HOCKING VALLEY. 715 
sumption. In addition to the four furnaces already in blast, which have 
been previously described, arrangements are already made for two more 
at Shawnee. One, the Vilas Furnace, between Shawnee and Iron Point, 
and one two miles north of Gore Station; the Ogden Furnace, at Orbis- 
ton, on Snow Fork; the Akron Iron Company’s Furnace, at Bessemer ; © 
another by a Cleveland company, at Bessemer; Moss and Marshall’s Fur- 
nace, at Straitsville, and the Moxahala Iron Company’s Furnace, at Mox- 
ahala, while negotiations are pending for the purchase of several other 
sites. This active work in furnace building by experienced iron men, 
while a majority of the furnaces in all old iron districts are out of blast, 
isa happy augury of the future. Under the stimulus of the large profits 
of iron-making a few years ago, many furnaces were built at business 
centers, where capital had accumulated, and which were compelled to 
suspend operations as soon as the price of iron materially declined. It 
is evident that many of these will never be again put in blast, and iron 
will hereafter be manufactured on so small a margin that the cost of the 
transportation of the raw material must be made as small as possible. 
But competitién can not close a furnace intelligently and economically 
- managed, situated on property containing all the raw material necessary 
for the production of the iron, and of easy access to the points of con- 
sumption. If a mixture of Lake Superior ore shall be required, the 
amount needed will be small, and the competition for this freight on the 
coal flats returning from the Lake ports will make the expense small. 
But with the great variety of ores in this field it is probable that all 
grades of iron can be produced by a proper mixture. The Iron Point 
ore, which is the “Great Seam” of the whole region, produces, when 
used alone, an iron very similar to the Scotch pig. Thisisat the present 
writing quoted in the New York market at from $24.25 to $27.25 per 
ton, and is often the only foreign iron now quoted. It may be confidently 
anticipated that a brand of iron made from this ore at a cost of from $10 
to $12 per ton, will soon be placed on the market in such abundance and 
of such a character as to entirely prevent the importation of this Scotch 
pig. 
