The Shasta courier., 1869-01-09
Home Manufactures.

mas never assumed dehnlte and tangible
shape until now. A meeting is to be held at
the Millville school house on the night Of
January 10th, to discuss the question, and,
If agreeable to all parties, company will be
incorporated Immediately. By the estimates
OF a competent machinest, having thirty
years Of practical experience in the business,
it will only require about thirteen thousand
dollars to set the spindes in motion. AT
first this sum would seem absnrdly insuffi-
cient, but when we recollect that wooden
building will be erected, and water power
used, thus dispensing with the great cost Of
large steam engine and boiler, it more than
fills the requirements. Thus the operating
point is reached with small primary ex-
penditure.
Next, as to the cost Of manufacturing
| goods. In San Francisco there are two mills.
| the cost ot the sites of which alone cost m ore
than the whole Milville factory would cost.
These mills run by steam, and pay from
eight to ten dollars per cord for wood to gen
crate that steam The mills in Sacramento
and Marysville also run by steam, but fuel is
cheaper in those cities than at the Bay. Yet
the Marysvile mills are making money, and
so are those of San Francisco, while those at
Sacramento will have the advantages of the
| Pacific Railroad over other mills Of course
working bv steam increases the danger of fire
and destruction of property thereby. The
freigh. on wool by steamer, railroad or sail
ing vessel must be paid at San Francisco in
all cases, while Sacramento and Marysville
are somewhat more eligibly located for the
convenience of producers.
AT present the wool growers of Shasta
county are living in defiance of every princi
pie of economy. They are hauling their
wool to Red Bluff, where they receive about
seventeen cents per pound for it. Then it is
carried by steamer to San Francisco, at a
cost of twenty dollars per ton, together with
wharfage, storeage, carriage and broker s
commissions, before it reaches the mill where
it is made up. Now it re-ascends the Sacra-
mento river again in the shape of blankets,
cloths and knitted under garments, paying
twenty dollars per ton freight to Red Bluff,
besides fofwarder's charges, and then it
comes by "prairie schooner" to Shasta
county to be charged no more. What we
propose to do is, first, to give our wool grow
ers cash market at home, where they can
sell their wool for cash one cent less (only
the difference of steamboat freight) per pound
than they get in San Francisco; and, on the
other hand, we propose to sell clothing and
blankets at least ten per cent. cheaper than
they have ever been sold here before, for the
following reasons: lst the saving of inter
est on an expensive building site I'd. the
engine, and the wear and tear of the same
3d. the dispensing with the cost of fuel for
steam.
Having thoroughly demonstrated that we
can manufacture cheaper than either San
Francisco. Sacramento or Marysville, we next
proceed to consider the question of a market
for our wares. OF course no one will pretend
that Shasta county alone will consume enough
to support mill but let us look around us
We have Lassen, Trinity, Tehama, Siskiyou
and Klamath-to all of which counties we
can furnish goods cheaper than either San
Francisco, Sacramento or Marysville, saving
twenty dollars on every forty cubic feet Of
bulk and in those parts of Butte and Colusa
lying north of Butte Greek we can compete
{ favorably with Sacramento or Marysville
Ready made clothing workshops could bt
established in Shasta, for the proximity tc
the mill would render no great outlay o.
/ capital necessary and good employment
it. One suit of good clothes made of oul
, home fabrics would outwear two suits Of the
: Eastern shoddy stuff. How much clothing
would the counties around us require? Le
: us take the popular vote of the Presidential
election as being seven-tenths Of the actua
male population Shasta, 1874; Trinity
s96; Tehama, 749; Lassen, 1872; Siskiyou
1853; klamath, 324. Total, 1913. Taking
this as seven-tenths, the whole number il
7066. Now Chinaman will not purchase
more than thirty dollars worth of wooler
clothes in a year, while white man will
wear nearly three times that much. So il
will be fair to average it about fifty dollars
per year for each male inhabitant of the siz
counties. This would give total of 1858,
450 per year, exclusive of blankets. We car
lay our goods down in Owyhee as cheap al
the Sacramento mills can lay them down a
Winnemucca, and send them by OK teams a
that How do you like the idea of having
this little sum of 1858, $50 spent in Shasta
every year, instead of going to San Francisco
1t can be done and it shall be done. 1t il
only question of time.
The cooperative influence of merchants
throughout the north is needed by this en-
terprise. If every dry goods store keeper il
i the larger towns will take share or two o
, stock, he will find it to his advantage to sci
) the fabrics of his own mill, in preference tt
t those of other localities. 1t is probable tha
5 the books of the company will be opened fol
subscriptions to the capital stock during thu
coming month, and we hope to see it all taker
i by our citizens. 1t will tend to check tn,
1 tide of bullion that has been ebbing from
Shasta to the sea for the last twenty years