"The expenses of transportation are greater Vessels coming into the Delaware River to in other respects, as well as in the saving of load with coal, are also exempted. The fees time, as it regards these two improvements. for pilotage in coming into Cape Fear, over On the Maryland Canal, animal power is used either bar, and going up to Wilmington, to draw the coal barges. On the Cape Fear amount, upon a vessel of one hundred tons and Deep River improvements, steam-power burthen, to about forty dollars, which is a tax will be used. From the relative cost of the of forty cents upon each ton of coal she may two improvements, and the means of trans- carry. If this tax is laid upon the coals of portation to be used on them, there can be Deep River, they will arrive at New-York scarcely a comparison, as to the relative taxed with a duty that will disenable them amount of toll, or the expenses of transporta- to compete with the coals of Pennsylvania tion. When at tide-water, at Wilmington, the coal can be sent to New-York at as little expense as from Alexandria. As far, then, as regards bituminous coals, the owners of mines on Deep River need not fear any rivalry from the Maryland mines, or from any other quarter. Nor need the owners of the Maryland mines fear any rivalry from North Carolina. The supply from both, and from all sources within our own borders, will not exceed the demand for that species of fuel, when we take into consideration the rapidly increasing number of river and ocean steamers. A tax of forty cents a ton upon a million of tons would amount to four hundred thousand dollars, and is a greater profit than any mining company has ever made, or can make. The boast that the Slack Water Improvement of Cape Fear and Deep rivers affords a cheaper transit to the ocean than any other improve ment in this country, of the same length and capacity, would be entirely fallacious with the burthen of pilotage on coal, as forty cents added to the anticipated toll of eight cents, would make the tolls greater than on the Chesapeake and Chio Canal, or on any one of the Penn"The case stands somewhat different as it sylvania cauals. Whether the vast mineral regards the anthracite coals. This species of treasures of the valley of Deep River shall be coal is supposed to constitute the great bulk developed, depends upon the view which the of the coals on Deep River. The market for people of North Carolina shall take of this this coal is not to the south, but to New-momentous subject. When I consider what York, and the New England states. To en- Maryland and Pennsylvania have done to able the mine owners on Deep River to compete with the anthracites of Pennsylvania, (which are all the anthracites of any amount in the United States,) they must be able to place their coal at New-York at as low a price as the anthracites of Pennsylvania. It is a saying in England, when a person sends his goods to a market which produces an abundance of goods of a similar character, that he has sent his coals to Newcastle,' which, as you know, is the chief mart of the great mining district of England. Pennsyl vania is the great mining region of the Atlantic states, the Newcastle of America, and New-York is contiguous to her. Their territories join. "Their capitals are less than one hundred miles apart, and coal can be transported from the former to the latter city at sixty cents per ton. The question then recurs, can we send the coals of Deep River to the vicinity of Newcastle-to New-York? Upon an accurate calculation, made by intelligent and practical men, I am assured that the anthracite coal of Deep River may be placed alongside of the Pennsylvania anthracites in New-York market, and sold on as favorable terms, provided the former are exempt from the onerous tax of pilotage, to which they are now liable. The coals which go from Permsylvania to New-York, pass through the Morris and Rari tan Canals, and are not subjected to fees for pilotage. The coals which pass down the Delaware and Hudson Canal to New-York, are also exempt from any charge of pilotage. foster and cherish their great mineral interests, and the magnificent results which have followed the exercise of that parental care, I cannot for a moment doubt as to the course which North Carolina will pursue regarding her great interests. That you may have an adequate impression of the value in which the mining interests of Maryland and Pennsyl vania are held in these commonwealths, I will briefly state what each has done for their advancement. "The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was constructed at an expense of seventeen millions of dollars. Individual exertions proving unavailable, the states of Maryland and Virginia lent their aid by subscribing money and guaranteeing the bonds of canal directors. All these combined exertions proving