The Opelousas courier., 1891-04-04
TEE PHOSPHATE WORLD
AN ARMY OF MEN PREPARING
PLANT FOOD.
The Great Deposits of South Caro-
lima and FIorida-An
Dredging Machine at Work.

The Great Deposits OF south oaFo-
lima and FIorida-An Immense
Dredging Machine at Work.
Everybody knows that it takes a great
many people to supply the food'of man,
but few are aware that a great army OF
men is devoting its whole time to pre-
pairing plant food. Within twenty miles
of Charleston, S. c., there are seven
full regiments engaged upon one article
of diet, and in Europe there are about
70, 900 employed upon the same ingredl-
ent-phosphate.
If as many more are employed on each
of the other two principal ingredients,
there must be an army of near 250, ooo
men, in this country and Europe, cater
ing to the epieurean taste OF the plants
which grow in gu fields.
The three staple articles of plant food
not found in the soil are phosphoric acid,
potash and nitrogen, and the greatest OF
these is phosphate.
Almost every acre of farm land lacks
phosphoric acid and the whole world IS
looking for the cheapest place of supply.
The Germans grind up the Stag which is
left by the basic process of making steei,
and from this Improbable looking residue
they get forty per cent. OF bone phos-
phate of lime to put in their beet fields.
This contribution of the mineral to the
agricultural interest of Germany has
stimulated beet culture SO tremendously
that to-day the world gets more sugar
from beets than from In German
economy nothing is lost. Every by-pro-
duct is made to serve a purpose, and IN
that country people are getting rich on
things we throw away.
There is saying that "God takes care
of fools and the United States" and it
surely seems that He has made special
provision for this wasteful nation. Phos-
plate deposits are SO abundant that we
take no thought of Stag, except for a
ing roads.
But it is a great mistake To suppose
that we furnish all the phosphate rock
the world gets. Though South Carolina
mined last year the enormous quantity OF
GOO, 600 tons, its product was little over
a tenth of that of the world, which
amounts to 5000, 900 or 5000, 900 tons
per annum. There are phosphate beds
in Devonshire, France, Spain, Canada
and other countries. Still South Caro-
lima is ahead of any European State ex-
cept, possibly, France, and she sends
nearly a quarter of amillion tons annually
to England and Germany. Her mostfor-
midable competitor now is Florida.
Every year more fertilizers are used,
and the business has grown to proportions
not dreamed of when a few people began
to mine phosphate rock in South Caro-
lima twenty-one years ago. Now every
Southern State has a small army OF fer
tiIizer inspectors, and the State of Geor-
gia pays out in salaries for this inspection
as much as the whole phosphate product
of South Carolina brought in 1859.
The obsolete forms of machinery have
given place to expensive dredging ma
chimes, which bring up tons of rock at a
stroke. The Sea Island Phosphate Conf
pany owns an English dredging machine
which cost 1925, 900. They have another
with a plunger made like a great human
band with six fingers. Each one OF its
fingers is made of steel, weighing 1900
pounds, and the weight of the whole
hand is fourteen tons. In forty feet Of
water 1t rises and falls every minute,
bringing up several tons of rock at a
time. With the downward stroke it
pierces the solid rock and with the re-
turn brings up its load. That is the
method of work on river phosphate in
the neighborhood of Port Royal. The
land mining about Charleston is not so
difficult, for there it is softer and more
accessible.
The river rock is a glossy black and as
hard as adamant. It is full of fossil re-
mains, including the bones of the ele-
plant, mastodon and other animals.
Sharks teeth are abundant, and beauti-
full VOLTS teeth are found. The State
Agricultural Bureau at Columbia has a
fine collection of fossils, and among
other things has a petriied hand, found
In strata which biologists say must be OF
least 5000 years old. It is a woman's
hand, and as graceful as ever threw 1
kiss or waved an adieu.