The other cause of waste of coal in the manufacturing industries is recklessness in the use of fuel, filling the furnaces with the drafts so disposed that much of the heat is wasted. Every factory owner should learn (from the government reports if he has no other means of learning) the best methods of firing furnaces, and should employ them in his factory.

The last great waste of coal is in households. In stoves and furnaces, and to a certain extent in kitchen ranges, this waste is through carelessness in firing, as it is in factories. There still remains a large amount of wasted energy in cooking that is unavoidable. The amount of coal consumed before certain articles can be cooked, the heat remaining after the meal is prepared, are wastes that it seems impossible to prevent, though wise management will prevent undue waste even here. Fireless cookers, an invention of recent years, go far toward solving the problem of waste by long hours of cooking single articles, and each year we see more prepared food bought in order to save the cost of heat. Housekeepers find that it does not pay to bake their bread themselves, since a dozen loaves can be baked in a large oven with the fuel used in baking one at home.

Briquettes are a new form of fuel made from coal, principally for household use. They are made from the low-grade coals, culm, slack and lignites, blended with coal-tar pitch. They are commonly used not only in households, but for locomotives and ships, in several European countries, especially Germany; but in this country the cost of making them—about a dollar per ton—makes the retail price higher than the cheaper grades of coal, and their general introduction at the price of the higher grades is rather slow.

Let it always be kept in mind that we must not check the careful use, only the waste, and the best way to avoid an unnecessary drain on the coal and at the same time increase our manufactures is to substitute other power. Coal is only a form of energy that came originally from the sun. The same causes that produced coal still exist. Scientists tell us that coal is still being made, but it will take thousands of years to perfect it. If we could only learn to take the sun's heat directly and use it for our heat, light, and power, it would be one of the greatest discoveries in the history of the world, greater even than the discovery of electricity.

Many attempts have been made to produce power directly from the sun through solar engines, or by concentrating it in furnaces. At the St. Louis Exposition a few years ago, a Portuguese priest exhibited a solar engine called a heliophore, in which, by means of the sun's rays, the temperature was raised to 6000 degrees F., and a cube of iron placed in it melted like a snowball. The sun helps to raise the tides and some day they may be used to produce power. Many experiments are being made with both solar and tidal energy, some of them successful in a small way, but nothing that is ready to stand the test of every-day use has been devised.

Doctor Pritchell says that on a clear day when the sun is high, it delivers upon each acre of the earth's surface exposed to its rays, the equal of 7,500 horse-power working continually. If the extra energy not needed for the growth of plants and animals could be used, all the work of the world could be done and the problem of fuel supply would be solved for ever.

But the greatest conservation of coal possible at present lies in the use of the water-power which now goes to waste, and which, if employed, would, as we have seen, give us 30,000,000 horse-power, or more than all that is now produced from fuel by all our engines combined.

Alabama offers a striking illustration of this failure to take advantage of our opportunities, for Alabama has both coal and water-power. Engineers estimate that the three principal rivers have power equal to 436,000 horse-power. At Muscle Shoals, on the Tennessee River, there is now developed 188,000 horse-power, second only to Niagara—and if the waters were conserved, the figures would reach 1,084,000 horse-power on the three rivers. This means that, according to the amount of coal required to produce each horse-power of energy, it would require 11,201,000 tons of coal each year to produce by steam as much power as these streams might easily be made to produce.

Alabama, as we have said, is also a great coal state. It is now mining about 14,000,000 tons per year and only four states produce a larger amount. It will be seen that four tons out of five mined in this state will be needed to produce by steam the power that is going to waste in its rivers. The Honorable W. P. Lay, of the Alabama Conservation Commission, in calling attention to this fact, says:

"Suppose for a moment that the coal fields of Alabama were sliding down an incline and pouring off over a precipice at the rate of 11,201,000 tons per year, how long would it take the people of the United States to do something to try to stop such a waste? Yet what else are we doing when we sit idly by and let the water of these streams go to waste over a precipice while we ourselves burn up the coal?"

And what is true in Alabama is true to a lesser extent in most of the states. Wherever water-power is going to waste, coal is being used to take its place, and that coal is needed in some place where there is no water-power.

On a certain stream in one of the central states was a fine waterfall. The early settlers built a mill there. The water turned the mill-wheel and then passed on to water the valley and turn other mill-wheels. But one night the old mill was destroyed by fire. It was not rebuilt, but some distance from the stream a new steam mill was built, the motive power of which was natural gas. When, after a few years, the natural gas was all gone, the miller began to use coal, and he still uses coal—hundreds of tons of it—while the water which once turned the wheels, runs idly over the falls. This is an example of wholly useless waste of coal, and just such waste is to be found in hundreds of places in our country.

If wise mining methods be put into operation, if proper care be taken in its use, particularly in manufacturing, if the low-grade coals be utilized, and if other power be substituted wherever practicable, there need be no question of shortage. There is enough coal in the ground, if used rightly, to last for ages to come. But because we have wasted vast quantities of it in the past, and are still wasting it, so that if the same conditions continue we can distinctly see the end in sight, it is important that every one understands what these conditions of use and waste are, and how the abuse may be corrected, so that mine owners and consumers may all work together to preserve this most necessary resource.

REFERENCES

Coal is King. Hewette.

Economical Burning of Coal Without Smoke. Bement.

Coal and Coal Mines. H. Green.

International Library of Technology. Vols. 37 and 38.

Reports of Geological Survey.

Report National Conservation Commission.

Conservation of Mineral Resources. (U. S. Report.)

Production of Coals in the U. S. in 1908. Advance chapters available.



CHAPTER VI

OTHER FUELS

WOOD

Wood, which was formerly the only fuel used in this country, has now largely given place to other fuels. In rural districts and in lumber regions it is still used extensively; but in the cities, larger towns, and manufacturing regions, it is not used in commercial quantities. Its use for power production is limited to the wood-working factories which have a large amount of waste lumber and which employ this by-product to furnish heat for steam boilers.

The wood used for fuel or for power usually represents what would otherwise be lost, the dead trees and the unmarketable timber of the farmer's wood-lot, the refuse of lumber regions or the waste of wood-working factories. So that the use of wood as fuel now generally means the conservation of our coal supply, and a use for the low-grade parts of the forest.

In some cases, however, farmers cut for fuel fine young trees that would grow into excellent timber. Liberal planting of trees so that wood shall become plentiful in all parts of the country will tend to bring about again a larger use of wood as fuel, which will thus once more become a factor in the saving of our coal. Every farmer should learn to save all valuable trees for lumber, and to use only undesirable ones for fuel.

PEAT

Peat is said by geologists to be only "coal in the making," carbon that is in the state of changing from vegetable matter to coal. It is probable that in the course of centuries this would become coal, and in its present state it has many of the properties of coal, though it has not nearly so high a heating value.

In this country we have had such a wealth of fuel resources—coal, wood, oil, and gas—that up to the present time we have done little to develop our peat beds, although in European countries ten million tons are used annually for fuel, as well as large quantities for other purposes. From the earliest times peat has been the principal fuel of the common people of Ireland and some of the countries of northern Europe.

Now, however, people are trying to make the best of many resources not heretofore developed, coal prices are steadily advancing and the two causes combine to turn people's attention to the peat beds of America. One point that is worthy of notice is that peat is found mostly in regions where there is no coal, oil, or natural gas. The development of peat beds in those regions, it will be seen, would give them a great advantage in the matter of cheap fuel.

Large peat beds are found in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, New England, New Jersey, Florida, the Dakotas, northern Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, eastern Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia; and near the coast in the gulf states, and a narrow strip along the Pacific coast, from southern California to the Canadian border. They cover an area of about 11,000 square miles and are supposed to contain not less than 14,000,000,000 tons of air-dried peat. At the rate of three dollars per ton, which is a reasonable price in the states having no coal, this peat would have a value of more than $40,000,000,000.

Peat is prepared for use as common fuel in two ways: (1) By cutting it into blocks or bricks, which are air-dried by exposure to sun and wind for a few weeks. This is called "cut peat," is bulky and easily breakable, and can be used only for local consumption. (2) By digging either by hand or machine, and grinding it in a mill. It is put in wet, ground, cut with rapidly turning knives, and passed out of the machine as a thick pulp that is cut into bricks as it comes out. It is then stored several weeks until thoroughly dried. This is called "machine peat," "pressed peat," or "condensed peat."

Peat is being used in many ways. (1) Air-dried peat is used for fuel only. (2) Dry peat without a binder, or mixed with coal dust and tar or pitch is used for the same purpose. (3) Machine peat is used for many purposes, among them making into briquettes, peat charcoal, and peat coke.

It has been found practical to make illuminating gas of peat, but a far more general use is for running gas-engines and producer-gas furnaces. This is a practical use for it, since it will conserve the coal now used for that purpose, furnish satisfactory power without smoke or dirt, provide cheap power in regions that have no coal mines, and lastly may be made to yield valuable by-products: ammonia, acetic acid, paraffin, tar, creosote, and wood-alcohol. If all the peat in the United States could be used in producer-gas engines the ammonia yielded would alone have a value of $36,000,000,000.

Peat is also used for packing material, as a fertilizer, for manufacturing paper, for coarse cloth and mattress filling. By mixing wet machine peat with cement it may be made into blocks for paving and other construction work. The most promising uses are for fuel, as bedding for stock, as a disinfectant, in briquettes for burning lime, brick, and pottery, in which it is finding a large use, and for which it is said to be particularly well fitted; and most satisfactory of all, its use in gas-producer engines. In Florida an immense plant is being built to manufacture electric power, using air-dried peat as fuel, the power to be transmitted to Jacksonville.

Machine peat is supposed to have sixty-five per cent. the value of the same weight of Pocahontas coal, but on account of the lack of waste in peat its real value is higher than would appear from the comparison. From two to two and a half pounds will produce one horse-power per hour in gas-producer engines. By this estimate, we can see that the peat beds of this country, if properly used, may be largely employed, either now or in the future, as a substitute for the vanishing coal.

NATURAL GAS

Of all the fuels, natural gas may be said to be the ideal one. Coming from the ground, it is piped a greater or less distance and distributed to the home or factory for light, heat, or power; for all of which it is equally desirable. It is ready for our use at the turn of a key, is absolutely clean, having neither dust, ash, nor unconsumed portions. It requires no kindling other than a lighted match.

Natural gas is found over an area which, if combined, would cover almost 10,000 square miles. It exists in twenty-two states—Alabama, California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New York, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming. In some of them the area has been large and the production very heavy, in others the field is small and unproductive. Until the last two or three years there have been no statistics as to the quantity of gas piped, but an account of its value has been kept for many years. For the twenty years beginning with 1888 the value is given at nearly $500,000,000.

It must be remembered that much of this represents extremely low prices, only the amount actually paid for its use. When gas is newly discovered in a region it is not considered an opportunity for the residents of the community to have cheap light, power and fuel for themselves, but instead as an opportunity to develop the country, to increase the population and attract new factories. In order to advertise and boom their communities free gas is usually offered to factories. So in dozens of instances large factories have been operated for years without a cent having been paid for fuel. For this reason no proper estimate can be made of the quantity of gas consumed, nor of its value even at a nominal price. In 1907, (the last year for which complete returns have been published in government reports) the amount of gas consumed was given at 404,000,000 cubic feet, which at present prices is valued at $63,000,000.

It is impossible to determine in any way the future production of natural gas, or to guess at the quantity remaining in the earth. It may be much less or much more than present conditions would indicate; but the present known fields are limited, and the pressure is growing steadily less in all of them.

The Conservation Commission reports, "It is safe to predict that the known fields will be exhausted in twenty-five years." The decrease of natural gas is strikingly illustrated in Indiana. This state, perhaps more than any other, profited directly by the discovery of its natural gas about twenty years ago. Here, the mineral maps show, is by far the greatest natural gas region in the United States. With the discovery of natural gas, established towns grew to ten times their former size and new ones sprang up everywhere. Indiana, which had been chiefly an agricultural state, bade fair to become one of the foremost manufacturing states on account of its cheap and abundant fuel. In 1902 Indiana produced nearly $8,000,000 worth of natural gas, but for 1908 the State Geologist's report contained no figures for this product. It had ceased to be a prominent factor in the wealth of the state! There is no resource that has been so shamefully, so hopelessly wasted as our natural gas.

With even more recklessness than characterizes the waste of our forests and our coal, we have allowed this perfect fuel to escape. To the dwellers in each region where natural gas is found, it seems that the supply is inexhaustible. The roar of the wells, which makes the very earth tremble; the flames springing high into the air; the undiminished pressure after months of use, appearing to indicate a boundless reservoir below; the opportunity for whole communities to grow rich by its use; all these things tend to promote recklessness on the part of all who handle it. In the beginning the wells are usually not tightly cased, and there is a considerable quantity of gas escaping about every well. New wells are frequently lighted to show the volume of gas. In some cases the well has become uncapped on account of heavy pressure and to prevent the escape of unconsumed gas into the air it is kept burning night and day. The strongest wells are often kept burning for months in order to advertise a new gas field. In this way immense quantities of the most perfect fuel in the world have been wantonly wasted. From a single well in eastern Kentucky there flowed a steady stream of gas for twenty years which at present prices would be worth $3,000,000, and the same story of waste from burning wells comes from every natural gas field.

In a new region where gas is abundant there is also a great waste from leaking pipe lines laid on the surface of the ground, from open flambeaux, and from careless home and factory consumption. In many communities the open flambeaux have been employed to light the streets, and allowed to burn day and night to avoid the expense of a man to care for them. Where natural gas is abundant, meters are not usually installed; instead, gas is sold by the month. The consumer is under no obligation to save the gas, in fact, he usually acts on the common American principle of wanting to get all he can for the money and so burns his open tip lights, and open burner stoves day and night. The factories waste in the same way, using open furnaces which are never banked during the season because it is easier and costs no more.

This, it seems, should be the whole history of natural gas waste, but the greatest source of loss still remains to be spoken of. In every gas region of any importance oil is found sooner or later, usually after the heaviest gas pressure has been exhausted; and the oil driller is the greatest of all foes to the life of a natural gas region. He finds that the gas interferes with the flow of oil, spraying it into the air and causing loss, and that the danger of fire is much increased by its presence. This frequently causes explosions, tearing out the side of the well or blowing out the casing, and making the oil-well useless. The surplus gas is usually piped to one side out of the reach of danger, and then burned to get rid of it. Drillers often try to force the gas out in the hope that it will be followed by a rush of oil.

This is the heaviest drain on the gas. In the Caddo field in Louisiana alone the loss is seventy million cubic feet per day, enough to light ten cities the size of Washington, D. C., and equal to ten thousand barrels of petroleum per day. In Indiana a few years ago fourteen wells, all within a space of a few acres in extent, were burned by oil drillers continuously for six months, the light being visible twenty miles away.

Greater care in the management of the wells and slight additional expense for casing are all that is required to stop the waste of gas from oil wells and heavy pressure gas wells.

All of these wastes taken together constitute a fearful loss. In 1907, more than 400,000,000 cubic feet were used and an almost equal number wasted. In other words, the daily waste is over a billion cubic feet, or enough to supply every city in the United States of over one hundred thousand population.

The heating value of a billion feet of gas is equal to a million bushels of coal. If some great conflagration were sweeping away our coal fields steadily every day in the year, and destroying our best coal at the rate of a million bushels per day, how quickly we should all arise to aid in checking it! And yet this imaginary case is actually true in regard to the best fuel in this country, which is burning uselessly an equal value in coal, and our coal must some day be used to supply the loss.

We are apt to ignore the greatness of this loss because the gas escapes into the air and we can not see it, or it burns and we see only its effect, not the loss of fuel, but if we could see it in the form of oil we should find that a billion feet of gas is equal to more than a hundred and sixty thousand barrels of petroleum. Think of it, the equivalent of one hundred and sixty thousand barrels of oil, for which no price is paid and of which no use is made, for ever destroyed every day in every year! Would the oil companies permit it? Would we not all assist them in saving their property from destruction, and shall we not ask of them equal help in saving the fuel that in turn conserves our coal supply? Little objection can be made to the present method of using gas in the older regions. The waste in domestic use is comparatively small. Much is used for lighting with incandescent burners, and asbestos grates and gas ranges have replaced the open-burner stoves and grates. These are all efficient methods of use, and but little could be done in the way of further conservation. In factories the gas-engine is in many instances replacing the open furnace, which requires many times as much gas to produce an equal amount of power. They should be used in every factory, and gas companies should also require the use of the best devices for saving gas in places where meters are not used.

Until last year but one state—Indiana—had an effective law preventing the waste of natural gas by oil companies. This law says in substance that a man can not take the oil from the ground where nature has safely stored it, unless he also provide a market for the gas which accompanies it. It also says that neither the producer nor the consumer shall be allowed to waste this valuable fuel, as such waste is against public policy.

Mr. I. C. White, of West Virginia, in discussing this question at the Conservation Congress said, "This Indiana statute should be enacted into law in every state where these fuels exist." Since that time Pennsylvania and Ohio have passed laws, which are said to be effective, for the conservation of natural gas.

Much has been accomplished by gas companies, who, since they became alive to the danger of loss of their investment, have been extremely watchful of their property. In West Virginia the gas companies buy the gas which has been obtained in the drilling of oil wells, thus providing a market for the waste gas and making it possible to continue the oil business and at the same time to furnish cheap gas.

Another hopeful sign is the pumping of all of the product of a well. Formerly as soon as a well dropped greatly in production it was abandoned, but now it is pumped until dry.

