The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

» e serve, and adding 56,571 francs from 1906, there is a balance of 71,385,915 francs. It is proposed to carry 2,800,- Q00: francs to special reserve. Grom which 3,800,000 francs were. taken in 1906 to complete the dividend), to dis- tribute 71,385,915 francs as dividend, leaving 52,402 francs to carry for- ward. The dividend is 126.71 francs per share, which, added to the inter- est of 25 francs represents' 4° gross revenue: of (1517) 'francs, and 141 francs net. The sum of 621;197,979 fratics as been expended on the canal, of which 8,713,778 francs were spent last year. The depreciation fund stands at 45,- 106,070 francs, the insurance fund at 1,341,869 francs, the statutory reserve at 27,864,487 francs, and the extraordi- nary reserve at 7,000,000 francs. Dur- ing the year 4,267 ships, of 14,728,434 tons net, passed through the canal, an increase for the year of 292 ships; and 1,282,930 tons, the average ton- nage being 3,452 tons, against 3,383 -- tons in 1906. The commercial traffic of the canal, which has been increas- ing since 1900, reached the highest point last year, the passage of cargo and mail steamers showing an in- crease of 1,432,000 tons, or 11. per cent, on the total for 1906, but mili- tary navigation decreased 149,000 tons. The maritime movement on the canal was specially influenced by the _ in- - «ereased business.of India with Europe, but the transport of the products of the' Dutch 'Indies. also «showed .a marked increase, favored by the ad- mission to the canal of vessels carry- ing oil in bulk, and Australia and Cochin China have greatly improved their exports. While the traffic on the canal in the first months of the present year has been maintained at a high level, it has been less than in the corresponding period of last year. This decline is largely due to the falling off in exports from India, where the crops in many of the prov- inces have suffered from bad weather. On May 19 the transit dues showed a diminution of 2,490,000 francs, and it is added that, whatever confidence the directors may have in the improve- ment of the general situation, and in the development of certain regions tributary to the canal, it is probable that the deficit might increase by' the end of the year. Notwithstanding this the shareholders are assured that the maintenance of their dividend will not be affected. The following are particulars of the vessels using the canal in the last two years: TAE Marine REVIEW 1906. 1907. Flag. No. Tonsnet. No. Tons net. Gerthan)..,: ge05, 588) 2,155,558 580. .2,254°651 Amevican 4 i. 320 67,876 9 12,537 Sritis: (.4041./2)333" 8,299,931 2,651 ~9.405,868 Austro - Hun- Sarian i. 145 483,073 129 439,997 Belsinm: ao. en. py OR Ree are 3 7,082 IGHINESE Obey Sete a he eke 1 1,655 Damish' Ae 89 '108,063 38 105,130 Egyptian: oss.' 2 286 6 623 Spanish oe... 28 OL,068 3.26 75,158 rench 0s 260 856,311" 239 806,786 (reelen cs foicwrs 6 5,240 Zi. 45,494 tala: rte 82 181,235 86 202,112 Japanese. es. 37 147,279 67 259,059 DUO es oes 202 561,322 228 632,089 Norwegian (.o3. 57 80,006 47 54,299 sharkish: 2s ot 63,810 bel 73,247 Portuguese, ss. 1 1,290 1 195 Russians ..08es old 3 5305375 81 239,350 SIAMESE OG nee. de 474 1 553 Swedish ccc5. 8 22,318 10 23,457 PLOLAL oe ey walks 3,975 13,445,504 4,267 14,728,434 THE BUYING OF COAL. Many and varied are the methods em- ployed today in the buying of coal. They are discussed in a lucid manner in a re- cent paper by E. G. Bailey, chief of the coal department, Arthur' D. Little's laboratory, Boston. From this paper the following extract is taken: "Some people buy coal simply because the price is the cheapest they have had quoted to them. Another man buys coal upon its past reputation. He _ thinks 'That coal has always given good results; it gave Mr. So-and-so good results, an I will keep on buying it. Another takes the recommendation of his engineer or fireman, and no matter what the price he says, "That coal is worth the money and I will take it' Another man buys his coal upon the basis of the highest number of heat units per dollar. Another will make evaporative tests and buy the coal giv- ing the highest evaporation per dollar. Of course, the latter result is what every one wants in a steam plant, but in such cases the purchaser is frequently misled, be- cause he figures the price of his coal f. o. b., the car or vessel, and does not con- sider that a coal which may evaporate 8 lbs. of water to a pound of coal costs a good deal more to handle enough to supply him for a year, than if the coal evaporated 1014 lbs. of water to a pound of coal. He has to pay more for labor for having the coal brought into his boiler room; he has more ashes, and all the way through there are numerous small expenses which, if considered in the first place, might show- that coal to be more expensive at the end of the year than the other coal would have been. In any case, you cannot depend entirely upon the price and quality, whether you take it from heat units or evaporation. There are certain practical things that must be considered, such jas delivery and the ques- tion of spontaneous combustion. "There are numerous things upon which you can- net put a definite money value, and each person must use his own judgment to a certain extent after all. He must deter. mine the coal to buy, either from a trial, 33 or from past use of that particular coal. There are variations in the conditions in the mines as impurities, sulphur balls; and also the preparation of the coal so that what you received from a mine last year does not prove that you will receive the same the coming year. One can- not drop the matter as soon as he has made his contract. He must follow the thing up to be sure that he is getting the value contracted for. He may determine this by inspection, and if the coal is from the same mine and of the same character, one can tell a great deal about the coal as to impurities, one of the largest fac- tors in the question. He may make evap- orative tests from time to time, and in. that way determine whether the coal is giving the results previously obtained from it. He may analyze the coal, de- termine the percentage of ash, sulphur, and heat units. He may buy the coal on a B. T. U. basis. The use of the lat- ter method has been much extended, and several large concerns are buying their coal in that manner. It has good points, as well as faults. The fault lies mostly in having to pay a higher price for the coal. The coal dealer is not sure his coal is going to run uniformly throughout the year, cven from the same mine. He is going to have his profit and he, therefore, puts up the price from 10 to 25 cents to offset the chances of that coal being bad. If he can afford to take the risk at 25 cents a ton, why can't the buyer? There are certain cases where it is advisable to buy coal.on:a.B. T. U. basis, but the coal man is not yet ready to do a general business on that basis. One reason why the coal man advances the price in order to offset any difference in quality is be- cause he is not familiar with his own coal. He has probably had a few analy- ses from it, but he is not sure they are the average. Another. reason is that by past experience the sampling of coal de- livered has been done in such a way that fair average results have not been ob- tained. Sometimes the coal man is cheat- ed and sometimes the buyer. A fair sam- ple of the coal is a very difficult thing to obtain by a person who does not know all the chances for obtaining erroneous results, and that has knocked the confi- dence out of both the coal seller and buyer; but a proper average sample of coal can be obtained. There is a large concern which burns about 1,000 tons of coal a day, and receives a coal which runs 'fairly uniform. 'From the results of their sample it seldom varies more than JZ to.1 per cent in quality. They have learned that a few shovelfuls, or a hand- ful here and there does not represent the average of a carload. You must take a considerable quantity from 500 to 2,000 pounds. That should be taken miscel- -laneously, all of it broken up and thor- oughly mixed, so that a piece of slate left