GOLD AND SILVER.
	The Mint statistics.Hon. Horatio C. Burchard, late Director of the Mint, has made estimates of the production of the precious metals in the United States, and his results (for the last four years) are ac­cepted as authoritative in this report, no- provision having yet been made for the collection of gold and silver statistics by this office. A number of other estimates, showing greater or less discrepancies, have been published. A table is appended, showing Mr. Burchard's estimates, by States, for the period 1881 to 1884, inclusive. It will be seen from these figures that the total production has been very steady of late; but that the gold output has declined somewhat while the silver yield has slightly increased. The decline in the production of gold has been mainly due to the depression of hydraulic mining in California. The annual output of the two " precious " metals in the United States is about the same in value as that of the pig iron at present prices, but far below the value of the coal production. In 1883 the production fell short of the yield in 1882 by $2,500,000 gold and $600,000 silver. In 1884 the gold production increased $800,000 and the silver production increased $2,600,000, as compared with 1883.