September 30, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



ATI 



The junior mining engineers of the Case 

 School of Applied Science, of Cleveland, 

 Ohio, spent the month of June on a practise 

 term trip through the west. They visited 

 Gary, Chicago, Denver, Golden, Idaho 

 Springs, Georgetown, Colorado Springs, Crip- 

 ple Creek and Pueblo. Those in charge of the 

 trip were Dr. A. W. Smith, professor of metal- 

 lurgy. Dr. F. E. Van Horn, professor of geol- 

 ogy and mineralogy, and Mr. L. O. Howard, 

 instructor in mining and ore treatment. 



The Bureau of Statistics of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture reports that the month 

 of August was favorable for crops in general, 

 taking the United States as a whole, the de- 

 terioration during the month being about 0.6 

 per cent., whereas there is an average decline 

 in August of 3.3 per cent. Aggregate crop 

 conditions in the United States on September 

 1 (or at time of harvest) were about 0.4 per 

 cent, lower than on corresponding date a year 

 ago and 2.8 per cent, lower than the average 

 condition on September 1 (or at time of 

 harvest) of the past ten years. The area 

 under cultivation is about 3.2 per cent, more 

 than last year. By states, the aggregate of 

 crop conditions on September 1 (100 repre- 

 senting the average on September 1 of the 

 past ten years) was as follows: Maine, 111; 

 New Hampshire, 110; Vermont, 113; Massa- 

 chusetts, 102; Ehode Island, 103; Connecti- 

 cut, 113; New York, 106; New Jersey, 107; 

 Pennsylvania, 103; Delaware, 110; Maryland. 

 103; Virginia, 106; West Virginia, 93; North 

 Carolina, 107; South Carolina, 104; Georgia, 

 100; Florida, 98; Ohio, 98; Indiana, 104; Illi- 

 nois, 104; Michigan, 97; Wisconsin, 78; Min- 

 nesota, 92; Iowa, 97; Missouri, 105; North 

 Dakota, 41; South Dakota, 76; Nebraska," 89; 

 Kansas, 96 ; Kentucky, 98 ; Tennessee, 106 ; 

 Alabama, 106; Mississippi, 106; Louisiana, 

 100; Texas, 103; Oklahoma, 90; Arkansas, 

 112; Montana, 80; Wyoming, 103; Colorado, 

 85 ; New Mexico, 83 ; Arizona, 79 ; Utah, 100 ; 

 Nevada, 129; Idaho, 92; Washington, 82; 

 Oregon, 106; California, 114. The conditions 

 of various crops in the United States on Sep- 

 tember 1 (or at time of harvest), — 100 repre- 

 senting for each crop, not its normal condi- 



tion, but its average condition on September 

 1, or at time of harvest (10-year average for 

 most crops) — was as follows : Peaches (pro- 

 duction), 113.1; winter wheat (yield per acre), 

 110.5; oats, 104.8; cabbages, 104.4; hops, 

 102.6; rye (yield per acre), 101.8; cranberries, 

 99.6; cotton, 98.6; corn, 98.4; hemp, 98.3; 

 sweet potatoes, 98.2; sugar cane, 97.6; canta- 

 loupes, 97.3; sorghum, 97.1; oranges, 97.1; 

 watermelons, 97.0 ; onions, 96.3 ; tomatoes, 

 95.5; kafSr corn, 95.0; buckwheat, 94.6; to- 

 bacco, 94.4 ; sugar beets, 94.1 ; hay (yield per 

 acre), 93.1; alfaHa, 92.9; potatoes, 88.3; 

 grapes, 87.7; millet, 86.6; apples, 85.6; barley, 

 84.0; spring wheat, 80.9; flaxseed, 55.8. The 

 number of stock hogs in the United States on 

 September 1 is estimated as 100.3 per cent, of 

 the number on September 1, 1909. The acre- 

 age of clover for seed is estimated as 116.7 

 per cent, of last year's acreage. 



Copper was once supposed to occur at only 

 a few places in the United States, but it is 

 now known to be widespread. Most of the 

 deposits are of low grade, but improved mod- 

 ern methods of treatment have made low- 

 grade copper ores very valuable. Geologists 

 of the United States Geological Survey de- 

 scribe the copper deposits of three localities in 

 an advance chapter from the survey's Bulletin 

 430, containing short papers and preliminary 

 reports on work done in 1909. The Shasta 

 region in California is the second largest cop- 

 per region in the United States that can be 

 considered a geologic unit. In shape it forms 

 a curved belt 35 miles long, popularly known 

 as the " copper crescent." Copper sulphides 

 have been known to occur with the gold lodes 

 of this region for many years, but were not 

 handled until 1895, and since that year the 

 region has produced 300,000,000 pounds of 

 copper. In 1909 it produced 50,000,000 pounds, 

 which makes it rank as the sixth or seventh 

 copper district in the United States. The 

 ores are pyritic and are of medium richness, 

 averaging 3 to 3J per cent. Some of them 

 form the largest sulphide ore bodies in the 

 world, measuring 1,200 by 300 by 300 feet. 

 They represent, not the filling of cavities, but 

 the replacement of parts of the rock by which 