One method by which the gas from oil wells may be utilized consists in compressing it in steel cylinders for shipping. This in a small way has been found to be successful.

Experiments are being tried on a large scale in Ohio to prove that gas may be returned to reservoirs within the earth which are tight enough to hold it under heavy pressure.

Fuel gas made from low-grade coal is a satisfactory substitute for natural gas. Like the natural product it may be piped for long distances. Some natural gas companies have bought up the culm banks and heaps of refuse coal, so that if the natural gas becomes exhausted they can manufacture cheap gas at the mines and pipe it to the cities they now serve.

PETROLEUM

Petroleum, or rock oil, is a dark greenish brown liquid which when refined yields gasolene, naphtha, benzine, kerosene, lubricating oils, and paraffin. The name petroleum applies only to the crude petroleum as it comes from the ground, and the word oil is applied to the products obtained by refining.

The early history of the petroleum industry in this country is interesting as showing what great results spring from small beginnings. From salt wells in Pennsylvania there was an occasional flow of petroleum, but it had had no commercial value. Samuel Kier, of Pittsburg, had salt wells at Tarantum from which he had accumulated so much petroleum (fifty barrels) that he decided to try to dispose of it, but there was no market. No one knew what to do with it. He then partly refined it, making a poor quality of kerosene, and introduced a lamp with a chimney. This proved so popular that A. C. Ferris, also of Pittsburg, undertook to sell this in other cities, and these two men not only sold the fifty barrels and the other petroleum that accumulated from the salt wells, but they had created such a demand for the new light that they could not supply enough oil, and in 1859 Colonel Drake drilled at Titusville the first well solely for petroleum. In the half-century since that time nearly two billion barrels, or almost two hundred and fifty million tons, worth one and three-quarter billion dollars, have been produced.

Petroleum is now mined, or drilled, in many countries besides the United States, but the United States furnishes sixty-three barrels out of every hundred produced in the world. Russia produces twenty-one barrels, Austria four, and the East Indies three barrels, Roumania two, India and Mexico one each, Canada, Japan, Germany, Peru, and Italy each less than one barrel; so we can see that the United States is the one great producer of petroleum, and that it is to this country that we must look for the principal world supply for the present, and as far as known, for the future. Let us see, then, what we may expect the United States to do to supply this demand.

The known petroleum lands cover an area of about 8,500 square miles and are in six large fields and several smaller ones. The largest and best is the Appalachian, of which the best known is the Pennsylvania field. It has a grade of petroleum that differs from any other thus far found in the world. It is most easily converted into kerosene or lamp oil, and contains a larger proportion of such oil. It is the finest petroleum in the world, except that found in Indiana and Ohio, and that costs more to refine.

The Appalachian field includes, besides Pennsylvania, western New York, West Virginia, a narrow strip in eastern Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. These southern oils are of a much lower grade, but are better than the Russian or other foreign oils.

The next great field is called the Lima-Indiana, and covers a considerable portion of northwestern Ohio and eastern Indiana. This petroleum contains less gasolene and less lamp oils, and more sulphur, which makes refining difficult. The Illinois field lies next. Here, in a strip about thirty miles long and six miles wide on an average, an enormous quantity of petroleum is produced. This oil is slightly lower in quality and contains considerable asphalt.

The mid-continent field lies in Kansas and Oklahoma. This petroleum also contains asphalt and other chemical products. Such immense amounts are produced here that it has not been possible to care for all of it, either in the matter of storage tanks or cars for transporting it, and as a result large amounts have been wasted. In Oklahoma within a space of less than two square miles one million barrels of forty-two gallons each of petroleum were wasted in the year 1906.

The Gulf field lying in Texas and Louisiana has been developed entirely since 1901. The first well was drilled near Beaumont, Texas, as an experiment to determine whether oil could be found. Small storage tanks were provided and it was hoped to find oil enough to make drilling profitable. The well proved to be a "gusher" of such magnitude that before sufficient tanks could be provided, or the flow checked, more than half a million barrels were wasted on the ground.

The Gulf petroleum contains a large amount of asphalt and a small amount of gasolene and lamp oil. It has been used principally for burning as crude oil in locomotives and has sold as low as ten cents per barrel; but lately methods of refining have been perfected which produce good lubricating oil and a gasolene of high value from these low-grade oils.

The last great field is found in California. The oil is similar to the Gulf oil, and investigation has shown that the quantity is greater in this field than in any other. It is used largely for fuel and power on account of lack of other fuels in that region.

In addition to these fields there are small ones in Colorado and Wyoming, and promises of fields in New Mexico, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington.

Estimates of the amounts of petroleum yielded are made by computing the amount usually produced per acre, which varies from eight hundred barrels produced in Pennsylvania, to eight thousand barrels per acre produced in Illinois. In most of the fields it is about a thousand barrels per acre. Even then the amount is extremely difficult to estimate. The Geological Survey concludes that the lowest probable calculation of the entire amount stored in the rocks of the United States is ten billion, and the highest a little less than twenty-five billion barrels. The last report officially published shows that we are producing one hundred and seventy million barrels per year. If the same rate of production continues, we might expect our petroleum to last from fifty-five to one hundred and thirty-five years, according to the amount found; but tables of statistics show that throughout the life of the petroleum industry, as much has been produced each nine years as the entire product before that time. For example, up to the present, we have produced one billion eight hundred million barrels and if the present rate continues, in the next nine years alone we shall produce an equal quantity again. The causes of such rapid growth are many. One is the great increase in the use of some of the products, such as gasolene, which has increased many fold since the automobile became popular. Another, and the greatest cause, is the ease with which any quantity of oil can be sold for cash at any time, and at prices much above the cost of production.

Another reason is based upon the nature of the product. In pumping from one well oil is apt to flow in from other leases, under other farms, and exhaust them without the holders of those leases having received any compensating benefit. It is therefore necessary for each lessee to get his share before it flows away. Under these circumstances, it is impossible to prevent an entire field from being drilled over very rapidly, unless there is a combination of all the interests; or unless the law limits the amount that each producer shall extract per acre within a given time.

Pennsylvania and New York have declined to one-third their former value and yet it is only seventeen years since they reached their highest point. This would seem to indicate that the life of that field will not exceed ten years. West Virginia is producing only a little more than half its former yield and is rapidly declining. Ohio and Indiana are declining more rapidly than Pennsylvania. Texas is also in the rapidly declining class, and in Kansas the production is only a fraction of what it was formerly. On the other hand, Illinois, Oklahoma, and California can be expected to increase steadily for several years.

Taking into account all these factors, it is estimated that the entire supply now known to exist would be exhausted before the middle of the present century. It appears more probable, however, that increasing prices long before that time will help to conserve the supply; and that petroleum will be produced for a long time to come, though not in sufficient quantities for industrial and general use.

The principal uses of petroleum are for burning as crude oil in furnaces and under boilers, particularly in locomotives. The refined products have various uses. Probably the most important is the lubricating oil. This is necessary in the development of all kinds of power. At least one-half pint of lubricating oil is used for every ton of coal consumed for power. All engines, all street and steam railways, steamships, sewing-machines, clocks, watches, and automobiles, in fact all operating machinery requires its use; so that a large amount of oil must always be conserved for lubricating purposes.

Coal oil, or kerosene, may be regarded as absolutely necessary for the lighting of houses or other establishments not connected with gas or electric supply.

Gasolene is sometimes used for lighting, though such use is not common. It is largely used for cooking, and still more largely used in the various types of gasolene engines.

Naphtha is used for power, especially for motor-boats, and for cleaning, in which it is very valuable by reason of its power to dissolve dirt.

Paraffin is used in polishing, in laundry work, for waxing floors, and as a covering to exclude air in preserving articles.

Waste has been markedly absent in the petroleum industry. It is necessary that oil drilling outfits shall contain steel storage tanks for holding the oil when it is reached. Usually the supply is large enough, but sometimes, as in the case of the big well at Beaumont, Texas, the oil gushes forth in such volume that the drillers are not prepared to take care of the overflow, and much is wasted before the well can be capped. In general there is no waste in storage in this country. In European countries where there is oil, the loss through lack of tanks and by using wooden tanks which leak, is very great.

Another form of waste which is common in foreign countries, but which has been avoided in the United States, is evaporation of gasolene and similar light products when the petroleum is exposed to the air in open tanks. This is the most valuable part of petroleum, and if it be exposed to the sun a single day it loses greatly in value.

The refining processes of the petroleum industry are probably carried out with better system and less waste than in any other resource, owing to the fact that the business is controlled by large companies. There is no waste material in its manufacture, except some slight residue that might be used for oiling roads, instead of using the crude oil. The principal waste lies in its use. In view of the fact that the supply is not unending, is, indeed, rapidly disappearing, the uses should be confined only to the necessary lines for which there are no substitutes at similar prices. These are for lubricating oils and for the lighting of homes. The unnecessary uses are for burning in locomotives and for the development of power.

Whenever new petroleum fields are opened up, there is a corresponding drop in price. In order to dispose of it quickly such petroleum is usually sold for the lowest grade uses, and the price for this crude petroleum is not more than one hundredth as much as for high grade petroleum products. The report of the National Conservation Commission is so excellent that it is quoted almost word for word.

"At present more petroleum is being produced than is necessary for the demands of the industry. Within ten years the present fields will be unable profitably to produce enough for these requirements. The only direction in which production can be checked is with the petroleum contained in public lands.

"Offering such public lands for entry at a low price is nothing more than temptation to the private citizen to waste petroleum by over production, since lands yielding hundreds of dollars per acre in this product can be obtained for a small sum. Every acre of public land, believed to contain petroleum or natural gas, should be withdrawn from public sale and leased under conditions that regulate production.

"Its use for power is justified on the Pacific coast, if used in gas-producer engines."

ALCOHOL

As a substitute for other fuels, wood, or denaturated alcohol, will probably come into greater use each year, and is regarded by many as the great fuel of the future, because the materials of which it is made are waste vegetable products and will always be plentiful.

It is made from cellulose, the woody part of plants, and may be manufactured from sawdust when freshly cut from live trees, from small, and refuse potatoes, from inferior grain that is not worth marketing, and from low-grade fruits and vegetables of all kinds. It is even said that the hundreds of acres of sage-brush in the West that have always been considered worse than useless can be made into wood-alcohol and thus become a valuable product.

It can be used for any purpose that gasolene can, although a different style burner is required. It must be made much hotter before it is changed into vapor, and on account of this it has been difficult to make satisfactory burners for all the kinds of heating, lighting, and power work; the machinery being far from perfect as yet. Wood-alcohol can not yet be made cheaper than gasolene, and is not so easy to burn, so that it is slow in reaching an important place in the industrial world; but gas and gasolene prices will advance, and better methods of manufacturing and burning alcohol will be found, and then we shall have a fuel that can take the place of either coal or petroleum for lighting or power.

It is thought that wood-alcohol will be of especial use to the farmer, since he has so many waste vegetable products, has so much need of power in small quantities and is far from the sources of public service power, such as electric and gas plants. Alcohol-driven motors can be used to take the place of the labor of both horses and men on the farm. On level farms they can run the heavy machines, such as mowers, reapers, and binders, plows and cultivators. On any farm they may be used to run stationary engines, to chop and grind food for live stock, to pump water, churn, run sewing-machines, operate fans, drive carriages and wagons and do many other things.

Wood-alcohol produces ammonia as a by-product, is used in the manufacture of dyes and coal-tar products, of smokeless powder, of varnishes, and of imitation silks made from cotton.

REFERENCES

Report National Conservation Commission.

Reports of Geological Survey.

Conservation of Ores and Related Minerals. (Carnegie.) Report Governor's Conference.

Conservation of Mineral Resources. (U. S. Government Report.)

Industrial Alcohol and Its Uses. W. H. Wiley. Bulletin, 269.

Production of Peat in the U. S. in 1908. U. S. Government Reports.

Production of Oil in the U. S. in 1908.

Production of Gas in the U. S. in 1908.

Waste of Our Fuel Resources. (White.) Report Governor's Conference.



CHAPTER VII

IRON

We have already stated the importance of iron in our modern life. It can not be overestimated. All the many articles of iron and steel, our tools, our machinery, our vehicles, our bridges, our steel buildings, and a thousand and one other things are dependent on our iron supply.

Of all the elements that make up the earth's surface only three are more plentiful than iron, so that we might think that we should always have an abundant supply of it; but when it occurs in small quantities, as is usually the case, it can not of course be profitably mined. It is only when enough of it is found together to permit it to be mined to advantage that it is called iron ore.

Iron ore is found in only twenty-nine states of the Union, and eighty per cent. of the present production is in two states, Minnesota and Michigan. We can see that iron is very unevenly distributed, and it is on a few regions that we must depend for all the future.

Before we can calculate how much iron we have we must understand that it is not found in pure form, but mixed with various other substances: clay, shale, slate, quartz, sulphur, phosphorus, etc. These must all be removed, some by washing, but most of them by roasting, or "smelting," in blast furnaces, after which it is called pig iron. This of course requires large quantities of fuel.

It is these things and also the position of the ore that must be taken into consideration in estimating the amount of iron in the country. If ore yields a large per cent. of iron in smelting, with a small amount of waste, it is, of course, far more valuable than if the amount of iron in every ton of material taken from the ground is small.

In all minerals, the relation of supply to price is marked. The cost of labor and of power is exactly the same whether ore yields fifty-five tons of pure iron to the hundred, or whether it yields only thirty tons, but the price received is little more than half.

So if the price is low, it may cost more to mine and smelt the one hundred tons of earth than will be paid for the thirty tons of iron that the low-grade ore would yield. So the lands that produce only thirty tons to the hundred will never be mined till the price of iron is so high that it is above the cost of producing—that is, till it can be worked at a profit.

The Lake Superior iron found in Minnesota is usually more than fifty-five per cent. pure iron. That is, if a hundred tons of earth be mined, more than fifty-five tons of pure iron would be obtained from it. This is the highest grade of ore. Some ore is mined that yields only forty tons or less. There are vast quantities, billions of tons, of iron ore in the United States, that would yield less than thirty tons of iron to the hundred. These low-grade ores and the ones known to lie so deep in the earth that the cost of mining them is more than the finished products of iron, are classed as "not available," that is, they can never be profitably mined under present conditions. But we must remember that as the higher grade ores are exhausted it will become necessary to use the lower grades, and that prices will steadily advance as a result.

Iron is sometimes found almost directly under the ground, at other times deep in the earth. That which is found just below the surface is, of course, mined much more easily, more safely, more cheaply, and with far less loss than that which requires deep mining. Such conditions are found in the Lake Superior region, and there is almost no loss at all, the low-grade ores being piled up at one side where they can be easily reached in case of need.

On the other hand some iron mines now in operation are as much as two thousand feet in depth. In these mines, as in coal mines, pillars are left to support the rock above. A roof of the iron ore is often left also. The low-grade ore is left in the ground and no effort is made to preserve it for future use. These constitute the principal waste in iron mining.

The pure iron of the ore is separated by washing out the clays and soft elements, but the harder substances must be smelted by means of heat. In the beginning this was done by charcoal, which is still used in Sweden. The latest method is to employ electricity manufactured by water-power, but most of the iron smelting in this country has been done by coal. Every ton of iron smelted requires its portion of coal for firing. If low-grade fuels in gas-producer engines, or water-power can be used it will be a great aid in conserving coal.

If a limited supply of rather low-grade iron exists near a coal region, it can often be mined profitably, when, if it be far from an abundant fuel supply, it must be shipped to distant blast furnaces. The cost of shipping causes ore containing a small percentage of iron to be classed as "not available."

Sometimes a large company with many mines has several varieties of ore of different strength and hardness. If these can be mixed to produce a medium grade by adding a small amount of high-grade ore to a large amount of lower grade, the value of the product will be doubled.

Sometimes, too, the by-products can be made extremely profitable by manufacturing large amounts when the expense of undertaking the work is too great to be attempted with a small amount. So if iron mines are owned by a small company much ore may be classed as "not available" that could be used by a large company. All these things must be considered in estimating the iron resources.

The first smelting of iron ore in this country was done at Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1645, using the low-grade bog-ores and smelting with charcoal from the surrounding forest.

Now if we look over an iron map of the United States we shall find that there are four hundred and eighty blast furnaces, but that only nine of them are west of the Mississippi River and most of these are in Missouri. The greatest of all the iron regions now lies in upper Michigan and Minnesota. This furnishes eighty tons out of every one hundred mined in the United States, but the smelting is done along the southern shores of Lake Michigan. The reason for this is that the iron region itself is far distant from a cheap fuel supply. Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, has been the great iron city of the United States on account of its nearness to great supplies of both coal and iron. Birmingham, Alabama, is the heart of the great smelting region of the South.

The iron is divided into districts as follows:

(1) The Northeastern, comprising the states of Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Ohio, supplies a little more than five per cent. of the iron mined in the United States.

(2) The Southeastern, containing Virginia, West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, and Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, gives us twelve per cent. of our iron.

(3) The Lake Superior district, containing the northern parts of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, supplies more than eighty per cent.

(4) The Mississippi Valley district contains western Kentucky, and Tennessee, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas. This region furnishes less than half of one per cent. of the total supply.

(5) The Rocky Mountain district contains Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, western Texas, Washington, Oregon and California; and all this great region now supplies but a little more than one per cent.

The official report, which is as thorough as can be made but is naturally subject to mistakes, gives the amount of available iron, that is, that which can be mined under present conditions, as nearly five billion tons.

Let us see how long this may be expected to supply the demand.