insufficient, the state of Maryland waived its priority of lien, for the payment of its advances, and foreign capitalists came to the rescue, and by their aid that great work was completed, and with the sole object to open a path to the ocean for the coal of the Cumberland mountains. In Pennsylvania, since the year 1821, more than six hundred miles of canal, and four hundred and fifty miles of railroad, have been constructed, by state and individual enterprise, almost entirely for the benefit of the coal trade, and at an expense of more than thirty-eight millions of dollars. The results have shown the wisdom of those gigantic expenditures. That as great results will follow from the development of the coal mines of Deep River, no well-regulated mind rivers is never interrupted with ice. The canals of Pennsylvania are frozen up four months in the year. During that period, the bituminous coals of Deep River can go north, or seek the more profitable markets of Charleston, Savannah, Texas, Mexico, and the West India Islands. Another advantage in favor of North Carolina, is the natural fertil can doubt. It is a law of philosophy, that similar causes will produce similar effects, and I am yet to be informed that this law does not hold good to the south as well as to the north of Mason & Dixon's line. If, in Pennsylvania, cities have sprung up, under the influence of the coal trade, with a suddenness that reminds one of the fable in the Arabian Nights Entertainments, where pality of her soil, while the coal regions of Pennaces were built in a single night by the magic influence of the lamp of Aladdin, why may we not expect to see the borders of Deep River, within a very few years, inhabited by a dense population, and adorned with flourishing villages and cities, and Wilmington, with her increased commerce, approximate to the wealth and splendor of Philadelphia? That similar results will follow from the develop ment of the mineral riches of Deep River, is as certain as the law of cause and effect. That they will follow more rapidly than they have done in Pennsylvania, is equally certain. Pennsylvania, at the commencement of her mineral operations, had to contend with prejudices as to the use of her anthracite-prejudices which experience has conquered, and you will not have to overcome. "In eight years from the opening of the Pennsylvania mines, she had sent to market less than two hundred and fifty thousand tons. A greater amount can be sent from Deep River in two years from the opening of her navigation. It was twenty-two years before Pennsylvania had sent to market in any one year a million of tons. Deep River can send that amount within five years. If capital and enterprise will do for North Carolina what they have done for Pennsylvania, then will the future progress of North Carolina be more rapid than has been the past progress of Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania the soil and climate are against her; in North Carolina they are in her favor. "The navigation of Cape Fear and Deep sylvania are sterile and unproductive in agricultural products. Deep River and the adjacent country, with the aid of the fertilizing manures, lime, plaster, and guano, which will form the return cargoes of coal vessels from the north, will become in a few years the NILE oF THE SOUTH. Its products will quadruple, and will find a HOME MARKET on the spot which produces them. "The iron ore of Deep River forms an important item in this estimate. Iron of as good quality, and in as great abundance as in any country, is found in North Carolina. On Deep River it is in immediate contiguity with the coal. On the land of Peter G. Evans, Esq., the coal is overlaid by a stratum of iron ore, three feet in thickness, which yields fifty per cent. of iron. The coal which underlies it is six feet thick, and of that kind best adapted for the manufacture of iron. The iron, wher manufactured, can be transported to NewYork at a less cost than it can be sent to the same market from the celebrated works at Danville or Northumberland, on the Susquehanna. It can be also manufactured at less expense, as those establishments pay a higher price for their coal than it can be procured at on Deep River. At Danville and Northumberland, the coal costs $2 50 a ton. On Deep River it can be had for the price of mining it, as those who own the iron own the coal. But the iron need not be sent abroad for a market. There is a better market at home. The time will undoubtedly come, when the manufaetures of iron on Deep River will supply the wants of a large extent of country beyond the limits of North Corolina. The wonderful rapidity with which villages and cities have sprung into existence in the mining dis"The water-power on Deep River is scarcely tricts of Pennsylvania, may be instanced in the cases equalled in any part of our