The following may be considered a fair statement of the cost of
producing one ton of pig iron at the Pioneer Iron Co.'s works:

1-1/2 tons iron ore, at $1.50 per ton $2 50
125 bushels charcoal at 7 cents per bushel 8 75
Fluxing 50
Labor 2 50
Incidental expenses 1 00
------
Cost at the works 15 00
Freight on R. R. and dockage 1 37
------
Cost on board vessel $16 36

The quantity of wood required for charcoal for both furnaces, is
immense. The pioneer furnace requires 2,500 bushels of coal in
twenty-four hours; and in blast as they are, day and night, for six
months, and at a yield of forty bushels of coal to a cord of wood, it
would require 15,000 cords of wood to keep them going. The company has
had 120,000 cords chopped this season. This vast consumption of wood
will soon cause the country to be completely stripped of its timber.
Coal will then come into use. The business of manufacturing pig iron
may be extended indefinitely, as the material is without limit, and
the demand, thus far, leaving nothing on hand.

These facts exhibit the untold wealth of Michigan in iron alone, and
point with certainty to an extent of business that will add millions
to our invested capital, dot our State with iron manufactories of all
kinds, and furnish regular employment to tens of thousands of our
citizens, while our raw material and our wares shall be found in all
the principal markets of the world.

The superior fish, found in such profusion in our noble lakes and
rivers, while they afford a highly-prized luxury for immediate
consumption, from one of our leading articles of export, and are very
justly regarded as constituting one of our greatest interests.

It is estimated by men of intelligence that the value of our yearly
catch of fish is greater than that of all taken in fresh waters in the
thirty-two remaining States of the Union. This may at first blush seem
like a broad assertion, but it is no doubt strictly within bounds. If
the claim be not too much of the nature of a truism, we may add that
so far as quality is concerned the superiority of our finny tribes is
even more strongly marked than in regard to quantity. In the sluggish
streams that abound in "t