Before 1810 the amount of iron ore produced was so small as to be scarcely worth considering. From 1810 to 1870 a little less than fifty million tons were mined, from 1870 to 1889 nearly 154,000,000 tons, and from 1889 to 1907, 475,000,000 tons, or altogether nearly 680,000,000 tons. The production has been found to double itself about every nine years. In 1907 alone it was 52,000,000 tons or about one-thirteenth of all that has been mined.

In 1880 we used 200 pounds of pig-iron for every man, woman, and child in the country; in 1890, 320 pounds; in 1900, 390 pounds, and in 1907, 696 pounds. According to the rule of increase, by 1916 we shall be using 104,000,000 tons a year; by 1925, 208,000,000, and by 1934, 416,000,000 tons, and if the same rate of increase should continue, by 1940 we should have required for our use in the meantime, six billion tons. But we have less than five billion tons of what is now classed as available ore, which means that before that time (when the school-boys of to-day are business men) we should have exhausted all our good and cheap ore, and be obliged to depend only on the low-grade ores, the cost of which will be very great.

Unlike coal, the forests, and the soil, there is no great and entirely useless waste of iron. But the uses of iron are so many and so varied, and the supply of high-grade ores which can be cheaply mined is so small in proportion to the needs of the future, that we should in all ways lessen the drain on it by substituting other cheaper and more plentiful materials when possible.

The chief use of iron is for the carrying of freight. Here are some figures given by Mr. Carnegie. Moving one thousand tons of freight by rail requires an eighty-ton locomotive and twenty-five twenty-ton steel cars, or five hundred and eighty tons of iron and steel to draw it over—say an average of ten miles of double track with switches, frogs, spikes, etc., which will weigh more than four hundred tons. Thus we see that to move a thousand tons of freight requires the use of an equal weight of iron. The same freight may be moved by water by means of from one hundred to two hundred and fifty tons of metal, so that if freight were sent by water instead of by rail the amount of iron needed for this service would be reduced at least three-fourths, the amount of coal would be reduced not less than half, and at the same time the coal used in extra smelting would be saved. No single step open to us to-day would do more to check the drain on both iron and coal than the use of our rivers for carrying heavy freight.

The next great use of iron is for buildings and bridges. The greatly increasing use of cement and concrete is reducing this and will reduce it still further. Cement is made from slag, or the refuse of iron ore—the clays and shales—and the cost of this valuable product is little more than the former cost of piling it away. By making the useless slag into cement the cost of iron production is lowered and at the same time the drain on the iron is lessened.

A large use of steel of the highest quality is for battleships, cannon, and war supplies. If the great nations of the world would agree to reduce their armament, one of the great drains on the world's iron, coal, and wood supply would cease, and these materials be put to improving the world.

The worst feature of it is that these war supplies are continually changing. They must be of the latest pattern, or they are of small value for fighting purposes. The construction of battleships differs greatly year by year, and the older ships are discarded to make place for newer and larger ones. It is said that our newest battleship alone could with a few shots destroy all of Admiral Dewey's fleet. The following is from a recent magazine article:

"It is admitted by naval officers that the ships of ten years ago are of obsolete type and would be useless against the new vessels. It is admitted that within ten years or less the new types will in turn become obsolete, and will be useless against the type of vessel certain to be evolved. That is, as soon as a vessel costing millions of dollars leaves the docks, she enters into active competition for a place on the junk pile."

The greatest improvement that can be imagined in the iron situation will be in the discovery and use of alloys or mixtures of iron with other materials. Steel, the strongest of all forms of iron, is an alloy of iron and carbon, and for various purposes these are further mixed with nickel and silicas. Many other alloys have been discovered within the last few years, and each makes possible new uses for iron requiring greater strength. One of the best of these is a mixture of iron and silicon, called ferro-silicon. Silica is one of the cheapest and most abundant materials of all the earth's products, so its combination with iron will greatly lengthen the life of the iron supply; and it is probable that in the future combinations of other materials will yield better and cheaper metals than any thus far produced.

The amount of metal which can be reworked is constantly increasing. Most of the iron factories remelt large quantities of old iron, to be used with the new, and this will lessen each year the demand on the ores. It is also possible that new deposits of iron ore will be found and these will greatly increase the supply. But from the whole iron situation we may draw the following conclusions:

First, the amount of iron remaining in the ground is very uncertain. It may be more, or it may be less, than the present estimate.

Second, if the estimates are nearly correct, and if the present rate of increase continues, all the high-grade ores will be exhausted by the time the small boys of to-day are the business men of the nation.

Third, the best methods of reducing the drain on the supply are, (a) The use of old iron as a mixture; (b) Carrying a part of the freight by water to reduce the amount of iron required by the railroads; (c) The larger use of concrete and cement to take the place of steel in buildings; (d) Lessening the amount used for war; (e) The use of alloys. This opens a large and promising field for invention. (f) More care in preserving articles made of iron. This is a practical thing for every person in our country to do. Every farm implement, or tool, that stands out in the rain or is left without shelter during the winter, every article carelessly lost or broken, has its part in making conditions worse. All that are well cared for help to make the iron supply last a little longer.

REFERENCES

Iron and Steel at Home and Abroad. (Andrew Carnegie.)

Conservation of Ores and Related Minerals. (Carnegie.) Report Governor's Conference.

Report National Conservation Commission.

Reports Geological Survey.

Mineral Resources of the U. S. in 1908. Advance chapters available.



CHAPTER VIII

OTHER MINERALS

GOLD

Iron, in its usefulness to man, stands in a class to itself; but there are dozens of other minerals that have their part in the comfort and convenience of our daily life. Most of these, however, are found in comparatively small quantities and have few uses.

The minerals which are in constant use by nearly all people and that are found abundantly in the United States, are gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, and the elements used in manufacturing building materials.

Gold is valuable chiefly because it has been made the standard of money value of the world. Africa produces one-third of the world's supply, next come the United States and Australia, producing almost equal amounts, Russia and Canada each produce a limited amount, and various other countries together produce about one-sixteenth of the whole. (In the statements of the gold supply of the United States the territory of Alaska is included.)

Gold is not found alone but contained in quartz rock or sand. The method of taking gold from the rock is first by blasting, and afterward grinding the rock in a stamp mill, which reduces it to powder, after which the gold is separated by refining processes. The gold which occurs in the sand, gravel, or clay soil, is washed out. When done on a small scale this is called "panning." The larger operations of this kind are called "placer" and "dredge" mining. There is also a considerable amount of gold obtained as a by-product from copper mining.

Generally speaking, quartz mines are in the mountains and placer mines in the river valleys. Placer mining by powerful water pressure, called hydraulic mining, destroys the banks, and also fills up the river beds with masses of rock and gravel. Some of the large rivers of California have been made unfit for steamboat traffic, and serious damage has been done to the harbor of San Francisco. For this reason hydraulic placer mining has been stopped by law. This has greatly lessened the gold production of California.

In 1907, the United States produced $94,000,000 worth of gold. Of this, Colorado produced more than any other state. Next in their order come Alaska, California and Nevada. Each produced from $15,000,000 to $20,000,000 worth. Together they furnished nearly four-fifths of the entire supply. The remaining one-fifth comes from Utah, South Dakota, Montana, Arizona, Idaho, and Oregon, with very small amounts from the southeastern states, the two Carolinas and Georgia, New Mexico, Washington, and Wyoming. South Dakota has the most profitable single gold mine in the United States. It has produced nearly $60,000,000 in gold, and is now turning out about $5,000,000 worth a year.

The United States has many unworked gold mines, "gold reserves" they are called, whose value can not in any way be exactly estimated. The value of the placer mines can be better judged than that of the lode or quartz mines. The placer mines are chiefly in Alaska and California. These mines may yield gold to the amount of a billion dollars. There are lesser, but important resources of placer gold in Montana, Idaho, and Oregon.

The placer gold mined in 1907 was valued at $24,000,000, and it is thought that about this quantity can be supplied for a long time.

The amount of gold yielded in the reduction of copper ores was about $5,500,000. It is probable that this amount will be gradually increased, and can be relied on to last many years. From the lead ores a little over $2,000,000 worth of gold was taken. This will probably slowly decrease for the next ten or twenty years. From gold and silver-bearing quartz mines $55,000,000 was taken.

No calculation can be made as to the amount of gold contained in quartz mines. New discoveries are always probable and many new mines are opened up each year, but their value can only be estimated as the work in them progresses.

Just how long they will last nobody knows, but it would seem that their decline is far off. The government report says, "Unless very important new discoveries are made it is thought unlikely that the production of gold in the United States will rise much above $110,000,000; nor is it likely that it will sink below $60,000,000 within a long period of years."

The amount of gold used in the United States is about equal to the production. Nearly $80,000,000 is coined into money, and about half as much is used in the arts,—that is, for jewelry, tableware, in dentistry, in bookbinding, and various chemical processes. The quantity used in the arts has doubled since 1900. In 1907 the stock of gold coin in the United States, according to the Director of the Mint, was $1,600,000,000, which is almost exactly one-fifth of the gold coin of the world.

