This gives a result rather more than dou- imported for the same years, the result will ble for 1850, what was consumed in 1840. be as follows: If, now, we take the weight of iron articles IMPORT OF CERTAIN IRON ARTICLES INTO THE UNITED STATES BY WEIGHT. This gives an immense increase-nearly all of which is railroad bars and boiler plates, contributing to locomotion. If we embrace these figures in the make and importation, the consumption will be as follows: SUPPLY OF CAST AND WROUGHT IRON IN THE Make of cast-iron. 1840. 1850. ..tons 286,903.... 564,755 .75,351.. .366,640 hardware, which have struggled manfully against English competition, driving out nearly all the leading articles formerly imported, although they have had to pay such exorbitant prices for the raw material, as compared with the English manufacturers. The manufacturers of iron paid last year three and a quarter million dollars tax on the raw material they used; notwithstanding which, the shelves of our hardware stores show constantly increasing proportions of .tons 367,769....1,006,069 wood screws, butt hinges, scales, etc., the American goods. In very many cases, as in The weight of nails and domestic iron ar- American articles are much superior in ticles exported is about 5,000 tons, and with quality, and cheaper in price, than the Engthe foreign re-exported, leaves the consump-lish articles, consequently the importation tion of iron in the United States at about has gradually ceased. The importation and 1,000,000 tons, nearly the whole of which cost of iron has been as follows for several is the raw material, for manufactures and years: wrought iron... Supply........ Year BARS-ROLLED IRON. Quantity Av.cost 66 66 5,515.. 74,874 75,351.... 366,640 Tons Value per ton 1843*..15757 $511282 $33 50...6254. $327550. $52 37.... .3873.. $48251. $12 46...1202 $134206. $111 70 1844...37891..1065582..28 12..11822...583065...49 32...14944...200522...13 42...2010..152771. .-6.00 1845... 51188.1691748..33 05..18176...872157...47 99...27510...506291...18 40...5344..409528...190 00 1846...24188..1127418..46 76. 21328..1165429...54 65...24187...489573...20 24...4508..481828... 106 80 1846+ 8098. .434316.53 63..10413. .588322...56 50....4478.. .82398...18 40....641...70660...109 90 1847:..32085.1695173..52 83...1998...266386...53 30..23477...472088...20 11...5345..399042. 74 0 1848... 81589..3679598.45 10..20156...975214...48 38...51632...815415...15 79...9730..729955. 75.00 1849.. 173457..6060068..34 93..10598...525770...49 61..105632..1405613...13 30..11500..543256. 47 35 1850.. 247951..7397166. 29 83..14706...744735...50 64.74874...950660...12 69..15150 835995....53 19 1851.. 251301..7324283..28 80..20198...900026...44 50...67248...787524...11 71..21520..960802....44 € Nine months to June 30. † Seven months to Nov. 30. Jan. 7. Thus the raw material purchased for the ing that Swedish steel-iron was essential to employment of 36,846 men cost $20,044 464, the manufacture of British steel, reduced the and pays about $5,000,000 tax to those who duty from $30 per ton in 1825, making it free employ 20,448 men. In consequence of this in 1845. France charged $84 per ton duty tax, the manufacturers of iron require 30 per on that steel iron, until a commission discovcent protection, against imported articles, ered that, in order to make steel in France, on the $41,855,229 of iron articles that they it was necessary to have Swedish steel-iron, produce, and which, in the state to which aud it is made free of duty. With us the iron they have brought it, becomes the raw ma- manufacturers are very slow of discovering terial for cutlery, plow. machine, factory, that, in order to make their wares as cheap locomotive, rail-road, steamboat, house and as the English, they should have raw mateship builders, and tool makers, and every rial ou as favorable terms. The above table employment of life-all these persons have to shows what an immense development the contend against the importation of the arti-use of iron has undergone as the prices here cles they make, and they do so with this heavy load upon their backs for the raw material. Where there are 20,000 men employed making pig iron, there are 36,846 men who purchase it, and advance it to a state which employ about 30,000 men, iu hardware and iron industry: that is to say, the industry of over 66,000 men is heavily clogged, in order that the employers of 20,000 men may make inordinate profits. England, and even France in some cases, have seen the wisdom of placing raw mate rials, to the best advantage, at the disposal of industry. Thus the British government, see declined, but even at the present rates the difference in favor of the English mauufacturer is as follows: YORK. PRICE OF IRON PER TON IN LIVERPOOL AND NEW- $8.25 $14.50 $43 60 Hoop $31 70 67 20 Excess in $35 50 N.-York, development which the internal trade has We may now glance for a moment at the reached, as indicated by the returns of the Ohio public works. POUNDS OF IRON AND NAILS CLEARED ON THE OHIO AND MIAMI CANALS. One hundred and fifty bushels charcoal, 5c....$7 5 level; in others not so much so; in others Two tons ore, $1 75 Flux... Labor Interest and repairs. Product 2,000 tons per annum.... 