TABLE 114.-Coal produced in Oklahoma, 1919-1923, in net tons No production in Atoka in 1922 and 1923; Haskell included with Muskogee, etc., in 1922. OREGON The production of coal in Oregon, which had been decreasing, on the whole before 1918, showed an upward trend in both 1919 and 1920. These gains, however, have not been held, and beginning with 1921 the coal mined in this State has been included with that of California. The Coos Bay field is the only notable producing district in the State. Fuel oil, wood, and coal from other States dominate the local markets of Oregon, which has an exceedingly low per capita consumption. INTERPRETATION OF THE STATISTICS OF PRODUCTION Unit of measurement.-Tables 116-136 present the statistics of the Pennsylvania anthracite industry in 1923. The figures are given in gross tons, the unit of measurement universally employed in the anthracite region. In general the form of the tables requires no comment, but there are certain new features in the statistical returns for 1923 to which attention should be called. Fresh-mined, culm-bank, and river coal.-Anthracite is now produced from three sources from mines, from old culm banks, and from the rivers that drain the anthracite region. The mines are of course the primary source. As it leaves the mines, the coal consists of fragments of all sizes from big lumps to fine dust and is further mingled with rock and refuse from the workings underground. To prepare it for the market, the coal is passed through a breaker, in which the refuse and impurities are removed, the largest lumps are crushed, and the cleaned product is sorted into the standard sizes demanded by the trade. The breakers have always produced coal of a size too small to be marketed, though with increasing skill in the art of fuel utilization the limit of marketability has moved downward to smaller and smaller sizes. In the early days of the industry some of the chestnut and all the coal below chestnut size was unmarketable and was dumped in great piles or culm banks near the breakers, often without much thought of its future value. Later, when the market became more tolerant of the smaller coal, washeries were built to rework the coal in the culm banks and to recover the pea and as much of the steam sizes as could be disposed of. To-day all coal of the standard steam sizes-buckwheat, rice, and barley-and some material still smaller is sold or used for colliery fuel, and the old culm banks are being eaten away. Yet the counterpart of the old bank is seen in the accumulation of fine sediment from the wash water of the breakers, which careful operators recover in settling pools before allowing the water to escape to the streams. That a market for this material will develop seems reasonably sure. Even present practice does not extract all the fine particles of coal from the waste water of the breakers and washeries. The blackened creeks and rivers of the region are still transporting millions of tons of carbon, and in the earlier days the quantities thus carried downstream were still greater. The deposition of this load of coal here and there on the river bottoms has created a third source of anthracite, from which, by dredging, some hundreds of thousands of tons of steam sizes are now recovered annually. Difficulty of separating the statistics.-As all three sources-freshmined coal, culm-bank coal, and river coal-contribute to the country's supply of anthracite, it is important to cover them all in order to ascertain the total production. On the other hand, as the methods and cost of production differ greatly, it is important that the three sources be accurately distinguished in the statistics. No difficulty is experienced in separating the figures of production by dredges, because the operation is entirely distinct and is generally conducted by separate companies not connected with the mining corporations. Between the fresh-mined and the culm-bank coal, however, it is difficult to draw a sharp line that can be maintained throughout the statistics of the industry. Breaker product includes some culm-bank coal.-At first thought it would appear that the output of the breakers might be taken as equivalent to the fresh-mined production and that of the washeries as equivalent to the culm-bank production. But to this statement, though in general true, there are many exceptions. Coal from a washery may be passed through a breaker for further sizing and cleaning. Again coal from a culm bank may go directly to a breaker for preparation without passing through a washery at all. The labor employed at the washery may at other times be engaged on a breaker of the same company, and the company may be unable to state accurately how the force is divided between its fresh-mined and its culm-bank operations. Yet it is desirable that the particulars of labor employed be exactly comparable with those of culm-bank and fresh-mined coal produced, because one man can produce much more culm-bank coal daily than fresh-mined coal. The difficulty is increased by the varying accounting practices of the companies. Reconciliation of fresh-mined, culm-bank, and breaker product.Faced with this problem, the Geological Survey has in recent years taken the individual breaker or washery as the producing unit to be canvassed in its statistical inquiries. The mining company has been asked to report not its total output of fresh-mined and washery coal, but rather the output of each breaker and each washery, with the related figures of men employed and time worked. From these individual breaker reports an effort was made, by further questioning of the producers, to eliminate the culm-bank coal, and a considerable tonnage was thus eliminated. The resulting statistics were published under the captions "fresh-mined coal" and "washery coal." Not satisfied with the accuracy of this separation, the Survey noted in its report for 1922, "It is probable that the statistics * slightly overstate the quantity of fresh-mined coal. They represent rather the total product of the breakers minus some but not all of the culm-bank coal. * * * In the forthcoming report for 1923 a more accurate measurement of the quantity derived from culm banks will be attempted." * * For 1923, therefore, a supplemental inquiry was sent to the producers, in addition to the usual schedules for the operation of each breaker and washery, in which each company was asked for a recapitulation of its culm-bank and fresh-mined production from all operations combined. This inquiry showed that of the 78,468,375 tons handled by the breakers, 2,332,837 tons was bank coal. The fresh-mined coal proper was 76,135,538 tons. The quantity handled by washeries was 4,016,126 tons, but including the 2,332,837 tons of bank coal handled in breakers, the total produced from culm banks was 6,348,963 tons. TABLE 116.-Comparison of anthracite production in 1923 classified as freshmined, culm-bank, and river coal, and as breaker, washery, and dredge product, in gross tons Change in table captions.-The check makes it clear that the amount of culm-bank coal included in the figures published by the Geological Survey in recent years is sufficiently great so that the statistics should properly be presented as "breaker product" and "washery product" rather than as "freshly mined coal" and "culm-bank coal," or "washery coal," the captions previously used. This change is introduced in the tables of the present report. PRODUCTION BY TRADE REGIONS, FIELDS, AND COUNTIES The total quantity of anthracite produced in 1923 was 83,338,401 gross tons, with a value at the mines of $506,786,768 (Table 117). The quantity produced was the largest since 1918, and the value was the largest in the history of the industry. In Tables 118 to 122 the statistics of production are presented by trade regions, fields, and counties. The classification by trade regions-Lehigh, Schuylkill, and Wyoming is the one most commonly used by the trade. It is paralleled by the organization of the United Mine Workers, in which District No. 1 corresponds to the Wyoming trade region, District No. 7 to the Lehigh region, and District No. 9 to the Schuylkill region. In studies of costs of production and reserves, however, the classification by fields is the more useful, because it corresponds more closely to the geologic conditions which largely govern mining costs. The northern field is identical with the Wyoming region. That part of the southern field lying east of Tamaqua, known as the Panther Creek valley, together with the eastern middle field, make up the Lehigh region. That part of the southern field west of Tamaqua and the western middle field are together equivalent to the Schuylkill region. The Bernice Basin, in Sullivan County, is sometimes grouped with the Wyoming region, but in the tables of the Geological Survey it is generally shown separately. The division by counties, shown in Table 122, is chiefly of interest in matters of local taxation. TABLE 117.-Total quantity and total value of anthracite produced, 1890-1923 |