Part 8

The iron industry, as a whole, is on a very permanent foundation. Manufacturers are hurrying to complete new works; lumber manufacturers, especially throughout the South, are stimulated to the greatest exertion by two new causes: First, a strong demand throughout the North for the superior lumber-mill products of the South; and second, a wonderful expansion of local demand in the South arising from the new industries there. The makers of nearly all kinds of machinery are busy with new work, fully one-half of which is for delivery in the new Southern or Western States. The manufacturers of steam-pumps, the manufacturers of appliances for new fuel-gas processes, the builders of heavy machinery for steam and electrical purposes, the manufacturers of hoisting-machinery and of machinery for mining purposes, as well as of machinery for general shop-use, have been booking more business since the 1st of October than their present shop-capacity will allow them to execute. Consequently, a general system of enlargement is in progress. Contracts have been lately given out for the construction of machinery to make machines of larger than usual dimensions. Our industries are being reorganized, and instead of engines of five, ten or fifty horse-power, engines of fifty to five hundred horse-power are now common. Agricultural operations are conducted by the aid of machinery upon a larger scale, and within the past six months a score or more of establishments for the manufacture of agricultural implements have been equipped with machinery, and facilities in the Western States, that indicate more clearly than anything else can do the magnitude and scope of our agricultural interests. Last year the rolling stock of the railroads was increased by some 54,000 freight cars, but it is probable that the additional orders this year will reach 100,000. The managers of several of the Western railroad systems have decided to erect repair-shops along their various systems, by which repair work and new work can be more expeditiously and economically done. The springing up of so many little industries along these new lines is creating local markets for farm-products. Last year the opening of coal mines, to the number of about sixty, promises a sufficient supply of coal to these new communities at a low cost. These encouragements are stimulating the outflow of population from the older States, and it is this outflow, coupled with the better conditions for living in the West through the development of industries, that is equalizing in such a healthy and natural way the great manufacturing and agricultural forces. By this growth of little industries, mechanical, mining and railroad, the decline in the value of farm-products is checked, or possibly altogether prevented; or, at least, the demand arising from this cause enables the farmer to obtain the very best possible price for what he has to sell. It is not out of place, at the opening of the year, to briefly direct attention to these forces acting beneath the surface. The manufacturer and merchant have nothing to fear from hidden destructive agencies. During the past two or three years several threatening commercial evils have arisen only to disappear by a self-correcting agency which seems to develop itself at the right time. The merchants and manufacturers of the New England and Middle States will find, this year, a much more valuable market west of the Mississippi than last year. The increasing demand for all kinds of raw material there during the past few months is a sure indication of the growth of a great market for the shop-products.

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S.J. PARKHILL. & CO., Printers, Boston.

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