342 
STATE AGRICULTUEAL SOCIETY, 
In Belgium, the size of the coal field, the vertical character 
of the veins, and their small thickness, render it impossible 
that there should be any very considerable extension of the 
business, at least if the supply is to endure for any protracted 
period. Already it is estimated that Belgium produces as 
much coal as France, two-thirds as much as Prussia, and one- 
eighth that of Great Britain, out of a coal-field only ninety- 
seven miles in length and twelve miles in breadth at its widest 
point, and in veins of from thirty inches to three feet thick. 
Belgium is already an importer of ore, and although it is 
quite evident that it will be the seat of a vigorous and pos¬ 
sibly increasing metal industry for ye^rs to come, it has no 
resources adequate for serious competition in the supply of the 
greatly increased quantities which the world will yet require. 
Prussia has a somewhat larger supply of coal than Belgium, 
and it is remarkably rich in quantity and quality of its iron 
ores, but it is scarcely possible that in the future she can do more 
than supply its own wants. Upon England, then, so far as 
Europe is concerned, still rests the great burden of supplying 
the world with iron, if the supply is to come from Europe at 
all. It has been seen that already nearly one-half of the total 
consumption of the world comes from within her borders. In 
1866, she was able to furnish 9,665,013 tons of iron ore, and 
only imported 56,000 tons. 
A careful survey of the sources from which her ore is de¬ 
rived leads to the conclusion that in Wales the local supply is 
not adequate to the present consumption, and large quantities 
are transported thither from other parts of the kingdom. The 
natural limits of production have therefore been reached in 
Wales, although there will be a still further extension of the 
business in that region either with domestic or foreign ores, in 
consequence of the possession of enormous supplies of admir¬ 
able coal available for the furnace without coking. The Staf¬ 
ford region, by common consent, has reached its culminating 
point; and a careful consideration of the local supply of car¬ 
bonaceous ore in Scotland would seem to indicate that not 
