The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 13, 1895, Page 10

®0 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1895. THE WORLD'S GREATEST TREASURE VAULT 1S CALIFOR CALACERVILY <1 7 o s Pa] klderado Lo. eMuitle Licdle Utica 61 Enst Lode. el 5 . o o Amad@nf Co. L TEN MILES OF THE MOTHER LODE, SHOWING LOCATION OF THE PRINCIPAL MINES ON THE 1i controlled by selfish motives, as com- monwealths usually are, California should be solid for the single standard. The demonetization of silver has encouraged a revival of gold mining throughout the world. California should have been first to respond to the opportunity; instead of leading in the race she seems to be still sulking in the rear. When silver shall have been rehabilitated the world will still want gold. If there has ever been a glut of gold since stamped metal became a medium for exchange history has failed to record it. The “‘great discoveries” of the precious metal in Cali- fornia, Australia and Africa but served to quicken the sluggish flow in the arteries of trade and commerce. 1t is unlikely that future discoveries will equal those of the past. Africa, Australia, South America and Alaska still have immense areas. unexplored which may pour untold treasures into the marts of the world, but not in such amounts or with such rapidity as the discoveries of the past. The “earth hunger” of the overcrowded people of Europe has engaged the atten- tion of statesmen and philosophers for many years. The “gold hunger” is a pas- sion equally as strong and is coextensive with mankind. Governments as well as indiviauals want gold. The United States Government is trembling at the depletion of its paltry treasury reserve. It is neglectful and seems indifferent to the specliation of its vital and immeasurable reserve, stored in the great vaults of nature for the use of present and future generations. Probably half the available mineral area of California has been patented to corpora- tions and individuals as ‘‘agricultural lands.” Most of this is “agricultural’”’ in the sense that a few sheep or cattle can maintain a precarious existence on it dur- ing certain seasons of the year. It would support just as many sheep and cattle if it remained ‘“mineral land,” and ten times as many people. Often the title to this land is obtained by false swearing, some- times by ignorant swearing, and always by reason of the vicious laws and careless servants of the United States. The agricultural patent is usually the death knell to mineral development. Prospectors are warned off, prospect holes filled up and plowed over, and with many it seems to be a mania to obliterate all the surface indications of the possible wealth below. I have in mind a thousand acres of land, all mineral by the evidence of beld crop- pings of a dozen quartz ledges, where every gulch paid from one to five ounces to the man, which has been patented as agricultural land. By using sure-footed mules, about one-fourth of its area can be scratched over, and produces a measly e oanum ! 5 ; Calaveras Co. ABOVIE NMAP SEOWS ONIE HUNDRE]:S MIILLES OF THE 4 MOTHER ANGELS CAMP MINING DISTRICT, CALAVERAS COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. This is the first and only complete map of Angels Camp District. Made from the notes of WALTER S. SHANNON, County Surveyor of Calaveras Countv. 1 crop of barley, which can be harvested at | past. The home market—always the best a profit probably one year in three. of the veins within its boundaries pro- duced more gold above the water level than the ranch would pet in a hundred years. The awners regard a prospector crossing their fields much as they would a burglar breaking into their house at night. Thisis a sample of what has been going on in California since ’49, and is still going on. grabbing of mineral lands by the railroad corporations. Tt will tax the patience and energies of all the decent powers of the State combined to wrestle with that problem. The law itself is all wrong—outrageously wrong. It should be radically changed in letter, spirit and enforcement. It is the duty of the Government to explore and define the mineral lands. Theevil already done is incalculable and irremediable, but enough still remains to preserve to Cali- fornia the title of “Golden State.”’ 1f the geological survey of California had thus far been confined to the region of the mother lode—if that great golden belt had been delineated in detail so the ordinary prospector could have studied its *‘dips, spurs and angles,” its ‘formations,” its country rock, its contacts, its horses, dikes, gen- eral characteristics and innumerable variations and metamorphoses, the mining revival which is just now observ- able along its course would have been in- augurated many years ago, thousands of acres saved to the public for exploitation, and millions addea yearly to the gold yield of the State. Long ago the Government should have drawn a great yellow belt twenty miles wide from Mariposa to Plumas and labelea it “mimeral lands.”” It should do so yet. Within its