Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1881-12-22
OUR COAL FIELDS.
The Coming supply to be Furnished
by West Virginia.

Special Dispatch 10 the Register.
WASHINGTON, December 2l.-ln connec
ton with the prospects OF the West Nir'
ginia Central and Pittsburgh Railway Com
pany, now projected through your State,
got some figures, yesterday; which were
made up for the most part by the census
bureau. showing the estimated quantity of
some bituninous coal east of the Allie
ghcnies and the probable growth OF the
coal interest in this section, and mainly in
West Virginia.
Very few persons have any clear idea OF
the magnitude of the coal business in the
neighbOrhOOd referred to. Still fewer
have ever figured out its proportions with
in the next few years, should its present
rate of increase be preserved. Some inn
preston Of the first may be formed from
the fact that of the eighteen millions OF
revenue earned by the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad last year, 4 little over four mil
lions were earned on coal freights east OF
the mountains, In other words, the coal
frcights on that two hundred miles alone
were nearly one-fourth Of the amount de-
rived from
All the Earnings
of that and the remaining nine hundred.
miles of roadway Ii is true the freight
tariff ON this coal yield is larger, in pro-
portion, than on the general run OF freight,
bringing IN about one cent per ton per
mile while the average OF other trelghts
[ is only about quarter cent, but the earn
| ingS, at that rate, show the proportion OF
| the coal industry in the locality referred
| Ia. The estimated quantity Of soma btu
minOus coal in the Piedmont or Cumber-
| land region is 2,4OO, 100000 tons. Ot the
Pennsylvania Field
| the Clearfield region is put down at l2O,OOO
| O,O tons; BloSSburg, TO,OOO,OO tons; Broad
| Ton. ~ eco Geo tons: and the MCyerSdale
or salisbury region, 81 $4,000 tons, max
| ing the total estimate east of the noun
| tairs. > t9S;, sou. 600 tons. The Cumberland
! or Piedmont region showing 200 OODO,OO
/ tons. and the others estimated showing put
/ aici $40. eco tons, it appears that the hrst
| has between nine and ten times rs much
/ aS all the Pennsylvania 4 Erie bltumlnous
/ fields. -.
! As To the production, actual and Gsti-
! mated the census tables give the Cumber-
land region ass. .SOT tons in 1850, 2,136 100
! tons i'm 1880 Il ,254, ,9SS tons in 1896, and
| % 5I4 22S tons in 1900. This estimate Tor
! 1876 and 1890 supposes the exhaustion OF
/ the Clearfield region in 1895, the experts
! showing that st the present rate OF IN
/ crease il will be worked out by that year,
| and that the BlosSburg section will be eS-
! hausted in 1900, whereas the
Piedmont Deposit,
| st the rate of increase referred to, will last
until 1850, or nearly one hundred years
| hence.
There are other equally significant fig.
! ur,s in the tables but the foregoing will
J show where the bituminOus coal product
! uf the country is likely To centre. Beside
1 the outlet furnished by the new raIirss1st
enterprise, from the Piedmont field to IA
dustrieS established in the interior, the
Piedmont mines are likely to supply the
Atlantic seaboard, as being the nearest to
tidewater of any considerable source OF sup
: ply in the United States; and from present
Indications the predictions OF the coal eS'
perts seem rather TO be FASTENED rather
than delayed. Ian.