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Page: of 424
22
SCIENTIFIC PRESS:
(January 13, 1872.
=
Our Mining Prospects.
The prospects throughout our mining
regions are the hrightest that have heen
seeu since 1864, and the constantly incrensing eonfidence in mining operations 1s.
due to the eontinned yield of paying properties, new diseoveries, and improved faeilities for extracting and working ores. In
Washoe, tho lowest grade ores are now
mado to pay, and in California, gold quartz
yeins, whose gross yield is not more than
from $6 to $8 per ton, are worked to great
profit. Anartiele on the mining review of
the year in the Bulletin says that the past
year, although it has not been distinguished for a large produetion of the preeious metals on this eoast, has, nevertheless, heen generally propitions to the
mining interest; many improvements having been iutrodueed iuto the husiness and
many substantial gains elfeeted, while eapital has come to its aid more freely than
ever before. The amonnt of money invested on aeeount of legitimate mining
has greatly exceeded that of any former
year; these investments having heen made
as a general thing, with sueh eireumspeetion and judgment as must insure for them
favorahle results. To the dronth that
has prevailed, for two sueeessive years,
having been especially stringent during
that justelosed, is due this restrieted yield
of the precious metals; it having been so
severe as to seriously interfere with both
vein and placer mining. Owing to this
cause Many ore etushing mills dependent
on wator power for propnision and even a
eonsiderable number driven hy steam were
obliged to remain idle both in this and
the adjoining State of Nevada, thereby
greatly enrtailing the produet of hoth our
gold and silver hullion.
New Improvements.
Inveution has heen rife during the year,
our mill-men and miners giving hearty encouragement to every proeess or device
promising to seeure asaving of labor or
more eflicient mode of amalgamation. As
a consequence, a great many economizing
agents and a more potent metallurgy has
heen generally introduced, this spirit of
innovation having extended to every line
of improvement and pervaded every hranch
of this industry.
We have had improved sereens, stamps
aud batteries, mill-gearing, pumps and
nozzles; patent drilling maehines,furnaces
and amalgamators, eoneentratorsfor saving
the sulphurets, and new methods for their
ehloriuation, with tramways for the eheap
and speedy transmission of ore from the
mines to the mills, and a great variety of
other inventions for expediting operations
and saving the metals.
Nor in this eagerness for seeuring larger
pecuniary gains have higher considerations heen lost sight of, more efficient
plans have heen adopted for the ventilation of the mines, valnable additione have
been made to the safety eage, and a
meausdiseovered for laying the nitrous
fumes of Giant powder and eimilar exploeives with numerous other heneficent
schemes and agents ealled in, or snggested,
for insuring the health, life and limh of
those omployed in nnderground operations, in all which we pereeive. that our
iiiniug population has heen undergoing a
valuable schooling of late, tending to
qualify them for an enlightened and successful proseeutiou of this great industry
whieh has heen advanced meantime to a
mueh higher plane than it occupied hut a
little while ago.
Future Product of Bullion.
With all these aids and improvements
these reforms effeeted, with so mueh auriferons earth and milling.ore aeeumnlated,
and more than all, with the present prospeet of an abundant water snpply, we may
eafely count upon an immense produetion of bullion for the coming year. Indeed
it is quite likely that the ont-turn of the
precious metals, including the entire seope
ofconuntry west ofthe Rocky Mountains, will
greatly surpass that of any preceding year.
Tn California we shall have as new contributors towards such results a numher of large
hydraulic claims with mueh drift ground,
latety opened and fitted up for operations;
also in this State, several additional cement mille, many new and enlarged qnartz
mills, with similar establishments, besidos
numerous moro efficient roasting furnaces
and new smelting works throughout the
entire mining regions. We shall have the
eapaeious ditches and reservoirs, the improved processes, the aid of eapital and all
the miuor agents and applianeess before
mentioned for activoallies, making sure of
a large and constantly increasing product
of hnllion hereafter. With the advent of
the current year we shall enter upon a
new and better era in our mining history,
the first frnits of which we are already
beginning to reap.
Utilizing the Low Grade Material. .
