ESSEX COUNTY. 
261 
dressed in their primeval robes ; the axeman has not shorn them of their pride and beauty ; 
they still wear the livery with which nature first decked them, and in all that profusion too which 
her bountiful hand ever bestows. These circumstances, taken in connexion with a full supply 
of water power, render this location one preeminent for an establishment.of the largest kind. 
But at this distance from market, can the manufacture of iron be successfully prosecuted 
in the face of competition from abroad, and especially with that of Pennsylvania and other 
coal-bearing States, where iron and fuel in great abundance are associated, and where its 
manufacture is comparatively cheap ? The answer to this question turns wholly upon that 
of quality: If the iron produced by means of anthracite would compare in quality with that 
prepared with wood-coal, the question would be settled against this northern establishment; 
but inasmuch as charcoal, and that too of a better quality than is furnished by the coal forma¬ 
tion, is required for the production of good iron, the discussion of the question turns in favor 
of the northern mines. The final result will be, that no competition will exist; for while the 
coal-bearing States will produce one quality of iron, the cheapest and at the least expense, 
the ores of the north will be employed for the production of another quality, and each will be 
demanded in all parts of the union. The manufacture of the former will by no means dispense 
with that of the latter, neither will the latter supply the place of the former. The wants of 
a civilized community originate an extensive demand for an iron which is hard, and possessed 
of only a moderate degree of tenacity, and this kind can be made at a much lighter expense 
than that which is softer and more tenacious ; but there are other wants and demands which 
the former can by no means supply, and for which the purer and finer ores of the north 
become indispensable. The demand, too, for the latter quality of iron is rapidl}’’ increasing: 
the machinery of locomotives, the axles and other parts where great strength and tenacity are 
required; and innumerable other calls, growing out of the condition and changes in society, 
can scarcely be supplied by a vigorous prosecution of this business. Now the Adirondack 
ores, it is believed, if any exist in this country, are the great source from which our most 
valuable iron is to be drawn. It is here, if any where, it can be made in this country ; and 
the whole Union, if true to herself, will encourage its manufacture. Mr. Johnson’s experi¬ 
ments prove the existence of the qualities herein contended for; but it is to be taken into 
account, that the process followed in preparing the iron used in his experiments does not impart 
to it that degree of strength which may be given by a more scientific mode of manufacture. 
The bloomery process by no means gives an iron of a fibre equal to that furnished by puddling. 
At least the former method is imperfect: The ore is merely raised to a sufiicient heat in 
charcoal to give up a part of its oxygen, and from imperfect exposure will thus be imperfectly 
changed or reduced, and give necessarily an imperfectly welded mass of metal, which, when 
drawn into bars, it is reasonable to suppose, Avill offer at numerous places an imperfect junc¬ 
tion of particles ; and the result will be, that in testing, these imperfectly welded places will 
cohere with less force than others, and furnish an example of a brittle metal. The true state 
and condition of all iron thus roughly and coarsely made, is, that the bars are not homoge¬ 
neous ; some portions are harder than others, and probably minute particles of unreduced ore 
are disseminated through the entire metal. When, however, the ores are perfectly reduced 
