The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1876-08-25

Virginia will, in proportion to her pop.
ulstion, more than equal the 35.OOOOOO
of annual lumber products of Pennsyl-
vania.
Her rivers, which as we have seen, so
thoroughly penetrate her in all directions,
will, with little improvement, afford
the cheapest facilities for rafting and
the amplest power for manufacturing.
At high water, now, millions of feet of
logs, sawed timber, split slaves, shocks,
hoop poles, &c, are annually foated out
into the Ohio river and borne to the
wide fields of consumption reached by
her water. Two great trunk lines Of
railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio and the
Chesapeake and Ohio, now cross the state
from east to west. These cut the rivers
and bear of the stores of their booms,
and are so located as to be readily reach
ed by narrow gauge railroads, which
may be cheaply built up into the forest
hills on the right and lett, so IS 10 gather
into these great highways the now mac
cessible abundance Of their timber. Other
important connecting lines of railroads
have been projected, and will, doubtless
be constructed before many years. The
cities east and west, particularly west,
have not been slow TO see the treasures Of
wealth that here lie stored up for their
rapidly developing wants, and they are
stretching out their hands to gather
them.
Let US then look few years into the
future and see what these wide forests
may be worth to West Virginia. Esti-
mating her stumpage st the compara-
lively low value of $25 to the acre, the
aggregate of her ten million acres of
forest land Is $3.50, 1000, 900, at the present
rates of value of the material 10 the cost
of manufacture, to reduce the forests of
West Virginia into lumber in the various
forms requiring human labor, will give
occupation to over $l20, 600 600 Of wages,
and the resultant product Of nearly $40O,-
600 600 of wealth. The lumber product
of Pennsylvania is S35,000000 annually
will it be unreasonable to suppose that
the products of West Virginia for the
next forty years will be an average Of
the one.ffth OF this? Considering her
central position, her present and prCspcc-
tive facilities for reaching the great mar.
kets of the world, and the great variety
and prime excellence of her timber, and
the rapidly increasing scarcity in other
fields, surely this is not An exaggerated
estimate.
But $1,000, ,0O9 a year, will in 40 or 80
wears, equal the three fourths of the es-
timated lumber value OF the state. So
there may be, doubtless there are, listen
ing to me here to-day, many who will
live 10 see the vast wilderness of West
Virginia converted into 5000 00O0, 900 oi
wealth and three-fourths of her present
forests swept away TO give place TO fer
tile farms, teeming factories, to cattle
and sheep and people, 10 new industries,
new arts and ever increasing wealth.
But nature in her bodnty to this richly
endowed state, has not confined her
muniflcence 10 the surface. Beneath
this luxuriant growth Of forest she has
hidden mineral treasures which, IN vsrl
ETY. and abundance surpasse5 the deposit.
OF any other part Of our favored iand.
The occasion allows me 10 speak OF these,
As indeed Of sll resources ot West Nlr-
ginia, only in general terms.
We have already seen that West Nir.
ginia is one Of the most richly endowed
sections of the graf sppa
lachiar coa' felds Spain, 4
this neld Professor R5sers sAy. it "is
almost the largest expnnse Of continuous
coal measures in the world. ltpOssesses
length Of s75 miles and maximum
breadth between its eastern outcrop IN
northern Pennsylvania and its western
in northern Ohio ofabout $50 miles. The
total area actually occupied by coal is
estimated at SO, 80 square miles, distribu.
ted as follows: