about

[ with

this region may become a second Cornwall." Deposits of copper ore were formerly worked to a considerable extent in New Jersey and Connecticut, and recently rich veins of this ore have been opened in Chester county, Pa. Lead. The ore of this metal is found in Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Kentucky. The most important lead deposits in the United States are in the Mississippi Valley. The Upper Mines are within the adjoining States of Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa. The area of this region is 4000 square miles, of which 2200 square miles, or 55 per cent., lie in Wisconsin; but the most productive portion is in Iowa and Illinois. The first extensive mining began in 1826. In 1829 the annual production was 5000 tons; in 1839 it had risen to 10,000 tons; and in 1845 it reached its maximum, amounting to nearly 25,000 tons. Since that time it has greatly fallen off, and it is difficult, or rather impossible, to obtain trustworthy figures with relation to it. The lead deposits of Missouri have been divided by mineralogists into three districts, the south-west, the middle and the south-east, the last being the most important, covering an area of about 500 square miles. In 1811 Mine Shibboleth, in this region, produced 1562 tons of lead from 2500 tons of ore. In 1816 the average annual product of Mine à Burton and the Potosi diggings for the preceding eighteen years was estimated at over 250 tons. From 1834 to 1837 the yearly production of Mine La Motte was 518 tons. The State geologist makes the annual product of all the lead mines in Missouri for the 14 years ending with 1854, inclusive, more than 1916 tons. There are numerous deposits of lead ore in the Atlantic States, but they have not been very extensively worked. Some of them are highly argentiferous; ore from the Shelburne Mine, in New Hampshire, giving 84 ounces of pure silver to the ton of lead, and some from the Warren Mine, in the same State, yielding 60 to 70 ounces per ton. Shipments of ore made in colonial times to England from the neighborhood of Middletown, Conn., yielded from 25 to 75 ounces per ton, and contrary to the usual rule, that portion of the ore which was fine grained, and was consequently expected to give the largest amount of silver, furnished the 25 ounces, while the 75 ounces per ton was obtained from the coarsely cubical ore. The imports of lead into the United States during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1873, were 71,371,692 pounds (35,685 tons of 2000 pounds), and for the year ending June 30, 1874, 43,513,017 pounds (21,755 tons), showing a decrease of nearly 40 per cent.

Zinc.-Zinc ores have been found in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Missouri, North Carolina, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Tennessee and in several other States. The first zinc was made in this country in 1838, for the brass standard weights and measures ordered by Congress. A block from New Jersey weighing 16,400 pounds was exhibited at the World's Fair in Lon

don, in 1851. It was estimated, several years since, that of the entire product of the world Prussia yields 58 per cent., Belgium 27, Russia 7 and the United States 3. The proportion to be credited to this country is now undoubtedly larger. Franklinite, or the red oxide, is obtained near Franklin and Sparta, in New Jersey; and both calamine and blende are worked at Friedensville, near Bethlehem, Pa., the works of the Lehigh Zinc Company being at the latter place. This company manufactured about 1700 tons of white oxide of zinc, an equal quantity of spelter, and rolled about 1000 tons of sheet zinc, during the year ending April 1, 1874. The sheet-zinc made from Pennsylvania ores is deemed fully equal to the famous brand La Vielle Montagne, of France, some considering it even better, on account of its freedom from arsenic and iron. The great difficulty in competing with French sheet-zinc arose from an ignorance of the secret of the polishing process. The very simplicity of this operation baffled research, as it is performed by passing several heated sheets through iron rollers, when by mutual friction they polish each other. The purity, smoothness of surface and durability of this zinc have led to its adoption as the material for the cartridge-cases used by the Russian and Turkish governments.

