which seems to remain about stationary; the same may be said for Brazil.

The west coast of South America seems to order what few goods it gets from Thuringia either via London or New York.

Of Mexican business, very little is heard nowadays, but there is no doubt that American and French dolls and toys have replaced. those of Thuringia in Mexico.

Cuba's trade has not picked up since the war. What the future has in store, it is hard to predict.

Central American trade has never been very large and of late it has fallen off entirely.

The trade with Asia, etc., is not done through the local houses, but mostly through London.

Russia seems to prefer her own or French dolls and toys to any other nation's products; consequently, very little is shipped from here.

During the year ended June 30, 1903, the export of dolls and toys from this district to the United States amounted to $1,840,013 out of a total export of $3,552,609, showing how important this trade with the United States is to the doll and toy makers of Thuringia.

COBURG, GERMANY, August 13, 1903.

OLIVER J. D. HUGHES,

Consul-General.

REMSCHEILD TOOL-MACHINERY AND SMALL

IRON INDUSTRY.

(From United States Consul Langer, Solingen, Germany.)

On the whole, the business of the tool-machinery industry and small ironware has been unsatisfactory.

In view of the increased demand of the preceding years, expensive new plants were erected which, in competition with existing. plants, not only forced prices down to and below cost, but caused an overproduction, particularly in the manufacture of tools, estimated at about 25 per cent of the normal production.

It is claimed that on account of the high price of coal and raw materials, as well as the products of the iron industry, the manufacturer of tools was unable to make the profit he should and at times was obliged to accept material of an inferior quality.

In the production of steel and cast steel, factories were kept running, although working hours were reduced.

In tool machinery, orders could only be obtained at low prices. The preference for locomobiles and electromotors seems to greatly

affect the manufacture of steam machinery. It is mentioned that as the United States had plenty of orders for their home trade, competition from this source was not felt to the extent of former years.

The manufacture of steam boilers, saws, files, and machine knives and saws was very light, owing to foreign competition, and caused a reduction of hands employed as well as of working hours.

Trowels, chopping and mincing knives, planes, chisels, screws, locks, gas and water meters, and enameled tinware were in fair demand, although prices tended downward.

The demand for hinges was very light, owing to American and Swedish competition; the same is true of lock pins and rivets, due to the increased production of these articles in Russia and Austria, on account of tariff protection in these countries.

The reason given for a considerable decline in the manufacture of hoes, axes, hammers, hatchets, and axles for freight wagons is the decrease of export orders as well as the influence of certain unions or organizations.

Building hardware was in good demand during the spring and summer, so that additional help was employed, but an advance in the price of tin and band iron cut into the expected profits very decidedly.

JOSEPH J. LANGER, Consul.

SOLINGEN, GERMANY, August 11, 1903.

BREWING INDUSTRY OF KULMBACH.**

(From United States Commercial Agent Harris, Eibenstock, Germany.)

For many centuries the brewing of beer has been the chief occupation of the inhabitants of Kulmbach. Until about 1835 the production of beer in this part of Bavaria was only sufficient for local consumption. The introduction of machinery aided by steam, however, greatly increased the output, so that it soon found a ready sale, not only in Germany, but in every country in the world. The following table will show the increase in the export of this beer during the past seventy years:

1831......

1851.

1871......

1891..

1899.....

Gallons.

4,385 351, 851

1,950, 631 II, 933, 690

19, 020, 240

*The best literature on the beer industry of Germany is as follows. Jahrbuch für die Deutschen Aktien Brauerein, von Richard Wolf. Brauerei Industrie Deutschlands u. des Auslandes, Bennig hoven; Allgemeine Brauer und Hopfenzeitung in Nürnberg.

The capital necessary to run the different breweries in Kulmbach, with all the side lines connected with them, for one year is estimated at $2,500,000. This sum is spent chiefly in the purchase of barley, hops, malt, coal, etc. Fully 1,000 skilled laborers are employed, while the number indirectly dependent upon the industry is much larger. The annual sum paid out to directors, clerks, and technical overseers amounts to $166,000.

The breweries of Kulmbach keep alive many side industries. The numerous steam engines of all the breweries together furnish 1,600 horsepower, while four of them have their own railway switch yards. Over 200 refrigerator cars carry the beer of the 17 breweries, not only to every part of Germany and neighboring countries, but especially to the seaports of Hamburg and Bremen for shipment to distant lands. The brewing of beer, as an industry, is of incalculable value to the agricultural interests of Bavaria, as immense quantities of grain and hops are necessary to keep the breweries running at their utmost capacity.

