Arizona citizen., 1873-09-20
ON MINING AND MINES. LETTER THIRD.
Mining on the Pacific Coast--Past,
 Present and Future.

Mining on the FaCIuC COaSC..Pa0t, Present and Future.
 From the glorious days of Cortez, the inhabitants of the present Mexi- can States of Durango, Sinaloa and Sonora, and up to the present were, for the very shirt they wore, and the plate they were eating from, depend ent on the products of their innumer- able gold and silver mines. They have been their past, are their pres ent, and will be also their future re- liance, even if they should change hands and become stars ln the U. $. constellation and thereby the prop erty of the unsuitable Yankee. These mentioned States as we'll as Arizona, Lower and Upper California, are es- sentially mining countries, and will remain so for hundreds of years to come. Some will object and say that Upper California is at the present more of an agricultural than a mining country. This may be so, but whether it will remain so, is alto- gether another question. Who dares to deny that the very foundation of California greatness and present prosperity was levied by mining ? And what would become of agricul- ture if mining ceased tomorrow ? Send our wheat and wool abroad and get that for it which Is an equivalent for mines -m money, some will say. We'll and good, say I, but will Cali fornia and its wheat remain in the same relation to the rest of the world as it stands now? Will California wheat always be wanted i'll the Euro pean markets; may not other con- petitors sooner or later drive Califor- mia wheat from that market? and the exhaustion of the California soil, by that murdering system of agriculture now carried on, to the detriment of coming generations? Will it not sell in after years, when on the same acre which now produces from 20 to 30 bushels, only ten can be raised [ Add to that loss prices for wheat and tell me whether California will then be as much of an agricultural State as it is now under very favorable cir cumstances All will go on swim mingly until the last acre is under the blow, but from that day Califor- nia as an agriculture State will de- cline, since the soil little by little will become exhausted. Maturing on an extensive scale will become extremely expensive, while the dry and winter less climate greatly opposes it. We know that science can do but little more for agriculture than it does at present. Give back what you take away, is the great principle on which agriculture stands, and must stand for all time to come. With mining 1t is quite different. It is on the Pacific Coast but in its infancy, and who doubts but that the day will come, must soon come, when on this Pacific Coast ores can be treated on the same principles, with the same perfection, the same expenses and results as now in the famous governmental establish 1nents in Germany To do th1s, but two things are wanted-intelligence and cheap labor. To what Califor- nia's mining might be brought with the two-intelligence and cheap labor combined with economy and honesty, but very few can now foresee. With cheaper and more perfect machinery, new netallurgical processes yet slum bering in some inventive brain. cheap provisions and cheap labor. thousands and tens of thousands of gold bearing quartz lodes can be worked to advantage. And as gold will go up again in proportion to sil- yer and other values, California will see, if not another '49, then at least the day when mining once more will be looked upon as its chief resource. The mineral wealth of Arizona and the Mexican States of Chihuahua, Sonora, Sinaloa and Durango will also become fairly known and valued by the world, after another race pre- ponderates Tn these States. It IS so fabulous that if told to-day, nobody would believe in it, and the arable lands being but limited, the day will come when every surplus grain of
 California's wheat will come down
 here, instead of going, as it now does,
 to Europe. J. J. M.