boundaries nothing should be patented until the character of the land had peen openly and publicly determined by experts. This rule should apply to all other mining districts as well. Every year there 1s an over-production of something in California. One year it is oranges, another raisins, another grain or fruit. All depend on a distant and pre- carious market. The expense of trans- portation turns the scale in favor of loss. There has never been an over-production of gold. It has never been dumped into the bay to stiffen the market or save the producer storage. Gold does not spoil on anybody’s hands. Every dollar taken out of the earth is so much added to the per- manent wealth of the country. It pays for more than the labor of the miner. The farmer, the manaufacturer, the merchant, all directly share in its benefits. Develop the gold mines of California to their full productive capacity and the “industrial army” would become a memory of the I will say nothing of the shameful | One | market—would consume all the surplus products of the State. Every industry would feel the invigorating impulse and general prosperity once more return. “To the solid ground of nature trusts the mind that builds for aye.” Nature has made California the great storehouse for gold, the most precious commodity known. The pioneers had but to gather in the har- vest that nature’s forces had been reaping from thousands of hills for thousands of vears. But the storehouse is still intact. Its vaults have not been opened yet. Only the overflow has been gathered up. The ‘“‘treasury reserve” has been encroached upon. The immeasurable reserve is held in a million chambers, reaching from the surface to the molten depths below. The gold of the future must come largely from known sources and from deep work- ings —from quartz veins—its principal primary source. The attention of the world to-day is being directed to the au- riferous quartz veins more largely than ever before in ancient or modern times. More companies are being formed, more capital is being invested, more money spent in exploration and exploitation. All Europe is investing in mining shares. Over 300 companies, capitalized at from $50,000 to $5,000,000 each, are daily quoted in the London market alone. Forty new companies were organized in June, with a combined capital of more than $25,000,000; a larger number with a greater capital the preceding month. The same thing is go- ing on at Paris, at Frankfort, and in u less degree in other Continental cities. But a ripple of this great wave of speculation has reached California. Why is this? Can we offer no inducements that shall attract a moiety of this plethora of gold seeking for more gold? Cannot California com- pete with Buluwayo or Coolgardie? Europeans are prejudiced against Cali- fornia mines. The English especially in many instances have been badly bit and make the loudest ‘‘roar.”” They blame the mines instead of the rascals who inveigled them. But isthe folly of a few investors and the chicanery of a few sharpers to re- main a bar to legitimate enterprise for all time? Even prejudice is hardly so stupid as that. English capital is flowing into the wilds of South Africa and the rainless wastes of Australia by millions every month. Most of it will never return in dividends. It has been stated recently by an eminent English writer that “coincident with the decline of mining in California and on the Pacific Coast is arising a greater California in South Africa that promises to eclipse the old in production and extent.” Such an opinion has absolutely no foundation to rest upon. It is safe to say that for every pound sterling now being invested in African mines a dollar in California would bring as large returns. The gold fields of South Africa, extend over a wide area and the aggregate returns are much greater than those of Californis at the present time; but with a single exception gold mining in South Africa has been more precarious, unremunerative and ais- appointing than in California and the fu- ture holds out no such promise as dces the Golden State. The auriferous alluvial deposits of South Africa have been comparatively insignifi- cant. Big nuggets and rich findg have been frequent, but the diggings have been shal- low and of limited extent. The veins in place; as a rule, have been small, very rich at times, but uncertain and irregular and very expensive to work. From the first discovery of gold at Potchefstrom, in 1854, in the Orange Free State, up to the great “rushes’” to Barberton and Witwatersrand in the Transvaal, the African prospector and miner had to contend with hardships and dangers only equaled by the early California pioneers, and his portion was usually bitter disappointment instead of riches at the end. The history of California affords no parallel to the follies and disas- ters of the Barberton ‘“‘rush.” Africa in the past has never approached the alluvial wealth of California; at the present she has nothing to compare with the fabulous riches of the ancient river channels; her claims