IMPORTS AND EXPORTS OF IMPORTANT AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS—Continued (Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture) AVERAGE PRICES OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS, 1899-1913 (Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture) 1 Average farm prices Dec. 1. Average wholesale prices at Boston. Average wholesale prices at New York. Prices per head, Jan. 1. Average wholesale prices of inferior to prime beef per 100 lbs. at Chicago. Average wholesale prices of extra creamery butter at New York. 'Average wholesale prices of average best fresh eggs at New York. XX. THE MINERAL INDUSTRIES MINING AND ORE DRESSING The Mining Industry.-In spite of some earlier predictions to the contrary, the year 1913 has been very satisfactory for the mining industry. Prices for silver, copper, lead and zinc, while not reaching the high level of some previous booms, have nevertheless mostly been above averages taken over a series of years. Higher prices have been obtained for Lake Superior iron ore, and shipments have again been very heavy, while the iron and steel production for the first half of the year again beats the record over any previous first half of the year. Statistics of the Copper Producers' Association have shown an almost continual decrease in stocks of copper on hand. This has been due largely to decrease in production owing to strikes and other causes and only partly to increase in consumption. Toward the end of the year a feeling of pessimism was apparent in some quarters and the year closed with matters in a rather unsettled condition with some uncertainty as to what 1914 will bring forth. The new tariff and other legislation are factors that will cause some readjustment. Basic industrial conditions appear to be sound, however, and it needs only a reëstablishment of confidence to lead to continued prosperity. (See also XIII, Economic Conditions and the Conduct of Business.) Public Finance), the workmen's compensation acts (see XVII, Labor Legislation), the proposed law against gold dredging on agricultural lands in California, the suits for damage by farmers against smoke and fume produced in metallurgical works, the Government suit against the Southern Pacific Railroad for alleged fraudulent possession of oil lands, the lack of a definite understanding regarding the holding of mineral deposits on Government forest lands, and recent court decisions affecting the interpretation of the existing Federal mining law. Regarding the last, prospectors hardly know where they stand and they make complaints that between the Government bureaus of geology and forestry they have received manifestly unjust treatment. Congress has failed during the year to make any provision in the way of mining laws for Alaska, and the development of the rich mineral resources of that territory is still held up. The last step by the Government has been the withdrawal of all the potash beds in California which had been located under placer provisions of the existing mining law. The time appears to be ripe for the enactment of a comprehensive mining law which will remedy the deficiencies of the existing law and allow mining development to proceed without the possibility of Government interference or of outside litigation. It is interesting to note in this connection that in South Africa a system of letting the Crown Lands has been recently introduced in which the rent is figured on a sliding scale based on the net profit of operations. Mining Law.-Additional burdens have been placed on the mining industry by legislative and administrative action. Some of these are undoubtedly for the general good but are not always viewed in that light by the mine owners. Among them may be mentioned the state laws leading to a more equable valuation and Working of Low-Grade Deposits. taxation of mining property (see XIV,-In regard to new discoveries it is inevitable that as time goes on the possibility of discovering new mines must grow less. Future gains will come largely from improvement in methods which will render profitable the operation of properties which will not pay at present. As illustrations of this may be cited the recent formation of the Alaska Gold Mining Co. and other neighboring companies to work large and well known lowgrade gold deposits near Juneau, Alaska; and the Chile Copper Co., which proposes to apply a leaching process to a large body of oxidized copper ore at Chuquicamata, Chile, which has long been worked in a comparatively small way and by uneconomical methods. This deposit is reported to contain 100 million tons of ore containing about three per cent. copper. A really new discovery is that of the Rochester silver camp in Nevada. Improvements in Methods. Improvements in mining practice have been in the increased use of the oneman drill, in the increased development of hydro-electric power for mining and transportation, and in some attempts to apply the principles of scientific management to underground work. The development of electric power on the Missouri River near Great Falls, Mont., is a noteworthy example of the second item. At Cobalt, Ont., the draining of Kerr Lake has been accomplished, thus rendering accessible the underlying ore bodies. The U. S. Bureau of Mines is continuing its good work. In addition to the mine rescue cars in various parts of the country, a new departure has been made in an automobile fitted with rescue apparatus which has been installed in the Lake Superior iron district. Work under way includes an investigation into improved metallurgical processes for the treatment of ores. cations are that it will be fought to a finish in which case the strikers can hardly hope to win. Ore