brand will not be uniformly the same; practically one brand is as good as another. Corroding lead is the very pure metal, which is suitable for white lead manufacture. It may be made either from desilverized or from the ordinary Missouri product; or the latter, if especially pure, may be classed as corroding without further refining. Antimonial lead is really an alloy of lead with about 15 to 30 per cent. antimony, which is produced as a by-product by the desilverizers of base bullion. The antimony content is variable, it being possible for the smelter to run the percentage up to 60. Formerly it was the general custom to make antimonial lead with a content of 10 to 12 per cent. Sb; later, with 18 to 20 per cent.; while now 25 to 30 per cent. Sb is best suited to the market. The relative values of the various grades of lead fluctuate considerably, according to the market place, and the demand and supply. The schedules of the American Smelting and Refining Company make a regular differential of 10c. per 100 lb. between corroding lead and desilverized lead in all markets. In the St. Louis market, desilverized lead used to command a premium of 5c. to 10c. per 100 lb. over ordinary Missouri; but now they sell on approximately equal terms. Chemical hard lead sells sometimes at a higher price, sometimes at a lower price, than ordinary Missouri lead, according to the demand and supply. There is no regular differential. This is also the case with antimonial lead.[1] The total production of lead from ores mined in the United States in 1901 was 279,922 short tons, of which 211,368 tons were desilverized, 57,898 soft (meaning lead from Missouri and adjacent States) and 10,656 antimonial. These are the statistics of “The Mineral Industry.” The United States Geological Survey reported substantially the same quantities. In 1902 the production was 199,615 tons of desilverized, 70,424 tons of soft, and 10,485 tons of antimonial, a total of 280,524 tons. There is an annual production of 4000 to 5000 tons of white lead direct from ore at Joplin, Mo., which increases the total lead production of the United States by, say, 3500 tons per annum. The production of lead reported as “soft” does not represent the full output of Missouri and adjacent States, because a good deal of their ore, itself non-argentiferous, except to the extent of about 1 oz. per ton in certain districts, is smelted with silver-bearing ores, going thus into an argentiferous lead; while in one case, at least, the almost non-argentiferous lead, obtained by smelting the ore unmixed, is desilverized for the sake of the extra refining.