to equality in future deep mining have their only foundation in the bed of auriferous conglomerate at Wit- watersrand. A deposit identical in charac- ter and of unknown extent has been found in Siskiyou County. % The *“Rand” conglomerate has been traced about thirty miles. It 1s not con- tinuous or uniform in richness. It has a dip of about forty-five degrees, so that it is practically a deep mining proposition. The ore averages about $5 a ton. Of course, it is free milling. The returns on all the millions invested there are less than two per cent. Put the same millions into deep mining along the mother lode of California and what would be the returns? What are the returns on the other millions pouring into the remote regions of South Africa and Australia, where there is often neither wood, water or roads? It is not designed to belittle or deride the gold fields of South Africa or Australia; both are of great richness and immense ex- tent. But they cannot stand comparison with California as fields for legitimate and permanent investment for a single mo- ment. The expense of transportation is actually prohibitive in some districts as regards machinery, and enormous for all the necessaries of life; water is about as precious as the gold itself, having to be distilled for drinking purposes; timber is wholly lacking, and the pioneers have houses of tin and sheet iron; wood for fuel often ranges from $15 to $20 per cord; labor is ignorant, unskilled and uncertain—and so on the catalogue of disadvantages might be enumerated, the general result being a final cost four or five times greater for mining and milling than in California. The Pacific Coast, outside of California, offers better inducements for mining than Africa or Australia ever can; and the miners of the Pacific Coast are beginning to appreciate the fact that California stands par excellence above them all. “Find me a big mine below the snow belt,” was the message recently received from a Colorado mining millionaire. And that is the sentiment which is bringing back to us the pioneers who spread out from Cali- fornia over the length and breadth of the land, penetrating the desertsand exploring the mountains almost from the Isthmus to the Pole. Thoge who think the crown of gold has been permanently wrested from California have no conception of the magnitude and possibilities of the region of the mother lode. It is the largest and richest gold field in the world to-day. The Rand it- self does not cover one-tenth the area of 1ts gravel banks alone. It is the greatest in extent, the most varied in character, and all the circumstances of location, cli- mate, wood, water, power, facilities for communication and means of transporta- tion favor it above all others. Considering its extent it is not only undeveloped but unprospectea. Itsclimate is one of per- petual spring and summer, the health- iest in California, the sanitarium of the world. It lies at the foot of high mountains covered with timber, always accessible and available at reasonable cost. It is accessible by railroad at many points and by wagon roads everywhere. Living is cheap ana an abundance of skilled labor always at hand. The foundries and ma- ching-shops of San Francisco can supply, on short notice, the best mining machinery in the world. All varieties of rebellious ore can be treated by the most improved methods at the lowest cost. The region is crossed by numerous streams and rivers flowing from the mountains to the plains, making water-power available everywhere, either by direct application or by trans- mission through electric wires. Electricity is going to play an important part in future mining along the mother lode. Big plants will be erected and power conveyed to mines for often one-half or one-third the cost of ditches, flumes or water-pipes, thus reducing still further the cost of development and production. The importance of this new element in mining is well stated by Irving Hale in the Engi- neering Magazine, writing of its success- ful introduction in Colorado: ““It is aconservative statement that there are in Colorado alone hundreds of mines using steam power produced by very ex- pensive fuel thatare sufficiently near to zood water-power to be operated by elec- tricity at a saving that would pay from 40 to 100 per cent per annum on the invest- ment, and it is not a wild prophecy to say that within the next three years scores of such plants, developing thousands of horsepower, will be installed. The effect of such enterprises will be powerfully and widely felt. By decreasing the cost of min- ing and treating ores mines which now pay will pay better, while many proper- ties which on account of low grade ore or sometimes from lack of railroads or fuel supply cannot now be worked withouta loss can be made by means of electric power to yield satisfactory profits. The effect will be to increase the metal output, give employment to more men, build up the mining towns, exert a beneficial reflex influence on the commercial cities, and in general benefit the entire