Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1878-02-03

We have received a review of the
lead market for the year 1877, from
Edward A. Caswell, a leading lead
broker of New York City. He places
the total supply Of the United States,
during the past year, at 79,s49 gross
tons; and the amount manufactured at
1884 gross tons; a surplus of supply
over consumption of 5000. His pre-
diction that the limit of low prices had
been reached, and that it would not fall
below 4 cents, is not verified, as our
latest quotations are 1910 cents per
pound. We extract the following from
his circular:
Although the price of common lead
In New York has been below 81 cents,
currency, since July lst, and has been
below 4I cents, currency, for nearly
; four months past, the total increase in
home production, of this year over
last year, is Is, 1915 gross tons, or % per
cent, which is greater, in point of
quantity, than any yearly increase
ever experienced in this country. 1t
would seem, therefore, fair to conclude
that the country can produce enough
lead for its demands, even at present
rates, for it must be noted that the en-
tire supply of the year has been evenly
produced. The first half of the year
turned out So per cent. of b total an
nual yield. The third quarter turned
out about 20 per cent, and the last
quarter tie remaining % per cent.
Virtually all the lead that has been
made in the last three months, was
underground, in August, when the
New York price touched s cents, and
it has been taken out since hen in face
of the facts of declining prices and dis.
%couraging prospects. If producers had
been losing money aver since com
mon lead babe good-by forever to the
price of six cents in New York, would
they, Notwithstanding a continuance
of price below five cents, have turned
out in October, November and Deem
Der the full average for a quarter of
the year? 1t would certainly seem in
this case that actions speak louder
than words. We are still informed
that all Utah will soon get finally
cleaned up and shut down, and that
the army of Missouri miners will
no longer prospect but fold their tents
and silently steal away to parts un-
known. In either case the price
of lead would advance, unless
meanwhile the high grade silver ores
of the Far West are sufficient to en-
tirely supply the country, and while
this result is without question, proba-
BILE a few years hence, it is equally an
impossibility to-day.
1t would be a natural deduction to
presume either that at six cents in New
York, lead producers were making
enormous profits, or else were being
ruined with lead at four cents. Such,
however, is not the case. With the de-
cline in lead have come greater econ
omy in mining, more care in dressing
and concentrating ores, less loss upthe
chimney, and reduction in the cost of
material, labor and freights, so that
thousands of dollars which were for
merly thrown away because there was
still a profit, are now necessarily saved
in order to make a profit.
The dangerous competitors of Mis-
souri, miners, to day, are not reductions
in the tariff but increase of the argen-
tiferous lead productions. Territories
which have advanced the figures of
their collective output in five years
time by steadily increasing steps from
$4,000 tons to over A, 600 tons, may we'll
be regarded with apprehension, and
their growth be watched with jealous
interest.