The Russellville Democrat., 1876-08-31
ARKANSAS \ MINERALS.
Her Advantages as a Field for the InveStnient of Capital
 in Iron Manufacturing:
What a Northern Inspector of Minerals. thinks after a
 Careful Investigation.

The following communicable, we find in the Spirit of Arkansas Mir. Watson, the correspondent was here at dur town last May and from the acquaintance wt formed with him, we think his opinion is entitled to considerable weight in this matter. We hope ere many years to see millions ol Northern, and even European cap 1 ital invested in the coal and iron manufacturing business in Arkan sas. Everything is in our favor, and we have reason to be. lleye that our hopes in this direc- tion will be realized at no far dis tant day. Read the letter:
 MORRIS, ILL, August b, 1876.
 Editor Spirit of Arkansas:
 DEAR SIR:-I congratulate you and your people of the City of Roses on the dawning and near approach of your city becoming a manufacturing district. The nat ural advantages of your State for the cheap production of cotton and woolen fabrics, and iron in all the forms that it IS put to use, can be manufactured Tn the local ities in the state of Arkansas much cheaper than where nearly all the supply in those articles are made for the consumer of the West and Southwest, for the req sons that your State has a mild climate, suitable for outdoor em- ployment the year round, cheap homes for operatives, cheap food and 2 kind and hospitable people for neighbors-my own observa tion of over 1000 miles travel in Arkansas this season. Next req son: Arkansas has deposit of semi-anthracite coal which, for manufacturing purposes, is as vet known the next best to Penn sylvania. Iron minerals in diff ferent localities, of fifty to sixty per cent. freer from foreign i'm purities, so much so that it will produce a pig iron suitable for car wheels and Bessemer steel. With an abundance of hard wood timber for charcoal, the forests of timber can be made to last much longer than in the Lake Superior iron districts. No ? strata of semi anthracite coal contains q large per centage of carbonized charcoal, and the upper portion of the strata is pure charcoal ot natures make and contains more pure carbon to it's weight than any other known fuel. A mixture of half and half of mineral fuel and charcoal will make Q pig iron that will sell for charcoal pig readily, and can be produced in Arkansas $l0 to $l5 per ton cheaper than in the iron produc- ing districts of Lake Superior, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Hi nois or Missouri. Iron men of those districts will say l make big assertions. l do; and tliey are true and practicable.
 We'll, what about Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama for the cheap pro duction of iron, where they have the coal and iron mineral in such abundance to supply? As C.. Donkersly, of Lake Superior, writes me, the civilized world, with iron to eternity, the coal in those states is all bituminous, has more or less sulphur and pyrites of iron, and must be eok- ed, and, probably, much of the coal desulphurized before it will produce good quality of iron. Those processes add to the cost of the ton of pig five to seven dollars. Credit that to Arkansas fuel
 l see by the Spirit of Arkansas than an English company of cap italists have purchased large tracts of coal and iron ore lands in Tennessee, and expect to eX- pend there, in the erection of iron works, $2,000,000. Success to all foreign capitalists tha. will come to America, anloose the strings of their money bags and pour out their treasures. It is the step in the right direction to get the pat, ronage of the American people for their manufactured articles, and we, in return, will promise to fur nlsh them and their operatives bread and meat at Granger prices, and would not be the losers if we were to furnish at Changers buy ing prices, cost and ten per cent. of.
 Wet season in Northern Illinois in many localities. Many tenants will not have corn enough to make barrel of pork. Oats not one-third of crop; struck with the rust; weight, sixteen to cigh- teen pounds to the bushel Warm, hot, sultry, murky weather. facrmomeJer in shade ,aaee