MINERAL PRODUCTS. 
47 
there is little opportunity to substitute the American product. The 
Arkansas output of diamonds is valued at only a few thousand dol 
lars a year, and this sum is exceeded by the value of the annual pro 
duction of emerald, ruby, opal, tourmaline, and turquoise. The 
sapphires from Montana constitute the only domestic factor of im 
portance in the precious-stone market, stones valued at about 
$200,000 being mined each year. 
Common salt continues to be imported in considerable quantity, 
more than a million barrels coming to Atlantic ports last year. The 
country is amply able, however, to supply the entire home demand, 
as the capacity of its salt mines and works is in excess of the present 
output. The imports last year were only 3.2 per cent of the total 
consumption, whereas in 1890 the percentage was 17.2. 
Secretary Lane has called particular attention to the “ long-felt 
want” in the United States of a chemical industry based on coal 
tar, a raw material of which our gas and coke retorts yield an abun 
dant supply. The commercial production of coal tar in 1912 was 
about 125,000,000 gallons (approximately 1,000,000,000 pounds), to 
which should be added the tar that is at many works burned for 
fuel or allowed to go to waste. 
The extent to which this tar is manufactured in the United States 
is practically limited to simple distillation for recovery of the light 
oils (such as gasoline), creosoting oils, and pitch. Coal tar is the 
raw material from which carbolic acid is manufactured, and the 
crude tar contains about 10 per cent of this extensively used chemi 
cal, yet, so far as the Geological Survey is informed, no carbolic acid 
is made in this country, the acid in the tar going into the creosoting 
oils used in the preservation of railroad ties, bridge timbers, and 
other wood exposed to the decaying action of air and water. 
We exported last year 36,500,000 pounds of coal tar, 30 per cent 
of it to Germany and 20 per cent to Belgium, for which we received 
$150,000. Of carbolic acid alone we imported over 8,000,000 pounds, 
one-third of it from Germany, for which we paid, exclusive of 
freights, commissions, and profits, $675,000. We imported alto 
gether chemical products of coal tar, including dyes, colors, and 
medicinal preparations, to the value, duty paid, of about $12,000,000 
at the points of shipment. The need of aniline color and dye works 
in the United States is now self-evident, as is also the opportunity 
for other branches of the chemical industry. 
Several medicinal articles of which petroleum forms a large per 
centage have been imported, especially a very carefully refined oil 
having about the consistency of a very light lubricating oil. This 
has been made, for convenience, in Baku, Russia, and some of it has 
been manufactured in the United States from petroleum distillates 
imported from Russia, and has been sold as “ alboline,” “ petrolatum