St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1895-06-22
auss,A.s SILVER.
The Mises Are OwneA and Workea BY the
li0vaHoaOat.

GsvaEs0oas.
Although the first discovery Of silver
ores in the district of Nertchinsk. in
eastern Siberia. WAS made in the early
teenth century. the actual smelling Of
this metal was not begun before l.OA
Veins of silver ore were found ut
SmiainogOrsk. in the Altai, by Akinfy
Demido6. in 1885. but it was only after
ten years, in l.l5. when they were
taken over by the government, that
the smelling OF the ores was COM
menced. The production of silver
at the Nertchinsk works attained
its maximum during the 7Os Of
last century. when it amounted tn
GOO poods, or .l,GOO English pounds;
and during the same period the pro-
duction of the Altai works exceeded
100 pools. SO that at the tune these
two works produced about 1, 200 pools
annually. During the present cen
tury the production Of silver was
only l.als pools, or not more than -
per cent. of the yield at the close Of
the last century. During 1890, the
last year for which there are available
dats, the silver product in different
localities was: The Caucasus, 20 pools.
s4l. pounds; Altai, 6sl poods. pounds;
khirgis Steppe. :. poOds. 2sls pounds.
Nertchinsk. - pools, S4i4 pounds;
Finland. - poods, IS pounds Total.
sss pools and lls pounds.
The Altai mining district Of his
majestys cabinet continues to supply
thrce-fourths of the entire production
of silver in Russia. In 1850 the Alt2i
district yielded l,O6e poods, but a5 years
later the production fell to less than .
has revived and gone mp to 6si poods in
1880. In the Nertchinsk mining dis
trict of his majesty's cabinet. where.
mp to 1869, the production of silver Cid
not exceed rs pools. the yield has
steadily risen since 1866, and in 1881 it
attained IS poods, At which figure it
also stood in 1890. In the Caucasus
there is single silver smelling estab-
Observation-Disclosures works-belonx.
ing to the state. The annual production
of these works varies between q and
IS poods. The works on the khirgiz
SteY0ec rsre very primitive. and their
prcducfioa 1cctustes considerably.
In the Urals. whef. silver was first
smelted in 1874. the produeeien reached
a maximum of - pcods in. 1soo. bat IL
subsequently fell rapidly and ceased
entirely in 1854. In Finland there is
also one esta ablishmcnt. the Pitkarznd
works. on the northern shore of Lake
Ladoga, which has latterly produced
from 20 to 20 pools yearly.
All the silver smelted in Russia is
extracted from argcntiferOus lead ores,
but besides this all the gold pro-
duccd in Russia contains silver, the
amount of which is determined by
assays taken at the state smelling
houses. During 1880 Russia produced
in silver ingOts $50 pools, Is pounds;
and in gold ingOts unrcfined l65 pools,
.Jx pounds. The silver smelted by
private Individuals is subject to tax,
which was reduced in 1887 from 10 to
Is per cent to ; per cent. for freehold,
and ~ per cent. for leasehold works.
The money coined i'm the empire during
the last two years, for which statistics
are given. was, In 1859. IS, i5O, 900 rsl-
bles in gold. .6. go rubles IN silver bank
money, s,35l ,:Ol rubles in silver ex-
change money and :0O,OOO rubles in
copper. In 1880 the gold coinage fell
tod, .:s5, 14O rubles. while silver bank
money was coined to the amount of
5OO. .Ocl rubles, silver exchange money
to e,35l, ,5O4 rubles and copper eOO. 900
rubleS S-St. Louis Republic.