mining districts. Next to the silver question the introduc- tion of electric power is at present the most important factor affecting the develop- ment of the mining industry.” One of the best places in the State- to apply electric power to mining is at Angels Camp. All the conditions for its success- ful introduction there are perfect. The Stanislaus, with its snow-fed and never- failing torrent, is rushing along its nar- row channel but five or six miles away. The intervening country offers no ob- stacles to the laying of electric cables. Unlike the higher altitudes of Colorado, there are no rocky and precipitous canyons nor six months of ice and snow. A hun- dred mines are lying idle that might start into life with cheap and available power. There are millions of tons of low-grade ore “in sight”’ that would pay to mill on a big scale with cheap power. Hoisting, pump- ing, milling, drilling and lighting—almost every operation of mining—could be car- ried on at & minimum cost and with in- creased safety and efficiency with electric power. The Utica disaster would not have occurred if the miners had been using electric lights. Nearly all the great disasters in mines would be avoided by the exclusive use of electricity at the lower levels. By its substitution the danger from fire and gas would be elim- inated. At Angels water for power has been brought fifty miles by ditch and flume and iron pipe, at enormous cost for construc- tion and maintenance and repair. The ditch is owned by the Utica Company. After all their requirements are satisfied they are willing to sell the surplus. The price asked may be fair considering the cost and expense of the system, but it is prohibitive in many csses where the mar- /,\Q & & : Tuolumne rn.oDpDE. RUN UTICA OR EAST, MIDDLE AND WEST LODES OF gin of profit is close. The supply is also uncertain. Mine-owners are reluctant to invest $10,000 or $20,000 in a mill plant depending on a single ditch, when they know that the necessities of the water company may bring them to a standstill at any moment. It is this uncertainty and this fear that has retarded the devel- opment of the mines at Ange!s more than any other cause. What is needed, what is projécted now and what must inevitably soon be brought about, is the creation of a great electric plant on the Stanislaus that shall supply power to all on reason- able terms. Angels Camp is a single district that may be made to illustrate the future possibilities of the mother Jode. Work has’been going on there for forty years, butitis just begin- ning to be prospected. Within a year, from present indications, a single mine there may be producing a million a month, and the district more than the whole of Cali- fornia at the present time. C. C. Lane of the Uticasays they have just discovered that they have a mine. One of the owners said to me, “I would give my interest in the ore reserves, representing at least seven years’ continuous run, for what is out of sight below.”” There are several milesof equal possibilities on the same ledge. There are several parallel ledges just as big, which show as well as the Utica showed on top. There are innumerable spurs and minor ledges between. Is it be- yond the bounds of credibility to say that this district alone may yield as much per annum as all California did in palmy days, when there shall be a hundred prospect holes at Angels as deep as the Utica now is? Look at the map of the mother lode and see what a small place Angels is; and this hundred miles is but a “streak” of the motherlode. The most natural and permanent wealth of California is in her mines. The long- hoped-for revival has begun. The signs of the times indicate it and observation and official returns confirm it. The foundries are hard at work turning out every appa- ratus for mining and milling ores; invent- ors are busy as never before perfecting old methods and devising new ones in me- chanics and metallurgy; the returns of bullion thus far reported, by Wells, Fargo & Co. and at the Mint are 25 per cent greater than last year. Let the good work go on, and let it be encouraged by earnest. practical support. Let the Miners and the Manufacturers’ Association, the Half- million Club, the metropolitan press and all other patriotic and progressive agencies work harmoniously in presenting clearly to capital at home and abroad the safe and Ernfitable opportunities for investment in alifornia mines. In no other way can San Francisco’s half million be so quickly obtained or general and lasting prosverity throughout the State be as certainly as- sured. 2 A. J. BROOKS. NOTE.