country. In cheapof Carbondale, Honesdale and Pottsville, among ness, it is unrivalled. Dams, which, in most bundreds of others. In 1826, there was but one building on the site of Carbondale, and that a log situations, are expensive structures, are here tenement. In 1845, it contained a thriving and in- already built without charge to the owners of dustrious population of 3,500, occupying good build- the adjacent lands. Eighteen of these are ings. Honesdale was covered by the primitive for- already constructed by the navigation comest in 1828; in 1845, it contained a population of from 2,500 to 3,000 persons. And all this prosperity arose pany of Deep River. Such are the prospects from the mining of less than three and a half millions of the valley of Deep River. And in view of of tons of coal. The same amount mined on Deep them, can the most skeptical doubt of the River would produce necessarily the same results. In 1825, commenced the first mining operations of Schuylkill county. In 1841, the central town of Pottsville, originating at a later date than we have quoted, cation of the children of the miners and new-settled residents: Six private schools, numbering 479 pupils; eight public schools, numbering 472 pupils; eight Sunday schools, numbering 1,137 pupils; teach ers, 166; total, 2, 254, with a library of 1,659 volumes. Pottsville now contains a population of nearly fifteen thousand contained the following establishments for the edu magnificent future of that favored region? or that the progress of population and improvement will advance with a more rapid pace than it has ever done in Pennsylvania? Should foreign capitalists hereafter be induced to associate with your people in developing the treasures of Deep River, its coal, iron, and other minerals, the present holders of the land will part with their interests upon the full knowledge of their value; and the capital that may find its way thither, from other regions, will form part of that fund which is to coutribute to the support of your state government; and the laborers, mechanics, and tradesmen who may accompany or follow it, will mingle with your people, become identified with your interests, and add to the wealth, population, and strength of your native state." 9,880 hemp and flax. There are 2,802 distilleries, producing 1,051,979 gallons. MINES. The state is rich in mines of gold, silver, copper, iron and coal; but it is not possible at present to obtain any thing like correct statistics of their number or value. NORTH CAROLINA.-ITS RESOURCES, In the May number of Commercial Review, MANUFACTURES, ETC.-Alexander McRae, Esq., 1847, we gave the commerce of Wilmington President of the North Carolina Railroad Com It contains 10 steam saw mills, 4 planing pany, was kind enough to furnish the follow-mills, 17 turpentine distilleries, with 45 stills ing paper, prepared with some pains at our particular request. General McRae complains of his having been baffled in obtaining information from most of the sources to which he had written, and that "he gives these detached items, since there is no possibility of making up a full and correct table." In the state of North Carolina there are at present in operation (1847) 25 Cotton factories,* running 48,000 spindles, and 438 looms, employing 1,323 hands, and using about 5,600,000 pounds of cotton. The capital invested in these factories is about $1,200,000. 8 Furnaces for cast iron. 43 Bloomeries. DISMAL SWAMP CANAL-There passed through the Dismal Swamp Canal, from North Carolina to Norfolk, Va., from the 1st October, 1846, to the 31st July, 1847, (ten months,) Building shingles.... Total...... Bales of cotton.. 20,753,350 732,390 874,310 22,300,050 4,881,640 284,520 90,090 3,722 47,386 30.505 2 Paper mills, producing in value $8,775. Barrels of fish.. 823 Flouring mills, producing 87,641 bbls. of flour. 66 naval stores. Cwts, of bacon.. Kegs of lard.. wheat. peas. lation to turpentine: THE TURPENTINE BUSINESS.-We find the impression to be, that about 800,000 barrels of turpentine are now annually made in this state. The estimated value to the makers is about $1,700,000 annually, and may be $2,000,000. About four or five thousand laborers are engaged in making it, and perhaps three times as many more human beings are supported mainly from the proceeds of its first sale. It is supposed that there are now in operation about 150 stills, which, at an average cost of $1,500, with fixtures, shows that there is an expenditure of $225,000 to begin with in the distilling of turpentine. NORTH CAROLINA.