Philadelphia, October 1876 Paper - The Coal Production of the United States

Though coal has been mined in this country for more than a century, no systematic effort was ever successfully made to ascertain the total amount produced. The production of the Cumberland Basin, Md., and the shipments from the anthracite fields of Pennsylvania, have been placed upon record, thanks to the intelligence and foresight of Mr. C. Slack in the former case, and to the late Mr. B. Bannan in the latter. For some of the years between 1822 and 1842, the production of the Richmond Basin was reported by Mr. R. C. Taylor, but since that date till the author undertook this work it was impossible to obtain any statement of the production of this field. A few of the newer fields, such as that of Mt. Diablo, Cal., have been fully reported, and a few of the newer States have also had this service performed by some intelligent private individuals; but no statistics of coal production have ever been collected either by the State or General Government, if we except the returns for the years 1869—70 of the census report. During the year 1875, by great exertions, I succeeded in obtaining, and July 3d, 1875, gave in the Engineering and Mining Journal what, " though not an accurate statement of our coal production," was " by far the most full and reliable that had ever been published." Though that report showed the production of bituminous coal to be 23,630,094 gross tons, or about six million tons more than had ever before been reported, it was in reality two and a half million tons below the actual output. The more full returns I obtained for 1875 gave many figures for 1874