QUARTZ MINING IN CALIFORNIA.

[FROM THE SAN FRANCISCO HERALD.]

Our readers must have lately seen by the reports from the mining regions that many of the quartz mining companies formed a few months since, have had to suspend operations, from various causes, which it is our intention now to analyze, and at the same time to offer our own opinions upon the way how such failures may in future be avoided. All are satisfied of one thing, that the quartz mines are sufficiently numerous and rich to give an opportunity for a vast amount of capital to be profitably employed; but that a greater amount of caution is requisite, before commencing operations, than in any other kind of legitimate trading or speculation, and in a great measure to the absence of this caution is the indifferent success to be traced.

A party of miners, who have succeeded in extracting some few thousand dollars from the ordinary river and ravine washing, turn their attention to quartz. A location is found, a shaft sunk, rich ore taken out and assayed, and claims staked and recorded. One of the party, who knows probably little or nothing about machinery, is sent down to San Francisco to procure it. The machinery is bought, paid for, sent up, erected, and operations are commenced, and all concerned are rejoicing at their good fortune and building aerial castles about the wealth to be derived. A short time elapses and it is found that the ore which has been assayed and turned out from 12 to 40 cents to the pound will not yield over 3 to 5 cents, and at last gives out altogether. The machinery is then stoped, and for the first time they begin to think and calculate upon the reasons of their non-success. Could any reasonable person have expected otherwise? Experience in every gold-bearing country shows that unless the miner be a practical man and one blessed with the "bump" of caution, success cannot be arrived

at.

But to sum up the causes of the partial failure in this country in few words, we will simply state that they are caused-First, from the owners of claims not having ascertained the richness of the lead by sinking several shafts at different distances, and thus first making certain that there be an extent of richness sufficient to justify an expenditure upon machinery; secondly, from the imperfect and useless machinery employed. To crush to a great fineness, to an impalpable powder, is one of the chief things, but the chief is to have in a more perfect state your amalgamating process. Too many here have founded an opinion without any previous knowledge of such mining and acted upon it, even against the advice tendered to them by Mexicans and Chilians, who have, as it were, been brought up in the mines; and so to blind obstinacy may a great deal of the loss be attributed. Another, but a minor reason, may be traced to the quicksilver not being so pure as it ought to be, as it is well known that the slightest particle of grease will prevent it from acting properly.

And now, to avoid failure and to make almost certain of success, it will at once be seen by the foregoing, that the miner should act with the utmost caution. He should be cautious in tracing his "lead" to an extent to give ample working room; he should be cautious not to trust too much to his own opinion; he should be particularly careful to collect the best information upon the amalgamating process, and exceedingly cautious in his choice of it; and with this exercise of caution in the mines of California, with ample means to "prospect" perfectly and put up good machinery, there cannot be a doubt that greater fortunes will accrue from it than from any other mineral lands in the world. The great drawback to the quartz miner is a too limited supply of funds. $40,000 to 50,000 expended, a greater portion in prospecting (if required) and the balance in putting up machinery and setting the ball in motion, must insure a greater per centage return than any smaller sum, if the money be in proper hands.

MANUFACTURE OF SPIRITS IN SCOTLAND.

There has just been printed in a parliamentary paper some account with respect to spirits in Scotland. In 1840 the quantity of spirits made in Scotland from unmalted grain numbered 2,298,962 gallons, and from malt only 6,522,568 gallons. The revenue derived from malt only in that year, used for making spirits, was £236,903 Os. 7d. There were 117 distillers manufacturing malt spirits, 10 distillers making spirits from malt and grain at different periods. In 1851 there were 4,315,151 gallons made from unmalted grain in Scotland and 5,724,543 from malt only. The revenue derived from malt used in making spirits was £214,543 0s. 10d. The total number of distillers in Scotland in the same year was 164.

workman obtained 10 or 12 cents a pair for making, are now made at 6 to 8 cents: those for which employers formerly paid 15 and 17 cents, they now pay only 10 or 12 cents; and those for which 30 to 35 cents was formerly paid, are now made for 20 to 28 cents. There are a great many journeyman shoemakers, now employed on ordinary work, 12 to 15 hours a day, who earn less than fifty cents a day.

PHENIX CUMBERLAND COAL COMPANY.

The Wall Street Journal in reply to inquiries, in relation to this new coal company says:-"We are informed that the capital is $2,000,000; that its mineral lands amount to 22,000 acres; its surplus capital $100,000; its permanent debt, (FLOATING DEBT, IT HAS NONE,) amounts to $15,000, represented by bonds, payable in 1872, and negotiated at par. With relation to its business prospects, we learn that the works to connect the mines of the company, with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, will be ready to bring coal to market by the middle of next month, and are, in length, 1810 feet. The cost of transportation of a ton of coal to Baltimore will be less than $2, and that of mining and loading the cars of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad about $5 cents. The Phenix Company being essentially free from all debt, whatever profits are made will go to the stockholders; consequently, there is a reasonable anticipation that a fair dividend will be earned and paid this year."

MERCANTILE MISCELLANIES.

MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK.

The thirty-first annual report of the Board of Direction of the Mercantile Library Association of New York, covering some thirty-six pages, gives renewed evidence of the progressive character of this institution, and of its stability. Its example has been followed by the merchants of every considerable commercial city and town in the United States, and the similar associations which have been established in Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Charleston, St. Louis, &c., are all, as may be learned from the pages of past numbers of the Merchants' Magazine, in a flourishing condition. They have been eminently successful in fostering a thirst for knowledge, and a taste for reading, among the rising generation of merchants, and in many instances laid the foundation of honor and success in life. The New York Mercantile Association, with a library of rare value, a reading-room surpassed by none in the country either in extent or completeness, and with every prospect of continued and increasing prosperity, may well feel grateful to those far-seeing and devoted men to whom it owes, in a great measure, all these advantages.

From the report we learn that the number of members at the close of 1850 was 3,343, and the total number on the 1st of January, 1852, 8,797. Of this number, 3,611 pay $2 per annum, and 186, $5 per annum. The report of the Treasurer exhibits a large increase in the receipts over that of the preceding year. The receipts of the year ending December, 1851, were $8,290, which, with a balance from the previous year of $320, makes the total income of the year $8,612. The expenditures for increasing the library, &c., amounted to $8,416, leaving a balance in the Treasury, on the first of January, 1852, of $195. On the first of January, 1852, the institution was entirely free from debt. The number of volumes in the library on the first day of January, 1852, was 33,140; the additions made during the year 1851 amounted to 2,957-a greater number than has been added in any one year during the existence of the library except in the year 1839, when the number amounted to 3,583. The additions made in 1851 are classified as follows:-Works of fiction, 806; works of sci

MACHINE FOR WEAVING BAGS.

If the following statement of a correspondent of the Boston Journal is correct, our esteemed friend Benjamin Flanders, (and others in New York,) largely engaged in the manufacture of bags, will be compelled to relinquish that branch of his extensive business, or introduce the new machine, in operation at the Stark Mills, which is thus described in the Journal.

While in one of the rooms of the Stark Mills, we were much interested in witnessing the working of a machine recently invented and put into operation by Mr. Cyrus Baldwin of Manchester, and which is called a bag-loom machine. It weaves bags whole-without seam-at the rate of 45 per day, and one girl can tend two, and in some cases three machines. The principal feature of this machine is that is selfacting. When it has wove the length which is desired for the bag, it changes the action so as to weave the bottom of the next bag, which being done it changes back again and weaves the body of the bag. Its operation is very simple and ingenious. The Stark Corporation have now in operation 26 of these machines, and have between 30 and 40 more ready to set up. They can be made to weave bags of any size, even as large as bed-ticks.

ZINC A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEAD.

