THE MINERAL WEALTH OP MISSOUEI. 1 



important. Forty -five per cent, of the hemp grown in tlic 

 United States comes from Missouri, the tobacco is equal to 

 that grown in Yii-ginia and Kentucky, and the manufacture 

 of wine is progressing most satisfactorily, both as regards 

 quality and the yearly yield per acre. 



As regards the mineral wealth of Missouri, more than one - 

 third of the entire State lies upon a vast coal-field, many veins 

 of which average 15 feet in thickness. Iron of the best 

 quality is very abundant, not below the surface only, but 

 above it ; for a few miles from St. Louis there are two moimds, 

 Pilot Knob, 585 feet in height, and Iron Mountain, which 

 covers an area of 600 acres ; both of these are solid masses of 

 the richest iron ore. Extensive deposits of lead and copper 

 are also situated in the vicinity, and from these mines short 

 lines of railway carry the coal, iron, lead, and copper to the 

 furnaces and factories of St. Louis. Quite recently, tin has 

 been discovered in large quantities ; while zinc, platina, silver, 

 gold, nickel, pipe-clay, marble, granite, and other kinds of 

 building-stone are amongst the mineral productions of dif- 

 ferent parts of the State. 



There can be no question but that slavery has greatly 

 retarded the development of aU this natural wealth, for it has, 

 to a great extent, kept out the industrious emigrant of small 

 capital who was willing to farm with his own hands ; and it 

 has also acted as a continual damper upon all those sources of 



: so that 



which are dependent upon skilled labour 



St. Louis was checked in her manufactures by the same 

 influences which kept back the mining and agricultural 

 interests of the country at large. 



Now, however, slavery is no more, and the immense tracts 

 of uncultivated land, which at the termination of the war 

 amounted to at least, 25,000,000 acres, have since been 



