Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1901-04-02
NEW MEXICO
SULPHUR.
1t Should be a Great Source Of
Wealth to the Southern
Counties.
RIVALS SICILIAN DEPOSITS.
The United States Annually Imports
$l0,0OO,000 Worth of Birthstone
Which Might as Well be Furnished
by New Mexico and Texas.

lished by the United States gaologicf
survey, twentieth annual report Vo
ume Z, for the year 1898, says that tn
production of the minerals, metalic an
non-me talic, reached the great sum
500, ,00O, 600. At the present rat
of development and production, tn
country will produce during the presen
year the gigantic sum of one billion dol
ars from the mineral kingdom. We eX
ceed the home consumption of man
minerals and export of them, but do no
lproduce enough of a few others, an
must. therefore, import them. Anon
these is sulphur, commodity known
the arts since history began to kee
records; for even in Plny we read i
the history of Rome that the Stella
mines were furnishing the stone, tn
dust of which would prevent decay 0
the ripening grapes (iloxera), in tn
vineyards of Campania, Atruria, EX
trenadura and Algeria.
The sulphur production in the United
| States in the year 1893 is estimated II
| tlle SdIllt CELSIUS dl pff,opo, anu ~ W.
not be much more than that for th
present year. Last year the import o
sulphur in the country amounted II
over $40 900, 900, of which the firm of Al
| fred Martinson, of New York, import
ed over $7,O00,000, and almost all of j
| came from Sicily
| Tbarafora ha u,hn licppUprS a really
| good sulphur deposit in the countr,
| should be considered by his fellow mel
twice a. benefactor. In the little book
Mines and Minerals in New Mexico
recently published by the bureau of i'm
| migration, I read on page 1OS as fol
lows: "Not far distant also has beer
discovered very high grade of sulphur
which is shipping proposition to-day.
This is five miles from White Oaks, or
Lone Mountain, and was located by me
in 1892, while in the field collecting the
New Mexico mineral exhibit, which
took to the Columbian exposition ir
Chicago in 1898. Since that time l have
taken several trips to the deposit
| SluulGu llS P0ltul, llS 5GOlOSlbdl iCittAAp'
to the country. I traced it in south
easterly direction as far as the interior
of Ell Paso county, Tex 1t starts north
west of White Oaks, crosses the Sacra-
mento mountains, follows the Pecos
river, passes through the Roswell and
Carlsbad country, and following this
trend, enters Ell Paso county in the
Guadalupe mountains, and is lost under
the gravel of the plains. This line from
White Oaks to Guadalupe is longer than
the longest line one could possibly
draw across the island of Sicily.
In Sicily the peasantry, no sooner are
they through with picking the orange,
lemon, fig and grape, than they start
to gathering the sulphur rock, which,
until lately, was handled in the SIM
plest and crudest manner, but from
which good sulphur was obtained and
bought at the port Of Caltenezette for
81 or So per ton, sulphur running 50 per
cent being exported all over the world,
and it was not uncommon to buy sui
phur in New York for $S per ton. But
within the last few years an English
syndicate has obtained control of the
sulphur of the island, and sulphur in
New York to-day is worth $22 per ton
with tendency to higher figures New
Mexico sulphur cannot be bought in
New York when the price is So per ton,
but when it goes as high as SIS there is
very large margin of profit in the sui
phur deposits of New Mexico. Some
weeks ago the Ell Paso Chamber of Com
merce sent me as special mineral COM
missioner to appear before the govern
or of Texas to urge him in certain acts
before the legislature Of the Lone Star
state, in the interests of the mineral re-
sources of Texas, and particularly
western Texas, which have much in
common with the mineral resources of
this territory. While at Austin I had
the pleasure of visiting the university
and calling upon it's president, and my
object is clearly stated in the following
letter:
university of Texas, Office of the
President, Austin, Tex, January 81
Prof. j. c. Carrera: My Dear Sir-Re-
calling our pleasant but brief interview
recently at the University of Texas,
desire to say that would be very glad
to have any statement from you to be
used in support of the bill now pending
in the Legislature of Texas looking to
have mineral survey of the state made
under the auspices of the University of
Texas. I shall be glad particularly to
have a statement from you in regard
to the sulphur deposits as you seem to
have given special attention to this.
The committee of the house and senate
have reported favorably on this bill,
and I am very desirous of having it
pass as quickly as possible. Hoping
hat I may have the pleasure of meeting
you in the future, I am, sincerely
yours, w. L. PRATHER.
president"
BY this time the bill referred to has
become law. How useful thing of this
kind would be for New Mexico.
The New Mexico and Texas deposit
Of sulphur is similar TO the Sicilian sui
phataras. have seen both localities,
and. therefore, speak knowingly, with
the difference that Sicily for the last
twenty-five centuries, and may be more,
has supplied the world with sulphur;
CONTINUED on Fourth Page.)