so that where formerly 250 revolutions of the cylinder 
a minute were considered a fair velocity in spinning frames, now 360 is about the num- 
ber. Likewise the quantity of work from power-looms is very much greater than 
_ some time ago, being now 160 to 180 picks a minute, whereas sixty and eighty were 
not long since the ordinary speed. The consequence of this excellence and velocity 
of machinery had resulted in the production of worsted pieces of good quality at ex- 
ceedingly low rates. A mighty revolution had been effected in the worsted industry 
by the use of cotton warps. In this branch (the worsted) there-have been four great 
epochs; Ist, the original use of spinning machinery; 2nd, the application of the power- 
loom to the weaving of stuffs about 1824; 3rd, the use of cotton warps in 1835; and 
lastly, the combing of wool by machines, Mr, James referred at length to the changes 
that had been effected in the trade by the use of cotton warps. He noticed the de- 
fects in the designs of the worsted manufacturers, and their tendency to pirate those 
of their neighbours; and, after paying a high compliment to the worsted dyers, and 
noticing the difficulties they had surmounted in dyeing goods woven of cotton and 
wool, he alluded to the taste for alpaca and lustrous stuffs, and the great demand for 
the bright lustre wools‘of Yorkshire, Notts, and Lincolnshire. He proceeded to re- 
mark on the limited supply of wool and the competition of the Belgians and French 
in our wool markets, whereby the price and supply had been affected,—but the quan- 
tity exported, and the extra consumption of our manufacturers would, he thought, be 
more than compensated by the increased import from our Colonial possessions, whence ° 
the supply was yearly increasing. Nor did he fear the rivalry of the Belgian and 
French manufacturers in the markets of the world, for, although we might lose them 
as customers, they were not heavy ones, and China and other channels would be 
opened, so that the balance would still be in our favour. ‘I'hese nations were import- 
ing vast quantities of spinning and weaving machinery from the best makers at Brad- 
ford and Keighley; but with all their efforts it would be long before they could com- 
pete with us in producing an Orleans or Coburg cloth at English prices. - Yet it 
behoved us to be watchful lest from the high price of labour in England they tread 
too closely on our footsteps. To show the immense importance of the Yorkshire 
manufacture, he mentioned that there were 1,212,587 worsted spindles, consuming 
93,120,740 lbs. of wool, or about 98 per cent. of that consumed in the whole of the 
worsted manufacture of England, These Yorkshire spindles would produce yearly 
70,734,000 Ibs, of worsted yarns of average quality, say thirty-sixes, that is where 
thirty-six hanks make the lb. The number of persons employed in the worsted factories 
