ted. By using brick, stone, or cement, of which we
have practically an unending supply, to take the place of wood, our
store of which is rapidly disappearing, we could avoid much of the drain
on our mineral resources which are used for paint.

As production and price advance a greater quantity of lead is remelted.
About 25,000 tons are returned to use each year.

ZINC

Zinc is a whitish metal. It is used in galvanizing iron to prevent its
rusting. It is used also in the manufacture of white paint, which
consumes about one ton out of every six tons mined. This, of course, is
permanently lost, but the price and its value as a resource is much
lower than lead. This takes more than half of the entire product. The
remainder of the output is about equally divided between brass and sheet
zinc. All these uses are extremely necessary and it is believed that the
production of zinc will rapidly increase for many years.

The United States is the largest producer, Germany ranks second. Large
amounts are mined in Australia, and very large deposits, entirely
undeveloped, are said to exist in Africa. In 1880, the United States
produced 23,000 tons of zinc; in 1907, 280,000 tons. This indicates the
rapid rate at which we are increasing our use of zinc.

If the same rate should continue, in 1920 we should be using 475,000
tons, or almost a billion pounds, and if zinc oxide should take the
place of white lead in painting to the extent that now seems probable,
the quantity would be still further increased.

Missouri is by far the heaviest producer of zinc, having a little more
than half of the output. New Jersey ranks next, then Colorado, Wisconsin
and Kansas. Some of the other western states each produce small amounts.
Most of the pure zinc ore is mined at a depth of from one hundred and
fifty to two hundred and fifty feet and occurs in sheets, but a large
part of the ore is a by-product obtained from the reduction of other
ores. In New Jersey the zinc alone is found in a single region, where it
was estimated a few years ago that there were eight million tons, of
which two and a half million tons have been mined since 1904. The zinc
in Missouri, Wisconsin and Kansas is found alone or underlying lead
deposits, while that of the western states is almost always found in
limestone, and is mixed with silver, copper, lead, and, more rarely,
gold. In these states there has been little attempt to discover zinc; in
fact, ores containing zi