The Brookhaven leader., 1884-04-03
South CaroIIna's Bed Of Wealth.

supplies the civilized world with the
chief part of all the phosphate of
lime used In the manufacture of COM
mercial fertilizers" 1t underlics q
vast region of country, thirty miles
wide and seventy miles in length. The
scientists differ in their opinions as to
the origin of this great deposit, and
vary Just as widely in their estimates
of the quantity of rock contained in the
deposit There has been o steadily in
creaslng demand for the rock since the
shipment of the first cargo in 1868, and
from an insignifi' ant beginning phos-
phate mining has grown into one OF
the largest and most important indus
tries in the State. The rock forms the
bed of many of the rivers leading to
the ocean, it underlies the wide streams
which surround the sea islands, it
crops out of the land at many points,
it abounds IN fossil remains, it wares in
formation and color, it is wonderful in
all respects. The most important con-
stituents of phosphate rock are from 30
to 81 per cent. of bone phosphate of
limo. 5 to IL per cent. OF carbonate
of lime, from J to 2 per cent. of
sulphuric acid, 35 to AZ. per cent. of
lime and number of other elements.
The ordinary rock of commerce does
not contain less than 55 per cent of
phosphate of lime.
The river deposits are mined with
crowbar and pick, tongs and dredges.
The land rock, of the mining of which
it is intended here to give some ac-
count, is excava.ed with pick and
sho: ell. 1t is found at a depth of from
one to ten feet below the surface of the
ground, and in seam ranging in thick
ness from few inches to thirty inches.
There are sixteen companies and in
dividualS now engaged in mining the
land rock with a joint capital of about
S2.0OO.0O0. The production of these
mines last year was about 21O.OOO tons
of rock. The country in which the
rock is found is generally level and the
soil is moist and soft. The rock is
sounded" for by long sharp-pointed
steel rod. Whenever rock is struck
from six to eight feet from the surface
of the ground a test pit is sunk to as
tain the thickness of the stratum,
and to find whether the rock will
analyse up to the market standard, If
the stratum is twelve inches thick it
will pay to mine 10 the depth of seven
feet for it; if it is not more than six
inches thick it will not pay to mine to
any great depth. When rock is found
the land is sounded every 1C0 feet, and
chart is prepared showing its location
and its depth and thickness. Before be-
ginning mining operations the phoS-
phate land j. laid off into fields meas
uring 800 feet long by 600 feet in
width and the lines are run. A plat
form is built in the center of the field
on whi n the rock from the mining pits
is piled. A railroad is run through the
center of the field alongside the plat
form, and the miners beginning their
excavations on the sides of the field, dig
steadily to the center. A succession of
pits measuring six by twelve feet a'e
sunk alongside the whole side of the
field The dirt from the pits is thrown
to the rear and the rock to the front
and is t en- rolled to the platform or
central pile in the field. The dirt from
the next pit is thrown into the pit previ-
ously excavated and the rock is thrown
TO the front. This process is kept up
until the entire field has been excavated.
Every foot of ground is turned up, and
fl, Id that has just been mined, with all
the trees uprooted, resembles more
than anything else the track of lorna
DO. In some of the fields the mining is
very difficult on account of the heavy
timber, and the miners in the pits are
greatly troubled with water which i'll
the rainy season frequently floods the
pits and renders mining impracticable.
From the mines the rock is hauled to
the washers in trains of dumping cars.
Here the rock is cmptied into powerful
breakers, armed with steel teeth, where
it is crushed into pieces of uniform size.
1t then falls into troughs or tubs rest
ing on an incline. In ca of these
shafts an octagonal shaft, cased in
iron and set with blades or fiukes,
revolves, giving a spiral motion which
churns the rocks around and forces it
out of the tubs upon screens. While
the rock is in the tubs it is subjected to
continuous and powerful stream of
water which cleanses it of all foreign
matter, so that when it is forced out of
the tubs it is sized upon series of
screens and separated from all the re-
naming gravel. 1t is then piled on
Platforms or in sheds for shipment.
ScbcTdl Ol tuC IuluitlS COul puuiCo hdfC
hot air drying sheds where about fifteen
per cent. of moisture absorbed in wash
ing is expelled from the rock. The hot
air for these drying sheds is drawn from
a wood burning furnace, and is forced
through the rock by a system of per-
forated pipes which underlie The bins in
which the rock is placed. 1t is sad that
in a short time all of the rock will be
dried before it leaves the mines. although
some miners think that the increased
price paid for kiln-dried rock is more
than counterbalanced by the loss of
weight in drying. Improvements are
continually being made, however, in
the methods of treating the rock. The
first cargo ever shipped from South Car
olna was washed at Lambs by hand,
the washers being provided with stiff
brushes, with which they got out all the
clay and gravel. Now nearly all the
work is done by machinery, the capac-
ity of some of the washers being more
than 1UO tons day. There are sixteen
land phosphate mining companies now
at work in this Charleston ( s.
CO. Netos and Courier.
Mr.. William Reese, seventy years
Of age. living at Grangeburg, S. c., be-
/ lieves i'm exercising his authority as pa
al