Of the animal products in 1899, the most valuable was live-stock sold
during the year ($3,909,454); the stock-raising industry was carried
on most extensively in the S.E. part of the state. Wool ranked second
in value ($2,210,790), and according to the estimate of the National
Association of Wool Manufactures for 1907, Idaho ranked fourth among
the wool-producing states in number of sheep (2,500,000), third in
wool, washed and unwashed (17,250,000 lb.), and fourth in scoured wool
(5,692,500 lb.). In January 1908, according to the _Year-book_ of the
Department of Agriculture, the number and farm values of live-stock
were: milch cows, 69,000, valued at $2,208,000, and other neat cattle,
344,000, valued at $5,848,000; horses, 150,000, $11,250,000; sheep,
3,575,000, $12,691,000; and swine, 130,000, $910,000. According to
state reports for 1906, most of the neat cattle were then on ranges in
Lemhi, Idaho, Washington, Cassia and Owyhee counties; Nez Perce,
Canyon, Fremont, Idaho, and Washington counties had the largest number
of horses; Owyhee, Blaine and Canyon counties had the largest numbers
of sheep, and Idaho and Nez Perce counties were the principal
swine-raising regions. The pasture lands of the state have been
greatly decreased by the increase of forest reserves, especially by
the large reservations made in 1906-1907.
_Mining._--The mineral resource of Idaho are second only to the
agricultural; indeed it was primarily the discovery of the immense
value of the deposits of gold and silver about 1860 that led to the
settlement of Idaho Territory. In Idaho, as elsewhere, the first form
of mining was a very lucrative working of placer deposits; this gave
way to vein mining and a greatly reduced production of gold and silver
after 1878, on account of the exhaustion of the placers. Then came an
adjustment to new conditions and a gradual increase of the product.
The total mineral product in 1906, according to the State Mine
Inspector, was valued at $24,138,317. The total gold production of
Idaho from 1860 to 1906 has been estimated at $250,000,000, of which a
large part was produced in the Idaho Basin, the region lying between
the N. fork of the Boisé and the S. fork of the Payette rivers. In
1901-1902 rich gold deposits were discovered in the Thunder Mountain
district in Idaho county. The counties with the largest production of
gold in 1907 (state report) were Owyhee ($362,742), Boisé ($282,444),
Custer ($210,900) and Idaho; the total for the state was $1,075,618 in
1905; in 1906 it was $1,149,100; and in 1907, according to state
reports, $1,373,031. The total of the state for silver in 1905 was
$5,242,172; in 1906 it was $6,042,606; in 1907, according to state
reports, it was $5,546,554. The richest deposits of silver are those
of Wood river and of the Coeur d'Alene district in Shoshone county
(opened up in 1886); the county's product in 1906 was valued at
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