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THE SOUTHERN WORLD. MAY 1,1885.
farmer would be reduced to bankruptcy,
But there is a far greater benefit de
rived from the use of improved imple
ments and machines—the better quality
of the work done. The walking plows
used in the North do much better work
than those used in the South; yet the
most progressive of the Northern farmers
are discarding walking plows for sulky
plows, because the latter do the better
work. The same is true of the improv
ed harrows, pulverisers, rollers, seeders
and planters, cultivators and harvesters
—they all admit of better work being
done than can be done without them,
and for this reason would be used, al
though their use would not save labor.
Thus labor-saving machinery insures
a better agriculture—the seed-bed better
prepared, the seed better planted, the
plant better cultivated, and the crop
better harvested. I have frequently
heard Northern men say they did not
wonder that our land was impoverished
when they saw the way it was cultiva
ted, with implements with which it was
impossible to do first-class work.
Let the Southern planter be so fully
convinced of his need of better imple
ments that he will demand them, and
labor-saving machinery specially adapt
ed to Southern crops will be forthcom
ing. Our American inventive genius
will be equal to the emergency, and the
supply will be given when the demand
is made. The South is doing some good
inventing now, and can already boast of
some creditable machines. But ask the
manufacturers of improved machinery
about hiB trade, and he will tell you that
he finds trade slow and sales hard to
make in the South. Our Southern farm
ers do not appreciate the gain they
might make, and then there is the negro
in the way.
I believe that the negro can be made
a better laborer than what he is. He
has already got over his migratory dis-
position exhibited immediately after the
war, and is now a much more reliable
farm laborer. He is yet ignorant and
careless; but he can be educated. He
is not such a fool that he cannot learn;
and I am inclined to think that not only
the industrial prosperity, but the social
and political safety of the South depend
upon an increased intelligence among
the blacks. If the South secures educa
tion for her ignorant people, she will
have builded better than she knew.
Make the negro a little more intelligent,
bo that he can manage some simple ma
chine, /ind by putting him in charge of it
yon will so tickle his vanity that he will
be careful of it. A negro on a sulky
plow feels very important and takes bet
ter care of it than he does of hiB mule
and eight-inch walking plow.
Again, Southern planters can rest as
sured that the introduction of labor-sav
ing machinery will be followed by a bet
ter class of laborers. It will so elevate
the standard of agriculture that intelli
gent farm laborers can be had. The
worse class can be dispensed with, for
less laborers will be required.
I recognize the difficulties in the way
of the universal use of labor-saving ma
chinery in the South; but I also know
how important this matter is.and how
much depends upon it, and I am sure no
effort should be spared to put the sulky
plow and improved cultivating and har
vesting implements and machines in
every Southern field.
John M. Stahl.
St. Louie, Mo.
Mines and Mining.'
mining Notes.
The Mining Review, of Chicago, is
leading exponent of the mining interests
of the great West.
The Charleston, 8. 0., Mining and
Manufacturing Company has just paid
quarterly dividend of two dollars and a
half on each share of stock.
Quite a number of the citizens of At
lanta, Ga., have invested largely in sil
ver and copper mines in Mexico.
The Mitchell Hill Free goldmine, in
Greene county, Ga., near Union Point;
is about to be put in operation, with
Habersham’s eddy process.
No State offers better inducements to
capitalists seeking investments in min
ing operations than Georgia. Her
mines are varied and of easy access, and
with ready facilities for working them
After stating that gold is found in
thirty-six counties of Georgia, and sil
ver in three, with diamonds in twenty-
six, an exchange falsely remarks that
whisky is found in all the cpunties of
the State, and it “gets away” with the
gold, silver and diamonds.
The reported abandonment by
Georgia company of the San Francisco
and Esmeralda mines in Mexico leads to
the conclusion that the Atlanta, Ga.,
stockholders must have lost their entire
investment in the enterprise. Big
names and high-sounding titles are not
always sure signs of success.
The Mining Review sayB: The devel
opment of our mineral resources in one
direction or another has called into ac
tivity considerable capital and created
much interest. As a whole, perhaps,
the results have not been thoroughly
satisfactory, but it will probably be
found by investigation that where cer
tain well-defined limits have been ob
served, and certain necessary condi
tions fulfilled, the reward has been most
assuring and satisfactory.
minlug In Georgia.
