The San Francisco call., 1908-09-06

The general indications are favorable
to strong showing for California as
a mineral producer in the year 1907.
Various announcements have been
made by State Mineralogist Aubury re-
Gently the most important of which is
to the effect that the total mineral pro-
duction for last year was in excess of
$50. 100000 in value. Reports from
various sources indicate that this is
easily within the mark. Exclusive of
the precious metals, gold and silver, a
rough estimate fairly places the values
in the aggregate at something like
$4,000. 0OO The United States geolog-
ical survey has given out some figures
relating to gold and silver produced in
1907 in this state, and the total value
represented thereby is s16,727, ,29S in
gold and s751,646 in silver, or S17,479,-
574 altogether On this basis it is
made to appear that California in 1907
beat its record of 1906 by something
like $4,000 600.
PETROLEUM MAKES RECORD
That result can be easily considered
legitimate reason for congratulation.
considering the general depression that
affected business enterprises at large
in the latter part of last year The
astonishing feature of a forecast, un-
officially made, is that petroleum would
seem for the first time to be fairly
prominent in California as competi-
tor with gold for the premiership. In
value petroleum produced in this state
in& 1907 represented in total value ST.
900, 900 in round figures more than the
same product did in 1906 Last year,
so the United States geological survey
will report, the precious metal output
of this state fell off something more
than s2,000.0O0 for gold and silver.
Of course the larger decrease was in
the gold output. Silver is still largely
considered a by product in mining in
this state, but the product runs an
nually to something in the nefghbor-
hood of three-quarters of million to
a million dollars.
The fact is made public by the geo.
logical survey that Butte county was
the largest gold producer last year
and that it led Nevada county, long
the premier. by 100000. The total in
gold production that is credited to
Butte county for last year is s2,7S6,S4
to Nevada county $2.162.0S3, to Amador
county S2,116.1S2, to Yuba s1,766,I 40
and TO Calaveras county s1.097,974.
Other counties mined gold quite ex-
tensively, but fell inside of the $1,000
600 mark Outside of these counties,
the order in production of gold was as
follows: Kern, with sS7S,00o;s Tuol-
un1ne. with sS06. 900: Shasta, with $751;
600; Trinity. with s533,O00: Sierra, with
s4S3,0 Placer. with s4S2,000; Mari
posa, with s405,000; Siskiyou. with
1895, 900; Mono, with S3S3,0e0; Ell
Dorado, with $4,000. Among the
smaller gold producers of 1907 were
San Bernardino county, Plumas, Hum
boldt. Fresno, Inyo, Colusa, Del Norte,
Los Angeles. Ventura, Orange, MADEIRA,
Merced. Monterey, Riverside, San
Diego, San Luis Obispo and Stanislaus-
GOLD DREDGING INCREASES
The continuous rise of the gold
dredging industry in California is
strongly evidenced by the large sums
credited to Butte and Yuhae counties.
To them a fourth of all the gold
produced in this state for 1907 is
credited as they jointly represent
gold output of s4.55s,o00. The output
in gold in 1903 from all dredgers in
California was but s1,475,74s, as the re-
turns to the mint show.
Gold and petroleum in 1907 were both
in the $4,000, 900 class. Which one
actually led has not been disclosed,
but it may be discovered that petroleum
takes the first place in value
of production. The state mineralogist
has authorized the statement that 40,-
000, 900 barrels of petroleum were taxi
en- from the wells of California last
year.
The record by barrels OF petroleum
for a series of years and also the an
nual values for the same period fol-
lows: