In this manner the ore of Elba is still manufactured in Catalonia and Tuscany, and there can be little doubt that it is identical with the original rude process, by which the iron of that most ancient of known mines was prepared to be an object of commerce. The processes in these two districts differ from each other in some minute particulars, and are known on the continent of Europe as the processes _à la Catalane_ and _à l'Italienne_. This method is known in the United States by the name of _blooming_. Bloomeries are frequent in the United States, being found in many parts of the primitive country, where the magnetic ore of iron is abundant. The iron manufactured by blooming is, generally speaking, remarkable for its nerve, being strong and tenacious in the highest degree, unless the ore be in fault. It is not, however, homogeneous, being liable to contain what are called pins, or grains that have the hardness and consistence of steel. Blooming is comparatively an expensive process. It requires, indeed, little original capital, but the product in proportion to the capital employed is but small. It is wholly impracticable with poor ores, and demands a great length of time and expenditure of fuel, unless the ore be very fusible. Another objection to it is common to a process we shall hereafter describe, that of refining, and lies in the numerous successive heats, which the small extent of fire, and the slow process of hammering render necessary, before the bar is finished. It has been attempted in New-Jersey to lessen the expense attending these heats, by performing them in reverberatory furnaces. A saving of fuel to a small amount would probably thus be effected, but the number of heats would still remain the same. A more important and useful improvement has superseded the last; the process of rolling, which will be hereafter described, has been introduced, and by means of it a bar may be drawn out at a single heat, and at far less expense of manual labour. Such establishments exist at Dover and Rockaway, New-Jersey, which receive the iron completely reduced from the neighbouring forges, and fashion it into bars. A forge fire, and, consequently, the process of blooming, is insufficient to convert poor ores, or those that contain much earthy matter, into iron. Treated in this way, those ores, if fusible at all, would become a mass of slag, as the earth would require, at the temperature of a forge fire, the whole, or the greater part of the metallic oxide for its fusion.