35 ...0 25 200 .3 00 -$16 25 again, hilly, but moderately-and in such places there is most water. The levels are not like a carpet, but interspersed with small risings and declivities which form a beautiful prospect. The soil is of a loose, deep and To get the imported iron to the Constantia black mould, without sand, in the first-rate furnace would cost $2 more, making $7 in lands about two or three feet deep, and exfavor of the domestic manufacture-and it ceedingly luxuriant in all its productions. The will be observed that this is charcoal iron, country in general may be considered as well which is more expensive than coal iron. In timbered, producing large trees of many Pennsylvania, where all the materials for iron kinds and to be exceeded by no country in are favorably situated, an extensive furnace variety. Those which are peculiar to Kenowner states it can be delivered in Philadel-tucky, are the sugar-tree, which grows in all phia at $15 per ton. In Poughkeepsie, NewYork, the same iron will cost $19 per ton, because the materials are brought to the fur nace from a distance. If a duty is graduated to the wants of a disadvantageously situated furnace, great injustice is done to consumers in order to sustain a blundering projector, and those more skilfully located reap inordinate profits. The shipping interest suffers materially from this course of legislation. A ship of 500 tons will require 20 tons of ironwork, 10 tons cables, 2 tons anchors, say 32 tons. The tonnage built in the Union last year, 298,203, would require in round numbers 20,000 tons of iron, which cost at least $600,000 more than it would have cost English shipping.-U. S. Economist. parts, and furnishes every family with great plenty of excellent sugar. The honey-locust is curiously surrounded with large thorny spikes, bearing long and broad pods in the form of peas, has a sweet taste and makes excellent beer. The coffee-tree greatly resembles the black-oak, grows large and also bears a pod in which is inclosed coffee. The pawpaw tree does not grow to a great size, is a soft wood, bears a fine fruit, much like a cucumber in shape and size, and tastes sweet. The fine cane, on which the cattle feed and grow fat, in general grows from three to twelve feet high, of a hard substance, with joints at eight or ten inches distance along the stalk, from which proceed leaves resembling the willow. There are many canebrakes so thick and tall that it is difficult to pass through them. Where no cane grows there is an abundance of wild rye, clover and buffalograss, covering vast tracts of country, and affording excellent pasture for cattle. The fields are covered with an abundance of wild herbage not common to other countries. Here are seen the finest crown imperial in the world, the cardinal flower, so much extolled for its scarlet color, and all the year, excepting the winter months, the plains and valleys are adorned with a variety of flowers of the most admirable beauty. Here is also found the tulip-bearing laurel tree, or magnolia, which is very fragrant and continues to blossom and seed for several months together. The reader, by casting his eye upon the map, and viewing round the heads of Licking from the Ohio, and round the heads of Kentucky, Dick's River, and down Green River to the Ohio, may view, in that great compass of above one hundred miles square, the most extraordinary country on which the sun has ever shone."* KENTUCKY · DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY; EARLY HISTORY AND MANNERS; SCHEMES FOR SEPARATION FROM VIRGINIA AND FROM THE UNION; MR. BURR, WILKINSON, &C.; CAUSES OF WESTERN EXCITEMENT; POPULATION AND PRODUCTS OF KENTUCKY; AGRICULTURE OF KENTUCKY; DANIEL BOONE; MINERAL SPRINGS OF KENTUCKY; THE MAMMOTH CAVE; LEXINGTON, FRANKFORT, MAYSVILLE, LOUISVILLE; INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS; EDUCATION AND SLAVERY IN KENTUCKY.-The fame of "Old Kentucky," whose hardy hunters and warriors have been celebrated so much in national patriotic songs and legends, from the time when George Rogers Clark made his descent upon the savage tribes of the Wabash to that which saw, in all his "martial pomp," "John Bull" in the low and murky places" of Louisiana, is not likely soon to be lost among the generations that are now passing upon the board. If the romance of hunter and border life has given way to civilization, scattered log huts and villages to mansions In the geology of Kentucky the blue limeand crowded cities, dense forests to culti-stone occupies a conspicuous place. It forms vated fields, Daniel Boone to Henry Claystill is Kentucky famed for her hardy independence and fearless intrepidity, for her stalwart men and her handsome women, for her fruitful soil, her benign climate and the general and uninterrupted prosperity of her people. 