A public dreamery has been estab
lished at Clarksville, Tenn.,by a strong
company, and the farmers in that vi
cinity can now find a ready and profita
ble sale for all their surplus cream.
8hould this enterprise succeed, it is
probable that others will be inaugurated
in the South. It is clearly evident that
the farmers of the South are preparing
to take advantage of all improved meth
ods for making dairy farming profitable.
In California and Australia there were
discovered, almost simultaneously, the
richest and most extensive gold fields
of which there is any record.* Their de
velopment was directed by the genius :
and prosecuted with the energy of the
foremost races of the world, who were
favored by all the advantages of free and
stable governments, well administered
laws, unlimited access to capital, healthy
and invigorating climates, together with
the facilities for attracting large supplies
of labor. Such a combination of circum
stances, never before known, may never
occur again; and as it is now certain
that the California and Australia pro
duction of gold has distinctly passed the
culminating point, all sound reasoning
admonishes mankind to prepare for a
steadily decreasing yield of that metal
from those sections of the mining world,
and to look to those portions where new
mines have been formed and where
recent discoveries of precious metals
have been discovered.
At the time of the discovery of the
mines of California and Australia, very
little was known of the mineral belt ex
tending from Virginia to Alabama, and
of the vast mineral resources of Georgia,
which (though only partially developed)
are of a nature to attract a large amount
of capital from the North and WeBt.
Already we perceive evidences that the
attention of capitalists from New York,
Philadelphia, Chicago and'St. Louis has
been attracted by the yield of gold from
the mines recently opened, and from
indications of rich quartz leads to be | any pariicular work,
found in that portion of the mineral belt
Rabun, Towns, Union, Lumpkin, White,
Habersham, Banks, Hall, Dawson,
Forsyth, Bartow, Paulding, Fannin,
Gilmer and Murray, and from contigu
ous counties.
From a report of Dr. Wm. B. Blake,
the geologist of the United States Pacific
Railroad survey, in California, a geolo
gist and mining engineer learned in his
profession, we take the following
“The portion of the gold belt of Geor
gia, to which my attention was directed,
is in Lumpkin county, in the vicinity of
the town of Dahlonega. This place was
selected in 1836 as the most central and
convenient point for a settlement in
the gold region, the richest mines and
deposits having been found in its imme
diate neighborhood.”
After discussing at length the very
rich character of the “stream deposits,”
giving an authentic and elaborate, as
well as highly interesting report of the
workings of the several creeks and
branches which flowthrough the numer
ous valleys of the Chestatee river, Dr.
Blake adds this testimony to the re
markable richness of the country:
“During the progress of examination
many trials of the earth were made by
panning. The samples were taken from
various points along the deposits and
the hill-sides, and gold was found in
every instance, without exception. The
whole soil and earth of the region is so
impregnated with gold that it would be
difficult to obtain a panful without find
ing in it one or more particles. After
the rains, the gullies along the roads, in
some places, contain so much gold that
the poor people frequently scrape them
out and wash the sand. Through all
this tract there is a remarkable belt of
decomposed slate, which seems to be
permeated with gold, for almost every
shovelful of the decayed rock will show
numerous particles when washed. These
results, with the other observations,
were sufficient to convince me that there
is an enormous amount of gold still re
maining in these deposits. It became
evident that the original washings were
conducted without care or method, so
that the gold was not only but partially
removed, but that a very considerable
part of the pay gravel on the bed rock
was never reached, and rests untouched
to this day.”
We extract the following from Dr,
Charles T. Jackson’s (the distinguished
geplogistof Massachusetts) report
“Having,on two previous explorations
of the gold region of Georgia, made my
self pretty well acquainted with the va
rious places or depbsits of gold, and
with the principal auriferous veins in
that district, much of my present work
consisted in a review of the localities
whicj^Ihad previously exploi?d, though
some additional researches were made,
and to a much greater extent during my
present survey.
“By testing with the pan the soil and
rock of these veins, gold was always ob
tained in proportions that would pay in
large quantities.
