6 CHARLES KIRCHOFF 



gium thrown in. We manufactured in 1902 fully 40 per cent 

 of the world's total. 



The gold production of the world was about $325,000,000 

 in 1903, to w^hich we contril^uted $74,000,000 and Australasia 

 $77,000,000. Of course, when the Rand resumes its full pro- 

 duction and again starts on its natural increase, we shall prob- 

 ably have to yield first place to it. 



The world's production of silver had a commerical value 

 of about $103,000,000. Here again we occupy first rank, with 

 Mexico as a close second. 



The supremacy in the copper mining industry is un- 

 doubtedly ours for many years to come. We produced over 

 52 per cent of the total of the world's annual yield of 512,000 

 tons. In 1902, with a product of 294,000 tons, we came close 

 to the entire world's output in 1890, when it was 723,000 tons. 



We stand in zinc following German3\ Our output of 

 that metal in 1901 was 125,000 tons out of a total of the world 

 of 501,000 tons, or over 25 per cent. 



These figures, enormous as they are, do not really reflect 

 adequately the great importance of our mining, since it lies at 

 the foundation of the manufacturing industries of this coun- 

 try, and is the basis of its industrial greatness, backed as it is 

 with an equally lavish supply of raw materials from the forest 

 and farm. Mining and rail transportation have reciprocally 

 aided one another, and in turn have contributed pow^erfuUy 

 to the well being of the farmer and the lumberman. 



As in other realms of material progress, the United 

 States has outstripped all other civilized countries in the de- 

 velopment of its mining and metallurgical industries. 



Brief though the period be during which we have been 

 actively mining, we have witnessed the exhaustion of famous 

 great deposits and the decline of entire camps and districts. 

 This is apt to occur most rapidly in case of placers, conspicu- 

 ous among which are the auriferous sands and gravels in 

 which the precious metal has been concentrated by the wash- 

 ing action of streams. California's enormous gold production 

 of the early days fell off rapidly after the first decade of the 

 working. The exhaustion of the silver-gold bonanzas of the 

 Comstock lode, the rapid collapse of the mining of silver lead 



