Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1868-09-01
The Aahle1 River Phogphateg.

county .
Some four months ago We called attention
to the very remarkable deposit of phosphates
which had been discovered in the vicinity of
Charleston, South Carolina, and which ex-
tends for several miles up the Ashley river,
covering many thousand acres of land. The
entire extent of this deposit has not yet been
traced 1t is known, however, to contain
millions of tons of fosslIized bones the tusks
of elephants mammoths. hippopotami, the
teeth of sharks, and a iHultitudinous variety
of rrcgularly shaped phosphate nodules of
animal origin underlying the surface soil, and
averaging in many places foot in thickness.
1t is known, moreover, that this deposit ex>
tends back from the river q considerable dis
tance into the Forest and it is supposed also
to underlie, though at great depth, the city
of Charleston itself.
We have spoken of this great discovery as
one deposit; but, in point of fact, it consists
of several stratifed beds underlying each
other. After removing the surface soil, guam
titles of brown phosphate nodules worn into
water holes and bearing the imprint o fmarine
shells are first reached. Beneath this deposit
is stratum of stiff blue clay eighteen inches
thick, and below this again another layer of
the same thickness of bones and nodules-
many of the bones being of enormous size
and indicating period of the world when the
Icthyosaurus, the Plesiosaurus and Megathe-
rum lived and fourshed and the sea covered
many fathoms deep what has since become,
either by gradual upheaval or by some sud-
den cataclysm, dry land. Below the LAST
mentioned stratum lies bed of white Inarl
unusually rich in phosphorc acid and which,
therefore, also constitutes an excellent ferti-
lizer, although less valuable than the super
incumbent deposits of phosphates.
The stories of these rich discoveries sound
ed at the time SO much like a romance that it
is quite probable many thought they were
greatly exaggerated, and not few that the
deposits could not be proftably worked. But
practical experience has demonstrated the
fact that the phosphate deposits of South
Carolina are of usual commercial Importance.
1t speaks we'll for the enterprise of our citi-
zens that number of gentlemen should have
organized themselves. into an incorporated
company, for the purpose of working those
valuable deposits, and of opening market for
them in Baltimore. The President of the
company is Charles j. Baker, Esq, and all
the arrangements looking to an extended trade
have been so far perfected that the company
is now able to deliver cargoes at this port
This company, styled The Ashley Mining
and Phosphate Company has become the
owner of three thousand five hundred acres
of land on the Ashley river, all of which is
underlaid with the deposits of phosphates, to
which we have alluded, and which, according
to analyses made by Professors Piggott, and
Liebig, and Mr. Popplelin, respectively,
contain from 81 to 68 per cent. of bone phos
phate of lime \ remarkable feature of these
Charleston deposits is that there is found in
them much larger percentage of soluble
phosphate than in any of the phosphate
guanos which have been imported into the
United States.
The object of tie Ashley Mining and
Phosphate Company is to furnish to manu>
tacturers of uper-phosphates and others,
superior article Of phosphate at a rate quite
as low as the imported phosPhates can be
purchased at and of greater solubility. We
understand that large orders have already
been received both Tor the plain ground phos
phate and for the crude article.
As further means of giving practical
utility to this valuable discovery, another CON-
pany has been organized aud Incorporated by
the Legislature Of this State, styled 1.-The
Maryland Fertilizing and Manufacturing
Company" This company is also now in opera
ton, and proposes not only to furnish the pure
article ground ready for use but also to
manufacture an ammoniated super phosphate,
taking the Charleston phosphate base
This latter company, of which Mr.. Lawrence
Sangston is President, has recently opened
an Office at No, So Exchange Place.
Owing to the necessity, which has annually
become more imperative, of resorting to COM
mercial fertilizers for the purpose of restoring
those phosphates and that nitrogen to the soil
of which, by frequent cropping, it has become
in many instances almost wholly exhausted,
the discovery of these beds of bone phosphates
in South Carolina is not merely a matter
affecting the future prosperity of that i'm
poverished State, but is also of great public
interest. Every agricultural chemist knows
that where the soil has been even partially
deprived of its due supply of phosphates the
yield in grain will be reduced to the extent
of that deprivation. In the famous wheat
growing region Of the Genesee valley, where,
at one time, the average product was rarely
less than twenty five bushels of wheat to the
acre, the crop will not now average more than
twelve bushels This diminution in the grain
product has gone on steadily from year to
year. and may be traced there, as elsewhere,
chiefly to the exhaustion of the phosphates
with which the soil was at an earlier day so
amply supplied.
Two NEGROES KILLED.-On Tuesday last
two negro men we're shot and killed, in Haw-
kins county, East Tennessee, by Mr.. 1. Will
lis, who killed the wretch Sizemore, some
twelve months since. 1t appears that these
negroes went to the house of Mr. Willis, ,du-
ring his absence, and demanded something