The internal arrangements of these great establishments are kept at the highest point of technical perfection. Their proportions will be appreciated from the following statistics covering one of the leading establishments: One seasoning tank of 6,340 gallons capacity; three huge malt vats with 3,434, 5,943, and 6,868 gallons capacity, respectively; two cooling reservoirs which will hold 4,642 and 5,679 gallons of beer, respectively; together with malt elevators, ice-making machines, fermentation tanks, and revolving cranes. The steam necessary to drive the machinery is generated in two large. boilers, each having an extraordinary capacity for creating heat. In connection with these boilers there are four subterranean pits, each capable of holding 27,557 pounds of coal. The entire brewing outfit, with tanks, vats, reservoirs, etc., was furnished by a Munich firm, while the machinery and engines were manufactured by a machine. factory in Augsburg. The electrical dynamos and apparatus were furnished from Berlin and by a local firm. The smokestack which rises over the brewery is 147 feet high and nearly 5 feet in diameter. The beer brewed in Kulmbach is usually heavy in character, dark in color, and especially adapted for export. The sale of this beer in Saxony, Silesia, and North Germany has been considerably curtailed since 1901. Kulmbach beer is regarded as an article of food in Germany, especially by laborers who work in factories. When better times were prevalent throughout the country, the middle classes, as well as the working classes, preferred this genuine Bavarian beer in spite of the fact that it was more expensive. The present depressed industrial conditions generally throughout the Empire have imposed upon the people the necessity of using the greatest economy, and

the mild local beers produced all over Germany are coming more and more into favor, not on account of the quality, but because the price is such that these grades of beer are always within reach of the masses. The following will show the difference in price between local and imported beer as it is sold in Eibenstock per quart: Ordinary local, 3 cents; local lager, 7 cents; local white, 10 cents; Munich, II cents; Kulmbach, 12 cents; Pilsen, 14 cents.

EIBENSTOCK, GERMANY, July 28, 1903.

ERNEST L. HARRIS,
Commercial Agent.

RECOVERY OF GOLD IN COMBINATION WITH AND SELENIUM.

TELLURIUM

(From United States Consul-General Mason, Berlin, Germany.)

In compliance with a personal letter dated June 29 from the chief of the Bureau of Foreign Commerce, asking for a special report in regard to the most effective process known and practiced in Germany for recovering gold from ores containing also tellurium and selenium, I have to report as follows:

Tellurium, which has been known as a primitive element for more than a century, and selenium, which is of more recent discovery, are distinguished in metallurgy as metals which combine chemically with gold.

The extraction of gold from telluride and selenic ores is therefore one of the most difficult problems in practical metallurgy. The discovery in recent times of extensive deposits of telluride-gold ores in Western Australia and the United States-notably at Cripple Creek, Colo. has given special importance to this subject, and it has been. found on investigation that, so far as can be ascertained, the most improved and effective method known in this country is one perfected and practiced by the London and Hamburg Gold Recovery Company, which has extensive reduction works at Hamburg, with offices at No. 20 Frauenthal in that city. This company works the telluride-selenic ores from Western Australia.

Of the process itself it has only been possible to ascertain that it is partially patented and partially held as a secret which the specifications of the patent do not disclose. What is known is that by this process telluride and selenic ores containing gold are pulverized and digested in a solution of cyanide of potash and cyanide of bromium, in proportions of 75 per cent of the former to 25 per cent of the latter The method by which the gold is precipitated from the solution is part of the carefully guarded secret concerning which no information can be obtained, but it is certain that the process

recovers 95 to 96 per cent of the gold contained in the ores, and this proportion is often as high as 97 or even 98 per cent.

The company, while naturally refusing to disclose further details of its perfected method, will be willing at any time to make tests of American ores and give exact reports of results. Samples of ore for this purpose should contain not less than 200 pounds.

FRANK H. MASON,

BERLIN, GERMANY, August 4, 1903.

Consul-General.

MINERAL OUTPUT OF RUSSIA.

(From United States Consul-General Holloway, St. Petersburg, Russia,)

The scientific mining committee has just issued a pamphlet containing full statistics on the mining industry in Russia for the year

1900.

Iron. The richest yield was obtained from the iron mines. The total amount of iron ore mined was 6,730,000 tons, out of which 3,233,000 tons of pig iron were smelted. The southern part of European Russia yielded 3,792,000 tons of iron ore; the Ural Mountains, 1,828,500 tons; Poland and the northwest Provinces, 533,000 tons; the Moscow region, 426,000 tons; Finland, 98,300 tons; the northern Provinces, 37,760 tons; Siberia, 10,440 tons; and the Caucasus, 3,900 tons. The total number of men employed in the works was 57,752.

Pig iron was smelted at 182 works with 302 high furnaces. Iron was worked at 137 works and steel at 82. The total amount of steel obtained was 2,441,930 tons.

Gold. The next ore mined, approaching iron in value, was gold. The total amount of gold sand and dirt washed in Siberia, the Urals, and Finland was 24,615, 117 tons, which yielded 2,367.2 poods (85,704 pounds) of gold, valued at 43,797,687 rubles ($22,555,809). The greatest quantity of gold was extracted in eastern Siberia, viz, 1,645.2 poods (59,411 pounds); in the Urals, 539.24 poods (19,472 pounds); and in western Siberia, 152.35 poods (5,500 pounds). workmen employed in all the gold mines numbered 90,988.

Platinum. The platinum extracted amounted to 310. 27 poods (12,204 pounds), valued at 4,159,625 rubles ($2,142,207). The platinum was extracted exclusively in the Perm Province and chiefly in the Goroblagodatski district.

Silver. Of silver 126 poods (4,550 pounds) were mined, and 220.39 poods (7,958 pounds) extracted from gold-smelting laboratories, the total being valued at 86,080 rubles ($44,331).

Copper. Copper ore was mined as follows: Eighty-nine thousand. four hundred and forty tons in the Ural Mountains, 89,000 tons in