The production of gold is rapidly increasing. Since 1850 we have mined three times as much gold as in all the previous time since the discovery of America. Such rapid production greatly shortens the life of the gold supply. When the gold fields of southern Africa were first opened they were said to be inexhaustible; but they have been mined so rapidly, and the supply has proved so far short of the first excited estimates that experts say that the entire region will be almost exhausted within twenty years. The loss of gold in mining and refining is comparatively small. In extracting gold from the cheaper ores the percentage of loss is large; but as only a small part of the gold is gained in this way the total loss is relatively small. By other methods ninety-five per cent. or more is saved. In many cases the loss is too small to be considered.

Unlike other minerals little gold is destroyed by use. It is melted and remelted, all scraps are used, even the sweepings from the mint and from manufacturing goldsmiths' shops are saved and the gold used. The waste of the world's gold and silver would be much greater but for the use of paper money, bank checks, and notes. Their very general use keeps the gold as a reserve, held in banks and storage vaults much of the time. If it were in constant use, the continual rubbing together of the coins would mean a no less steady, though slight, wearing away of their surface. This is very noticeable in old silver coins, which are kept in more constant circulation.

SILVER

The conditions in regard to silver are entirely different from those of the other resources. The production of silver is not increasing, in fact, the mining of silver alone is decreasing and the reason is not because the supply is lessening, but because the price is too low to make a larger working of the mines profitable, and the supply is kept down to the level of the demand. A great number of silver mines have been closed for the last few years. The production could be greatly increased at any time to meet an increased demand.

The highest production was in 1902, but there have been only slight changes since 1895; the production being a little less than 60,000,000 ounces, or about one-third of the world's supply—Mexico being the only other great producer. In many countries with a small supply the output is growing less each year on account of the low price, and the difficulty of competing with the United States.

The states now producing the most silver are Colorado, Montana, and Utah; each of these produces about one ounce out of every five ounces mined. Most of the remainder was produced by Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, and California.

Although nearly 60,000,000 ounces were mined in 1907 only one and a half million ounces were mined for the sake of the silver alone. The rest was obtained as a by-product in the mining of gold, lead, copper and zinc, or, as is often the case, it was distinctively silver ore, but could not be profitably mined unless some other ore could be obtained at the same time.

The richer regions seem to have been exhausted, and as the process of extracting the ore is expensive the lower grade ores will probably be held for several years till prices advance. A great silver region has recently been opened in northern Canada. This contains immense quantities of very rich ore, and will probably keep the price down for many years.

So the care and conservation of silver is not an important issue for the people of the present generation. As silver is now obtained largely as a by-product, there is almost no waste.

The United States sends considerably more than half of its silver to other countries, principally to India and China, which use much silver coin, but have little in the way of silver resources. The amount used at home is divided between coinage and manufacture. The quantity coined varies greatly from year to year, eight million ounces being about the average. For manufacturing, jewelry, tableware, chemicals, etc., about twenty million ounces, of which one-fifth is remelted silver, are used. The demand for silver in manufacturing has doubled since 1898, and may lead before many years to the reopening of the silver mines.

COPPER

The conditions of copper mining are exactly opposite from those of silver. The Indians used almost no metal except copper, and for three hundred years white men used the old Indian mines and refined the copper by Indian methods. Better methods of mining copper and extracting it from the ores have been employed for the last fifty years, but within a dozen years the refining of copper has been revolutionized by electric methods. An enormous amount has been produced, but production has been kept down on account of the high prices. It is said that if the price could be reduced one-half, ten times as much copper would be used. Most of the uses of copper have arisen in the last twenty-five years. Its greatest use is for electric wiring. Nothing can take its place, and the use is increasing astonishingly.

Copper is used largely in alloys. Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin, and its use has greatly increased in castings, fittings for buildings, tablets, and statues.

A much more useful alloy is brass, made from copper and zinc. Brass is very extensively used for parts of machinery, engines, automobiles, and also for fittings for buildings. Sheet copper is used for sheathing for ships, for boilers, and for various chemical processes carried on by electricity or by acids. Very many of these processes have been discovered within ten or fifteen years, and have largely increased the uses for copper. One of the older uses of copper which is less common now was for cooking utensils. Copper is used by the government for coining one-cent pieces.

No single country compares at present with the United States in the production of copper, but if reports be correct there is enough copper in central Africa to supply the world for years to come. Next to the United States, Spain mines the largest amount at present, and Japan ranks next.

For many years the rate of increase was enormous. In 1845, 224,000 pounds were mined; in 1888, 226,000,000 pounds. Eight years later, in 1896, it had doubled; after another ten years, in 1906, it had doubled that quantity, and reached 918,000,000 pounds. In 1890 we were using three pounds of copper for every man, woman and child in the country. And in 1907, six and one-half pounds.

Michigan, Montana, and Arizona produce the bulk of the copper. Utah, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Nevada each produce copper in amounts ranging from the 66,000,000 pounds mined in Utah to the 2,000,000 pounds mined in Nevada. It is probable that the use will not increase so rapidly in the near future. Much old copper will be remelted.

There are large areas of copper lands which are now classed as "available" with copper at about its present price of thirteen cents a pound. If the world production should grow so great as to cause a decided drop in the price, much that is now considered available could not be mined at a profit, and the copper supply from this country would be greatly reduced. If, on the other hand, copper should rise to fifteen or twenty cents or higher, the amount of available copper land would be vastly increased. The report on the Conservation of Mineral Resources says in effect: "The copper resources of the United States are believed to be large enough to allow for a number of years for a demand increasing at the rate of 30,000,000 pounds a year. Should this demand continue for a long period the scarcity would be felt and result in a rising price, which would open up a market for these low-grade ores and also cause the use of other metals, like aluminum, to take the place of copper whenever possible."

There is no great waste in the mining of copper, but in the extraction of copper from the ore the waste is often as much as thirty per cent., and it is not easy to avoid this on account of the chemical changes that take place.

LEAD

The United States produces about one-third of the lead in the world. The remainder comes from Spain, where the production remains about the same from year to year; from Germany, where in spite of higher prices production is growing less; and from Australia and Mexico, in both of which the supply is rapidly decreasing.

These facts show that the lead resources of the United States will be drawn on heavily in the future. The production of the United States increased from about 70,000 tons in 1880 to 365,000 tons seventeen years later, and if continued the yearly production by 1920 will amount to 580,000 tons, or more than a billion pounds.

The principal lead-producing states are Missouri, Idaho, Utah, and Colorado. In Missouri it is probable that the present rate of increase could be kept up for at least fifty years. The other states could keep up the present production for many years but could not greatly increase it without exhausting the supply.

As with most mineral resources in the United States, it is only the richest ores that are now drawn upon (except where lead is a by-product extracted with some other ore). If prices would advance, so as to make the low-grade ores profitable, the amount of our resources would be greatly increased.

There is little waste in the mining or smelting of lead ores, and the slag, the waste, is always ready to be used again. In the refining and concentrating of lead the loss often amounts to as much as fifteen per cent. or twenty per cent. The best way to prevent final loss is to store all refuse until such time as the reworking becomes profitable. Improvement in methods has been great in the last fifteen years but more economical methods everywhere will be one of the necessities of the future. We can see that the lead resources of the United States are not large and that when our own supply is exhausted we can not turn to the rest of the world.

The waste in mining is not large, and most of it can not be avoided at present prices; so that for the conservation, which we see is so important, we must turn to the uses of lead. The most necessary of these is for lead pipes in plumbing. Another use is for war supplies, which not only makes heavy drains on our stores of coal and iron, but also on lead, which is much less plentiful.

One ton out of every three produced in the United States is used in the manufacture of white lead and consumed as paint. This, of course, is entirely lost, and it seems that some other material might be used, instead of so valuable a mineral, especially when the resource is not abundant. White lead is used more than any other substance for paint, although zinc white has come into considerable use in the last few years. No other nation uses lead paint to such an extent as does the United States, partly because no other nation could afford so general a use of such an expensive material, and partly because so many wooden buildings are erected. By using brick, stone, or cement, of which we have practically an unending supply, to take the place of wood, our store of which is rapidly disappearing, we could avoid much of the drain on our mineral resources which are used for paint.

As production and price advance a greater quantity of lead is remelted. About 25,000 tons are returned to use each year.

ZINC

Zinc is a whitish metal. It is used in galvanizing iron to prevent its rusting. It is used also in the manufacture of white paint, which consumes about one ton out of every six tons mined. This, of course, is permanently lost, but the price and its value as a resource is much lower than lead. This takes more than half of the entire product. The remainder of the output is about equally divided between brass and sheet zinc. All these uses are extremely necessary and it is believed that the production of zinc will rapidly increase for many years.

