The dredging of Buttermilk Channel toy the United States Gov¬
ernment, which project is under consideration at Washington,
■will be necessary to fully carry out the plans of the company in
making the Brooklyn shore front a rival to Hoboken as a docking
place for big steamships.





Tbe Hudson Realty Co. have purchased from James Brooks
the following property: Six buildings on the northerly side of St.
Johns pl, between Albany and Troy avs, known as No, 1247 to
and including No. 1257 St. Johns pl.   The size of each lot Is 19.2k





130, and the improvement consists of 2-sty and basement brown¬
stone front buildings, size 19.2x53, arranged to be occupied by
two families. They have also purchased from the same party
flve buildings situated on the northerly side of 22d at, between
Oth and 7th avs, each lot being 20x100, improved with 3-aty
brick buijdings, size 20x55, arranged for three families.





L. J. Phillips & Co. will sell at auction Tuesday next the fiat
No. 23 West 114th st. Particulars are given in our advertising
pages, and the auctioneer will supply maps, eto,,at No. 158 Bway,







IVlaterial  Market.

Building construction is active on every hand, and the natural
sequence is increasing demand for material of every description.
Weather prophets have nothing to prognosticate but fine, genial
Spring, with a flood tide of prosperity. Prices are generally
flrm, with inclination towards advance in some materials as
stocks decrease,

IRON AND  STEEL.

Complaints are frequent in the city that iron and structural
steel is exceptionally dilficuit to obtain from the mills. The mills
repor-t that they are sold up to the end of tbe year, and it is
alm.ost impossible to piace orders. Philadelphia reports prices
at stores as follows: Soft steel bars, 2.30c. per lb, basis; best re¬
fined bars. 2,10c.; angles. 2.70g. Many buyers begin to think
that there is no possibility of a famine in pig-iron, and decline
to pay present high prices, preferring to take chances on buying
later in the year. We learn from Pittsburg that the men em¬
ployed at the blast furnaces have made demands for an eight-
hour day instead of twelve hours, to become effective May 1.
some of the larger furnace operators declare they will not agree
to the demand, and trouble is looked for. Demand for foundry
iron is heavy in Pittsburg, also for forge iron and Bessemer. Sales
of billets are not large because the mills cannot spare the steel.
At makers' mill it is selling for $31.00@32.00 in small lots. The
Eastern Bar Iron Association will officially announce April 1st
the price of bar iron for delivery April to July at l.SOc. base,
price. It has been quoted offlcially at $1.70 for some time, al¬
though orders were not accepted for less than l.SOc. base. Many
steel plants in the East have advanced prices recently $2,00 per
ton for steel plates and forms, making the price $35,00 per ton..





John   L,   Arts,   superintendent   of   the  Borden  Iron Works,   of
Troy, N. T,, is stopping at the Fifth Avenue Hotel of this city.





The manganese iron mines upon the Jacob Cramer farm, An-
nandale. N. J., are to be reopened. Prospectors now believe that
the ore will be found in large quantities in the mountain.





The new Talbot open-hearth furnace for the Jones & Laugh-
lins. Ld.. in Pittsburg, will be started on April 15th. Professor
Talbot, the inventor, is the expert chemist of tbe Penroyd steel
works at Philadelphia.





Charles M. Schwab, president of the U. S, Steel Corporation,
refuses to deny or confirm the report that he is responsible for
the bid of $11,000,000 by the Varney syndicate for the control
of the Western Maryland Railroad.





Unless tbe American Bridge Co., at Pencoyd, Pa,, agrees to
pay the 40 cents an hour demanded by the men the 7,000 or
more organized structural iron workers of the United States, of
which there are 1.800 in the Pittsburg district, will go out on
strike. A compromise already offered by the company has been
rejected.





It is said that the new furnace of the Sharon, Pa., Steel Co,
broke the output record recently when 318 tons of pig iron was
turned out against 278 tons, the previous high record, represent¬
ing a turn of only 12 hours! The new skelp mill to be erected by
this company will have a capacity of 600 tons daily, and the
tube mills. 400 tons, requiring 1,000 additional men.





The total shipments of pig and cast-iron pipe from Alabama
and Tennessee,   in February,   were  148.v)19  tons.





The present American Iron and Steel Works, at Worcester,
Mass., are expected to be abandoned shortly for a much larger
plant in  San Francisco.

BRICK.

The opening of navigation on the Hudson conforms well with
the requirements of the brick consumers. The demand is in¬
creasing  day by  day,  and  the fresh  supplies  which are dally





coming  down   the river will  soon  be required,
firm for the time being.





Prices  remain





Manufacturers are generally looking to their machinery and
methods of production with a view as far as possible of improv¬
ing the standard of quality of brick supplied to the New Tork
builders.

We hope they will astonish Britons with the super-jxcellence
of their bricks, now that the advantages of American methods
of laying bricks have been thoroughly demonstrated. The occa-
fion of the bricklaying exhibit was the erection of the British
Westtnghousy Company's plant,  at Manchester, England.





Tbe average British bricklayer, it appears, generally lays about
900 bricks in the usual working hours of fhe day. Under Ameri¬
can management his full capacity was brought out, and hia
average was raised to 1,800 per working day. The published
record of this fact, and its manner of accomplishment, is stig¬
matized by the Manchester "Guardian" as "a damaging indict¬
ment of British trade methods," The quality of American brick
may become another eyeopener.





CLAY AND STONB,
The Cumberland Basin Land Co,,  of Baltimore,  recently pur¬
chased 2,622 acres of land, rich in fire clay and coal, near Mount
Savage, Allegheny County,  for $40,000.    They purpose sub-leas¬
ing the fire clay.





Prof. J. P, Edmonds has discovered, near Scottsboro, Alabama,
a new stone in large quantities. It is claimed to be a bisilicate of
ammonia, and one of its uses will be for the polishing of marble,
glass or metal. Whether it can be used for other purposes we
have   rot  learned.





A certificate of incorporation bas been filed at Augusta, Me,,
for the Clay Product Co., witb a capitalization of $200,000. The
president is Luther C.  Greenieaf,  of Boston.





LUMBER.
Prices are generally firm, and tbe demand is good for all classes
of building lumber. At $16 base hemlock is receiving consider¬
able attention. There are many enquiries for cypress, and priees
are firm. Yellow pine is somewhat quiet, but prices remain un¬
changed. North Carolina pine stocks are reported much re¬
duced, and prices very firm. White pine is in big demand, be¬
cause it is expected to become scarce. Prices, however, remain
firm. Eastern spruce is scarce. Adirondack and Virginia spruce
are in great demand, and advances almost certain. Birch and
ash are in fair demand, while oak and poplar are being well
sought  after at flrm   prices.





Louis Brill and J. A. Fox. of Stevens Point, Wis., have closed
a deal with the Hope Lumber Co., of Hope. Idaho, to take the
company's output of 20,000,000 feet of lumber for the coming
season.





Lumber dealers of Maine have recently suffered losses amount¬
ing to thousands of dollars owing to heavy rains.





Tbe total amount of money involved in recent and prospective
operations for tbe purchase of pine lands in Louisiana. Missia-
sippi and Arkansas, is $2,500,000.





On Tuesday last the flrst vessels of the Chicago lumber fleet
for the season were cleared.                                                      j





PAINTS AND OILS.
There appears to be a much brisker demand among the dealers
than there has been for some time. Tbe activity in tbe building
of new and the repairing and painting of old buildings naturally
bring increased business with the fine weather, and dealers are
jubilant.    Prices, however, remain flrm, but changes in some di-