The herald., 1897-09-15
OFFICE OF THE HERALD,
LOS ANGELES, Sept. IA, 1897.

passed the IeQeTal cOuIclls Inc govern
ment acquires possession at an arbitrary
price, which is some $50, OOo,O 900 less than the
quoted market value of the stock and obli-
cations of the road. 1t is said that most of
the stock is held in Germany, and if that
is SO, Switzerland is due to hear an en-
phatic protest from the German govern
ment, which will naturally object to seeing
the property Of German investors confis-
Gated in whole or in part.
The News Letter calls attention to the
manner in which California mining COM
panies are advertised for the purpose of
entrapping the English investor, and by
way of illustration states as follows: One
must go abroad TO learn the news. Few
may possibly be aware of the fact that
another million dollar property has turned
up in the vicinity of Angels Camp. That is
the London rating of the property. al
though it is not likely that the figures on
the books of the assessor of Caleveras
county will run quite SO high. The valua-
tion quoted above is that placed upon
"certain mining claims and properties"
in the location named, to acquire which
the sum of G200,000 is to be raised from the
English investor by subscription for shares
in what is known as the Drake Properties
Limited. Without knowing the particular
property referred to in this locality, but
with a general knowledge of the more val
liable mines there, we have no hesitation in
stamping this as a promoters scheme,
with the bulk of the money to be raised far
in excess of the amount the owners Of the
ground are likely to receive. If these pro-
moters, whoever they may be, can show
us any mine at or in the immediate vicin-
ity of Angels Camp, outside of the Utica,
Worth anything like a million dollars. we
will cheerfuly advertise it's merits as an
investment Till then it will be safe to let
the promoters keep the bonanza them
selves. Million dollar properties are scarce
In California just now, and outside inves-
tors had better bear this in mind if they
don't wish to lose their money.
The secretary of the navy has ordered
Lieutenant Nathan Sargent to proceed to
the oil fields of Pennsylvania, where he will
make careful investigation of the various
grades of petroleum produced in that re-
gion, with a view to its use as fuel for
marine engines. When. done he will report
to the authorities at the Newport torpedo
station, and plans will be drawn for an oil
engine, to be placed in one of the new tor
pedo boats now being built by the Herre-
shoffs. This will be the first attempt to
use petroleum as fuel for the torpedo fleet,
but from the success that has been at
tanned with this motive force in swift steam
launches owned by private parties both
here and abroad the navy department looks
for a favorable result of the experiment.
Some of the advantages expected from the
new fuel are economy of machine space,
and. consequently, greater fuel-carrying
capacity; economy in the cost of fuel and
the ability to develop extremely high steam
pressure under forced draught. The plans
for the new engine are not yet made. and
will depend on the report on the various
grades of petroleum at command. 1t is
possible that with this innovation in fuel
will be combined the use of the steam tur-
bine engine. whose success in the English
torpedo boat Turbina has marked an epoch
In the development of this class Of war
vessels.
H. M. Neil has issued circular on the
growing cotton crop, in which he says:
'At this moment, for this year, the promise
is equal to any previous year in every state
but Texas, and on the present acreage,
even allowing that Texas should fall short
of her maximum production per acre by
100000, the outlook now is for crop of at
least 9,75O,000, with 100000 to 1000, 900 more
within the range of possibilities. The fig
ure of 9,75O0O0 is really very conservative,
Tor product per acre outside of Texas
equal to 1S94-95 would give 7,S50000 bales,
and a maximum for Texas would be 1885,
600 bales. from which, allowing 100000 off,
you would have crop of 10, 300, 900 bales.
The crop is SO far advanced from recent
rains and heat that it will reach maturity
and be Independent of frost at an unu-
sually early date and should we soon have
good rains in Texas her crop also would
be near perfection, and the possibilities for
a total crop would then be something enor-
mous.''
The output from the Rand gold mines of
the South African Republic for June was
251,529 ounces; for July 242, 479 ounces. The
decrease, 905O ounces, was due to poorer
ore.
+ =
Leaf tobacco in Kentucky has advanced
IS per 100 pounds. At sale held in Louis
vile on Wednesday the tobacco offered
brought the highest prices received in any
market this year and also the highest price
received in four years.
y \ \
Japan is reported to be In the American
market with contracts for $4,000 tons of
track materials and thirty locomotives.
+ + +
New York Air Bake company's S. 600, 900
stock has been placed in the unlisted de-
partment of the New York Stock exchange
+ + 4
An official return states that the total
value OF our exports of domestic merchan-
disc for the fiscal year 1897 is given in the
following table by classes, the percentage
OF exports of each class to the total domes-
tic exports also being shown for 1892 as we'll
as for 1897, the growth of our exports of
manufactures in five years being remark
able.
Class- Per ct. Per ct.