298 
[Assembly 
extensively known and circulated, that the community may prize the 
resources at home, and that a commendable pride should be felt in en- 
couraging the manufacture of an article, the demands for which are con- 
stantly increasing. For a long time to come this must be the case ; for 
though a large amount of iron is made, and will probably increase in 
the mineral coal districts in the Union, still, the ores found there, do not, 
or have not furnished a quality of iron suitable for steel, and the strong- 
er and tougher varieties of iron so much in demand, and so necessary 
to the perfection of machinery. 
If we compare the prospects of an establishment at this place, with 
others in this country which might be named, and are in successful ope- 
ration, the former would appear to great advantage. If, for instance, 
there are inducements to embark in the manufacture of iron, where the 
ore costs at the mine $5 per ton, and which has to be transported over 
a rough country on wagons 4 and 5 miles, and in some instances 20 ; 
and at the same time charcoal cannot be obtained at a distance much 
short of 6 or 8 miles ; I say, if under these circumstances it is a profit- 
able business, (and large dividends are realized,) what may not be ex- 
pected where the ore cannot cost more than $1 per ton at the works, 
and an abundance of coal may be obtained in their immediate vicinity 
at $3.50 to $4.00 per 100 bushels. To these considerations must be 
added the superior iron which the ore produces. This, in my estima- 
tion, is one of the greatest advantages which the manufacture at Mcln- 
tyre will have over all others established in this country. On this point 
I do not speak problematically, but proof is furnished from the experi- 
ments which have been instituted, and which have resulted in the es- 
tablishment of this position. I refer to a report of experiments on this 
iron by Prof. W. R. Johnson, published in Silliman's Journal, and in 
the Journal of the Franklin Institute, and also appended to this report. 
In the progress of this report, I have had occasion to refer to other 
collections of the magnetic oxide of iron, in this and the neighboring 
counties. I have made those references for the purpose of imparting 
correct opinions of the nature of the depositories of this species of mine- 
ral. It will have been perceived, that the localities at which this spe- 
cies occurs, are somewhat numerous. These, though they are impor- 
tant, and have been successfully worked, still, in the comparison of 
quantity with those of Mclntyre, they are only as the spatterings from 
the great cauldron, in which those ores have been formed. 
