The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-07-29
chemists call it -


Now. 1t happens that phosphoric acid is
one Of the elements most essential to vege-
table reproduction, because it enters SO
largely into the composition of plants.
Seeds are more than half made of 1t. 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 DO continually re-
supplied with it, and hence the great value
oi the phosphate OF lime derived from fossil
deposits
Although the Florida beds were only dis
covered two years ago, the expedition re-
poEtS that large part of the state is al
ready transformed into veritable mining
camp. For 200 miles through the north
ana northwest counties Quarrying for the
substance Is going on, mines are being
opened, and the product is being prepared
Tor shipment. Real estate aad other sharks
are active and fortunes are being made and
lost; out there seems 70 be no doubt OF tho
fact that the finding of tais new wealth is a
great thing for the fiowery peninsula.
sEln the region referred to it is the rock
phosphate that is found-the solid substance
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 great part OF the state they could
not dig very far without coming upon it.
But it Is only little while ago that some
person gifted with the sublime curiosity
that approaches genius thought of having
the stuff analysed. Then it was that nll-
merous Cracker" residents learned how
they had been living on top OF what might
as well have been a gold mine, while dining
upon the hog and hominy Of Ignorant pri~
walton.
The method adopted in working these de-
posts is, first, TO sound the ground by driv-
log into 1t at intervals Of a few feet a long
iroa rod with a sharpened point When
the phosphate bed is reached the rod is with
drawn and "a stake is stuck in its place with
figures on 1t indicating the number of feet
of depth at which the strike has baen made
In this way district OF more or less extent
is 'rodded," and operations are begun by
clearing away the surface soil in the most
promising spots and Quarryiug out the ma
terial. The process Is like any other quar-
rying, the blast being supplemented by the
pick~axs and the shovel.
Before the substance is ready for SHINING
1t Is dried in kilns in order to free it from all
moisture, after which il is put on
cars and forwarded by rail to
Fernandtna, 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. England is a large buyer
OF phosphate. After arriving at its desti-
nation, say Baltimore, the material is
ground into q fine dust and treated with
sulphuric aoid, so that it is transformed
into powder which would be- termed bv a
chemist an acid phosphate. This powder
Is then mixed with other ingredients SO as
to compose fertiliZlng preparations for va
rlous purposes. The fruit grower wants
one mixture, the vegetable farmer another,
and so on. However, the Ingredients men
toned are either nitrates, tho nature Of
which will be presently described, or refuse
from packing works, in the shape Of bones,
horns, b God ard all manner of corruption,
reduced by desicoating processes to pulver-
lied inoffensiveness.
Elsewhere in Florida great beds are found
OF phosphate in different condition. In the
middle OF the state over All area covering
hundreds of square miles, the soil is under
laid by stratum as much as fifteen feet
thick in some places of the same material in
the shape Of pebbles densely strewn in a
whitish clayey matrix. Buried in this layer
are discovered great masses of the remains
of huge animals extinct for ages, particu-
larry sharks, which were doubtless seventy
or eighty feet in length. One gets some
notionssof the swarms of these ferocious
giants Of the deep that existed in that
antediluvian age from the finding Of
their great teeth, each longer than a
mans hand, in the phosphate, as thickly
distributed as Plums in u pudding. In the
same deposits are found countless bones of
the mastodon, the megatherium, the ele-
plant, the hog, the horse, the muskrAt,
etc. They are immense graveyards of ages
long gone by, preserving for the contem-
plstlon of man the remains of the mighty
beasts aud fishes. These phosphate land
pebbles, as they are called, are supposed to
have been originally derived from the rock
deposits, being fragments washed to their
present shape by water; but no ono knows
positively.
The nitrates, Of which mention has been
made, are obtained largely from Chile,
where the supply is practically controlled
by Col. North, the Nitrate king who Il
such great friend of the Prince OF Wales.
They are simply deposits of nitrate OF soda
in the beds Of lakes long ago dried up,
which originally contained in solution large
quantities OF that material At present it
is simply necessary to dig it up, put it
through suitable processes, and ship it, at SO
much ton, for fertilizing purposes. When
a lake receives the flow OF a great water
shed and h rs no outlet, except by evapora-
tion. its water naturally accumulates and
ments filtered into it from the soil around
about, Hence the nitrate deposits referred
to.
Bird manure, as has been said, contains a
great percentage Of phosphorio acid, and
hence its wonderful value as a fertilizer.
So well was this appreciated centuries ago
that the Incas of ancient Peru declared
death as the punishment for any one who
killed even one of the birds which deposited
guano on the Islands off their coasts OF
late years many Of these Guano islands have
been stripped Of their precious material,
and before long none of it will be left,
in places it was much as 100 feet
in depth, being composed Of droppings of
hamingoes, divers, penguins and other sea
fowl during countless generations, together
with their carcssses, and the excrement of
seals, sea lions and marine animals of vari-
Gus sorts innumerable.
Many considerable deposits of bat guano
have been found in caves in various
parts of the United States, made up of the
droppings and bones OF these animals, and
from such beds fertiizIng supplies have
been drawn not to mention the use made
Of them during the war as mines for the
production Of saltpetre, from which to
gunpowder.
qRNnP TOLySJ NEPEE Ky a ITTPnT