Quicksilver.-The quicksilver mines of California are elsewhere mentioned [see CALIFORNIA, in TOPOGRAPHY]. According to the reports of the Paris Exposition, California yielded, in 1867, 3,960,000 pounds out of a total for all countries of 7,083,120 pounds. The product of the New Almaden mine for 21 years, ending with December 31, 1873, was 573,150 flasks (containing 764 pounds each), or 43,845,975 pounds. It is said that the Old Almaden mine in Spain controlled the Chinese market until a few years ago, when the manager of the New Almaden shipped 10,000 flasks to Hong Kong, and sold them so far below cost as to drive the European quicksilver back to Spain. California then supplied China; but Spain, by the same tactics, obtained the control of the London market. In 1869, for instance, the exports of quicksilver from the United States to England amounted to only 152,924 pounds, while those to China amounted to 824,052 pounds. The total exports for the year 1869 were 2,152,499 pounds, Mexico taking even more than China (834,776 pounds). Since that time the production has fallen away, the yield for 1873 being little more than 2,000,000 pounds; and during the year ending June 30, 1873, foreign countries took only 714,783 pounds of American quicksilver, none of this amount going to England. In the year ending June 30, 1874, the quantity exported was 501,389 pounds.

NOTE. The agricultural products are treated elsewhere [see AMERICAN AGRICUL TURE], and the remaining minor topics, which usually come under the head of Physical Geography, are treated in the articles on the several States [see TOPOGRAPHY, p. 205 et seq.] as fully as space will allow.-ED. U. S. CENTENNIAL GAZETTEER AND GUIDE.

RESOURCES AND PROSPECTS OF THE UNITED STATES.

BEFORE

QEFORE treating of the several States separately, it seems proper, as we have just been taking a general view of the physical features of this country, to say a few words concerning the resources and prospects of the United States. A work upon this subject was written by Sir Morton Peto, and published in 1866. The kindly spirit in which he wrote, the special facilities afforded him while he was in America collecting information, the skill with which he has arranged his materials, combine to render the work of Sir Morton very valuable, even at the present day, when his statistics (a few of which were somewhat superannuated when he wrote) have become almost too stale for reproduction, except for comparison with the later figures of the years which have elapsed since his visit to America, in 1865. Americans are so busy, so thoroughly occupied with the interests which demand immediate attention, so little given to day-dreaming, that it is probable that few among them have any adequate conception of the vastness of the resources of their favored land. Vague general statements, which form the staple of the Fourth of July oration or the popular lecture, are couched in language so stereotyped that a great part of their effect is lost; and though they are acknowledged as truisms, the frequency with which they are heard, in nearly the same form of words, makes them seem almost like vain repetitions. The more specific, however, the information obtained, the more evident becomes the fact that statements apparently bombastic-assertions which seemed at first to be the offspring of an overweening national pride-have been below rather than above the mark. A comparison of some of the figures given for the United States with those for Europe, or for separate countries of the latter, gives a very favorable showing for the young republic. In the matter of territory, for instance, the area of Europe is 3,600,000 square miles, while that of the United States is 3,603,884 square miles. The area of the United Kingdom of Great Britain (83,827) and Ireland (28,800) is 112,627 square miles; that of France (including Corsica), 204,711 square miles. A larger amount of land (140,000,000 acres, or 218,750 square miles) than either of these has been given away to the States and Territories by the various national landgrants for the establishment and maintenance of public schools [see AMER

