s 62 
THF. TROPICAl. AGRICULTURIST. 
[October i, 1891 
it is oooupied with the idioaynoraoies of EnRlish 
and Indian workmen ; disaertati' ns on the recent 
Factory Act agitation ; the relative importa-ce in 
the social Boalo of the olerk and artiean ; the re- 
pressive iniluenoe of osste upon native amhitions; 
the influenoe of irrigation upon the fertility of 
the soil) anecdotes of Indian candidates for the 
English Parliament ; and other matters which, 
though inleresting enough in them-o ves, have the 
slenderest connection wi h the title of the book. 
Its arrangement is also illogical and trying ; 
Bpquenoo there is none, and the n ore cognate two 
snbj ots are the greater the diaianoa separating 
them. For instance, while the author ebowa that 
tho near proximity of coal and iron is essential to 
tha ooramercial production of the' latter (a truism 
by the way) half the book separates tho chapters 
dealing with tho two suhiects, and constant cross 
ref' renoa is iiecea8ar.v to follow his arguments. 
And now, having oriticiaevl the pudding wa shall 
proceed to exiraut the plums, for plums there aro 
well worth investigation, (’hat India is an iron- 
producing country has been known from the earliest 
times. I ho armourers of Damirous sent to India 
lor their steel ; it has even been imported into 
England ; and the bridge over tho Monai Straits 
was constructed largely of Indian metal. But to- 
day many thousands of tons are imported into 
India for railway and other pmpo-es, which, it 
they could bo produced at home, would havo an 
imponnnt bearing on remitianO'iP, and tha far- 
reaching q i sliou of exchan ge, while they would 
give employment to ihouiaud-i of the people of the 
country. The author indicates four places in Iii ia 
where iron has been produced to some extent on a 
commercial basis. The best known mines arc those 
of Raneegunge, in Bengal, to work which the Beugal 
Iron C iTiiuany was formed in m 74. It proved a 
ftniinoial failure, and was closed in 1879 , but the 
author argu-es with some ehow of reason that this 
was not due to any went of tho raw material, but 
to insuflloient capital and want of recognition by 
Oovornmont, owing to whose refusal to make a 
grant of laud much additioual expenditure was 
thrown upon tho Ccmp.iny, and i. liad to borrow 
money at a high I'ato of interest Its system of 
manufacture, too, was much oritioisad, though it 
certainly seemed to have possessed every oloraent of 
BuooesB. The ore cost only 8 annas a ton at the 
furnaces, the lead for the fuel was very short, and 
it had limestome for flux and lireolay on tho spot. 
The Company ha-i been reC'-nily rehabilitated, and 
for tho ahort t.mo it has been at wn’k, is understood 
to havo been eucceseful- Tho Wa'dha Valley, in 
the Central Provinces, is also well known to pos- 
sess an excellent iron ore, while there also are ooal, 
grids, aud limestone is stated to abound. This 
has never been worked, oni a aorious d fliculty 
here, end to some extent also at Ra- eegunge, is 
the great defloienoy of carbon in the local ooal, 
a fault that ia to a great extent common to rli 
Indian ooal, and that is fatal to its successful use 
for smelting purposes without expensive preliminary 
nrooessea that greatly add to the cost of the proiluot. 
In Cutoh iron ore of good quality is said to exist, 
but our information as to its quality, as well as of 
the fuel avadable tor smelting is lunitod, which is 
the cas'i also of the Oh.udwio V Day and several 
other parts of Burma where both ooal an t iron aro 
said to have been found. .uni 
Of most interest to Southern India aro the Salem 
iron littlcl?, well known to contain ore or a very 
excellent quality, and which have been work' d on 
a very small scale by naiivei for many years. 
