In 1902, for the third time, the total value of the commercial mineral production of the United States exceeded the enormous sum of $1,000,000,-000. The exact figures for 1902 were $1,260,039,415 as compared with $1,08(5,584,851 in 1901, with $1,063,-678,053 in 1900, and with $972,208,-008 in 1899, a gain of 1902 over 1901 of $174,064,414, or 16.02 per cent; a gain of 1902 over 1900 of $196,961,-362, or 18.52 per cent; and a gain of 1902 over 1899 of $288,431,407, or 29.67 per cent. Although this gain is not so great either actually or proportionally as was the gain in 1899, when the gain over 1898 was $273,601,810, or 39.17 per cent, it is sufficient to be worthy of note.

The notable gains and losses of the last two decades are as follows:

The largest actual gain was that of 1899 over 1898, $273,601,810, or 39.17 per cent: next, that of 1902 over 1901, $174,053,760, or 16.02 per cent; then the gain of 1895 over 1894, which was $94,215,822, or 17.88 per cent: then that of 1900 over 1899, $91,468,340, or 9.41 per cent; and the gain of 1887 over 1886, $74,927,880, or 16.81 per cent. In other years than those mentioned between 1880 and 1898 the gains were not noteworthy, and in some of the years, notably in 1884, the production decreased $40,451,968, or nearly 9 per cent. During the industrial depression of 1892-1895 the production would have been expected to decline, as it did, going from $648,-895,031 in 1892 to $574,464,724 in 1893, and to $527,079,225 in 1894, and then rising to $621,295,047 in 1895, and not reaching the output of 1892 until 1898.

As heretofore, iron and coal are the most important of our mineral products. The value of the iron in 1902 was $372,775,000; the value of coal $367,032,069. Nearly all the important metals increased in both output and value; and among the less important metals, platinum, as compared with 1901, lost in both quantity and value even more than it gained in 1901 as compared with 1900, the production in 1902 being 94 ounces, valued at $l,814, as compared with 1,408 ounces, valued at $27,526, in 1901, with 400 ounces in 1900, and with 300 ounces in 1899. The fuels increased from $442,410,904 in 1901 to $469,-078.647 in 1902, a gain of $26,667,743, or 6 per cent. Every variety of fuel increased in value except anthracite coal, which showed a decrease in quantity of 23,301,850 long tons and in value of $36,330,434. The average price of anthracite coal per long ton at the mine was $2.35, as against $2.05 in 1901 - the highest figure then obtained since 1888 - as compared with $1.85 in 1900, and with $1.80 in 1899; and the average price per ton for bituminous coal at the mine was $1.125, as compared with $1.047 in 1901. The increase in value of the bituminous coal output over 1901 was $54,436,-434.

The gain of $174,064,414 in the total value of our mineral production is due to the increase in both metallic and nonmetallic products, the metallic products showing an increase from $518,266,259 in 1901 to $642,258,584 in 1902, a gain of $123,992,325, and the nonmetallic products showing an increase from $567,318,592 in 1901 to $617,380,834 in 1902, a gain of $50,-072,089. To these products should be added estimated unspecified products, including building, molding and other sands reported to this office, the rare mineral molybdenum, and other-mineral products, valued at $1,000,000, making the total mineral production for 1902 $1,260,639,415.

The manufacture of arsenious oxide, noted for the first time in the United States in the report for 1901, was continued in increased proportions in 1902.