Mining Output in 1916 and Cali fornia, while first in present annual output of gold, is overwhelmingly first in total produc tion; having produced morethan all the rest of the United States put together. It is second in output of copper, eighth in silver, first in borax and soda, second in petroleum, fifth in salt, first in asphaltum, tungsten, quicksilver (with two-fifths of the total production of the world) ; and with a range of mineral produc tions entirely without parallel in North America.
The principal products with their respective values were (1917) : Gold $22,500,000 Copper 17,000,000 Petroleum 57,421,334 2,500.000 (by kel ) 2,700,000 Potash. 2.200,000 Silver 1,400,000 Other 39.478,773 In 1917, total value of mineral products for California was $142,100,107, excluding kelp and many other products amounting to about $6,000,000.
Interesting other items in mineral produc tion (1917) were B and sods orax $3,000,000 Cement 6.100,000 Brick 1,600,000 Lead 000 1,0 Natural gas Tungsten concentrates 4,000.000 Zinc 2,000,000 Building stone 5,100,000 Chromite 200,000 Mineral water 470,000 Pyrite 295,000 Pottery clay 135,000 Lime 285,000 Magnesite 800,000 Manganese ore 200,000 The total metal output of the 589 active mines of California for 1916 amounted to a value of $39,749,263, a figure $7,485,419 greater than for 1915, and a new record in the mining history of the State. But this increase is to be attributed to the greatly enlarged output of copper, zinc and lead; for the gold output showed a falling off of $1,031,555. In detail, the year's record shows: gold, 1,035,744.6 ounces, valued at $21,410,741; silver, 2,564,354 fine ounces, valued at $1,687,345; copper, 55,897,118 pounds, valued at $13,750,691; zinc, 15,256,485 pounds, valued at $2,044,369; lead, 12,407,493 pounds, valued at $856,117.
The reduction in the gold output was nearly all in the deep-mine production, and is laid partly to the two months' strike of miners in the Mother Lode district, and partly to the higher wagis paid at the copper mines, which drew away a considerable body of miners. The placers are credited with 40 per cent of the total yield, as compared with 38 per cent for 1915. More than seven-eighths of the placer total was recovered by the 53 dredges through 'out the State. The largest dredging operations
were carried on in Yuba County, where 13 dredges, some of them the largest ever built, were at work during the year. Some platinum also was obtained by the dredges. The largest output of copper was in Shasta County, which produced 50 per cent more than in 1915. The lead output was nearly three-fold that of 1915, and nearly all came from Inyo County. Shasta and Inyo counties produced nine-tenths of the zinc output, and San Bernardino County the remaining tenth. The total tonnage of ore mined and treated in California in 1916 was 3,187,642 short tons. From this was recovered an average value of $9.77 per ton — a figure surpassing the former record ton-value of $7.87, made in 1915, by 24 per cent.
Minor mineral products (1917) by thousand dollars: Antimony 5, asbestos 5, barytes 10, bituminous rock 60, coal 25, dolomite 15, feld spar 7, fuller's earth 4, gypsum 45, infusorial earth 60, iron 3, limestone 155, marble 40, platinum 25, potash 25, silica 35, soapstone 15, soda 85.
For its first 80 years en tirely pastoral, for its next 20 years chiefly mining, for the next 60 years overwhelmingly devoted to agriculture, horticulture and viti culture, California has in the last decade (to 1917) become the ninth manufacturing State in the Union. This is due not alone to the vast range of productivity but still more to the un precedented development of petroleum-fuel and hydro-electric power. Between a population of 92,597 in 1850 and 2,938,659 in 1916, California's population increased 31-fold. Its economic progress has been perhaps as surprising. The United States census of 1914 shows nearly 5,000 manufacturing industries, of which 71 produce more than $500,000 a year each (including four that exceed $50,000,000 and 11 between $10, 000,000 and $50,000,000). Value increased, in five years, more than value increase of United States as a whole.
1899 1914 Number of establishments 4,997 10,057 Persons engaged 176,547 Capital $175,467,806 $736,105,455 and wages 47,385,354 140,842,691 Value of products 257,385,521 712,800,764 • Figures not available.
Percentage of increase 1899-1914, establish ments 101.3; average number of wage-earners, 80.6; value of products, 176.9; value added by manufacture, 186.1.