THE LOWER COAL MEASURES. | 177 
The Manning mine is established on a valuable though not very 
extensive basin. | 
The Block coal has recently been discovered in Poland and in 
Boardman townships, and one mine is opened in each. The coal has 
also been followed in fine development across the line from Youngstown 
into Coitsville township, in a spur of the Allen mine coal basin. 
_ These nine townships, lying in two counties, embrace the entire 
block coal field of the Mahoning Valley, so far as its development in 
Ohio is concerned. They hold a conspicuous and honorable place in 
the history of coal mining in the State. Possessing, as they originally 
did, a large area of coal of the highest quality, lying on the margin of 
the field nearest to the great markets, the business was developed sooner 
here in the large way than elsewhere in the State, and the whole dis- 
trict has been greatly enriched by it. Royalty has ruled high, a large 
amount of the coal drawing from 50 to 75 cents per ton. From this 
source the landowners have received large revenues. Business sagacity 
and capital have been generously rewarded, and great fortunes have 
been accumulated from the business directly or indirectly. Nor has 
labor been unrewarded. Of the miners that have been temperate and 
frugal, a large number live under their own roofs, and have secured a 
reasonable competence. Some of their villages rate highest for intelli- 
gence and order among the mining communities of the State. 
The mining of the block coal calls for and cultivates skill. Only 
well-trained men can make proper headway in attacking a seam of this 
character. It is mined mainly without explosives, and under the best 
of the more recent practice is made to yield at the rate of 5,000 tons for 
an average of 4 feet to the acre. It makes but little slack when prop- 
erly handled, 2,100 lbs. of unscreened coal being commonly counted one 
ton of clean coal. The weight of the screenings in the California mine, as 
shown bya “Billy Fairplay,” ranges from 100 to 300 lbs., the screens being 
1z”’ between bars. The same test, when applied to the Mineral Ridge 
coal, gave 1144 lbs. of slack and nut coal to one ton of clean coal. In 
this region, therefore, the screenings take an average of 3 of the coal 
that comes from the shaft. The Blackband ore is the element that main- 
tains this latter field, both of the coals being too thin for profitable min- 
ing independently. The heavy black slate, called ‘“‘ wide-awake,” lying 
between the Block coal and the Blackband, complicates the mining. 
WW (Cr 
