The Portland daily press., 1873-08-18
Extracts from New York Journals.

The Commercial Advertiser says on the
subject of 'sEnglish and American Iron:
The reports Of the decline in the iron trade
of England are confirmed by the latest mail
advices. The London Daily Netos of Au-
gust l. says that out of more than two thou
sand pudding furnaces in the North OF Eng
land iron district, about seven hundred are
now out of blast, and are likely to remain so
until coal and iron are lower; the London
Times, of August /, reports that current
| shipping orders are virtually restricted to q
| few sheets for Australia and China and cot
ton-tie hoops for India, and that "from Can
| ada and the United States, which should be
I large customers at this season, the demand
| is almost nil, and home requirements, though
| a little more active, are below the AVERAGE"
\ while letter from Sheffield says: "Orders
/ from, the Continent are even more scarce
than the do, >ands from home and America
has neaTIv orsak.Np n u.s." In South Wales, 1t
is admitted that the ast iron,maklne estao-
lishments of Monmouth. anu ~. Mlann,Jtsa .ilrIss
could not have been kept 81 .asont t;,ne
as they have been up to the p. ,nfiis3
but for contracts which remained Srplisb
from the early part of the year. The h, sisa
financial writer's are dolefnl over the prospe,. =
and evidently see no way out of the trouble
so long as coal and wages retain their present
elevation. In the United States, on the 9TH
er hand. the increased activity in the produc-
tioD OF iron, which began to be apparent six
or seven years ago, gives promise of remarka-
BILE results. Last year, 2, 300 600 tons of pig
iron were made in this country-an increase
OF more than million tons over the product
OF lS59-60; blast-furnaces and rail-mills have
become established in localities where tLey
were almost unknown, or disregarded half a
dozen years ago; and the quantity of ore rais-
ed 10 increasing from year to year. 1t was
estimated, at the late meeting of the Iron
Manufacturers Association iu this city, that
the new enterprises started within the past
year will represent an additional investment
of about $50, ,000. 600 in the iron Industry of
the Union. This rate of progress, justifed
by the continual demand created by the con-
tinual demand created by the expansion of
our railway system and the development of
our natioual resources, presents a curious
contrast to the melancholy exhibit made in
England.
The Herald attempts to explain the aerial
causes of the late flood:
A general storm of this kind, with such
heavy and torrential rains, is to be dreaded
along our railway and canal lines, and alreadv
the telegraph announces many bridges washed
away and trains delayed and endangered.
This storm was reported as likely to occur in
the shape of local storms and rains, but they
seem to have suddenly marshalled their forces
for the production of a considerable and wide
wave of high pressure and low temperature
which was reported yesterday is intimately
connected with the formation of all our dan
gercus storms, because they are supplied from
its crest with high winds, and its cold air
serves to chill and condense into torrents of
rain the vapor which the previous southerly
winds have stored away in the atmospheric
reservoirs.
The great difficulty Of our meteorologists
foreseeing such gale as we had yesterday
lies in the fact thar these cold storms, breed
ing air waves, descend upon us from the
country lying north Of the lakes and steal un-
observed southwafdy over region which
as yet is closed to the weather sentinels. 1t
is evident that, if necessary, the government
should enter into some international arrange
ment by which the outposts Of our signal
system might be pushed northward, even to
the vicinity of Hudson's Bay. The storm
and its effects will probably be felt for the
rest of to-day, and it is to be hoped that our
railroad authorities win exert the utmost vig-
lance to avert the accidents ard delays that
are sure to follow such heavy rains. II, as 1t
is probable, the gale emerges from the land
into the Atlantic this morning, it may be ex-
pected to increase in violence, and will no
doabt be dangerous to our coasting vessels
| from the Chesapeake Bay to Cape Cod.