Zinc may be made a preventive for many diseases that have of latter years become alarmingly prevalent. Lead in water pipes, beer-pumps, kitchen utensils, &c., comes in contact with and poisons what we eat and drink, daily. The diseases thus engendered are Cholic, Dysentery, Rheumatism, Neuralgia, Paralysis, Delirium, Coma, and many modifications of these diseases too numerous to be at once called to mind, though all of our readers may recognize in their own cases various symptoms that indicate their approach, and may trace the cause to the increased use of lead in their household utensils. A small portion of lead each day is taken into the system; slowly, yet surely, preparing it for the outbreak of the diseases we have specified, which by the reports of death, every one may perceive are becoming more prevalent every year. A law should be passed immediately prohibiting the manufacture and use of leaden utensils for the conveyance or cooking of food and drinks, substituting zinc instead. This law should also apply to paints-especially as zinc paints are generally known to be cheaper by about 40 per cent than white lead, and much more durable. This is a fair subject for legislation, and laws of this kind will be approved and obeyed by by all classes. Pure zinc is commercially 50 per cent superior to lead; sanatarily its superiority is incalculable.

MANUFACTURE OF CANDLES.

The Iowa Farmer and Artisan says, that this dificult and offensively laborious operation is simplified and rendered easy, by an apparatus owned by Mr. George Watkins of Johnson-street, Keokuk, by which the cost of making candles at once becomes nominal, and the operators of the machine may, if they desire it, avoid becoming bedaubed by tallow, as the apparatus itself does the work perfectly, and with extraordinary dispatch. One man may do the work of five, by the common system of hand molding, and besides the wicks are more perfectly centered, and the candles of a more uniform quality than can be made by hand. With the small force of one man and three smart boys or girls, some twelve or fifteen years old, a stock of ten thousand dollars worth of tallow could be worked up in a year with this machine, and the business, even if the whole were sold at wholesale prices, would afford a very handsome income.

DEPRESSION IN THE SHOE MANUFACTURE.

The depression, it is stated in the Newburyport (Mass.) Herald," which has weighed heavily upon all our other manufacturers, for two or three years past, had at last reached the shoe business, and that among the departures for California, were many who had been thrown out of business in this department of industry. We find, as far as our inquiries extend, that the reduction of wages in the shoe manufacture, in all branches except the first class of work, is 30 per cent. We find that shoes which last year

workman obtained 10 or 12 cents a pair for making, are now made at 6 to 8 cents; those for which employers formerly paid 15 and 17 cents, they now pay only 10 or 12 cents; and those for which 30 to 35 cents was formerly paid, are now made for 20 to 28 cents. There are a great many journeyman shoemakers, now employed on ordinary work, 12 to 15 hours a day, who earn less than fifty cents a day.

PHENIX CUMBERLAND COAL COMPANY.

The Wall Street Journal in reply to inquiries, in relation to this new coal company says:-"We are informed that the capital is $2,000,000; that its mineral lands amount to 22,000 acres; its surplus capital $100,000; its permanent debt, (FLOATING DEBT, IT HAS NONE,) amounts to $15,000, represented by bonds, payable in 1872, and negotiated at par. With relation to its business prospects, we learn that the works to connect the mines of the company, with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, will be ready to bring coal to market by the middle of next month, and are, in length, 1810 feet. The cost of transportation of a ton of coal to Baltimore will be less than $2, and that of mining and loading the cars of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad about 35 cents. The Phenix Company being essentially free from all debt, whatever profits are made will go to the stockholders; consequently, there is a reasonable anticipation that a fair dividend will be earned and paid this year."

MERCANTILE MISCELLANIES.

MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK.

The thirty-first annual report of the Board of Direction of the Mercantile Library Association of New York, covering some thirty-six pages, gives renewed evidence of the progressive character of this institution, and of its stability. Its example has been followed by the merchants of every considerable commercial city and town in the United States, and the similar associations which have been established in Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Charleston, St. Louis, &c., are all, as may be learned from the pages of past numbers of the Merchants' Magazine, in a flourishing condition. They have been eminently successful in fostering a thirst for knowledge, and a taste for reading, among the rising generation of merchants, and in many instances laid the foundation of honor and success in life. The New York Mercantile Association, with a library of rare value, a reading-room surpassed by none in the country either in extent or completeness, and with every prospect of continued and increasing prosperity, may well feel grateful to those far-seeing and devoted men to whom it owes, in a great measure, all these advantages.