Hall a ooniiiry ago the t dian Steel, Iron aud 
Chrome Company mado iron, from Salern ore, at 
Porto Novo. It used otiBcooal (or smelting, and 
tho iron ac'iuired a very high name as pQSsassing 
qualities similar to Swedish iron, and being 
especially suitable for oonversiou into steel. At 
tho present day the kniv s made by Ainnoh*-!! iii 
at Salem have a fame far wiilec than tho Presi- 
doney. While this Company was "orkingii se t 
home largo quantities of pig iron (ihoio worn no 
factories for working up the raw ma'erlal in India 
in those days), ami it was of some oi this irou that 
the Menai htrsits IJri Ige, alrca'ly n (erred to, wes 
mads. The eiacc causes of the winding up of 
the Company havo not beeu t sced. It ia bcliavod 
to have had trouble with water in its mines and 
probably it fou d, even iu those days, that ohar- 
coal smelling Bould not oompeto with ooal. An 
authsniio account of this Company, of its methods 
of working, and the exact locality mid present con- 
dition of its mines, and especially tho reasons which 
induced it to establish its works oa the Coast, thus 
involving a long lead for tho ore, rath- r than on 
the spot, when the oott of transport would have 
been incurrid only for the 1 S3 bulky pig iron 
would bj of much inicreat. Tho hUheito in. uper- 
iible bar to the extonsive workiug of iho Salem 
iron fields has of course been ih-i absence of 
coal, and we ooidially agree with the author in 
urging a more thorough and minute examination 
of the neighbouring districts with a view to verify, 
ing, once for all, whither any exists. A Rnya 
Engineer Ollionr, whose opinion is i niitled to res- 
ppot, has ceolired that the cuttings of the Madras 
IVailway in llie Coimbatore Disiriot show ch ar signs 
of onal-b 'aring strata, and th ugh the h'saJ of the 
Indian (it oiog'Cal Hurvey has spent so long a time 
as three days in examination a'lil then projlaimed 
it to be shale, wa hardly feel as convinced as wo 
ought to be of the O'msiq'iont impossibili y of the 
existeiioo of coal in the District, tor iiitl not the 
Geological Di paniuenb for many years pooh-pooh 
the existence of ooal at Hingnroii\ whi-ri- tho mines 
now hope to shortly turn ('.i' 1,000 tons a 
day? The author states that “ooal is nearly 
always found near iron, and there appears to bo 
no reason whyj Salem should bo an nxooptiou to 
the rule." But this ie rather oonlounding cause 
wi'.h effect, and the truth of the oaio is most 
probably, not that iron do. s not exist, hut that 
it is hardly ever worked when coal is not near it. 
Again he says:— “One of the groat difflouUi'-s in 
t .0 way of thoroughly devclo, ing tho Salem flehis 
is the distance they aro away irom coal, but this 
distance ia not so great but that a light ooal tram- 
way, laid down uil hoc, would pay a re.i ly lu ge 
firm oonsuiniiig its huiidroPs if tons ol coal a 
day. ’’ The iiesn st ooal 11 Ms are those ot Singaroni, 
vilii'ch arc already -n lail-^ay oonri-.-oti m witii Salem ; 
but the d'Htanoe is qudo prohibitive ol the use of 
their produce for Bindting purposes. Captain 
Townsend states that "Salem ore is so good that 
it would pay to tako it to Calcutta and smelt it 
with tho Kahabari coal," but h- give' no figures 
ill support ol his contention, and without clear 
proof we are unabl.i to bolieve it. Tho freight by 
lail and sea would be little short of tho freight 
via Madras or Calicut to England, and would be 
tho equivalent of sending coals to Newcastle. He 
quahfl- a his statemeut further or, however. “ At 
the same time, good fuel, witliiii reasonable distance, 
would be essential to the full development ot tha 
Salem fields, for the ore is far from being the same 
ihroughout, varying greatly, and only the best 
would bo worth exporting to Bengal— if that." 
Ill default of coal hn suggests the use of charcoal, 
liberal forest rights being oombiried with extensive 
special plantations of babul wood. Figures aro 
conspicuous by their absence in all his argumenls, 
aud in default of some ooiivincing proof we eauuot 
accept his conclusions. 
