New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1866-06-30
COLORADO AND THE PACIFIC RAIL
ROAD.

A Committee on the Resources Of Colorado have
reported lOi 100000 pounds as the total amount OF
freight transported annually to that Territory at an
average of cost for the last three years at ten cents
per pound. or a total of So 400 0O0 One year from
tho completion Of the Pacific Railroad through
Colorado three times this amount Of transportation
is likely to be required, which, at only three cents
pound would yield S9,36O0OO. Next considering
agriculture it is shown by records Of the Land Office,
which was opened in the Territory on the 9th Of
October 1863 that there had up to tho 1st Of June,
been entored claimed and settled upon, 100000 a-?es
of land. In South and Southwestern Colorado is
still large district of country favored by nature, and
settled and in cultivation, but unsuryeyed. OF the
stated lands, there is now inarming 100000 acres,
all but 10000 Of which are given to grain, with
yield Of 20 bushels Of wheat and corn to the acre-a
bushel Of wheat selling for SO and corn for s. GO, or
an acre of wheat for 1920 and corn for Sll2. In the
rich States of Ohio and Illinois, for the past three
years, the average yield Of wheat has been l2l
bushels worth Sl2 50 per acre. and corn 40 bushels
at 30 cents EACH worth $3.50 that one acre of
wheat in Colorado is equal to 10 acres, and corn to
g acres, in those States Finally, the whole extent
of agricultural lands in Colorado is reckoned at
$500 900 acres; and of all the lands now taken by
actual settlements, three-fourths may be proftaby
farmed We have taken care to mass these facts, for
they strike Us very encouraging, and strongly
invite the completion of the Pacific Railroad
Regarding second great wealth of Colorado, its
mineral resources useful inquiry and prospectus has
been set forth by a resident engineer. The native
ores seems are really of copper and lead (cop
per pyres and gaena) with 10 to 80 per cent "copper"
and high as 60 per cent lead, aud sometimes with
large per centage Of iron pyrites. In such ores as
these gold is a mechanical MIXTURE and not by any
means equally distributed through the lodes" These
facts render It's extraction by ordinary process diff
cult and unsatisfactory; ores, for example, assayng
from $500 to $1,000 per tun, from which but Sl0to
500 can be extracted by the samp-ml process. What
known the desuphurzng process has for its OBJ
ject so fer as it is successful the treatment of iron
and copper pyrtcs only. Hence it is again stated
that the composition of tho Colorado ores would de-
m0nd their reduction by smelling, if the exorbitant
cost of fuel and fre-proof material the only fuel
available in the mountains being wood and charcoa)
could be overcome. This very demand the coal and
iron of Colorado are calculated to meet in time, for
no less than six beds of COAL three of which have been
developed have been discovered in the rich mineral
neighborhood Of Bellemont and Profile Butte where
"therc are outcroppngs and powders Of pure iron
ore as can be found in the world, and sufficient ore
in sight on tho surface to supply Colorado Montana
aud Idaho with machinery for the next dozen years.
The experiments of the Belemonte furnace show that
2 400 pounds of ore will produce one tun of pig iron,
at cost of $75, and a sale for $3.50 to $500, and
that in three months 70 tuns can be produced. 1t
happens, also that the late discoveries of gold aud
silver o. only sixteen miles from the coal fields, and
the most celebrated mines in Gipn County, but dis
tint 30 miles, which can be readily overcome by rail-
There Is q multitude Of good reasons for the speedy