Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-08-25
ROCKS WORTH MILLIONS.

.
ROCKS WORTH MILLIONS.
The Fertile gsoas ,.sha. Comes from
sopth GAroltna.
''You would scarcely believe that manure IL
dug out of the ground IN my state, said South
Carolina gentleman to a knot Of Kentucky to-
bacco planters. the other night, in tho Calf
| house smoking-room, in Louisville.
"Well, 1t would De regarded a. q very strange
thing In our section. We know that we have to
use lots Of it; but whep it goes into the ground
that is the last Of 1t, a. fertilizer, at least,
replied one Of the planters.
ut Is fact, nevertheless" rejoined the Pal
metto man. land II you'll excuse my absence
for few moments I'll go to my room and get
some tangible proof" Saying this he departed
and soon returned with an irregular lump of
grayish drab-colored stone and laid it before the
party. 1t was handed about from one to the
other. hefted, tasted and smelled, but they
| couldn't see how such stuff as that would ma
| nure land.
"Neither could the planters Of nv state" said
| the gentleman. "They kicked it about when
ever it came in their way, cursed its presence in
their fields, and worked hard to cart it out Of
q,
while all the time it was the most valuable thing
they could own, only they didn't know It. By
and by. few years after the war, one Of those
shrewd, prying spectacle-wearing Yankee geol-
ogists from the neighborhood Of Boston came
down to Charleston in search of marine fossils
and, as good luck would have it, paid visit to
one of the plantations on the Ashley river. Here
his attention was drawn to a huge lump Of this
rock. which contained one of the very fossils for
which he was searching. He struck It several
blows with a hammer to dislodge the petrifac-
ton from its envelope, and was surprised and
delighted to discover that the despised and re-
jected rock was a rich phosphate Of lime more
valuable, indeed. as was proved by analysis. than
the precious guano deposits of the South At
lantic and Pacific islands. over which govern
ments have gone to war, and from whose traffic
gigantic fortunes have been made. l take this
specimen strike it, scratch it or even rub it, and
its speaks for itself as to it's character
Here he suited his action to his words, and
gave the stone to the nearest one of the party
after rubbing it vigorously between his thumb
and fOrefinger.
"Phew!" exclaimed that individual as he
brought it under his nose, ut smells like q
church steeple pigeon roost."
The others repeated the experiments with
similar results, and the Misunderstanding stone
was fncontinently dropped upon the table as
! something uncanny.
You may believe" continued the South Car
DINA gentleman, 'the Yankee made a careful
and quiet investigation of the extent and local
ity of the deposits and then lost no time in
getting back to Boston with a scheme to dis
close to eastern capitalists that really had mil
lions in it. The original company did not do
much beside purchasing mining leases on all
the ground thought to contain the phosphate
rock. But the secret was out and other COM
panies obtained sub-eases and erected large
wor ks for preparing the crude material for
followed with varying success, both as to
the manner of mining and methods of ham
ding and reducing the rocks. Still the
production Of the fertilizer grew steadily
year by year. keeping always behind the COM
nercial demand The accepted method of min
ing is by means OF shallow trenches. gradually
widening into each other as the deposits are re-
moved. This answered very well at first, as the
stratum of rocks is not two or three feet in
thickness, and nOithOught was given to possible
beds lying under the waters of the rivers and
bayOus. 1t remained for other enterprising
capitalists to discover the latter fact and now
they are reaping q rich harvest by dredging and
scraping the bottom, and even employ divers in
the work OF gathering the subaqueous deposits.
The localities where the rock is found extend
along both sides of the ASHLEY for two or three
miles above its mouth, and underlay the bed of
that stream and its tributary creeks. Nearly all
the ground is of rharshy'character, and the work
OF mining and Transporting the rock to the mills
is carried on with negro labor, as that is found
to be the most reliable The negro can best en-
dure the exposure to the heat of the sun and the
malaria of that region, but even he becomes
subject to attacks of rheumatism and low grade
fevers, which, in year or two, compel him to
retire from this form of labor"
"How came this rock to be deposited in that
particular lOcality?" 90. j..
.'Wel. sir. for that our best authority is the
biologists. They say that this region once had
higher tides than at present. and the present
lowlands of the Ashley river were in former
ages covered by the tides, and that this
locality must have been an immense bone yard
for all sorts of marine monsters. The theory
is we'll supported by the large number of fossil
remains found imbedded in the rock, such as
sharks teeth skeletons. more or less perfect, of
the lower crustacea shells, etc. The action of
the sea-water must have cemented the phOs-
phatic elements of these dead fishes into the
form in which it now is mined. l have at home
some sharks teeth three and four inches broad
at the base. nearly five inches long and quite an
inch thick, taken from these deposits. You
may judge from this what terrible water wolves
used to patrol our Carolina harbOrs before man
came into fashion. We have in Charleston har-
minnows compared with what their ancestors
must have been"
"How is the rock treated to fit it for use ?"
asked one of the party.
sit is taken to one Of the seven big grind
Ing mills along the banks Of the river, and
crushed by stamps into Jumps as big as marbles,
and then ground in steel mandrels until it be-
comes as impalpable as the finest flour. Then,
as chemists consider that it adds to the strength
of the fertilizing properties the dust is treated
to bath of suiphuric acid, and is again ground
until it becomes dry"
1t must take big lot of acid 2"
eyes, l should think it did. But every fac
tory manufactures its own acid. They have inn
mensely lofty buildings near their mills. wherein
colossal lead-lined chambers. superheated fumes
from burning sulphur are cooled and condensed
into sulphnric acid. These acid works are in-
teresting places to visit, but are no fit places
for ladies'. Against my better judgment once
consented to pilot company of ladies through
one of these works. warned them beforehand
that they would run risk of suffocatiOn from
inhaling the fumes and asked as special favor
that they go clad in old dresses. But no; they
treated my advice with the usual contempt OF
women for a mans superior wisdom, and went
in all their customary inery, fOunces and fur
bellows.
We'll, they professed to enjoy their trip very
highly and to be deeply interested in everything
they saw. But took notice that they held
their noses as they passed through the mills,
and fairly gasped for breath while in the acid
works. When they left the latter place their
appearance was enough to make the angels
weep. All their many cOlored ribbons and feath-
ORG yVha of NJ TO a rfx