The United States is the largest producer, Germany ranks second. Large amounts are mined in Australia, and very large deposits, entirely undeveloped, are said to exist in Africa. In 1880, the United States produced 23,000 tons of zinc; in 1907, 280,000 tons. This indicates the rapid rate at which we are increasing our use of zinc.

If the same rate should continue, in 1920 we should be using 475,000 tons, or almost a billion pounds, and if zinc oxide should take the place of white lead in painting to the extent that now seems probable, the quantity would be still further increased.

Missouri is by far the heaviest producer of zinc, having a little more than half of the output. New Jersey ranks next, then Colorado, Wisconsin and Kansas. Some of the other western states each produce small amounts. Most of the pure zinc ore is mined at a depth of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty feet and occurs in sheets, but a large part of the ore is a by-product obtained from the reduction of other ores. In New Jersey the zinc alone is found in a single region, where it was estimated a few years ago that there were eight million tons, of which two and a half million tons have been mined since 1904. The zinc in Missouri, Wisconsin and Kansas is found alone or underlying lead deposits, while that of the western states is almost always found in limestone, and is mixed with silver, copper, lead, and, more rarely, gold. In these states there has been little attempt to discover zinc; in fact, ores containing zinc have been rather shunned because of the difficulty in extracting them.

It is thought that our resources of zinc, especially in the West, have just begun to be developed, and that the supply, even at the present rate of increase and at present prices, will last many years. However, with increasing use for the product, we can not be sure of supplies for more than a generation; and in view of the importance of zinc it becomes necessary to inquire into its wastes.

In no mineral is the waste more startling than in zinc. In Missouri it is necessary to leave supporting pillars as in coal mining. This can not be remedied, as the use of timbers is too expensive, but it causes a heavy loss. In the West, owing to the expensive treatment and shipment, much of the low-grade ore is left in the ground. In refining the loss is enormous, often as much as forty per cent. In order to produce zinc at a low cost there must be a heavy loss of metal. Better plants and equipment for refining, and the saving of all refuse for later use will be necessary if we are to conserve the zinc supply for future generations.

MISCELLANEOUS

The supplies of many of the materials used in buildings and bridges, such as stone, gravel, clay, cement and lime are so great that they appear inexhaustible, and need of care in their use is not so much to be considered as is their development to take the place of other resources.

In the past they have not been used freely because wooden buildings have been so much cheaper; but cement, concrete and brick are now manufactured much more cheaply, on account of improved methods, while the price of lumber has been increasing rapidly. Within the last ten years, the value of cement manufactures has increased nearly six times. In 1900 we used seventy pounds of cement for each person; in 1907, two hundred and twenty-eight pounds. The value of brick and other products made from clay has doubled in the same period and is now $160,000,000, while the value of building-stone quarries is three times as great as it was ten years ago. There are many reasons why these materials should take the place of wood; as they are stronger, more durable, do not require paint, and are so much less liable to loss by fire.

The waste of minerals used in building is due to improper and reckless methods of taking them from the ground and preparing them for market and in careless methods in manufacturing.

Of such minerals as quartz, grindstone, millstone, emery stone, mineral paints, talc and salt, there seems to be enough to meet the needs of the future as well as the present. Such supplies as sulphur, asphalt, magnesia, borax, and asbestos, as well as coal and iron, are not very plentiful. If used carelessly, they will be exhausted in a few years; if wisely, they may be expected to last beyond the limits of the present century.

Our supplies of quicksilver, antimony, graphite, mica, tin, nickel, platinum, and many minerals less well known, as well as our petroleum, natural gas, copper, gold, silver, lead, zinc, and phosphate rock will be almost exhausted well within the present century unless large new deposits are discovered.

REFERENCES

Report of National Conservation Commission.

The Conservation of Mineral Resources. U. S. Government Reports.

Report of the U. S. Geological Survey.

Production of Gold in 1908. U. S. Government Reports.

Production of Silver in 1908.

Production of Lead in 1908.

Production of Zinc in 1908.

Production of Structural Materials.

About twenty pamphlets on other minerals.



CHAPTER IX

ANIMAL FOODS

GRAZING

Food is of two classes: vegetable, which comes directly from the earth, and animal, which has fed on vegetable life. This is, of course, a more concentrated form of food, and much less of it is needed to sustain life.

For the plentiful supply of vegetable food we must depend upon the fertility of the soil, as we have seen. Our animal food can not be classed among our natural resources, but as a product of them, and requires the same care and wise use.

In the early history of our country natural animal food was abundant. Fishes swarmed in the sea, lakes, and streams. Wild turkeys and other game birds, deer, and bison formed a large part of the food of our forefathers. But these have been gradually disappearing. We have caught and destroyed so many fish that we have only a fraction of our former number. The game birds have disappeared either because they have been killed in great numbers or because their nesting-places have been destroyed. Of the big game nothing is now left except in a few remote regions, and it is growing less plentiful each year.

Although large quantities of fish and game are marketed every year at certain seasons, they form a small fraction of the animal food required in the country, and we must now depend for most of our animal food, not on that which was at first given us for a natural resource but on that raised by man.

The poultry—the chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys; the cattle, beef and dairy, the hogs and the sheep that are raised in such vast numbers have taken the place of wild game. The cultivated varieties have higher food value, and are far more satisfactory, since they are ready for use at any time.

The conservation of our animal food resources presents a different problem from any other. It is true that we have wasted and exhausted our natural food supplies, but we must remember that to a certain extent their preservation was neither possible nor desirable. They have been driven out by advancing civilization.

Wild birds and animals leave as the forests are cut out, destroying their natural homes. Many of them can not be kept in captivity, so this supply never could have been regulated. It was necessary to destroy some of them to insure man's safety, and others were needed for his use. But we can take their places with other animals which are better fitted for our food, and it is the task of keeping up a sufficient supply of these on the most suitable land and under conditions that will yield the best results, that constitutes the problem of the conservation of our animal food resources.

The raising of poultry and live stock on a large scale is a separate occupation, usually followed in a scientific manner and it is not of that industry that we need to speak, but rather of the benefit to every farmer and to the dwellers in small communities, of raising at least a part of the animal food used by the family.

Every farm has some bits of unoccupied land that can be fenced off for poultry. The gleanings from the fields will supply their food, and they will furnish meat and eggs for the family throughout the year, with enough left to sell to provide other comforts.

Live stock, cattle, sheep and hogs, as well as goats, horses and mules, are profitable to every farmer. Many farms have woodland; land that overflows at some seasons, and so is unfit for raising crops; or some rocky unproductive land where stock can be raised more profitably than anything else, and if every farmer would use all the land not suitable for farm crops for pasture land the problem of an abundant meat supply, of dairy products and of fertilizers to enrich the soil would be largely solved. Some farming experts advocate letting each field in turn be used for pasture every five years, because the stock raised on it is equal in value to any other farm crop, and because the rest and fertilization almost double the value of the succeeding year's crop.

In the West and Southwest there are large tracts of public land untilled. Much of the land can never be used for agricultural purposes, because it is arid or mountainous.

This land is well adapted to grazing and the government has allowed free use of it to stockmen as pasture lands.

These public pasture lands are called "ranges." In the early years when this part of the country belonged to Mexico, the ranges were traversed by Indians and Mexicans who tended the herds of wild cattle and horses, raised mostly for their hides. But in the last quarter of a century the business has fallen into the hands of Americans who have introduced better breeds of higher value. In California, Arizona, and New Mexico there are now on the open ranges eight million sheep, nearly three million cattle and nearly a million horses, worth much more than one hundred million dollars. Wyoming and Utah have great sheep ranges and do much to keep up the wool supply. On Texas, with its great cattle ranges, we depend for a large part of our beef and leather. In all these states where stock is fed on public land, there are many questions as to ownership of animals, rights of rival rangers, and other points to settle.

In some of these states the government has set aside national forest reserves. Within these is much good grazing land. In order that the government may have some revenue from the land, a regular price has been set on these forest lands. The charge is forty cents a year each for horses, thirty-five cents a year for cattle, and twelve cents for sheep. The land is properly divided, so that each kind of stock has suitable pasture. Each person who pays this tax is given a certain range and no one else is allowed to use it. There is sufficient pasture for each so that it need not be too closely cropped. A man may lease the same range year after year, may put down wells to supply his stock, live on it, and do many things to improve it.

The forest rangers who patrol the forest to watch for fires or for timber thieves also protect these stockmen in their rights and prevent trouble about grazing privileges.

Outside the forest reserves the grazing is free, but the advantages offered by this system are so great that nearly all rangers now wish to use the forest reserves.

As each ranger has his land assigned to him and no one else can use it, the grass is not overcropped as it often is in regions outside the forests. If pasture is good, so many herds are pastured there that soon the grass is all trampled down and eaten off. Large areas are so badly injured that it will not naturally resod itself.