From the report we learn that the number of members at the close of 1850 was 3,343, and the total number on the 1st of January, 1852, 8,797. Of this number, 3,611 pay $2 per annum, and 186, $5 per annum. The report of the Treasurer exhibits a large increase in the receipts over that of the preceding year. The receipts of the year ending December, 1851, were $8,290, which, with a balance from the previous year of $320, makes the total income of the year $8,612. The expenditures for increasing the library, &c., amounted to $8,416, leaving a balance in the Treasury, on the first of January, 1852, of $195. On the first of January, 1852, the institution was entirely free from debt. The number of volumes in the library on the first day of January, 1852, was 33,140; the additions made during the year 1851 amounted to 2,957-a greater number than has been added in any one year during the existence of the library except in the year 1839, when the number amounted to 3,583. The additions made in 1851 are classified as follows:-Works of fiction, 806; works of sci

him of his goods, and left him as one dead, in his house on Circus-street. It was long before this old man recovered, and when he did, his intellect was a wreck, and nothing save his business habits were left to save him from total insanity. Since then he has followed the business of selling socks.

But it were unjust to the old man to give so imperfect an abstract of his history. Let us roll back the tide of time some quarter of a century, and a tall, fine looking gentleman, may be observed walking down Broadway, in New York. Fair ladies ogle him as he passes, and feel flattered when he smiles on them. And is it strange ? —for the smiler of that day is a wholesale merchant of princely fortune! After that changes came. The merchant, broken in fortune, removed to New Orleans, and his remains may now be found in the muttering sock seller of the Poydras Market. There is a strange tale of love connected with the old man.

AN ENTERPRISING WOMAN IN CALIFORNIA.

We have before us, says the Boston Traveler, a private letter from a lady, though a hard-working woman, in California. It would interest our readers, we have no doubt, as it has us, were we at liberty to publish it entire. The writer appears to keep a restaurant or eating-house, in a mining village. Among her visitors she accidentally discovers the son of an old Connecticut acquaintance, and finding he was endeavoring to induce his father and mother to visit California, she writes this letter to encourage them forward. After an introductory explanation of who she was, and where they became acquainted with each other, she goes on to say :

"I have made about $18,000 worth of pies-about one-third of this has been clear profit. One year I dragged my own wood of the mountains and chopped it, and I have never had so much as a child to take a step for me in this country. $11,000 I baked in one little iron skillet, a considerable portion by a camp fire, without the shelter of a tree from the broiling sun. But now I have a good cooking stove, in which I bake four pies at a time, a comfortable cabin, carpeted, and a good many Robinson Crusoe' comforts about me, which, though they have cost nothing, yet they make my place look habitable. I also hire my wood hauled and chopped. I bake on an average about 1,200 pies per month, and clear $200. This, in California, is not thought much, and yet, in reality, few in comparison are doing as well. I have been informed there are some women in our town clearing $50 per week at washing, and I cannot doubt it. There is no labor so well paid as women's labor in California. It is hard work to apply one's self incessantly to toil, but a few years will place you above want with a handsome independency. I intend to leave off work the coming spring, and give my business into the hands of my sister-in-law. Not that I am rich, but I need little, and have none to toil for but myself. I expect to go home some time during the present year, for a short visit, but I could not be long content away from the sunny clime of this yellow land. A lovelier or more healthy climate could not be, and when I get a few friends about me, I think I shall be nearly happy again.

HONESTY IN BUYING AND SELLING.

Some are not honest in buying or selling. Their rule is, to buy at all times as cheap as they can, and sell as dear as they can. This is a wicked rule. We often trade with those who do not know the worth of the thing bought or sold. It is cheating them, to make the best bargain we can. Sometimes we trade with those who are in great want, and we fix our own prices, and make them much too high if we sell, or too low if we buy. There is a fair price for everything. Let that be paid or taken for everything. He who is just and true, and loves his neighbor as himself, will soon find out what a fair price is. Almost all men use too many words in buying and selling; and when too many words are used, there is almost always a lie somewhere.

CONSUMPTION OF OPIUM IN ENGLAND.

The quantity of opium entered for home consumption in 1850 amounted to 42,324 lbs., and during the year 1851. it had increased to 50,368 lbs., being an increase of 8,044 lbs. over that of preceding years. It would, therefore, appear that as dram drinking decreases opium eating increases.