It has been the practice of many writers on political economy to regard pig iron as representing aggregated labor more than almost any other industrial product; a view which is probably correct, although superficial thinkers might be led by such a statement to overlook the importance of certain natural advantages essential to the profitable production of this most valuable material. These advantages are the existence of ore of the right quality, fuel, and limestone, so situated that they can be brought together at little cost. Pittsburgh lies in the center of enormous beds of coal, of which her extensive iron works consume much, and waste a great deal. Limestone can be quarried and plac. d at the mouths of her furnaces, at small cost, but a large proportion of the ore used is brought from Lake Superior in the crude state. An air-line distance of about six hundred miles, in-increased by the tortuous routes of transportation to an average of, say, a thousand miles. This, notwithstanding the country all about abounds in ores of various qualities, but many of which can only be worked to advantage by the admixture of the Lake Superior ore. If ore could now be discovered at Pittsburgh of precisely the quality brought from Lake Superior, and in an inexhaustible supply, it would largely add to the already immense mineral wealth of that locality. It is also evident that there must be a brilliant future in store for any locality in this country, combining all the advantages named, with open avenues of communication by water or rail to the commercial centers of the United States. Such advantages are claimed for sections in Tennessee, Northern Georgia, and Southern Alabama. A letter from George T. Lewis, Esq., published in the Repasucasn Banner, of Nashville, Tenn., sets forth minutely the natural advantages of these regions, more particularly, however, of the vicinage of Nashville, and on the line of the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad; and it must be confessed that he makes out a good case. • Assuming that the figures given by Mr. Lewis are reliable, the entire cost at which a tun of pig iron can be produced on the line of the above-named railroad, and delivered at Nashville, is $19, or $10'50 less than the same quality of iron can be made at Pittsburgh. The following estimate of the cost of manufacturing, assuming cost of furnace to be $100,000, and its capacity tqjjjjpe 6,000 tuns per annum, is submitted : Mining, loading, and transportation of 2 tuns ore.......$4'00 Mining, loading, and transportation of 80 bushels coal. . 6'40 Quarrying, loading, and transportation of 1,000 pounds limestone....................................... 50 Superintendence, labor, etc., per tun................... 4'00 Wear and tear per tun............................... 50 Interest on investment per tun....................... 1'00 Incidentals per tun......................... . .,........ 50 $16'90 The item $4 per tun embraces employes, viz. : Per annum. 1 Superintendent...........................$3,000 1 furnace manager.......................... 1,200 1 bookkeepeer..............................1,590 1 engineer................................. 1,200 1 assistant engineer......................... 800 1 blacksmith............................... 1,200 1 assistant blacksmith....................... 600 1 founder...................._............. 1,200 4 filers.................................... 2,400 4 keepers...................................2,400 2 guttermen................................ 1,000 2 cindermeJ)................................ . 1,000 2 weighers................................. 1,000 6 yardmen............................'..... 3,000 Extra labor......................_.......... 2,500 $24,000 Or $4 per tun. The great advantage claimed by Mr. Lewis is the quality 'of the ores (hematite and fossil ores) while the coals he affirms show by analysis seventy per cent of carbon with less earthy matter and sulphur than the bituminous or “furnace coals” of Wales, Newcastle, Western Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and the limestone is of a quality unsurpassed for use as a flux. By his showing the cost of a tun of pig iron at Steuben-ville, Ohio, from Lake Superior ore is $29. The cost of a tun of pig metal made at Brazil, Northern Indiana (the ores from Iron Mountain and Pilot Knob, Missouri, and Lake Superior) is............$28'45 The cost of a tun of pig metal made at Pittsburgh, the Birmingham of America (ores from Lake Cham-plain and Lake Superior) is...................... 29'50 On the other hand, the cost of a tun of pig metal in Nashville is as follows: Mining, loading, and transportation of 2 tuns ore.......$6'00 Mining, loading, and transportation of 80 bushels coal. . 960 Quarrying, loading, and transportation of 1,000 pounds limestone....................................... 1'00 Superintendence, labor, etc., per tun................... 4'00 Interest on investment per tun....................... 1'00 Wear and tear per tun............................... 50 Incidentals.......................................... 50 Total........................................$22'60 These statements.are certainly worthy of serious attention. The mineral wealth of this region has long been known, in a vague and general way, but we have not before met with so specific a statement as the one under review. Doubtless there are many iron masters in the country who have data to test the correctness of the figures given ; but should some errors be found the margin of difference is so l.-ge that some radical miscalculation could only account for it, if the advantages claimed do not fully cover it. Granted that the statements are reliable, and it follows that the future has large things in store for Nashville, capitalists are not blind, and the iron masters of this country are inferior in sagacity to no other class of manufacturers.