Dressing. The increased application of the oil flotation processes stands out preeminently in the record of progress in 1913. At the Butte and Superior mill the Hyde flotation process raises the zinc extraction to 90 per cent. against 70 per cent. by wet concentration alone. The building of the Inspiration copper mill in Arizona has been held up pending experiments with the flotation process of the Minerals Separation Co. Other of the so-called "low-grade porphyrycopper mills" are experimenting with flotation on their slime tailings with promising results. The Sherwin Williams Co. has installed a flotation plant for zinc ores at Magdalena, N. M. The Atlas mill near Ouray, using the Minerals Separation Co. process, marks the first flotation plant in Col. orado. An extraction of 65 per cent. is reported by it on a very difficult copper sulphide ore. Constant improvement is being made in Australia, the home of flotation, and the zinc extraction is continually on the increase, accompanied by a better elimination of the lead. An Elmore flotation plant is being installed at a cupriferous pyrite mine in Quebec. Unfortunately litigation has started in the United States, and the Minerals Separation Co. has secured a verdict against Hyde in a lower court for infringemnt of patent, but it is to be hoped that the growth of flotation will not be hampered by endless lawsuits. The problem of losses in the slimes in wet concentration has been attacked by the Anaconda Company at Butte by the installation of the Laist process to save some of the copper and silver losses by roasting with salt followed by leaching. Another novel installation for treating slimes from Labor Troubles.-Omitting the coal Butte ores is a round table having regions two large strikes have oc- 20 decks one above the other, each curred, that at Porcupine, Ont., in deck being 18 ft. in diameter. The the Winter of 1912-13, and that of continual striving for additional savthe Lake Superior copper mines in ings has led the Copper Range Co. the Fall of 1913. Both were due to to follow the lead of the Calumet agitation by the Western Federation and Hecla Co. at Lake Superior in of Miners. In the former the mine installing a regrinding plant in which owners were victorious, and in the tailings which formerly went to waste latter, while still unsettled, the indi-are reground in Hardinge conical peb ble mills and retreated. Power for regrinding is obtained economically by the use of low-pressure steam turbines run on exhaust steam from the steam stamps. The Wilfley table people have won several suits for infringement against makers of similar tables and other suits are under way. Attention is being turned to the concentration of lean iron ores of the hematite grade. Two large mills are in operation in the Mesabi district of Minnesota. Also at Diorite, Mich., the American Boston mill treats 400 tons of low-grade iron ore daily by means of Richards' jigs and concentrating COAL, COKE, AND PETROLEUM R. DAWSON HALL Developments in the Coal and Coke A machine which combines in one Industry. A manifest tendency in the operations of sawing and drilling the coal industry during the year has been toward central-station power which may be either generated by the coal operator or provided by a power company. In a few cases hydro-electric plants are being erected close to coal workings; in West Virginia, for example, the Appalachian Power Co. is selling power even to companies which are mining one of the finest coal seams in the country. Many plants equipped with non-condensing reciprocating slide-valve engines are now being replaced and the change to steam turbines with condensers makes markedly for economy. Bituminous coal for domestic purposes has for many years been prepared less carefully and scientifically than anthracite and it has long been thought that mechanical cleaning devices used in the hard-coal regions would be adapted to the soft-coal fields. Spirals for removal of bone and slate have been introduced into Illinois and a cleaner dependent on the power of coal to roll on a slope and of slate to lie still has been used to advantage in Pennsylvania where moving plates on an incline carry away the slate and let the coal roll down to a hopper. But at present the picking table is in possession of the field and more picking tables than other dry cleaners have been and are being installed throughout the bituminous region. has been extensively tried in the soft coals of the New River, W. Va., field, for undercutting the coal before shooting. It is alleged to make slack but no dust. Two heading machines have been used to drive gangways of circular cross-section at a single operation. One of these operates with a direct punching action, cutting the whole coal or rock ahead of it into pieces. Mining machines specially adapted for severe strains have been tried by two of the large anthracite companies. Hitherto hard coal has not been mined but shot out of the solid. In one mine where the seam is thin, the coal after undercutting is being shot down on to pans and pulled by a rope to the cars into which it is to be loaded. Where the coal is thicker, "buggies" have been used which run on 6-in. wheels and being supported eccentrically can be tipped so that the load in bulk can be dumped into a mine car. It has been found that economies have been effected over shooting from the solid; the coal being less broken, being mined more cheaply and not being lost by being shot into the gob or waste portions of the room. Safety in Mining.-The H. C. Frick Coke Co. originated the expression "Safety, the first consideration"; the coal industry has made the thought universal and it is certain that safety absorbs as much attention to-day as |