New-York tribune., 1884-01-14
EARMLNG YERSUS MINING.

The United States Circuit Court Judge
SAWYER presiding, has granted a perpetual H.
;unction against the defendants in the suit OF
Woodruff versus the North BlOomheld Mining
Company. This isa highly important decisloh'
for while it does not necessarily terminate the
litigation between the California farmers ana
the hydraulic miners, it leaves but one appear
open, and it so strengthens the already lot
midable list of rulings against hydraulic mining
that in all probability most OF the companies
will accept the situation without further eiiort'
The intense excitement which this contest mas
created among the inhabitants of the Sacra-
mento Valley on the one hand and the residents
of the mining counties on the other Is explaiileu
by the magnitude of the interests at stake.
Hydraulic mining has not only done much
injury to the farming lands in the Sacramento
Valley, of which several thousand acres nave
been covered up and rendered intertile by the
deposit of many feet of sharp white sand, Dut
it has almost destroyed the navigability OF the
Sacramento and Yuba rivers; it has threatened
the towns of Marysville and Sacramento Win
disastrous floods; and it has begun to flll up
Suisun Bay, and to deposit slickens In the
harbOr of San Francisco.
In fact. hydraulic mining is a mechanical
process whereby the mountains are rapidly
washed into tha sea. To get at a narrow strip
of "pay-drt" ut the bottom of high bluff, the
whole superncumbent mass of earth, sometimes
from sixty to one hundred feet deep, is washed
down with "MonitOrs" and "Little Giants
carrying a six-inch stream with a pressure
sufficient to bore q hole in stone wall. All
this enormous weight of matter is or has been
for years carried into the streams and rivers.
| As a result the bed of the Sacramento has
! siltod up, and dming the rainy season severe
floods have occurred, and much injury has been
| done to farming lands. And the farmers are
iustifed in their apprchensions, for it is obvious
that if hydraulic mining should proceed without
interruption it would at no distant period ruin
the whole valley and render it unnhabtablc.
A former decision, by Judge Temple, of the
District Court, was against the miners but
permitted them to go on provided they con-
structed retaining dams in the mountains IN
such a way as to satisfy the Conrt and jury OF
engineers that the slickens" would not enter
the rivers The farmers however, were not
satisfied with this compromise. They claimed
| that however strong dams might be- they were
liable to give way, and that if they did the
| damage would be tenfOld greater. They main
tanned that the only satisfactory solution OF the
question was the abandonment Of hydraulic
mining On the other hand, there are some
thirty thousand people directly and indirectly
dependent on hydraulic mining, and these have
| stubbornly insisted on their right to continue
the occupation no matter what the cOnsc-
Ouences The processes of the courts indeed
have frequently been ignored by the miners,
and sherifis have found themselves pOwerlcss
to serve warrants. Much bitterness has been
caused by the struggle and the miners mot the
proprietors, but the worllngmen) have threat
ened to take up arms In defence of their
| livelihood.
The litigation has been proceeding now some
eight years, and il is not ended yet. great
deal of capital-sOmcthing like $20OOO,O 600
has been invested III hydraulic mining though
much of it has been withdrawn during the past
two or three years. In fact, the mining interest
represents very much more capital than IT,
farming interest though the latter has thus far
had the courts with it. And while it is to be re-
GREETED that large interest should be forced to
the wall, and subjected to great loss, if not to
ruiD. there can be no doubt that the agricultural
future of California is largely dependent upon
the cessation Of hydraulic mining, and that the
safety of her principal interior cities, and the
nayigability of her rivers, demand this
|