84 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



COAL IN KANSAS FOR 1883. 



I make a few extracts from the report of E. A. Scammon, State Inspector of 

 Mines, which has just been published: . 



It has been a considerable task to get from some operator^ a statement of 

 mine productions; while many have been prompt and business like, yet there 

 are a few to whom I have made two and sometimes three visits for information, 

 which could have been obtained in a few minutes if only attended to. However, 

 the matter is now well understood and in the future much less time will be con- 

 sumed in gathering material for these reports. This report has the merit of being 

 correct and reliable, which will -in a measure compensate for lateness. Item- 

 braces the coal production of the state for ihe last half of 1883; the number of 

 miners employed in the mines, and outside laborers engaged in preparing the 

 mine products for market; makes a calculation of the amount of coal mined by 

 each miner in the six months ; also the amount per day for each miner, allowing 

 150 working days in the time. 



This average of coal mined per each miner is not entirely correct, from the 

 fact that it is based on the number of miners at work in November and Decem- 

 ber two months of usually active work in the mines, and the number of min- 

 ers is larger in these two months than a general average of the whole six months 

 taken together, hence the larger number of men for same quantity of coal, the 

 lighter production per each man. 



In Osage County there are eighty-four shafts (five are stopes, but are here, 

 for brevity, considered same as shafts) located as follows : Osage City and vicin- 

 ity, 33; Peterton, 5; Dragoon, 3; Burlingame, 12; Scranton. 17; Carbondale, 

 14. Of this number ten are worked out or abandoned, and in the month of De- 

 cember twelve were not operating, leaving sixty-two in operation, quite a num- 

 ber of these working but a few men. The shafts are all operated by horse power. 

 Bushels of coal mined in Osage County, 4,722,367; number of miners, 1,518; 

 mine bosses and weighers, 127, This distinction of men is made because miners 

 are paid by the bushel, the mine bosses and other employes by the day or month. 

 Amount of coal mined per each miner, 3, 1 10 bushels ; per day each miner, allow- 

 ing 150 working days, 21 bushels; amount of money paid miners, $330,500; per 

 miner, $317. Mining bosses and laborers not included; just actual diggers paid 

 above amounts. Had the demand for coal been good, and mining active, the 

 business would have been easily one-third larger, and these figures correspond- 

 ingly increased. 



In addition to above amount of coal, there was stripped coal in the vicinity 

 of Scranton and Carbondale, 707,153 bushels; ninety teams and 120 men strip- 

 ped coal. 



Thus, in Osage County output of coal for last six months of 1883, 5,429,520 

 bushels. Miners employed, 1,564; laborers and strippers 201 ; total 1,765. This 

 does not include operators, superintendents, office men, etc. 