-She possesses so many advantages of soil and climate, and exhibits so great variety in her natural capacities, that I have deeply regretted that she was so little appreciated and so badly understood. But the present is a most inauspicious period vity, I trust that the state of North Carolina will yet rise superior to the obstacles which grew out of her inhospitable coast and her inconvenient geography, and march side by side with her sisters in the course of improvement. She has sons within her borders who will not fail in their labors to bring her up to the enjoyment of the highest advantages afforded by the improvements of our times. In this state of things I have thought it advisable to delay the publication of the article you desire. It is probable that I may send you something on some branch of her interest, which may be adapted to the character of your valuable periodical. I have written in great haste, and with the disadvantages of bad JAMES W. OSBORNE. to undertake the subject with any hope of We make the following extracts from the report referred to by Mr Osborne: NATURAL ADVANTAGES-"The counties of Anson, Union, Mecklenburg, Lincoln, Iredell, Rowan, Cabarras, Stanly, and Davidson, have for many years been engaged in the culture of cotton, while the counties of Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Wilkes, Stokes, and Surry, most of them affording the most productive lands on the upper waters of the Yadkin and Catawba, are finely adapted to the production of Indian corn, wheat, and other grains. To these are added great and undeveloped mineral resources, embracing ores of iron, copper, and gold, scattered over its whole length, and furnishing a new field for capital The work had its beginning in that feeble and enterprise. But if nature has provided effort, and is now placed beyond the chances it with a rich soil, she seems to have almost of failure. The General Assembly of our state exhausted her energies in the amplitude of its at its last session incorporated a company for facilities for purposes of manufacture. The the construction of a work two hundred and innumerable streams which flow from the ten miles in length, from this village to Golds-mountain region which lies on the north and boro', on the Wilmington and Weldon road. northwest-including the two large rivers This great work spans the finest and most im- which receive them-furnish the water power provable portion of North Carolina-will accommodate a population of three hundred thousand, and bring into immediate connection with the markets of our own state, Virginia, and South Carolina, a country unsurpassed in its natural fertility, in variety of production, in mineral resources and capacities for manufactories. To insure its success, the state has appropriated two millions of dollars toward the enterprise, being two-thirds of the entire capital. At the same session they incorporated a company for the construction of a plank road, beginning at Fayetteville, on the Cape Fear river, and extending to Salisbury, on the Yadkin, in the western portion of the state. The entire stock of this work is now taken, and its construction is in progress. This road will be one hundred and twenty miles in length, and will be the first work of this description undertaken in the south. Of its completion there is no question. to the hand of the artisan, in a state almost fitted for immediate application. Yet we cannot hide from ourselves the painful conviction that, with all these natural advantages, the interests of our country are rapidly declining, her enterprising citizens have left us in thousands-while those who remain are unsettled, dissatisfied, and preparing to join their predecessors in other spheres, where their energies may have freer scope and their labors be better rewarded." RESOURCES AND PROSPECTS OF NORTH CAROLINA.-" An allusion has already been made to the natural advantages of western North Carolina for a system of manufactures. Public attention has been to some extent devoted to this subject, and within a few years several factories of cotton have been erected, and all of them are in successful operation. Within the region of country to be benefited by this road, there are seven factories, employing After years of disappointment and inacti-a capital of three hundred thousand dollars, and, both in foreign nations and at home, every such country has her class of shepherds, who subsist by this innocent and primitive employ ment. Thousands of acres of land, well adapt ed for pasturage, are unappropriated in the mountain regions of North Carolina, and require but little capital and energy to apply them to the use for which they were mainly intended. But, like all cumbrous articles, wool does not bear our costly modes of transportation." and consuming not less than five thousand any thing beyond the circumscribed circle of bags of cotton. By giving employment to the the market, in the vicinity of the establish poor of the country and furnishing markets ments. Open up a cheap and rapid commufor almost every species of agricultural pro- nication with the city of Charleston, and milduction, they have a most beneficial effect on lions of dollars may be employed where there the prosperity of the communities in which are now a few thousand. It will be converted they are situated. This business was origin- at home into the utensils and implements of ally designed for the home market. But it husbandry, and be transported in this form to has been ascertained by the experience of a the markets of the world. With the increased few years that reliance cannot be placed on supply, it must be cheaper to the purchaser that market, and accordingly, most of those at home, and, at the same time, by the larger engaged in it are directing their attention to quantity sold and the speedier returns of sales, the northern cities, where it is found that the there must be increased gain to the manufac fabric of this region compares most successfully turer. with that of the north. These arrangements “But there is another pursuit for which the divest the pursuit of all uncertainty and northern counties of Burke, Caldwell, Wilkes, hazard, and give the assurance that there may Ashe, Surry, and Iredell are naturally adapt be no limit to the quantity manufactured, as ed, to which the attention has never been there is no boundary to the market to be sup-directed, and, so far as your committee know, plied. But it cannot be expected that a a single experiment has not been made. It is branch of business so important to the welfare the growth and manufacture of wool for exof the country can be adopted to any extent portation. Every portion of the United proportionate to our abilities and wants, unless States, with a similar climate, unless it be we have immediate access to the seaboard. similarly cut off from intercourse with the With this desideratum, western North Caro- world, has given attention to this subject. It lina must become the most important manu- is the obvious pursuit of all mountain regions facturing region south of the Potomac. The great branches of manufacture-cotton, wool, and iron-entering into the common consumption and founded on the necessary wants of the whole nation, are the great sources of employment and of wealth to the mechanical in dustry of America. The planting states of the south and southwest, being wholly consumers and not producers of these necessaries, are the great markets in which they are sold by the manufacturing states of the north. The vast valley of the Mississippi, gathering to itself year by year the agricultural capital of the south, will continue to afford a demand for the coarser fabrics of cotton, wool, and iron, commensurate with its population and the fertility of its soil. The coastwise navigation from the city of Charleston to the cities of the gulf now affords a speedy and safe communi- "The gold is principally found in the small cation with that vast region, and railroad com- streams that flow through the mineral region, munications now in progress must soon place or in the low lands adjacent to them, în a that city in still more advantageous connection stratum three or four feet below the surface. with its whole extent. It must be supplied The hills are no doubt rich, but as yet their with its implements of husbandry and coarse pro ucts have been small, no regular veins cotton and woollen goods for the clothing of its having been discovered. The stratum alluded slaves. If we be but true to ourselves, this to is dug up and washed in the usual way. trade will be a source of boundless profit to by which process gold is found in a granular ourselves. The counties of Lincoln, Catawba, state. Lumps of considerable size are someIredell, Wilkes, Ashe, Surry, and Stokes, times found. In 1824, on the lands of Mr. abound in iron ore of the purest qualities, and Howell Parker, a lump of four pounds ten in largest quantities. In all of them, by rude ounces, steelyard weight, was found. In 1888, and simple processes, its manufacture has been two lumps were found, one weighing three an object of pursuit. In the counties of Lincoln pounds, the other one pound two ounces. and Catawba it has resulted in large fortunes Many large pieces, the weight of which we to individuals, much to the convenience and could not ascertain, have been found in dif benefit of the whole community. But the ferent localities. The gold found in these is manufacture of iron has been necessarily very pure, being worth 974 cents per pennylimited in its quantity and precarious in its weight. It is greatly to be regretted that progress, as it has never been designed for they are not worked on a more extensive NORTH CAROLINA GOLD MINES.-The editor of the Ashborough (N. C.) Herald has recently been making a tour in the gold region of that state. He thus speaks of the Parker mines in Stanly county, which were discovered forty or fifty years ago, and have been worked with various success ever since: |