MAHONING COUNTY. 789° 
few in number to settle this important question. It is probably not an 
exaggeration to say that of the drillings made for coal in Mahoning 
county, not more than one in ten has passed through coal. of workable 
thickness, and yet it is certain that here are valuable basins of the block 
coal, for many of them are known and worked; and it is highly prob- 
able that in the districts most thoroughly explored, there still remain 
important deposits of coal to be discovered. Hence we may conclude 
that many years must elapse before the important question of the south- 
ward extension of the coal basins of the Mahoning Valley can be satis- 
factorily answered. There is now a general feeling of doubt as to the 
presence of the Briar Hill Coal under the central and southern portions 
of Mahoning county, and as the borings made to reach the coal must go 
deeper and deeper as they are carried southward, and even if the coal 
area were extensive here as farther north, a large majority of the holes 
bored must prove unsuccessful, the work of exploring this region must 
necessarily be slow and expensive. It is, however, highly probable that 
ultimately some valuable deposits of block coal will be found south of 
any yet known; at least the probability seems sufficient to encourage 
those who have machinery in position or other facilities for boring 
cheaply to make farther explorations in search of the Lower Coal under 
the southern half of the county. Such efforts with the careful tracing 
southward of the basins that are now known, or may hereafter be dis- 
covered, will gradually and surely work out the solution of the problem. 
The quality of the coal obtained from the lower seam in the Mahon- 
ing Valley has now been so fully demonstrated and understood that 
words would be wasted in its praise. It has been shown by a great 
number of analyses, and by long and varied triais, to be one of the 
purest and most valuable goals known in the world. Its open-burning 
character, its comparative freedom from sulphur, and the small amount 
of ash if contains, especially fit it for the smelting of iron, of which, if 
properly managed, it gives a product scarcely inferior in quality to that 
obtained with the use of charcoal. Bessemer pig and car-wheel iron are 
constantly made with it, which can hardly be said of any other coal. 
It has also been largely used for forge and miil purposes, but this has 
been to a degree a sacrifice, since cheaper coals would have served these 
purposes nearly as well. The interests of the iron manufacturers of the 
Mahoning Valley would probably have been best served in the past, as 
they will be in the future, by using the block coal only for smelting. 
Coal No. 1 is found in all the northern tier of townships, but is not 
worked in Milton and Jackson. South of this line of townships little 
exploration has been made that can be regarded as reliable. <A well 
