The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-01-13
TO Resent BY THIS STATE
SOME OF THE THINGS IN THE
EXHIBIT.
DISPLAY OF MINERALS ESPECIALLY FINE
List of the Mines of This State Represented in
the Exhibit. The Agricultural Ex-
hbits Already on Their Way
TO Eurone,
to Europe.

" EuIUpCt
North Carolina will have at the Paris
Exposition an exhibit of which it need
not he ashamed.
While it may mot be as extensive as the
exhibits made by some other States it
will be representative of the States in
dustrdes and resources.
The material for the exhibit has now
about been collected and it is being sent
forward almost daily.
Among the exhibits there is about $3.50
worth of handsome gold nuggets, some
100 in number. These were picked up
in the streams and ON the hillsides of the
North Carolina gold region.
Then there will be about six pounds of
silver nuggets. in seven pieces, the larg-
est weighing 80 ounces.
"A number of fine pieces of native cop
per, weighing about 10 pounds, will be
sent from the Newman mining properties
in Rowan county.
Also twenty-five choice specimens of
corundum, embracing the gem material
ruby and sapphire-the crystahzed heXa-
CONS and the massive ores. Besides these
there will be monazites; zercons, column
bites, chronic oxides, gummite, rutile,
uraninate, samarsl1ite and other rare and
economic minerals.
There will be a choice collection of the
finest modified quartzes ever shown from
this State. They will be rare in their
modified form and in color, ranging from
almost black to limpid white.
In woods and ttmbers we are sending
about 1S5 lineal feet comprising the
choicest specimens in the State collection,
which are all being worked over and beau
tifully finished for this purpose. These
are commercial timbers and are sections
from the middle of the tree about two
feet from the ground, from bark to bark,
four feet long and four inches thick.
BY rare good fortune the States conn
naercial timbers will probably represent
the whole United States in this class and
will give them prominence which is sure
to redown to the good of the State.
In addition to the above, in order to
stimulate if possible the export of roots.
herbs, barks and berries, collection
of more than 800 specimens, handsomely
mounted in cut glass bottles, will be
sent.
There will be some five hundred speci-
mems of cotton and tobacco, about equal
~ divided between the two products.
These have already been sent, as have
also sixteen barrels of native apples.
shown. illustrating the methods of Gull
tivating cotton and tobacco, the climate
and scenery and the forests of the State.
All this has been accomplished by the
State Board of Agriculture, through its
fortunate cooperation with the National
Government at cost of less than S2,OO0
Or course this could not have been done
except by such experienced men as Mr.
T. X. Bruner, secretary to the board,
and Mr.. H. III. Brmley, curator of the
Museum They have been laboring for
several months in the preparation of the
exhibit.
THE EXHIBIT OF ORES.
The ore exhibit represents the pick of
exhibits from the Museum as well as
large number specially collected for the
Paris exhibit. They are in the main from
properties i'm the State that have been
sufficiently developed to demonstrate the
feasibility of their legitimate operation.
SO far the work in the iron ores of
the State has been very limited and on no
such scale as the value Of the ores and
their abundance warrant North caro-
lima is a great storehouse in this partic-
1llar. There are great ore beds and fis-
sure veins of magnetic and hemetite
which extend visibly for miles in some of
the western counties and which are prac-
tically untouched. They are simply await
ing their time to become useful to man
kind.
The copper ores are another class which
are just now receiving the attention of
the mining world. These ores are found
in workable quantity in fully dozen
counties of the State and in sufficient!
richness to amply repay for their eXtrac-
ton. Indeed some of the chalcopyrtes
are typical In their percentage of copper
(about 33 per cent) While the bornites
rum as high as 60 in copper and the
cuprite reaches as high as so per cent.
This latter ore is found at the Union Cop
per Mines in Rowan, and bornite is cha1+
acteristic of the Blue Wing and Noun
tain copper districts; while the chalcOpy-
rite comes from Guilford Davidson, Row
all. Cabarrus and Mecklenburg in great
est profusion.
In silver ores Davidson county has de-
veloped the richest deposits, the Silver
Hill Mine being one of the oldest and
most valuable in the State. 1t is being
operated now and has been profitable to
its owners during the last forty years.
The gold ores in this collection, as well
be noted, come from all the prominent
gold regions OF the state. Inc last Few
years have shown less activity in this
field than the State has seen during the
past quarter of a century. But the fact
that occasional finds of great richness,
together with steady small returns from
the placer washings have served to
keep alive the interest in this important
industry. We are all aware of the fact
that speculation in mining stocks has
been the bane of the industry in North
Carolina. Really very few of the oper-
atoms in gold mines have been begun or
carried forward with the honest inten-
ton of mining for gold. Companies have
been organized and started with a great
flourish until stocks We're listed and put
on the board for speculation. Then the
interested parties would unload. pocket
their ill-gotten gains and leave the inno-
cent purchaser to make the most of it.