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pg 023: First annual report of the Geological and Agricultural Survey of Texas Publication 36807936.

 
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23

and more, prove unmistakably that it would be better and more economical for the State, if the iron, needed by railroads and by the people, were made in Texas.

The patent puddling apparatus, which is expected to revolutionize iron manufacture, being an immense saving in cost, has recently been introduced into the Rockdale Iron Works, which are 70 miles north of Chattanooga, at Rockdale, 'Penn. Iron is now being made at less expense than in any other part of America.

It is said that rails for railroads can be made at Rockdale and sent to Pittsburg at less cost than they can be made at Pittsburg. The ore at Rockdale is said to cost $2 per ton at the furnace, coal only about the same, and limestone 80 cents.

The iron ores of Pennsylvania yield from 30 to 60 per cent. of metallic iron; the most of those manufactured (rive less than 50 per cent. The cost of the ores at the furnaces is reported to be from $3.50 to $4.50 per ton. Yet iron is made at large profits in Pennsylvania, which State, about twenty-five years ago, was loaded with debt and her people taxed heavily; but now her railroads, her iron and coal give an income sufficient to defray -the expenses of the State government, and the taxes of the people are little or nothing.

Texas has more and better iron ores than Pennsylvania. She lies plenty of coal, a better climate, a soil equal to any in the world; these and other advantages, rightly managed, will make Texas one of the most prosperous and wealthy countries of the world.

COAL OF THE TERTIARY.

-- BASTROP COUNTY.

On Cedar creek, three or four miles from the town of Bastrop, on the west side of the Colorado river, are some large beds of brown coal; on land belonging to Mr. P. H. Jones, in the north-west corner of the Rosseau survey, is the following section, taken by the writer in 1860:

DESCENDING. 1. Yellowish sandy loan 10 feet. 2. White and yellow sand rock, varying in hardness- 7 3. Brown coal bed 8-10 to the bottom of the stream, and base of the coal not seen.

 

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