Southern world : journal of industry for the farm, home and workshop. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1882-18??, May 01, 1885, Image 6

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198 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