Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1870-12-07
Our Coal Fields and Manufactures.
From the New York Shipping List.

Among the latest discoveries of coal
in this country is wonderful deposit
in the Territory of Wyoming, lying i'm
mediately west of Nebraska, and com
prising portion of the Rocky Noun
tains. This coal belt extends along the
Pacific Railroad, a distance of three
hundred miles. The quality is said to
fully equal Lehigh coal, yielding ten
thousand feet of gas to the ton. The
workings at various places show the
vein to be thirty to forty feet deep. A
company is taking out 5000 tous per
cconth, and the article is selling at the
low rate of seventy-fve cents to one dol
lar per ton. The Central Pacific are
using it on the eastern end of their
road. Prof. Hayden: United States
Geologist, who has lately returned from
Wyoming, where he has been prosecut-
ing his geological investigations, speaks
in high terms of that Territory Not
only does it contain immense coal
fields, but iron ore exists in great abund-
ance, while careful test of the soil on
the hills and valleys shows that there is
no part Of the Territory that would not
yield, by irrigation, forty bushels of
wheat per acre.
The vast and inexhaustible coal fields
of the United States are among the most
important of all forms of our latent
wealth. These fields have recently been
estimated at two hundred thosand
square miles, and, though stupendous,
it is evident, from the frequent devel-
opment of new sources, that the esti-
mate is moderate one.
The Importance of this Incompatible
e 4oI
will be realized only when taken in con-
nection with the immense extent of fer
tile lands within our national limits
which are capable of sustaining an i'm
mense manufacturing, as well as agri-
cultural population. Tt adds greatly to
the significance of the facts, that the
rich land and the rich mines are to so
large extent in close proximity. In the
great coal-felds of Illinois, Indiana,
Kentucky, scores of thousands of square
miles of exuberantly productive land
overlie weight of coal exceeding, by
many fold, all that of the British isles,
of excellent quality, and easily procured
Here, amid almost boundless corn and
wheat fields, system of manufacturing
is sure to arise, such as the world has
never yet seen. In the Missouri and
Arkansas basin, as well as in Pennsyl-
vania, Maryland and Virginia, immense
quantities of coal are associated with
lands of great fertility. The period
when great manufacturing enterprise
shall be established in these states, de-
pends mainly upon the states themselves
Once established in such prolific re-
gions, manufacturing industries will
not, like those of other manufacturing
countries, be in state of dependence
upon distant and foreign countries for
food, England now being obliged to
supplement her natural DEFICIENCIES the
importation of food for her workers, to
the amount of four hundred millions of
dollars per anuum. Having in abund-
ance the power, food, iron, copper, lead
cotton, the ability to produce an ade-
quate supply of wool, and an unlimited
scope for population, then there is moth
ing to prevent the United States from
becoming, in due time, the foremost
manufacturing nation on the face of
the globe. Other countries, having the
start of us, we shall have to make many
sacrafces before we can take our proper
rank; but, with steady advances in
favor of those less elementary occupa-
tions that at once characterize and
largely constitute civilization, will anon
bring ample recompense.