Morning journal and courier., 1882-01-14

HAYWOOD, t6yeIte OO., w. va, | Jan. 5, 1882.
 To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 A part of our establishment at Maywoot
 consists of grist mill driven by steam. ",
 have one run of stone, 24 inch corn burrs
 with a capacity for making good corn mea
 at the rate of from six to ten bushels an hour
 The nearest steam grist-mi to this place i.
 distant sixteen miles in southeasterIy direc
 ton, at the Green Sulphur Springs In tn.
 summer the streams invariably dry up to suct
 an extent that nearly all the water mills art
 stopped, and those that are able to run do SC | by heads" and are not able among them tc accomplish anything worth mentioning Tax Ing Haywood as centre you may describe an arc of circle with a radius of fifty miles. starting from northeast and coming with the sun around to southeast, and within that sec tion there is no mill of any description that is able to run all summer. Within the remain ing section there are only four such mills, one Csteam fouring) being at the Green Sulphur, another being little corn-cracker attached to q sa#min somewhere in Monroe county, another being ten miles up Second creek, Tn Monroe, and practically inaccessible from any point of my triangle, and the fourth oeing 8 well appointed Touring min on Mud dy creek, three miles from Anderson on the chesapeake and Ohio railroad There are also two other mills near LeSisbure which stop for only short time in the dry season. put Wnien a1 through the summer run SO slowly that there is never any certainty of being able to get work done there Unfortunately for us, our boiler is fed with water from a spring. We had often consid. cred the advisability of digging a well; ; but as this spring had never been known to run dry, thls was left undone to the great damage of our pockets The drought last summer dried up this spring entirely, and in order to run at all we were obliged to haul water in barrel from the carp pond This was expen- slve business, and as it was also slow work we were obliged to consume steam slowly ir order to always have sufficient water This reduced our capacity to forty bushels day We could only run two days in the week, as the pond had to fill up between times. We were never able during the drought to clear the mill of grists, and yet not one-tSentieth of the people within a radius of ten miles came to the mill on account of the uncer- tainty of getting their grinding done imme- distely. People used to come to me last summer and beg, almost with tears in their eyes, to 'fx' some way to grind their grists right of, i" offering to give double toll and
 
 cts. Although our mill could not have been put in less favorable situation to have se- cured a run of custom grinding, there is no doubt that, had we had a steady supply of water from 8 well, we could not have sup piled half the demand that would have been made upon us by running day and night at full speed. This would have put the work accomplished in week at 500 bushels ground at the very least. Now, the law permits the miller to take only the eighth of the grain ground but steam miIlers are not interfer- ed with for taking the sixth in toll, and this would have put receipts at 133 bushels of corn week; or say net profit over and above interest, wages, fuel oil, wear and tear, &c., of $60 week
 Now there are in Greenbriel and Fayette counties, within my own knowledge, four large districts thickly settled. whose inhabi- tants are every summer put to great incon- venience and often to great distress on ac- count of the scarcity of running mills It will therefore be seen that there are here sey- eral opportunities for men with small capi- tai and the mechanical knowledge necessary to run small engine. mere shed is all the building necessary, and an eight-horse power portable engine and pair of 24-inch portable burrs with a belt are all the mn chinery. One man is all the force necessary to work such an establishment. Such mill this would run on full time from the Ist
  ing six weeks of that time in an ordinary season it could have work for night and day. During such season as we had last year 1t could have work for night and day during three months of the time specified. The farmers have 8 prejudice-whether just one or not, can not say-against meal made on a steam mill; therefore, at the end of the dry season, if the owner of mill of this kind has the money to buy stave mill he can plant his engine on some small tract ot@white. oak dIaber near the railroad and drive 8 profita- bic business in slave saving during the win ter and spring, being ready to return again to grinding Tn the summer at his former or on some new stand
 The cost of such an outfit as above de- seribed need frighten no one who is at pres ent unRcquainted with such matters The best portable corn mills are manufactured in Bridgeport and cost from $I25 to S175. &C., cording to size. The rental of the ground or which to place the mill would be free: for any landholder would gladly allow bis land and water to be used for such a pur- pose. One thousand dollars ought to cover every expense of purchase, freight hauling and shed covering
 4 somewhat more expensive outfit than the above could be used in the same way. 4 16- horse power engine would run small port able flour mill in addition to the corn burrs.
 
 double those of the former, while the run ming expenses would not be increased in pru- portion. The proper four mill for such an outfit Is manufactured in New Haven and I believe the cost is $425. At the close of the season the engine could be attached tc port able sawmill in some poplar or black walnut district.
 To ascend from lesser things to oreate- there are many openings in Nicholas, Sum mers and Greenbrier counties for the estab- lishment of merchant mills The town of Levisburg is, perhaps, the most notable in- stance within my own knovledge. While it must be confessed that Lewisburg, as vil- lage, impresses northern man as being a sleepy hollow, yet It contains 600 inhabitants and is the center of large wheat raising dis trict. The muddy creek and sinking creek lands and the large farms in the immediate vicinity of Iewisburg are famous for their wheat growing capabilities, and it is an un- doubted fact that were there merchant mill within reach the wheat crop of this section would be doubled in one year. Lewisburg is four miles from the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad and it's shipping point, Ronceverte, is reached over an excellent macadamized road, and between the two points there is telegrsphic communication. There is no mer- chant flour mill on tine Chesapeake and Ohio railroad between Covington and Kanawha Falls, distance of more than ninety miles
 
 growing towns and mining ventures, all of which would naturally look to the Lewisburg mill for their supplies. In addition to this merchant business the custom work-no slight thing-would come in and Mir John Lpps, one of the most enterprising and sue cessful business men of Levisburg has sev- eral times assured me of the certainty with which portion of the power Of such a mill could be rented to machine shop which would be started by other parties at the same time
 l have been assured that the town of Lew lsburg would grant perpetual water right to parties building this mill, and Major James o. Stratton, owner of the Lewisburg Hotel, public spirited citizen of the place and himself engaged in various enterprises. has offered to give the ground and water right, rent free, for this purpose.
 But the men who want to engage in small industries such as above described need not consider themselves limited to flour mill ing. There is crying necessity. not only in this section, but all through the State, for woolen mills, and steam threshers, and ma chine shops, and stave factories, and saw mills and steam tanneries-all begun on a small scale and extended to heep pace with the wants of a growing population
 Should reference be made to a map at any time and the accuracy of any of the distan-