Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1871-06-20

Along the Saginaw river, on DOtn
sides for sixteen miles, there is a con-
tinuOus line OF saw, and shingle and
planning mills and salt manufactures.
| Seventy. FIVE baTges with a tonnage of
lS5, 600 tons and carrying capacity for
25, 600. 600 feet of lumber, are engaged
in Transporting the products of three
mills and salt wells to the various
markets on Lake Huron, besides
which there are five railroads there
of which are completed. One in
course OF construction towards Pere
! Marquette on the eastern shore of
Lake Michigan traVerses the immense
pine forests that seem to defy the
| powers of even the Saginaw mills to
exhaust. Along this line the most
marvellous evidences Of progress are to
be witnessed, the results of the same
spirit of enterprise as that which has
| lifted the SaginaWs out of Il wilder
ness in no degree better than the Ar
/ kansas swamp in sight of Memphis.
/ In the process of manufacturing tim
| Der and salt the Saginaw people prac-
! tice a strictecOnOmy in their furnaces
! they burn the saw dust which accu-
mulates in quantities, to suffice for
! this and the purpose of filling in water
! lots: and the waste steam, instead OF
! being allowed to drip into cutters,
! therein to find a passage to the
original element in the river, is
| conducted into pipes which pass
through the salt vats, sustaining
continuous process of capitalization,
doing away with the solar process of
manufacturing salt, so often and disas-
Tr,f f,r9o-nd NTH hxy hnnyyVT V-ofv1g
Nothing iss&llOWed to 90 to waste
there is no refuse; everything Is util-
lied. OF the capacity Of the leading
saW-mills, the readers of the APPEAL
can form some notion when l tell
them that at Sage's mill, not long
| since, 370,797 feet Of lumber was sawed
| in twelve hours. The average daily
production of this and Mr.. Brewers
mill is 125, 600 feet per day. Last year
Sage's mill, during the seven months
that the mills ran, produced 30, ,O0O,-
600 feet Of lumber. The heaviest pro-
ductiOn of salt takes place at the Sage
mills, and amounts to 100 barrels per
day. The barrels in which this salt is
packed are made of clear white pine;
there is, therefore, no stain to the salt,
as is usual with that packed in Oaken
barrels, and consequently no loss to
the consumer. The iron from the oak
always stains the salt packed in oak
barrels. compelling an average loss of
half q bushel to the barrel. So it is
cOOperage as much as the color
and fine granulatiOn of the Sagi-
nav salt that secures for it in
many markets prominence over
that manufactured at Syracuse,
New York, and at KanaWha, West
Virginia, though the latter is perhaps
the finest salt manufactured in the
world. At one time this salt manu-
facture came near giving out. 1t was
saved by the formation of an assOcia-
ton, which made advances to the
manufacturers, and so saved them
from sacrificing their products. Can't
Memphis form such an association for
the encouragement other manufactur-
ing interests? There are tWOd9ily and
five weekly papers published in the
Saginaw Valley, and the eschOOlhOuses,
numbering eight, are as large and as
handsome as those of Jackson and
Fort Wayne. There were eleven
steamboats, and baTges built at Sagi-
nav in 1863; last year there were nine
teen, and III promises an increase
over that. There are three machine
shops in full blast, and the mari beds,
plaster beds and coal fields within
twenty-five miles promise to be the
sources Of as great wealth and wide
spread development as that in
duced by the salt wells and
forests. Taken altogether, /
think the people Of the Sagi-
nav Valley, as Mr.. Miles Greenwood
said in a speech at Bay City, illustrate
fully and fairly the American idea of
progression. 1t is unique, the indus
try Of the Saginaw Valley. 1t is by
itself, alone, without any competitor.
Salt and timber, timber and salt as far
as the eye can reach up and down the
Saginaw river, and when you have
sailed out into the bay, it is still salt
and timber in barges and steamboats,,
and all this in the comparatively brief
space Of fifteen years. Out Of the slug
gish little village, with a few hundred
population, into the city, stretching
away in beauty on every hand, teem-
ing with an active, restless life, and
destined to still greater things-such
is the Saginaw Valley. l could not
help thinking, as / looked upon this
Saginaw, and reflected upon its Won
derful growth that a mine ofWealth lies
in our forests awaiting such efforts as
have made it one Ofthe wonders OfOur
age. Walnut lOgsare delivered in Mem
phis at $lS to $40 per thousand feet;
poplar, s. to SO per thousand feet;
cypress, so; oak, SO. Red gum,
used in vast quantities in the manu-
facture of cheap furniture, cost Sc per
thousand feet. Sycamore abounds
everywhere. Its cost is fixed by that
of transportation. Its density is such
that it will not float. With every
species of timber filling interminable
forests on every hand, Memphis
imported, during 1870, not less
than one and a half million dollars
worth of furniture. In fact, slaves
and barrel heads and cedar logs are
now shipped in great quantities from |
this city to Louisville and Cincinnati, |
and returned in the shape of barrels
and buckets. Memphis should utilize |
a wealth lying at her very doors, and |
become the greatest furniture and
wOOden-ware manufacturing city on |
the continent. On my way back l |
enjoyed the hospitality Of some of
the leading manufacturers of
CINCINNATI,
and had unusual facilities for
learning of the progress of the still /
g Queen City of the West" The cap
ital invested in manufactures here in |
1870 amounted to $51, 1,673,7A, the
value of the real estate occupied, to
637, l24, ll9, the value of the raw ma
terial consumed, to S66, ,040,085, the
of hands employed to 59,827,
as compared with 30,268 in 1860,
and the value of the products, after
to 1927 ,459, ,020. Thus
these 80, ,S27 hands, by the aid of ma
chinery, increased the value of the
raw material S61 AIS, 1886, or nearly
double, and ten million more than
the active capital employed. Does
this not tell thel story of the value
Of manufacture? z The value of
the direct foreign impOrtatiOns
Of Cincinnati were last year $51, ,226,-
BOO. She owns Of barges, canal boats
and steamboats,, 478, with tonnage
Of 88,7l6, valued at 81, AIS, 100. Since
1850, her valuation of real estate has |
$96, 1863, ,498. Her pork trade
Is immense and her grocery trade is
large. Indeed, in everything essential
10 progress, Cincinnati is a shining
light; but especially in manufactures.
The smoke from hundreds of chim-
leys has already killed the fruit of s
he hundred beautiful hills to which s
4 cultured people have had recourse,
and where they have laid out and {
maintain In the perfection of beauty
he most delightful suburbs in the
world. Her railroads stretch out in
every. direction, and her tradesmen
with Europe and the East,
'ivaling both in the finish and cheap !