American Forest Congress 303 



that my remarks will refer chiefly to the conditions 

 existing in the Black Hills Forest Reserve, the only 

 one of the larger timber reservations with which I am 

 thoroughly familiar. 



Nearly all the developed mines of the Black Hills 

 are large deposits of comparatively low grade gold ore, 

 either free-milling Or cyaniding in its character; fre- 

 quently both processes are combined in the extraction 

 of the values from the ore. In the successful prose- 

 cution of the work required to make a mine productive 

 and remunerative to the owners, the use of tin;iber is 

 an absolute necessity. , Its uses are varied. It is re- 

 quired to timber the shafts through which the ore is 

 drawn to the surface. Heavy timbers are also required 

 to take the place of the ore mined, to hold up the roof 

 of the workings and sustain the sides of the stopes 

 and drifts. The place of every supporting atom taken 

 from the interior of a mine, like the Homestake, 

 for instance, must be filled by some other material 

 which' can carry the burden with safety to the lives 

 of the miners employed. This requires timber from 

 the forest. No other material can be substitued for it. 

 The use of iron or steel posts and beams is prohibited 

 by their cost, to say nothing about their inadaptability 

 to the work of underground mining. 



To form some idea of the large amount of timber 

 used by a mine of the magnitude of the Homestake, 

 it is only necessary to state that over one and one- 

 quarter million tons of ore are annually extracted from 

 this property, practically all of which is taken out at 

 a greater depth than 500 feet from the surface of the 

 ground. Its deepest workings are, I am informed, 

 over 1,250 feet. 



It can be truly said that a veritable forest has been 

 used under ground in the mines of the Black Hills 



