Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1899-11-14
OUR BANKS OF CLAY /.
What the State engineering Society
Has to Saw of Them


AS rule Iowa soil is good, black
loan, but here and there are spots I'M
fit for cultivation and these spots gen
orally are beds of clay that produce a
great revenue. This gives color to the
theory that Nothing is lost in Iowa
and everything is good" The profess
sor of civil engineering at the state
college of Iowa, at Ames, says that the
value of the clay product of the state
for the past year was something over
$2,000,000, making Iowa eighth in the
| list of clay producing states and there
is no reason why that amount cannot
be qnadrupled making the state first
on the list.
The state engineering society of the
state appointed committee to inves-
!tigate the prospects of the clay indus
try in Iowa. The representatives of the
society met at Ames Agricultural col
lege last June and appointed this com-
mittee whose duty it was to make a
thorough investigation and to submit
detailed reports upon the condition OF
clay in the state. Since that time the
committee has been industriously at
work, and the results of their labors
will be published in special issue of
the state geological survey report and
will be of absorbing interest.
The report will be very encouraging
and will show the possibilities of the
state, which it has been definitely
learned, are much greater than has
been supposed. 1t is very probable
the clay industry of Iowa will receive
mediate and stable upbuilding. The in
vestigatioDs of the committee showed
that the resources exceeded those of
every other state west of the Missis-
sippi river and that the quality of the
clay deposits here would assure, with
the application of energy and capital,
the supply of at least the home de-
mand.
For several years it has been neces-
sary for the state to call upon other
states for its burnt clay products, and
the need of more local factories is now
more keenly felt than ever before. Ev-
cry factory in Iowa is working day
and night, and they have not been
able to supply even the greater part OF
the demand for their products. Yet
the output of this year is SO per cent
more than last years.
There is one department of the work
in Iowa that would be handicapped,
however. The pottery industry will
never be developed unless there is a
discovery of glaze, which is an essen
tial in that line. There is at present
no material which can be utilized for
the purpose, and where glazed products
are put out the polish is secured by
the application of a Slip imported
from the eastern states.
Professor Boyer, geologist of the To-
wa state, college, and identified with
the state geological survey, states that
the principal deposits of clay in Iowa
may be said to be in the Des Moines
river district, the stream bisecting the
clay formations. The strip follows the
river through its entire length and is
about twenty-five or thirty miles wide.
There are, however, many outside
areas, but they are scattering. Yet
many of the latter will be available in
event of an extension of the industry
and are in splendid locations, with but
few exceptions, because of their close
proximity to coal mines.
Ottumwa ranks pretty well among
Iowa cities in respect to having the
necessary coal beds and the best kind
of clay but the pottery industry is not
so well represented as it might be,
owing probably to the lack of glazing
material to be found in this section or
in the state. The decline of the indus
try in the past few years has been
marked, but Ottumwa ingenuity, when
its efforts are thoroughly enlisted in
the matter, will not let so small a
thing as the lack of material with
which to glaze pottery, stand in the
way of the development of an indus
try that can get the raw material so
cheaply. There is much money in OF
tumwa's clay banks for the enterpris-
| ing individual or corporation who will
take the trouble to look for it there.
This is merely suggestion. Outside
capitalists will do well to think of it.