Some idea may he gained of the im-.
provements lately effeeted in mining on
this eoast from the faet that we are now
everywhere redueing with profit a class of
ores that would not a few years ago have
yielded enough to pay the cost of thelr extraction. In the Washoe district thousands of tons of snoh ores are being milled
annnally with satisfaetory results, not:
withstanding the greater depths froin
which they have now to he lifted; while
the working of the tailings there, that
were before suffered to ruu to waste, eonstitntes at present a large and Juerative
hraneh of husiness; extensive mills having been huilt and other eostly preparations made for that purpose.
In California large fortunes are being
realized hy the reduction of gold bearing .
quartz that affords not more than $8 or $10.
PERSPECTIVE VIEW 0
to the ton; and even mueh money made in
milling roek, where all the conditions are
favorahle, that gives a gross average return not exeeeding $6 or $8 to the ton.
With the powerful nozzles, improved under-eurrents, riffles and other appliances
now in use, auriferous gravel can be
washed that yields only five cents to the
eubie yard; and although it is diffieult to
eee how mueh more ean he aeeomplished
in that diroetion, it is probable that as in
our dead rivers, tahle mountains and deep
gravel beds, as well as in our reeently-diseovered seam diggings, we meet with geologieal wonders and strange modes of deposits, not ‘common, nor, perhaps, at all
encountered elsewhere in the world.
A Cheerful Outlook.
In conelusion we may, after having thus
hriefly surveyed the field, repeat the re
mark made at the ontset, that the past
has been a generally auspicious year for
the mining interest; adding that the ontlook was never more cheerful than now, at
its elose. Purged of its mistakes, aud
‘with eonfidenee restored, the future of
this industry is fnll of encouragement.
With eapital ready to aid legitimato euterprise, and a praetieal education guaranteeing for it safe and profitable employment, we may safely eount on more favorable results than have heretofore generally
attended thie business. What is learned
iu the sehool of adverse experienee is apt
to he learned well—no lessons heing ‘so
franght with wisdom as those of personal
trial, We are now hnilding a euperstrueture on tho hed-rock—rearing up a generF A CHEESE DAIRY.
ation of miners practically trained to the
husiness, and who, heing familiar with all
its mysteries and requirements, will be
fitted to respond to them in an intelligent
and eapahle manner.
Dairying in California.
Sinee no State in the Union, perhaps,
eontains a larger area of land suitahle for
dairying, and certainly none where the
i d a
a
hk
w) Be ad) . lé Ze
ey
ee a
a.
GROUND PLAN.
the past, so every eoming year will hring
with it something gained in the effieieney
and economy of this elass of operations,
therehy giving corrosponding enlargement
to the area of our availahlo mines and
finally earrying this industry into fields now
considered hopeless, or perhaps wholly
unkuown.
Already we are in advanee of all other
gold and silver-hearing countries, both as
regards perfeetion of machinery, efficieney
of proeesses, and novelty of invention.
Our ore crushing apparatns and amalgamating pans have not been surpassed elsewhere; our safety cages are an improvement over all others; the employment of
immense powder blasts for shattering and
hreaking down masses of earth, seem to
have originated with ns, while the hydraulie mode of washing, with its ingenious paraphernalia, not only had its
‘origin in, but seems thus far to have been
eonfined to, California; not to mention a
multitude of miuor hut highly useful and
ingenious contrivanees for whieh our people may justly claim the eredit of invenion.
_ With eo mneh that is new and peculiar
iu the means used for working them, our
mines themselves preseut some features of
novelty. In our gold beaches and hluffs, .
elimate is hetter adapted to the husiness,
than California, it is not a little remarkahle that nearly one-half of all the butter
and cheese we eonsume should he transported to us over the longest railroad in
the world, aud at the highest .rate of
freight anywhere known. Some elaim
that over one-half of the hutter and eheese
eonsumed here is thus imported; hut the
question is not how mneh, hut why any
amount whatever is thus obtained.
Very good dairy land can be had hero
at from $5 to $20 per acre, and convenient
to transportation. Dairy eows cun be
raised and pastured here aseheap or cheaper
than in the Atlantic states, and ean be
kept for less than half the cost there. Labor is very nearly os cheap as at the Hast
and living mneh cheaper. Of eourse nothing need be said with regard to the superiority of the climate of California, where
neither stable feed or shelter is used (although it might be used to advantage). .
