40 
OUR MINERAL RESERVES. 
may be used. On the Hand, in South Africa, pebbles of quartzite 
that weather out of the " Banket ” or conglomerate are extensively 
used, and it is possible that rounded pebbles of dense cherty-looking 
rhyolite, a rock rich in silica, such as occur in considerable abun 
dance along portions of the Maine coast in the Penobscot Bay and 
Eastport regions, could be used for these purposes. 
SULPHUR. 
Sulphur furnishes an instructive example of the capture of the 
domestic market by the American producer. In 1903 the United 
States imported 191,000 tons of sulphur for consumption and pro 
duced only a few thousand tons in Louisiana, Nevada, and Utah. 
Last year the imports of sulphur for consumption amounted to only 
22,005 long tons, valued at $448,504, whereas the value of the im 
ported sulphur in 1903 was more than $3,700,000. In 1903, more 
over, we exported 89,221 tons of sulphur, valued at $1,599,701. mak 
ing the balance of trade in our favor last year $1,151,197. 
The sales of domestic sulphur last year amounted to 311,590 long 
tons, valued at $5,479,849, and a large quantity of unsold sulphur is 
still at the mines. This immense increase in the sulphur industry 
is due to the successful operation of the F rasch process in Louisiana 
and Texas, where the industry has already reached the point of 
having its output limited only by the demands of the market. 
The imports of sulphur come mainly from Japan and Italy and 
are almost wholly entered at the Pacific ports. 
The production of pyrite in the United States does not, how 
ever, show the same gratifying ratio of growth. In the last decade 
it has increased from about 200,000 tons to 341,000 tons, but the im 
ports of pyrite have more than doubled in the same period, and 
last year amounted to 850,592 long tons, valued at $3,611,137, or 
more than twice the domestic production. It is evident that foreign 
pyrite is the controlling factor in the market, the production in 
America being insufficient to supply the demand. The principal 
States mining pyrite are Virginia, California, Wisconsin, Ohio, 
Illinois, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, and New York. The imported 
pyrite comes chiefly from Spain, in which the principal deposits of 
pyrite occur. The imported Spanish ore is admirably suited for 
making sulphuric acid. 
Closely connected with the production of sulphur and pyrite is the 
sulphuric-acid industry, which now utilizes to some extent the 
sulphur that formerly went to waste in the air as smelter gases. 
The by-product acid made last year had a value of $4,346,272. This 
source of sulphuric acid is capable of much larger utilization, the 
production of sulphuric acid from smelter acid being limited only 
by the demands of the market available. These resources are impor-