66 The country is in some parts nearly the surface rock in a large part of the state, and is used for building purposes. Among the cliffs of the Kentucky River, is found an excellent marble, capable of fine polish. The cliff limestone is the base of the Ohio falls * "Filson's Kentucky" in a supplement to "Imlay's," 1784; see Collins. they rushed to seize them with a rapacity stronger than the fear of death." In the early manners of the settlers of Kentucky, there is much that will interest our readers. We have, on another occasion, referred to the peculiarities of border life in the Great West, and shall only add now to what we have already written-basing ourself upon the authority of "Doddridge's Notes." at Louisville. The slate, or shale, is very common, bituminous, and supports combustion and contains iron pyrites and ores, giving rise to mineral springs. The sand, or freestone, extends from Danville to Louisville, etc., is used for purposes of art and even the construction of grindstones. The cavernous limestone, as its name imports, gives rise to many caves, the most famous of which, the Mammoth, we shall hereafter describe. The conglomerate or pudding stone, The Kentuckian was altogether self-deconsists of quartz pebbles, rounded, and pendent, being excluded from intercourse united with fine sand by a kind of natural with his Eastern neighbors. His table furcement. It underlies the coal formation.niture was of wood, but never larder furnishThe coal beds of Kentucky are known as ed better meats and butter, or stimulated those of the Ohio and Illinois. They cover keener appetite. With his guest he freely ten or twelve thousand square miles. The divided. He wore a hunting shirt-somecoal is very accessible, but very little is mined, times of skins-and a wallet for his pronot perhaps, annually, more than 4 or 5,000,- vender and amunition. The tomahawk and 000 bushels. Iron is equally abundant in scalping-knife adorned his belt. A fur cap, the state, but mostly neglected. It is com-leggins and deer-skin moccasins, completed manded by navigable streams and must pro-his costume. His residence was a log cabin duce future wealth. An estimate of the quantity embraced has been fixed at 38,000,000 tons, "a quantity sufficient to supply a ton of iron annually to every individual in the United States, estimating them at 15,000,000, for 2,560 years." Small quantities of lead are traced in Kentucky. Salt springs abound in the sandstone formation, and a million bushels of salt is annually worked. Saltpetre and plaster of Paris are found in the caves. The mineral springs are numerous, embracing sulphur, blue lick, epsom, chalybeate, etc. The most fruitful soil of the state is that of the blue limestone formation -the country about Lexington and toward the Ohio is said to be the garden of the state. It was not until the middle of the eighteenth century, that the Saxon foot-print was traced in Kentucky. The state was one great hunting-ground and battle-field for the savages of the North and the South. Among the earliest American explorers were Boone and Knox, and these, after incredible perils, returned to Virginia and Carolina, spreading everywhere the fame of the back-woods. Then came Thomas Bullitt, James Harrod and Richard Henderson. The foundation of Boonesboro' was laid by Daniel himself, who had brought to the banks of the Kentucky the first white women-his wife and daughters. Kenton, Calloway and Logan arrived. Kentucky was now made a County of Virginia, and, in 1777, the first court was held at Harrodsburg. We pass over the bloody strife with the Indian tribes, the invasion from Canada, of Du Quesne, the expedition of Clark against Vincennes, the perils and the heroism of the Kentuckians, during all of which adventurers were still crowding to their midst. "The rich lands of Kentucky," says a chronicle, "were the prize of the first occupants, and without floors, defended by walls, stockades and block-houses, from the fierce savages. He married young and needed no fortune but his unerring rifle. His wedding was an epoch in the settlement. The ladies flaunted in their linsey petticoats, brogans and buckskin gloves. The marriage procession was unique. The whisky bottle performed its important part. The ceremony being performed, dinner followed, and then the dance, reels and jigs, until morning. "About nine or ten o'clock, a deputation of young ladies stole off the bride and put her to bed. This done, a deputation of young men, in like manner, stole off the groom and placed him snugly by the side of his bride. The dance still continued, and if seats happened to be scarce, every young man, when not engaged in the dance, was obliged to offer his lap as a seat for one of the girls, and the offer was sure to be accepted. In the midst of this hilarity, the bride and groom were not forgotten. Pretty late in the night some one would remind the company, that the new couple must stand in need of some refreshments; black betty,' which was the name of the bottle, was called for and sent up stairs, but often 'black betty' did not go alone. Sometimes as much bread, beef, pork and cabbage, were sent along with her, as would afford a good meal for half a dozen hungry men. The young couple were compelled to eat and drink more or less of whatever was offered them." Soon the whole neighborhood unite in building for the happy pair the needful log cabin; and thus, as log cabin after log cabin appeared, began the peopling of Kentucky. A race of hunters and yeomen and freemen sprung from that early stock, whose epitha * See Vol. IV., Com. Rev., Art. "Great West." A sixth and seventh Convention met at Danville. A separation, by violent means, from Virginia, was proposed. Wilkinson of the Mississippi, for which the Convention