BARTON COAL COMPANY.
The location of this Coal Company is at Barton, in Alleghany County, Maryland, on the waters of the George's Creek, and in the celebrated Frostburg basin. The town of Barton is on the George's Creek Railroad, about four miles above its junction with the Balti more and Ohio Railroad at Piedmont, (see map of the Cumberland Coal Region on page 332.) The mines of this Company are about two miles to the east of the town, and are opened in the face of a mountain, down which the coal is conveyed by a self-acting gravity plane of 1,500 feet in length. From the foot of this plane an excellent T Rail track of 7,400 feet in length leads to the dumping house, on the line of the George's Creek Rail road, at Barton. The mine cars are taken direct from the mines to the head of the plane by horses or mules, and from the bottom of the plane by locomotive power. The capacity of the Barton mines is from 60,000 to 100,000 tons per annum. The planes and outside fixtures are capable of doing a much larger business, and it seems to us that the addition of the adjoining Mt. Clare estate to the coal property of the Barton Company would be most desirable, since it would enable the Com pany to increase their productions largely, and would make their operations perma nent and equal in production and value to the best Cumberland mines. The situation of this property and its availability for mining purposes, particularly in connection with the Barton mines and improvements, cannot fail to strike the observant and practical mining engineer with favorable impressions, as it did us, during our late visit. It would afford an excellent opportunity of opening the mines on the Mt. Clare tract in a systematic and permanent manner, which is more than we can say of any of the mines in the Cumberland Region. Though the coal is mined reason ably cheap, it can be produced at less cost, and much more coal can be obtained from the same area; while permanence, reliability and a constant large production may be secured.
At the Barton mines, the "Big Vein" (Mammoth E) is 14 feet thick, of which 10 feet is nearly a solid body of pure coal, easily mined and productive of a beau tiful cubical coal, mostly lump. No coal can be mined cheaper than the Barton,
and, under ordinary prices for labor, it is estimated that the marketable coal can be put on board the cars for fifty cents per ton on a business of 50,000 tons per annum and upwards.
Figure 222, which we give on next page, is an ideal section of the coal formation across the Frostburg basin, but represents the position of the Mammoth (E) and other coal seams pretty correctly. It will be noticed that the number of seams and their relative position agree closely with the coal-beds of the Anthracite measures.
A reference to our numerous sections, illustrating the Anthracite formations, will demonstrate clearly the identifications of the Frostburg " Big Vein," with the Anthracite Mammoth, or E of our nomenclature. The highest production per capita, per annum, at the Anthracite mines during 1865 was 300 tons, or about one ton to each person employed about the mines for each working day. At the Broad Top mines the production is over 400 tons per annum, and the English production is about 500 tons per capita, per annum. Of the production of the Cum berland mines we have not sufficient date on which to make positive statements, but have sufficient to estimate it at nearly 500 tons per annum.
The great size of the Mammoth—which is larger in the Frostburg basin than any where else, in the bituminous coal fields, when regular and in good condition—and the peculiar formation of its nearly horizontal strata, render it one of the most econom ical beds to mine with which we are familiar. No costly machinery for drainage, hoisting and preparing purposes are required, and the constant attending expenses of deep mines are avoided. There is, however, a great want of system and mining information manifest in all this region, and, while the coal is mined so cheaply, the coal mines are often ruined before half the coal is extracted—otherwise coal may be mined in the Frostburg basin with more economy than anywhere else in this country.