—In former articles written at Angels Camp maps were given of some of the groups of mines described and the fact was noted that there was no official map of thedistrict, or even of Calaveras County. It was [suggested that the difficulty might be remedied at some future time through the enterprise of Tue CArL. This anticipation is partly realized in the accompanying map of the Angels District, drawn specially for THE CaLr by Walter 8. Shannon, and the first ever published defining the various mining locations on the three principal veins constituting the ‘“mother lode” at Angels. There are numerous ledges and claims not indicated on this map for the reason that they have not been surveyed and their courses indicated and boundaries established. To do this would require a great deal of expensive field work and is hardly in the province of news- paper enterprise. entire county. Good ore has been found at superficial depths the entire distance from the Morgan mine to the Cherokee, and at the present time paying mines are being worked on all these ledges, which are uniformly improving in size and richness as depth is attained. drawn by J. D. Haines in 1883 and will be specially interesting at this time as snowing the principal fields of activity on the mother lode and the illimitable scope for future operations. whole mother lode region from Mariposa to Plumas counties, *‘the greatest gold field in the world to-day.” _— However, THE CALL’s work in this field has aroused mine-owners and citizens generally to an appreciation of the necessity for an aceurate official map and a movement is on foot which will probably result in one soon being made of the mother lode region, and eventually of the The map shows the most important locations for a distance of ten miles from Carson Hill to beyond Altaville. 1 The “middle lode” is considered the “‘true” mother lode at Angels Camp, and the Utica, or east lode, and the west lode are classed as the largest of the ‘‘parallel veins.’”» an ; The map of 100 milés of the mother lode was One of the first results of the great mining revival now beginning in California should be the accurate mapping of this A.J.B. OF INTERESTTO FARMERS, SR The Seattle Times informs us that the | Ilwach (Wash.) cranberry marsh will | yield 2000 barreis of ‘berries this year, and | they will be worth, it is said, $12 a barrel. Burely that will pay. The early beets are turning out from twelve to fifteen tons per acre, says the ‘Watsonville Pajaronian. Beets are not very large, but are of good milling size. They show the highest saccharine percent- age for early beets that the factory has ob- tained for two years. On a piece of ground about the size of an ordinary room, says the Yuma (Ariz.) | Bee George W. Crane this year raised enough tomatoes to supply the localde- mand, and during one month his income from the patch was $61, affer deducting commissions. Yet there are people who | say that nothing can be made at ranching in this country. The California State Horticultural So- ciety has discussed ways to make the peach tree last twenty to thirty years. If they will come to Oregon, Webfoot Planter says, we can show them trees bearing well whose seed was planted fifty years ago. The peach is long-lived if well treated and will bear well for all its age if it is cut back occasionally to make new growth, as was there recommended. The cutting back should be continued and not occasionally. ‘Will Morrison reports the largest yield of wheat that we have heard of this season, says the Garfield (Wash.) Enterprise. From thirty acres of summer fallow he thrashed 660 sacks, or an average of 22 sacks per acre. He has not weighed it yet, but it will without a doubt make by weight 50 bushels to the acre. Charley Whisler had a yield of over 60 bushels of cats to the acre from a tract of 130 acres. A mammoth sunflower, measuring four- teen inches in diameter and forty-five inches in circumference, was brought to the office this week, says the Santa Clara Index. This monster sunflower was grown in Santa Clara, without any_ culti- vation or care, and has been donated to the Board of Trade at San Jose, where it is now on exhibition. It is estimated that fully three pounds of seed are contained in- this one flower. Sunflower seed is one of the very best foods known for chickens, and it should be generally cultivated by chicken-raisers. The plant will grow on any soil, and requires a minimum of care and attention. The seed is said to produce a sweet and tender meat in chickens. The hop crop of this valley is a little less than one-third short, says the Healdsburg Tribune. However, the quality seems to be exceptionally good. In many planta- tions the hops are larger than they have been in the past several years. Notwith- standing the superiority there is no de- mand, and there will likely be some yards where the crops will not be har- vested, but left to waste on the yines. Nevertheless there are more growers now who intend picking than there were a week ago, for they take the fact into con- sideration that they have already ex- g:qded half of the total cost of production, ling, etc., and that there would not be any further adverse results if they were to make a speculation on an outlay now of 5 cents more per pound when the least figure offered is 4 cents. In a creamery enterprise well managed the egg business is equally important with the butter and together they form the most practical basis for colony develop- ment, writes Frank 8. Chapin in the