tendered unanimous thanks. Constitutional measures prevailed, and an address by Wilkinson was voted to Congress. An eighth and a ninth Convention assembled, and on the 4th of February, 1791, Kentucky was admitted into the Union. lamium was sung by wild forests, and whose | Orleans, where he had been on a mercantile morning slumbers were cheered by the melo-adventure, with intelligence that he had sedy of nature's choristers. I cured the right of landing, selling and deA review of the political history of Ken- positing tobacco there. He proposed to tucky presents but few prominent land- purchase all the tobacco, and gave out that marks. The war of the Revolution closed, Kentucky might command the trade of the but left the Kentuckians in constant fear of river and of the South West, if she would an Indian invasion. The citizens assembled be true to herself and her position. Then at Danville, which became afterward famous were party politics at their height, and the for Conventions west of the mountains, soon risks to the Union imminent. discovered they were without the means of defence, and that a government at Richmond was too far off to be relied upon. Two other Conventions at Danville recommended read a manuscript essay upon the navigation a peaceable and constitutional separation from Virginia. The third Convention sent a petition to Richmond, and, in 1786, an act was passed complying with the wishes of Kentucky. This act made some unfortunate provisions which caused great delays, as well as danger to the country. The Kentuckians looked upon the old federal government with great distrust, as being too weak to defend them from the Indians; and it was notorious, that the New-England states, entirely at peace themselves, were desirous, for commercial considerations, to yield up the navigation of the Mississippi for twenty years, to Spain. Congress, from the fear of a standing army, would send no men to protect the frontier from savage warfare. Virginia could give no relief. Can it be wondered, then, that there was a deep feeling in Kentucky of self-defence, which sought a separation by any means, from such a federation, and entire independence? Indian wars continued frequent on the frontier, and complaints of the inefficiency of the federal government was again heard. The whiskey tax, too, became oppressive. The American policy toward the republicans of France was denounced in every cabin west of the mountains. Enthusiasm was at its height, and the agents of the mad minister Genet were received in triumph in the West. It was proposed to raise an army in Kentucky, to descend upon New-Orleans. The people were rife for the movement. "Democratic clubs " were extending everywhere. Even the Governor could write to the Secretary of State: "I shall feel but little inclination in A fourth Convention at Danville was at- restraining or punishing my fellow-citizens, tended with no better result than the three etc., to gratify or remove the fears of a minis others, and Virginia had prolonged the time ter of a prince who openly withholds from two years when Kentucky might be inde- us an invaluable right, and who secretly in pendent. To add to the ill-feeling occasion-stigates against us a savage and cruel eniny." ed by this, it was announced that John Jay was actually ceding the navigation of the river. Then were formed committees of correspondence, and the name of Jay was every where odious in the West. A fifth Convention met, and on petition, a delegate to Congress was allowed by Virginia; but the Constitution of the United States having been adopted, Congress turned over to the new government all action upon the claims of Kentucky. The whole state was again in a ferment, and, at this early period, the refusal of Congress was at tributed, by able minds, to the jealousy of New-England of any increase of southern power. This jealousy was expected to continue under the new government. The old idea of independence was mooted again, but the storm passed over. and which included the period of negotiation In the ten or twelve years which succeeded, for the navigation of the Mississippi, and then destined again to be agitated to her very for the purchase of Louisiana, Kentucky was centre. United States a deposit at New-Orleans for The treaty of 1795 with Spain, gave to the merchandise, and the freedom of the river. Pending negotiations, the Governor of Loui siana had approached some leading citizens of Kentucky, with the view of a different treaty ; but the matter was checked in its buds the action at Washington. Judge Sebastian, it is said. was willing to go on, believing the reg lar treaty would not be ratified, or bring, as is most probable, in the interests of Spain. Taking advantage of such a state of things in the West, Spain proposed clandestinely The faithlessness of the Spaniards was soon through her minister, peculiar commercial evident. An agent again appeared in Kenfavors and facilities to Kentucky, if she tucky with the offer of artillery, small arms would erect herself into an independent gov- and munitions of war, money in large qu ernment. At the very moment of the pro- tities, etc., if inflammable documents were cirposal, Cen. Wilkinson returned from New-culated calling for a separation of the Union |