“The gold is found in both the slate
rocks and in the thin quartz veinB which
alternate with the Btrata; also, in the
soil, arising from the decomposition and
disintegration of the slate rocks. It is
quite impossible to find any of the soil
of the section around for miles entirely
free from gold, and the general opinion
is, that not a square rood of land in the
gold-belt of Georgia can be found that
will not give a show of gold in a pan of
earth containing three or four quarts,
Gold is therefore found generally diffused
in the soil, but more abundant near
auriferous veins, and near the bed-rock
in the various mines.”
Mining operations in Georgia have
hitherto been prosecuted with so little
system, except in Lumpkin and adjoin
ing counties, that it is very difficult to
find an authentic record of the results of
From the Passmore vein, shortly after
extending through the counties of j the discovery of gold in Georgia, over
ten thousand dollars’ worth of fine gold
was taken out in twenty days by digging
in the soft slate.
Upon the John 0. Calhoun property,
situated on the banks of the celebrated
Chestatee river, upon reaching the
gravel of the former river-bed, a rich de
posit of wash-gold was found. In about
one month, from one pit, twenty-three
thousand dollars’ worth of the precious
metal was unearthed.
The Dahlonega Gold Company, in
building a dam across the Chestatee
river at an old ford-way, every shovel of
dirt of which had been previously
washed twice for gold, instituted a third
washing as the dirt was thrown upon
the dam, andobtaind five dollars in gold.
The above should convince any impar
tial person that a section from which
such mining results have been derived
in times past, and the recent develop
ments of which prove that the large
amount of gold obtained has been taken
principally from surface washings, still
contains a vast deposit of the precious
metal. As the gold was taken from the
surface of the earth by inexperienced
miners, who used the most ordinary
tools in their operations, what may we
expect when these mines are worked by
experienced workmen with modern ap
pliances, and shafts are sunk below the
water-level of the veins?
There are certain portions of Califor
nia and of Nevada and the Territories
which have yielded fabulous amounts of
silver and gold, and of which it may be
said that the yield has not only been
commensurrate with the outlay, but far
exceeds all expectations. In Nevada
alone, in twenty years, over three hun
dred millions of silver and gold bullion
was derived from the celebrated Cone-
stock mines at a cost of seventy millions
of dollars.
The character of the sections in which
these vast mineral deposits have been
found, consisting as they do of mountain
rangeB whose towering heights reach
almost to the skies, is such as to require
tbe vast amount ot capital which has
been so lavishly employed in developing
their mineral resources, the expenditure
of which is calculated to appall the
small capitalists, and to deter them from
engaging in mining operations.
Within the period of the past eighteen
years the work of developing the mines
of Georgia has been steadily progress
ing, and the results have been of the
most satisfactory character. Mi ns
which had long been deserted have been
re-opened,and are found to be remunera
tive. The mountains in which these
mines are located are accessible at all
points.
Should a kind and beneficent Provi
dence still continue to smile on our State,
in a few years the iron horse will wend
its way through its utmost recesses, and
the gold mines of Georgia will become
as renowned as were those of the Pacific
coast in times past.
Wm. W. Habersham, M. E.
Atlanta, Qa.
As a raindrop foretells a storm, so
does a pimple upon the human body in
dicate health-destroying virus in the
blood, which can be neutralized and ex
pelled only by Dr. Harter’s Iron Tonic.
An Improvod Slngor Sowing Machine and one
year’s subscription to the Southern World for
only 118.00, We make this extraordinary offer
solely to Increaso our subscription. The ma
chines will all be built smooth-running, com
plete. withattachments, tools, needles, etc., and
are folly warranted. We have arranged with
Captain W. T. Wilson, of the firm of Wilson A
Stiff, of this city, one of the oldest sowing ma-
ohlno dealers and experts in the Stato.to thcr-
oughly inspect and ship these machines In per-
feet order to overy subscriber who sends the
above amount. Make no mlstake-tho Southern
M orld one year and tho Singer Sowing Machine
complete on receipt ot(>8 00.
The machines will bo ea-efullv bnxori nr
In Atlanta UV Thi‘fr , p? C i°t lr ., har<:Q 0Dboard ot cars
1 freI Rbt charges will not exceed
Ji to fl.uO to most any point South or West The
““chines are elegant black walnut wood work,
p«fect ^ o^de^ ftWe^S, drop ‘ lcaf ’ brau new and in
Kurni tam»»s ran be made to either nuraolvAi
Atlanta,"da Wl6 ° U & WlMSfiSSTSSl
