Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1866-08-16
TOWANDA, BRADFORD COUNTY, PA" AUGUST 16, 1866.

trade IN pork. The hog is killed, cut up,
and packed bymachinery. Cincinnati kills
and exports four hundred thousand hogs
per annum. Chicago has, however, lately
acquired even greater Importance as a
pork-exporting town. A million of hogs
are killed annually in Chicago. 1t is now
indeed, not only the largest market in the
world for pork, but also for corn and tim
Der, although it was but mere Indian
trading station till 1880, and its pork trade
began in 1885 with the packing" and ex.
pOrtation of three hundred hogs
The high price of labor has stimulated
invention, and no people have SO abounded
| as the Americans in mechanical contri-
vances to supply the want of human hands.
/ Many OF these machines as the sewing
machlne-have been brought to Europe,
and some OF them are extensively used in
Britain, although less important to us from
the comparative cheapness of labor. AS
might be expected, many of the American
inventions are intended to facilitate the la
bors OF agriculture.
OF the textile manufactures of America,
that of cotton is by far the most important
but the number Of spindles is not much
more than onesixth of that employed in
Britain; moreover, much of the cotton
! spun in America is spun in the cotton-pro-
ducing States, to be used in the form of
cordage, or made into cotton bags or pack
ing cloths. Notwithstanding the duties
! imposed in the United States, great quan-
| titles of cotton goods of British manufac-
! ture are imported The linen manufacture
is inconsiderable. Sir S. NJ. Peto does not
hesitate to condemn the whole system of
| I,,ti b,-, Oh
utactures are unnaturally fostered, as in
furious to America itself and to the
world AS to the protective duties Oh cot
/ ton goods, he says "Not only are the
Americans raising the price of an article
of the largest consumption among every
| class of their own community, but they are
actually raising this price at their own ex-
pense as growers and exporters of the raw
material from which these articles are
made and all this for the protection of an
interest which can not compete with its ri
walls in its own market, and can not pro-
duce any thing like the quantity required
for the use of its own population"
Sir ). M. PetO is very Jealous in his ad-
vocacy of free trade. He expresses his
confidence that as the people of Britain re-
fused to be taxed for the exclusive benefit
of agricultursts, so the people of America
will ere long refuse to be taxed for the ex-
elusive benefit of manufactures. The whole
question has special Importance at pres
ent, in view of the commercial relations be-
tween the United States and the British
provinces in North America 1t seems al
most impossible that any other system than
that of free trade can long prevail between
countries so situated as those on the north
ern and southern banks of the ST Law
renee. Under an opposite system snug
Cling cannot fail soon to become an evil of
most formidable magnitude on the long line
of the frontier.
The mineral wealth of the United States
is very great. Gold is found in some of
the Eastern States, particularly in Virginia,
the Carolinas, and Georgia and the gold
producing region of the West-still very
partially explored-includes the states of
California and Oregon and the Territories
of Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Dacotah
Washington, Colorado, Montana, and Ari-
zona-an area of more than million of
square miles, extending from British Col
umbia on the north to Mexico on the south,
and from the eastern slope of the Rocky
Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Silver
fancy, although in New Mexico and Arizo-
MIA, which were acquired from Mexico in
lS4S, silver mines have long been worked.
In the hands of another race, and under a
better government, they will now probably
soon become greatly more numerous and
productive An immense lode of silver ore,
known as the Comstock Lode, has been dis
covered in Nevada, and nearly one hun
dred different companies have obtained the
right to work parts of it. A fine city,
called Virginia City, has sprung up in close
proximity to these mines, with population
already of more than ten thousand and
the whole of Nevada is rapidly increasing
in population, while new silver mines are
continually being opened in different local
tiles.
Iron ore exists in great abundance in the
United States, and is widely distributed -
Perhaps in no part of the world is it more
abundant than in the State of Missouri,
where great hills are entirely formed of it.
Little, however, has yet been done to turn
the iron ore Of Missouri to account The
district is deficient in coal, and the railway
system is too incomplete to supply this
want Another district, extremely rich in
iron ore, but hitherto almost unproductive,
lies in the northern part of Georgia, pass
ing into Alabama. 1t is in Pennsylvania
and New Jersey that iron ore is at present
most largely worked. There are iron pro-
ducing districts also in New England, New
York. Ohio, Virginia, and both the Carroll
mas and during the last ten years con-
siderable amount of capital has been in
vested in iron-mining in Michigan, on the
southern shore of Lake Superior But the
iron masters of America can hardly hold
their ground, as yet, against competition
with imported iron. The vast supplies of
iron ore which America possesses are rath-
er to be regarded as a store for future ages
than as a source of wealth to be largely
developed in the present. There are very
rich mines of copper on the shores of Lake
Superior, near kee-nee-nah Point, where
masses of native copper of extraordinary
size have been found. Copper mines have
also long been wrought in New Mexico
Lead is wrought but not to great extent,
in Missouri, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Quick
silver has been found in California, but the
produce is not yet very considerable.
The coal fields of America are greatest
in the world. They are computed to be
L IL - Hf