The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1880-03-27
REVERE.

10y housokeepers in this place about pril lst
Oar farmers are steadily making improve
ments on their properties.
The Coal 's'rnde.
There has been iair amount of busincs.
in the anthracite coal trade the past week
and enough has been done to warrant us in
saying that the business is improving
There is adually, week by week, more de-
mand for coal and especially for the smaller
sizes The stock of stove coal on hand q
month ago has been greatly reduced, aud
when, on the lst Of April next, the price i,
made the same as for the larger sizes of coal
the demand will be equally goat, and the
market thereafter, it is expected, generally
active. AT present stove coal ic quoted 81
cents per ton higher than the larger sizes Of
coal. The three days Der 1eek suspension
of labor at the Tiines is agreed upon for no
longer period than the lst prnximo, but
there t3 some talk of continuing it three
days longer into the next month. While
some Of the carrying companies are OF
opinion that tie restriction of a production
has been continued long enough to insure
the healthGul condition of the trade to the
end of the year, the three days more will
be conceded if any one party presses it
for reasons Apprehension of an excess of
coal on the market of any one kind. The
trade seems 10 have caught the true spirit Of
business, and each party in interest shows
willingness to .concede to others promptly
rather than be thought e-;ucting or arbi-
trory, or do aught to break the present good
understanding. This, if adhered to, will
make the coal trade of 1880 the most active
and most profitable of many years. The
coal trade of the United States is every year
extending in ratio of increase that is truly
encouraging; and yet in comparison with
the vast riches remaining undeveloped, and
the greater promises of the future, it may
be said to be still in its infancy. There are
few who can think of the immense fields of
coal already discovered beneath the surface
in America without at once reverting to the
question, how came this supply of fuel to be
garnercd in its secret chambers? In an
swer, it is now universally conceded that all
the coal beds, both bituminous aud anthra-
cite, are of vegetable origin, and the most
probable theory is that which ascribes them
10 submerged forests, or other vegetable de.
posits, pressed down into compact masses,
and, passing through Tie Intermediate state
of peat, become gradually consolidated into
coal. The character of the vegetation can
be easily traced by the quality Of the de-
postcard shows even greater variety than
that now growing upon the earth's surface.
This vegetable origin is now readily detected
in all tire formations, hahdreds of several
different varieties Of plants, trees and shrubs
having been discovered, L nuGber of which
are now extinct. Some coal beds appear to
have been formed from grasses, shrubs and
the shed foliage of trees, not a strueture of
any size beng traccable in the mass; as If
the leaves and waste foliage Of a forest had
gradually accumulated in basin or lake,
where the deposit had undergone a process
of fermentation, by which vegetable sui :
stances are changed to a carbonaceous mass
similar to the peat bogs, and then by some
mighty convulsion of nature it had been
subjected to a tremendous pressure, which
gave il a new form and character and pre-
served it for the subsequent ages. In other
formations the traces Of forest are distinctly
visible. Most geologsts are now agreed
that the anthracite, semi-anthracite and
bitumnous coal were originally Of precisely
the same character, but that the anthracite
has since been subjected to heat, discharg-
ing the bitumen; while some MAINTAIN that
the change is still going on, and that after
the lapse of ages all the bituminous would
in the end become anthracite. Though geo
logists and scientists differ as TO the origin
of hard coal several things appear 10 be well
established in regard to these peculiar de
posts. The vegetable growth on the earth's
surface, which formed their foundation, was
Of oCextraordinary abundance, and at or about
the time OF the change this mass must have
been completely saturated with or totally
submerged in water, the coal being found
embedded in alluvial deposits, OF coated
with such tokens as clay hardened to slate.
Settled as these differences Of opinion may
be as to the origin and continuance of the
supply Of coal there is no reason for oPpre-
hension pa continued supply of coal fuel
for many centuries to conei yet, while this
may be admitted, there is neither excuse
nor apology for bringing 1t to the surface in
advance of a demand Tor its proper use and
at a loss on its production. The Lehigh Goa
and Navigation Company to day will open
the canal for traffic throughout its entir,
length, and preparations are making by the
company to do its full share of the year.
business Ledger, Monday.