Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1885-09-02

az LII IAC idHu 1tS copper mines art ny
far the largest and most profitable on the
surface of the globe. These statements
partially explain the development that has
made the last four years notable period
In Michigan history. The lumber busi-
ness, which began to assume large proper
tions before the year 1850, is yet the lead
ing industry in the Northern part of the
State. In the vicinity of Bay City, the
centre of the trade, and throughout the
Lower Peninsula generally, the forests will
be exhausted in about fifteen years, but in
the Upper Peninsula, where numbering
operations were recently begun, the guam
tity of standing lumber will probably keep
the mills running regularly during the
next forty years. The business is conduct
ed upon an extensive scale. During winter
all the mills are closed, and the workmen,
living for tile time in lumber-camps, are
engaged in cutting logs, and in transport
ing them with horses and sleds to the banks
of neighboring lakes and rivers. When
the ice breaks up in the spring the logs are
tloated and towed to the mills, which are
kept running, in some places both night
and day, from May until November. The
Chicago LAUNDERING Company, of bianis-
tique saw 10000 900 feet each season. and
a single mill in Cheboygan has repeatedly
U
hours. 1t is not uncommon for lumber
company to possess, as the property repre-
senting total capital of about 81, 900, 900,
timber lands to the amount of 10000
acres, two or three saw-mills, $50 horses,
several farms, large general store, five or
six vessels, and all the real estate in mill
village containing 100 houses and 600 in
habitants. Almost every town North of
the city of Saginaw is engaged in the lum-
ber industry, and there are number of
establishments that employ each over 500
men. Two-thirds of the lumber sawed is
valuable white pine, for some of which
the mill-owners receive from $50 to $40 per
1000 feet, while the remaining one-third is
Norway pine, the red smooth -baiked vari
ETY. common in lower Augusta and in Rock
ingham. Toward utilizing the hardwood
forests, practically nothing has yet been
done beyond fuel-cutting and charcoal
burning, but within the near future the
great tracts of excellent maple and birch
will give rise to extensive manufactures.
Although the Lake Superior copper
mines situated in the north western part of
the Upper Peninsular, were first opened
many years ago, the last two decades have
been the period of their greatest produc-
tiveness. Unlike the average Pacific gold
or silver mine, they have proven bonanza
indeed, the present rate of their dividends
being about twenty per cent. per annum.
Shares with par value of $25 ordinarily
sell in the stock market for $240. The
iron mines are situated in the interior, 100
miles northwest of Lake Michigan. In one
of them over 1900 men are employed,
and several of them are fitted out with the
most powerful and costly mining machine
rv hot hos at toJ
the ore is smelted at the charcoal furnaces
in the vicinity of the mines, but the larger
portion of it is shipped by way of the lakes
to Ohio and Pennsylvania. The fishing in
dustry is carried on at every port of any i'm
portance. The varieties caught are white
fish and lake trout, both of which have
flesh of the first quality. They are packed
in ice and shipped fresh to Detroit, Mil
waukee, and Chicago. An average of
about twenty tons per week is shipped from
each port connected with the business.
Agriculture, though now in its infancy,
will eventually become the principal pur-
suit. The crops that can mature in a short
season yield at an extraordinary rate
Wheat produces upon an average twenty
five bushels per acre, and often under IA
vorable circumstances it yields forty bush.
els. Barley, rye, grass, potatoes, Canada
field-peas, and root crops are grown with
corresponding results.
Among the people of this section many
nations are represented. Generally, the
capitalists are Americans, the mill laborers
are Scandinavians, Poles, and Germans,
the fishermen are half-breed French Cana
dians, while in the class of merchants and
mechanics Irishmen and English Canadi-
ans, apparently predominate. The Ameri-
cans, the English Canadians, and some of
the Scandinavians are Republicans; all the
others are Democrats. Though the latter
control most of the cities and towns the
former have majority in the Upper Pc
ninsula taken as a whole. Marquette,
Houghton, and Calumet, all located in the
copper district, have each a population of
about 10, 900, and are the largest cities in
northern Michigan. st. Ignace, on the
Straits of Mackinac, and Sault Ste. Marie,
at the great rapids in the river that connects
Lakes Superior and Huron, are the oldest
towns in the State. Mackinac Island, near
st. Ignace, and Petoskey, on the East shore
OF Lake Michigan, are well-known Summer
resorts, each having in its vicinity good
trout streams and large number of deer
and bears.
After reviewing the history, features, re-
sources, and prospects of any particular re-
giOn, it is quite natural for one, often un-
consciously, to draw comparison between
it and some other State or district with
which at a previous time he has had init
mate relations. In this case, northern
Michigan and the Valley of Virginia stand
forth side by side in the writer's imagina-
tions. To predict, as fa1-seeing men do,
that the former will ultimately equal the
southern counties of the same State, is to
expect for the future the highest possible
glory. What will be the spring of such a
great development? Will it be the mines,
the timber, or the fisheries? Those who
make the prediction base it mainly upon
one resource: they consider the soil in
which the naples and elms grow straight
and tall. From the opinions expressed in
the agricultural conventions and farmers
meetings held not long ago, it is evident
that the people of the Valley of Virginia
also have sound notions regarding industri-
al prosperity. Agriculture alone will of
course not secure complete development,
but a large preponderance of manufactur-
ing or of mining is apt to bring about an
abnormal state of affairs. Under the pres
ent organization of industries, it seems that
centres of these two great sources of wealth
are necessarily connected with long series
VI WOAhAhS AOuAoS INV WdSco3 WduG, VlCc3
and crime; that many manufactures or
many mines make a town the dwelling
place of misery. Fortunately, however, a
happy medium is attainable. The most
prosperous, the most substantial, the most
enlightened communities in the world are
the counties Of central New York and sim
liar districts in other States. They have
what approaches perfect industrial sys-
tem-both agriculture and manufacturing
in a proper proportion. ogive the Valley
and the Piedmont section a corresponding
system is a work for which all circum-
stances are now favorable, and the achieve
ment of such result by the present gener-
alton will go far toward restoring to the
Old Dominion the lofty position she once
held among the stars of Columbia.
G. L. B.
Keep sweet your breath-if maid or wife,
Or old or young, or large or small.
II you have any hope in life,-
If you have any friends at all.
Keep sweet your breath-and heed the warm
ing,