846 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
globe are the supplies of ore and coal sufficiently large, or so 
related to each other geographi'•■ally as to admit of its produc¬ 
tion, not merely within reasonable limits of cost, but on any 
terms whatever. 
The position of the coal measures of the United States sug¬ 
gests the idea of a gigantic bowl filled with treasure, the outer 
rim of which skirts along the Atlantic to the gulf of Mexico, 
and thence returning by the plains which lie at the base 
of the Bocky mountains, passes by the great lakes to the 
place of beginning, on the borders of Pennsylvania and New 
York. The rim of this basin is filled with exhaustless stores 
of iron ore of every variety, and of the best quality. In 
seeking the natural channels of water communication, whether 
on the north, south, east or west, the coal must cut this metal¬ 
liferous rim, and, in turn, the iron ore must be carried back to 
the coal, to be used in conjunction with the carboniferous ores 
which are quite as abundant in the United States as they are 
in England, but hitherto have been left unwrought, in conse¬ 
quence of the cheaper rate of procuring the richer ores from 
the rim of the basin. Along the Atlantic slope, in the high¬ 
land range, from the borders of the Hudson river to the stat3 
of Georgia, a distance of one thousand miles, is found the 
magnetic range, traversing seven entire states in its length and 
course. Parallel with this, in the great limestone valley which 
lies along the margin of the coal field, are the brown hema¬ 
tites, in such quantities at some points, especially in Yirginia, 
Tennessee and Alabama, as fairly to stagger the imagina¬ 
tion. And finally, in the coal basin is a stratum of red fos- 
siliferous ore, beginning in a comparatively thin seam in the 
state of New York, and terminating in the state of Alabama, 
in a bed of fifteen feet in thickness, over which the horseman 
may ride for more than one hundred miles. Beneath this bed, 
but still above water level, are to be found the coal seams, 
exposed upon mountain sides, whose flanks are covered with 
magnificent timber, available either for mining purposes or the 
manufacture of charcoal iron. Passing westward, in Arkan¬ 
sas and Missouri, is reached that wonderful range of red 