Tulare Register. The owner of a forty. acre tract, half in alfalfa, one fourtk assorted crops and one-fourth fruit, should \be able to keep twenty cows, twenty hogs and twenty dozen hens and from these a low estimate woula be, even in hard times: Butter Calve: Hogs. Hen! This $1000 besides the income of the ten acres of fruit can be made on good stock with good care when butter is 15 cents, fat hogs 3 cents and eggs 8 cents. This amount of stock and land would require the faithful, steady work of two. ns, but if butter making ard marketing was all dispensea with they need not be crowded or hurried. People seldom ac- complish such results, because they lack capital to stock, fence and culiivate their farms, and very few are inclined to give the constant care that stock need. This is a good country for producing fiber plants, declares the Kern County Echo. The soil, moisture supply and amount of heat conduce to a large growth of vegetation. In present day occupations much of this energy of nature is lost. Trees, for instance, make such great wth that they have to be badly muti- ated every spring to keep them in bounds. But with® ramie, hemp, jute or flax this exuberant growth would all represent something of value. An Illinois hemp- grower recently stated that he was making money where he got one crop of stalks averaging six feet; it is claimed that two crops of twelve feet each can be produced here. If the fiber could not be converted into cloth here we ought to be able to ship the raw fiber to the point of manufacture. It appears to have been fully demonstrated that at least ramie and e% produce lnrg‘: and certain crops here. at stands in the way of their extensiye cultivation? Some interesting observations have re- cently been made by the chief of the Di- vision of Ornithology of the Agricultural Department concerning the habits of birds that are supposed to be enemies of the farmer. It is said to have been proved conclusively that 95 per cent of the food of hawks, owls, crows and blackbirds consists of animals and insects that are far more dangerous to agriculture than are the birds themselves. The charge against crows is that they eat corn and destroy eggs, poul- try and wild birds. Examination shows that they eat noxious insects and destruc- tive animals, and that, although 25 per cent of their food is corn, it is mostly waste corn picked up in the fall and winter. With regard to egi;, it was found that the shells were eaten to a very limited extent for the lime. Crows also eat ants, beetles, caterpillars, bugs, flies and grubs, which do much damage. The cuckoos, also, are found to be very useful birds. Two Problems in Agriculture. Dr. A. C. True, director of the experi- ment stations in the West and Northwest, working under the Agricultural Depart- ment, finds, as a result of a recent tour of inspection, that farmers generally through- out these sections have begun to appreci- ate the necessity of a more diversified agri- culture. The rule in the past has been to depend almost solely upon wheat and corn, and the low prices of these staples, together with drought and other causes, have not only made profit to the producer impossible, but have in many instances left hum in debt on the cost of production. There is but one way out of this condition and that is throngh a diversity in products that will give the farmer something to sell for which there is a demand. It is not reasonable to expect a sudaen revolution in this matter. The domain of agriculture is essentially a domain of growth. The farmer who through lon, experience knows how to raise wheat an corn successfully does not necessarily know how to grow fruit, flax and hops, or | land Ore even beans and potatoes. But, given in- telligence and industry and a reasonable length of time, he can learn how to raise these and other products, for some of which there is always a demand, widening at once his knowledge and increasing his interest in agriculture as a pursuit. and realizing a profit from his labor and man- agszent. i lew years will do a at deal for farmers who have turned t!g.i!r attention to a diversity of crops. This will be es- pecially true of those who are so sitnated as to be able to study at the same time the problem of irrigation by means of prac- tical illustration. Later on the greater problems of State and National irrigation will satisfactorily solve the question of crop %roductlon over large areas where now the most careful husbandman plows and sows with misgivings as to the harvest. The avidity with which thirsty plant life drinks and the bountiful return that it yields in fruits, vegetables and corn through opportunity to drink are matters of common knowledge! to which more or less crude methods of irrigation have long been applied. Growth in this direction is inevitable. The solution of a question so easily demonstrated and so valuable in ite application to a great pursuit in sections constantl: menaced by drought may be del:ly.etl Y various causes, but it cannot be dismissed from public attention.—Port~ gonian,