Daily national Democrat., 1859-09-29
bitches and FIumes.

The opinion seems to prevail among some
of our capitalists that bitches and Fumes in
the mines do not commonly yield much proft
to the owners that the cost Of their construc-
ton is so heavy as to consume the proceeds
of wears, in balancing the original outlay, and
that when the original outlay is recovered.
the profits are still small and the expenses
large We do not coincide with this opinion
and think it very short.sighted one indeed.
How it obtained currency We do not know,
unless ii is to the interest Of ditch owners to
create the impression in order to prevent the
construction of rival bitches to their own.
Certain it is that very high prices are paid for
water, and thousands of streams from the
fumes are used in every mining section.-
Sluices, toms, cradles, hydraulics are all in
motion, and the demand for the aqueous fluid
is constant Why should it not pay, then,
enormously True it is that the woodwork
rots quite rapidly and it becomes necessary
to repair fumes every three or four years.
1t also costs good deal to keep the reser-
voirs in order. But these are outlays only at
long intervals, while the income is daily, from
years end to years end A medium sized
ditch will furnish hundred sluice heads
every day. These sluice heads will cost at
least IS each, thus giving to the ditch pro-
prietor $500 a day for his water. Certainly
his daily expenses could not possibly lie any
thing like that amount. The profit must
necessarily be immense When it comes to
furnishing stream eads for hydraulicing pur.
poses, where ten or twelve dollars worth of
water is consumed each day, at each of the
claims, of course the profits are very greatly
increased, aud the larger the ditch the more
valuable the property. And another thing,
it is idle to say, where there is such a monop
oily of water as ut present exists, and as must
necessarily exist always in this country, that
the overs of bitches cannot obtain prices
large enough to remunerate them for their
trouble. The idea that they cannot is ridcu.
ous.
If a man or a Company run a ditch into
region where there is no 6 3D. as II matter of
course, it will not pay; but men are seldom
guilty of such folly, and there are probably
not Il half dozen bitches in the whole country
which do not water molerately rich aurifer-
GUS regions Until the ditch system began,
everywhere through all the richest mining
regions the complaint was that there was no
water or not enough for mining purposes
viii any one pretend to say that commodi-
ty which is universally in demand cannot be
IN de to realize profit? The thing is ab-
surd upon its flce. An idea Of the extent to
which this demand reaches in the State at
large may be inferred from the fact that com.
petent judges have estimated that, in what is
known rs the "Miriposl District" revenue
often millions of dollars could be derived an
nually, from the sale of water alone
We have no statistics before US, but we
have no doubt that an exhibit of the expen-
ditures and profits of the three hundred and
fifty or four hundred ditch companies, now
in existence in this State, would show such II
percentage on the capital invested as would
make some Of our business communities open
their eyes with astonishment.