ICAN EDUCATION, page 498]. Texas (area 274,356 square miles) is larger than Spain (area 196,031 square miles); California (area 188,981 square miles) contains more territory than the kingdom of Italy (area 114,409 square miles); our States match in size the countries of Europe; our country is larger than that "grand division" of the globe. Sir Morton Peto* awards the United States this superiority even when (by including lakes and rivers) he made the area of this country 3,250,000 square miles; and the addition of Alaska puts it beyond question, even if the larger estimate of 3,600,000 square miles be the area of Europe. This territory, with the exception of Alaska, is compact and contiguous. For the most part it is united by lines of communication which consist of lakes, rivers, canals and telegraphs. By the settlement of California and Oregon the country has the great advantage of fronting the two great oceans, the Atlantic and Pacific. Of this territory the public lands embrace an area of nearly 3,000,000 square miles. The exact figures on the 30th of June, 1874, were 2,867,185 square miles, or 1,834,998,400 acres, of which 649,393,052 had been surveyed up to June 30, 1874, leaving 1,185,605,348. In 1867 the aggregate area, according to Hawes, was 1,446,716,072 acres, of which 485,311,778 acres, or about one-third, had been surveyed up to July 1st of that year. The increase is owing to the addition of Alaska to the public domain-an addition amounting to 577,390 square miles, or 369,529,600 acres. The lands are surveyed by the government and divided into uniform rectangular tracts, six miles square, called "townships," each township being subdivided into thirty-six "sections" one mile square, containing 640 acres each, and each section into “quarter sections" of 160 acres each, which are set apart for homesteads. By the "system of squares" every section and quarter section is bounded by lines running due north and south (as far as the convergency of the meridians, or their coming nearer together as they are extended northward, will permit), crossed by other lines running east and west. As the country is filled up and settled new surveys are made, and it is doubtless one of the greatest attractions of the United States that they possess so great an expanse of territory that it will be many years before the price of land in the West is raised by immigration, however great may be the influx of population. The application of industry to the cultivation of the soil will be for a long time the principal reason for an increase in the value of land, and such increase will be the certain and just reward for the labor of the industrious immigrant. There is no description of produce, European or tropical, which may not be raised in some part of this territory. Every part of the country produces wealth. The Western and Pacific States afford abundant crops of the two great cereals, wheat and

* We acknowledge here, once for all, our indebtedness to this author, and shall continue to borrow freely from his work without further reference.-ED. U. S. CENTENNIAL GAZETTEER AND GUIDE.

Indian corn, with the additional advantage that the first of these is gath ered in the summer and the other in the fall, thus affording a double harvest to the farmer. The Southern States grow sugar, rice, tobacco and corn. The agricultural resources have been fully dwelt upon elsewhere, both generally [see AMERICAN AGRICULTURE] and particularly, in connection with the separate articles on the several States and Territories [see TOPOGRAPHY]. The mineral resources have also been treated both generally [see PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY] and in detail [see TOPOGRAPHY]. Every portion of this territory possesses some special advantage. Even in many places where the soil is barren that soil consists of valuable chemicals, prepared (in a nearly pure form) in Nature's laboratory, or it covers metals worth more than the aggregate crops for many years gathered from an equal extent of the most fertile soil, or it affords some other yield which makes it of value to the man who intelligently endeavors to ascertain and to develop its capabilities. This leads us to speak of another resource of this country-viz., the intelligent industry of the people. The vast increase made during the past thirty years in the annual value of manufactured articles [see AMERICAN MANUFACTURES] is a proof that this resource is one to be relied upon as an important auxiliary to the advance of this nation in wealth, in comfort and in the ability to sustain a large population. The opinion of Sir Morton Peto (and of other writers who could not possibly look upon the question disinterestedly) that it would be the best policy for the people of the United States to devote their attention exclusively to agriculture, and to entirely depend upon England and other foreign countries for supplies of manufactured articles, this opinion, we say, however pleasant and plausible it may appear to those who desire to furnish this country with all the necessaries of life except food, will not meet with the approval of the true American who desires his country to take a leading position among the nations of the world. To follow out this policy, to permit our almost boundless resources of coal, of iron, of water-power, of the industry of a free people, to slumber unused, would be to scorn the gifts of a bountiful Providence which has richly showered upon this favored nation not only the blessings pronounced by the patriarchs upon their posterity-"the dew of heaven, the fatness of the earth and plenty of corn and wine"--but has also given "a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills" may be dug not only brass (or its ingre dients, copper and zinc), but more gold and silver than the famed Ophir ever produced. Nor is it any kindness to the American farmer to support a doctrine which would make all men farmers, would cause an overproduction of all agricultural products, and would leave the unfortunate agriculturist entirely at the mercy of foreign markets for the disposal of the immense surplus which would be left were every man to become a farmer. It would, doubtless, be a comfortable state of affairs for all the foreign.