Siugular it certainly must appear to visitors here, that with all these advantages .
in onr favor, Eastern dairymen are growiug ~
rich on their cold, hleak, rocky farms, in
making hutter and cheese for the California market; and yet we are told that the
few who have gone into business here,
with intelligenee and energy have made
money at it—prohahly less failnres having
oceurred in that business than in almost
any other whieh could be named. We
might give names and facts and figures;
and at some future time perhaps we may
do so, as there are ahont 1,000 dairies in
the State, averaging from 30 to 300 eows
eaech—a few being mneh larger.
Perhaps the greatest drawback is the
nneertainty of the labor market in this
State, and the disinelination of lahorers
to go out from the great eentres of popnlation to engage in hard work. Quite too
large a proportion of our people are inelined to stiek to the eities and towns to
do head work. Single men are partieularly so inelined, and when the eares
of the family begin to press upon the married man, he is too often foreed to forego
a favorable opportunity to enter npon the
dairy or some other good bnsiness in the
eouutry because his helpmate, eannot endure the isolation of California life in the
country—where the latest style of a Parisian bonnet is never seeu. \Whatwe want
where is a few thousand aetive energetic
yonng meu with small eapital who will
take hold of ‘‘outside” enterprises with an
energy anda will that takes no note of
hard work, dull times or personal isolation; but who will rest perfeetly satisfied with a legitimatoand moderate reward
of industry.
Many of the readers of the Screnriric
Press are loeated in mountainous distriets
where more attention given to dairying
and gardening would add to the eomfort
and eheapness of living, and we think it
not amiss to present in our columns sume
facts ahout California dairyiug, and an illustratiou of
A Cheese Dairy House.
Tho plau here shown eonsists of a huild14% stories high, with a broad spreading
roof of 45° piteh, Whe ground planis 10
feet high hetween joists, and the posts 16
high. An ice house may be placed at one
end (if wished), A wood shed is plaeed
at the other eud.
The huildiug is supposed to be ereeted
near the milking sheds of the farm and iu
eoutiguity to the feeding troughs of the
eows, or the piggery and adapted to the
convenience of feeding.
«Interior Arrangements.
The frout door is protected by a light
poreh, a. TEutering hy a door, b, the main
dairy room, tho ~cheese presses ¢, c, occupying the left end of room, hetween which
u passage leads through a door, /, into the
wood shed, 2, open on all sides, with its
roof resting on four posts set in the ground.
Tho large eheese table, d, stands on the opposite end. Iu the eeuter of the room isa
chimney,e, with a whey and a water boiler
and vats on eaeh side. A flight of stairs,
/, leading into the storage room above is
iu the rear. A door, 6, on the extrome
right, leads into the ice honse, g.
There are four windows to the room,
two on each eide, front and rear. In the
ioft are placed the shelves for storing tho
eheese as soon as snifieiently prepared on
the temporary table below. This loft is
thoroughly ventilated hy windows, and
the heat of the sun npon it ripons the
cheeso rapidly for market. A trap door
through the floors over whieh is hung a
taekle admits the cheeso from helow, or
passes it down when prepared for the market.
The cheese honse should he placed on a
sloping bauk when it is designed to feed
the whey to pigs, and even when it is fed
to eows it is more eonvenient it to pass to
them on a lower level, than to earry it out
in bnekets. It may however, if on level
ground, be diseharged into vats in a eellar
below and pumped out as wanted. A
cellar is eouvenient, indeed almost indispensable, under the eheese dairy, and
water shonld be so noar as to he easily
pumped or drawn into the vats and kettles
used in ruuning up the curd or for washing tho utensils used in the work.
When the milk is kept over night for
the next morning’s curd, temporary tables
may be placed near the ice room to hold
the pans or tubs in whieh it may be set
and the ice nsed to temper the milk to a
proper dogree for raising the cream if the
dairy be of sueh extent as to reqnire larger
accomodation than the plan here suggested a room or two can be added.
Tus Wheeler Expedition has concluded
its scientific exploratious throughout California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona, and
the officors are now in this city en-route to
Washington,