Cattle men are asking that the same rules that apply to the national forests be applied to other public lands, so that the pasturage may be improved and each man may have protection in his rights.

If all grazing lands could be thus leased, it would give the business a far more permanent character, better breeds of stock would be raised, and individual owners would direct their efforts to improving both stock and pasture, after the manner of stock raisers on private lands.

So large a part of our animal food, our wool, our leather and many smaller needs depend on this industry, that every effort should be made to encourage it, and to provide the wisest laws and best methods both for conserving and developing it.

In conclusion it is interesting to note that the Department of Agriculture is making a study of food birds and animals in various parts of the world, and trying to domesticate them, to add to the variety of our food supply. The quail, the golden pheasant and some species of grouse among birds, and two or three species of deer, including the reindeer, appear to be adapted to domestic life in this country, and may, before many years, become a part of the animal industry of the United States.

FISHERIES

One who has never seen the big catches of fish brought in by a mackerel fleet or visited a wholesale fish market can have little idea of the importance of that industry, nor of the immense amount of food that is taken from the waters of the United States every year.

The word fish is made to include not only fish proper, but oysters, clams, scallops, lobsters, crabs, shrimps, and turtles. Fish is liked by most persons, is more easily digested than meat and is nourishing. As a food resource, it is different in many respects from any other. It does not exhaust the soil, nor take from the earth anything of value, the food of fishes consisting of water plants and animals that are not used by man in any other way. Fish also purify the water in which they live, and so cause a great, though indirect, benefit.

It is so plainly the wise thing, then, to keep our rivers stocked with fish and to use them for food only, that it seems that this valuable resource has been more seriously and unnecessarily wasted than any other.

Fish are wasted on inland streams in the following ways: (1) By dynamiting. If a charge of dynamite be exploded on the bed of the river, great numbers of fish, killed by the shock, rise to the top of the water and can be taken. This practice was quite common at one time, but is now prohibited by law in several states.

(2) By seining. A seine or net is placed entirely across the stream, and all the fish which come down the stream are caught. In several states seining is not allowed at all. In others it is allowed only at certain seasons. And in still others the meshes of the seine must be large enough to allow all fish below a certain size to slip through.

(3) By catching with a hook, (angling) more fish than can be used or catching small fish and then throwing them away. This is a very common custom among sportsmen, but should be prohibited by law. From a certain small inland lake, it is said that during the entire season an average of five thousand fish a day is taken. These are almost all caught by summer residents, and it is unlikely that a large per cent. of them are eaten. In a few years the lake will be exhausted, and will cease to furnish fish for the people of the community, and there will, of course, be no more fishing for the sportsmen. Equal waste is going on all through the summer at every resort where good fishing is to be had. Some states have laws regulating the size of the fish that may be caught and the number that one person may take in one day, and all states should have such laws.

(4) The worst waste of our fish is caused by turning large quantities of sewage or refuse from factories into streams. All the fish for miles up and down a river are often destroyed in this way. As we have seen, this is only one of the bad results of allowing such refuse to drain into streams; every state should have strict laws prohibiting it.

From the waters of the New England states more than five hundred and twenty-eight millions of fish are taken each year. Here are the great cod, mackerel, and herring fisheries. From the Middle Atlantic states, the great region for oysters, lobsters and other sea food, come eight hundred and twenty million more; one hundred and six million come from the South Atlantic states; one hundred and thirteen million, including the much sought tarpon and red snappers, come from the Gulf states; two hundred and seventeen million are caught in the Pacific states, including the great salmon catches; ninety-six millions are taken from the Mississippi River and its tributaries, and one hundred and sixty-six millions, largely salmon, from Alaska. The Great Lakes, with their pickerel, and other fine fresh-water fish furnish one hundred and thirteen millions and the small inland waters at least five millions more.

When they are taken from the waters the 2,169,000,000 pounds of fish caught in the United States are worth $58,000,000, but by canning, salting, and other processes of preserving, the value is greatly increased.

Fortunately, there is a method of conserving our supply of fish and not only preventing it from growing less, but of greatly increasing the number and improving the quality. The United States government has a thoroughly well organized fish commission, and many states and counties and even private clubs carry on the same work, which is a general supervision of the fish supply.

The government maintains stations which are regularly engaged in hatching fish, keeping them until the greatest danger of their being destroyed is past, and then placing them in various streams all over the country. These fish are always of good food varieties, and are carefully selected to insure the kind best suited to the stream, as to whether it is warm or cold, deep or shallow, clear or muddy, fresh or salt, slow and placid, or swift and turbulent, for each kind of stream has certain varieties of fish that are especially adapted to it.

With all these things taken into account, stocking only with the best food varieties, if a state has laws which require that a stream be kept free from sewage and refuse, that no tiny fish be taken from the water, and that only a stated number can be taken in a day by a single person, hundreds of small streams, ponds and reservoirs all over the country may be made to yield food supplies for the entire community near by.

Governor Deneen, of Illinois, in urging that streams be improved for navigation, says, "No estimate of the benefits to flow from stream development would be complete without allusion to the fisheries which have been established on the Illinois River, largely by restocking with fish from hatcheries. The fisheries located on that stream are second in value only to those of the Columbia River.

"Our experience thus far indicates that the food resources of the water may be brought up in value to those of the land. The Illinois valley contains 80,000 acres of water area and yields a fish product worth ten dollars an acre each year, very nearly all profit. The average value of the land product near by is a little less than twelve dollars an acre, and the labor, cost of seeding, and exhaustion of fertilization of the land must all be counted before there can be a profit."

In 1908 the United States Fish Commission distributed nearly two and a half billion of young fish and half a million fish eggs. These were such excellent varieties as salmon, shad, trout, bass, white fish, perch, cod, flat fish and lobsters.

The Bureau of Fisheries has its fish-hatching stations, its boats for catching fish in nets and its tank cars for carrying the young fish and eggs to the streams that are to be stocked.

Some of the most important work is interestingly described in a history of the Bureau of Fisheries issued in 1908. Among other things it tells of the lobster industry in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Lobsters are not found naturally in the Pacific, but shipments of lobsters have been made from the Atlantic coast. At the last shipment, after carrying them across the continent packed in seaweed, more than a thousand lobsters were safely placed on the bed of the Pacific Ocean.

On the Atlantic coast the lobsters were rapidly disappearing when the work of artificial "planting" of young lobsters and eggs began. The results can be seen now, for more lobsters are being caught each year, and the price to users is growing less as the supply becomes more plentiful.

The shad and the salmon are considered the finest of all fish for eating. Both are salt-water fish and both have the habit of going some distance up fresh-water rivers to lay their eggs. No eggs are ever laid in salt water. The mother fish goes up beyond where the tide comes in, so that the baby fish may have fresh water, which is necessary for them. Salmon and shad are never caught in the sea, but in the rivers, where they go in large numbers to lay their eggs in the spring. This, of course, means the destruction of both fish and eggs,—the present and future supply.

Shad eggs, or roe are sold in large quantities. The Bureau of Fisheries has planted three thousand millions of young shad in streams along the coast, and the eggs from which these fish were hatched were all taken from fish that had been caught for market, and would have been totally lost if the Bureau had not collected them from the fishermen.

Shad have been planted in the Sacramento and Columbia Rivers flowing into the Pacific Ocean. From these two sources they have spread until now they are found as far south as Los Angeles, and as far north as Alaska, a coast line of 4,000 miles, and it is said that more shad could now be caught in the Sacramento and Columbia Rivers than in any other water courses.

In addition to supplying the streams with young fish, it is necessary to leave a part of each river clear so that some of the fish may find their way up-stream to deposit their eggs. The salmon have been almost driven out from the waters of New England, except in the Penobscot River, where they have been kept by the watchfulness of the Fisheries Bureau. It is believed that the entire salmon industry in Maine would be wiped out in five years if fish culture should cease, and in the West, where the drain on the salmon for canning purposes is so heavy, artificial planting is used very largely to keep up the supply.

The experiments with oysters are full of interest. In Chesapeake Bay, where the best natural oyster beds were found, the demands on them were so great that the supply began to fail. In 1904 only a little more than one-fourth as many were produced as in 1880. The natural oyster beds were then marked and set aside as public fishing grounds.

These are to be used by whoever wishes but under strict protective rules. All other ocean beds may be planted with oysters by any one who leases the privilege from the state, and the right to collect the oysters from a certain bed belongs to the person who leases it as fully as does property on land.

Louisiana had a small number of natural beds. About ten years ago the planting of oyster beds began, and soon 20,000 acres had been planted. Conditions were particularly favorable, and within two years after the eggs or spawn were placed it was found that oysters three and a half to four inches in size had grown in quantities of 1,000 to 2,000 bushels per acre. For a long time it has been the custom of fishermen to fatten their oysters by transplanting them to new beds where the food is abundant, and in a short time the oysters are much plumper, it takes fewer of them to make a quart and they also sell at a higher price, because they are of the finest quality.