The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-07-27
ABSOLUTELY PURE

vegetable reproduction, because it enters
so largely into the composition of plants.
Seeds are more than half made of it. A
cow at pasture for one summer will take
away from the land fifty pounds of this
material in the shape of veal and milk.
Therefore. the soil must be continually re-
supplied with it, and hence the great value
of the phosphate If lime derived from fos-
sill deposits.
Although the Florida beds were only
discovered two years ago, the expedition
reports that large part of the state is
already transformed into veritable
mining camp. err 100 miles through the
north and northwestern counties quarry
ing for the substance is going on, mines
are being opened and the product is being
prepared for shipment. Real estate and
other sharks are active, and fortunes are
being made and lost; but there seems to
be no doubt of the fact that the finding of
this new wealth is a great thing for the
fowery peninsula.
In the region referred to it is the crock
phosphate" that is found-the solid sub
stance-in layer that is as much as fifty
feet thick in places, covered over with the
sand which forms the surface soil to the
depth of from two to twenty feet. OF
course, people in Florida have known of
the existence of this curious limy deposit
for ever so long. Over a great part of the
state they could not dig very far without
coming upon it. But it was only a little
while ago that some person gifted with
the sublime curiosity that approaches
genius thought of having the stuff
analysed. Then it was that numerous
cracker" residents learned how they had
been living on top of what might as well
hau yyh
the hog and hominy of ignorant privation.
The method adopted in working these
deposits is. first, to sound" the ground
by driving into it at intervals of a few feet
long iron rod with sharpened point.
When the phosphate bed is reached the
rod is withdrawn and stake Is stuck in
its place with figures on 1t indicating the
number of feet of depth at which the
strike" has been made. In this way a
district OF more or less extent is '.rodded,"
and operations are begun by clearing away
the surface soil in the most promising spots
and quarrying out the material. The pro-
cess is like any other open quarrying, the
blast being supplemented by the pickax
and the shovel.
Before the substance is ready for ship
ping. it is dried in kilns in order to free it
from all moisture, after which it is put ON
cars and forwarded by rail to Fernandina,
Tampa, Punta Gorda, and some to Atlanta,
Ga. At these points it is loaded aboard
vessels bound for Europe or for New York,
Baltimore, or other American ports. Eng
land is a large buyer of phosphate Upon
arriving at its destination-say, Baltimore
the material is ground into fine dust
and treated with sulphuric acid, so
that it is transformed into a powder
which would be termed by chemist an
''acid phosphate. This powder is then
mixed with other ingredients so as to COM
pose fertilizing preparations for various
purposes. The fruit grower wants one
mixture, the vegetable farmer another,
and so on. However, the ingredients mem
toned are either nitrates, the nature of
which will be presently described, or refuse