Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1869-02-19

and distribution OF our potter's clay
brick ciays, gypsum, lines, hydraulic
Cementsy peat, glass sand, mineral
paints, mineral phosphates, salines,
oils, oil shales, building stones, grind,
stones, mineral waters, &c. OF al
these We have large quantities Of ex-
cellent quality. but they are generally
permitted to lie uncared for and almost
unknown. Most of our friedrich are
imported from other States, while we
have an abundant supply of materials
for their manufacture, quite as good as
those from which the Amboy brick, or
even the Welsh brick, which cost Sl60
per thousand, are made. No hydraulic
cement is made in the State, and we are
every year importing some hundreds
OF thousands OF barrels from the States
OF New 4 ofk and Kentucky, while we
have an abundance of excellent by-
draulic lime. The Cincinnati Bridge
Company paid $50. 900 to the Louisville
Hydraulic Cement Company for ce-
ment used in their bridge over the
Ohio.
Gypsum is mined in but one locality
while it is probable that it can be prof
itably worked in a dozen.
From one town in the State, building
stone is being sent in large quantities,
to New York, and from another, not
far distant, grindstones are sent to all
| parts OF the Union. 1t IS not unlikely
that other quarries are capable of pro-
ducing materials equally good at no
| greater COST
Ohio imports most OF her gas coal
from Pennsylvania, while it is certain
that we have enough, quite as good,
within our own limits.
| Northern Ohio imports and uses, an
nually, two hundred thousand tons of
| iron ore, and the manufacture of iron
! is assn ming great Importance, because
| the rich, crystalline ores of Lake Supe-
7 y l.
meet a peculiar valuable furnace coal,
| furnished by the lowest stratum in our
coal basin, while, in other parts of the
/ State, from the exhaustion of charcoal. |.
! the fuel hitherto used, the iron inter
ests laUguiSh in the midst OF
1 abundant native ores. A careful and
/ intelligent examination would proba-
/ bly, supply a fuel for smelling these
ores, by the discovery of furnace Goals,
| in the upper seams, or by proving the
lower coal accessible by shatting.
! If, then, our mining interests are of
such paramount importance, is it wise
| or economical to leave them longer
without systematic effort for their de-
velopment.
Michigan has already received ffty
/ times as much as her survey cost her
/ from the Saginaw salt wells, bored at
| the suggestion of her State Geologist,
and she is certain to be repaid q thou-
sand fold from that source alone,
| The negative value of the survey, in
showing where minerals do not exist,
should not be overlooked. When New
/ York commenced her survey, it was
| hoped the geological explorations
| would bring to light valuable seams of
| coal, but that hoped proved vain. Nev-
| ertheless, the knowledge of the negative
! fact that New York has no coal, has
| been worth more than the cost of the
survey in the saving of useless mining
/ ox In fuf If
dollars have been utterly wasted in oil
| enterprises and speculatiOns which
/ might have been saved to the State by
| a geological survey, which would have
| disclosed the utter wortblessness OF
! nine-tenths of the so-called. oil territory.
To a new and complete survey of
! Ohio, the old partial one would serve a
| valuable purpose as a preliminary re-
connoisance, while, at the same time,
| laboTs of the geological corps would be
greatly facilitated by the elaborate
| surveys of adjacent States. These con
siderations should be taken into ac-
count in estimating the cost of a new
survey, in reference to which your
| cOmmitUee have the opinion ofa distin
guished practical geO1ogist, as follows
"Twenty thousand dollars, for two
years, should give US as good geolog-
| ical survey as any Of our neighbors
have-a much less expensive one than
New York, Pennsylvania, Massachu-
sets, Kentucky and other States have
had, but one of equal value in it's re-
sults.'
In framing the bill herewith submit
ted, your committee have endeavOred tC
present a plan for a survey, which
would be covered by this estimate, and
embrace only that range of invesfiga-
tions- which is of most Immediate prdc-
teal necessity.
The survey of Iowa was commenced
in September, 1855, and continued un'
til the close of the season of 1857. The
result of these Investigations was pub
lished in 1858, in two volumes, and the
expenses, as kindly furnished you
committee from the Auditors books, by
Mr.. Wright, Secretary of State, were
as follows:
Amount paid State GeoIogIst and
asslstan ts...-.- ......,. $50 094 d
Expense of distributing reports -. 1855 4
Total. ...... -. go. .---... IS, $50 @