276 APPENDIX. 



ruent of several furnaces which are worked by convict labor in the jail at Poonassa, 

 and the effective and hearty aid given me by Lient- E. XL Keatinge, under whose 

 very able, zealous, and intelligent, management the district is, have enabled me 

 to obtain this with greater accuracy than I should otherwise have been able to 

 do. The native smelters never calculate their expense and are quite unable to 

 give trustworthy information at once. It is only by a long continued series of 

 cross examinations, returning again and again to the same point, that the real facts 

 can be arrived at. I have however done this and compared the results thus 

 arrived at, with the results obtained from the accurately kept accounts of the 

 workings in the jail, and feel confident that I have arrived at as fair an average as 

 possible." 



" To construct a furnace in the first instance costs about Es. 1-14 or about 

 3 shillings and nine pence. This with the ordinary repairs will last 2 or 3 years. 

 If a shed for this be erected, the cost will be about 4 rupees more. A pair of 

 bellows of the ordinary Indian construction made of large goat skins, with the 

 common hand-closing valve or opening, cost 5 or 6 rupees : so that the whole 

 establishment required for the working of one of these furnaces will not require 

 a first outlay of more than 12 rupees, which will last for 3 years, or does not 

 involve a daily expenditure of more than a few pice. For the daily work of one 

 of these furnaces, the cost of the materials necessarily varies with the locality. 

 At the jail at Poonassa it is as follows : 



B. A. P, 



Ore, •• 10 about 180 seers 



Charcoal, 10 



Wood, 4 



Cow-dung 3 



Earth, straw, &c. for tuyeres and repairs, 3 3 



1 11 6 total 



cost of materials for an average produce of 48 seers of raw iron. This is the aver- 

 age cost and average return as obtained from carefully weighing the materials used 

 in three furnaces, and the iron produced, and then comparing these results with 

 the monthly outturn and monthly cost of the six furnaces which are kept con- 

 stantly at work. The cost of the materials in the district is less, but the produce is 

 also less, so that this maybe taken as a fair average. To this cost must be added the 

 labor of the men employed, namely, two at 2 annas each, or 4 annas per day, giving a 

 total cost of 1-15-6. To this we may add 0-0-6 for wear and tear of furnace, bellows, 

 &c, making a total of 2 rupees for 48 seers of cutcha Iron, or exactly 5 rupees for 

 3 maunds. Now this is the price at which cutcha Iron is sold in the country, so 

 that the margin for profit is extremely small, and is produced solely by the occa- 

 sionally larger produce obtained, and by the saving in labor resulting from the 

 employment of women and children in the district, not in the jail." 



« In the reduction of the cutcha Iron, a loss of one half its weight is incurred, 



