Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1894-08-10
PHOSPHATE MINES.
WHERE THE RICH TERTILIZING
MATERIAL is FOUND.
Origin of the Deposits n Mystery
How Crock Phosphate" is
Trcatcd-HIinins for
PhOsphutcs.
XIRITING about the South,
NV ern phosphate deposits,
Y V Rene Bache snys: No
1.,I,t 4l,n I,n,I.. H.,

creatures with shells, some little and
some big, which left their houses be-
hind them when they died. But it is
believed by some authorities that the
phosphoric acid was derived from the
QFcan, which holds 80 much of it in
solution. Certain species of mollusks
whose shells are found in the beds Sc
crete phosphate of line themselves
and may thus have aided i'll the work.
Nobody knows how tho deposits
We're formed. 1t, is certain that MT n
comparatively Iecont period the lime
banks sank beneath the sea, from
which they subsequently emerged
again. Thus they were covered over
with several feet i'll thickness of the
sand which is tho Characteristic sur
face soil of Florida. Tho beds of the
so-called crock phosphate" which ex-
tend over hundreds of square miles,
are located by driving long iron rod
with sharp point down though the
sand to the stratum of lime beneath.
This stratum of solid stuff forms n
layer that is rs much as fifty feet thick
i'll places. 1t is covered with from
two to twenty feet of sand. Over a
great part of the State one cannot dig
without coming to therock phosphate.
After its presence has been ascertained
beneath given area of surface soil,
the latter is cleared away, and the
phosphate of lime is quarried out with
blast, pick and shovel. 1t is dried in
kilns, and is then shipped to Balti-
more and other northern points. On
its arrival it is ground fine and treated
with sulphuric acid. Tho powder thus
prepared is mixed with various fer
tilizing materials, such as nitrates,
or bones, horns, blood, and such refuse
from packing works. The final product,
pulverized and perfectly desiccated, is
not Mt all offensive to the nostrils.
The best phosphate material con-
tains rs much MS eighty per cent. of
phosphate of lime The latter in com
position closely resembles bone that
has been deprived of its organic mat
ter. Human bones, for example, have
fifty seven per cent. of phosphate OF
lime and thirty-three per cent. of ami
NAL matter. 1t was only in 1913 that
tho Duke of Richmond, incidentally to
some experiments, discovered for the
first time that the value of bones MS
fertilizer WAS due not to their gelatine
or fatty matter. as had been supposed,
but to their phosphoric acid. It-was
this discovery which first excited in.
terest i'll phosphnteF.
Phosphoric acid is one OF the Gle
ments most essential to gStable
growth. 1t enters largely into the
composition of plants. Seeds IRE more
than half made of it. A COW at pas.
ture during one summer will take
away from the land fifty pounds of il
in veal and milk Accordingly, tho
soil must be continually resupplied
with it. Thus it is not surprising that
great attention should have been OK.
cited abroad by the discovery of phos.
phatc deposits i'll Florida, Georgin
North and South Carolina. In the
lnst-namcd State, which, rs IL pro,
duccr, ranks next with Florida. there
are at present thirty mines in opera
ton. Small mines have been opened
i'll various other parts of the country
In the middle part of Florida hun
lreds of miles OF soil nre undertake
with stratum many feet thick o
pebbles of phosphate. 1t is supposed
that these are fragments Of what WA.
originally rock formation of ,;,os
plate of lime, such rs has been Ill
ready described. By The action o
water the rock became disintegrated
and the same agency has worn TIL,
| pebbles to shapes of more or less
roundness. Mixed in with them art
discovered great numbers of the teetl
and bones of various animals. Among
these remains the teeth of sharks
many of which must have been n,
much as eighty or ninety feet long
are conspicuous. There are Misc
numerous bones OF species of land AMI
mails long ago extinct.
AS would naturally be the case, great
quantities of these phosphate pebble.
are found in the beds OF some streams
having been washed out of the banks
They occur in gravel bars, which are
composed almost wholly of them very
often. Being very hard and heavy,
they have formed accommodations
while other debris has been sifted out
"hu ioalcV away. Dlcn rlVer deposits
yield large part OF the present phos
plate output of Florida.
The mining is conducted by scows
Each scow has an engine on board an(
n pipe which extends to tho bottom
OF the stream. Through the pipe tn.
gravel is sucked up and, being brought
aboard, passes over revolving sleeves
The refuse OF clay and sand, being
finer than the phosphate pebbles,
passes through the sleeves and is thrown
away. The pebbles are dropped into
a lighter alongside, which, when it il
filed, is towed to market by n tug
One-half of the phosphate thus OBJ
tanned from the Caloosahalchee River
is composed of casts of mollusca,
shells, which are so perfect as to show
even the beaks of the bivalves and tho
marking of the univalves. In some
streams of Western Florida the bull
of the phosphate deposit is composed
of bones-largely those of mastodons
megatheriums, elephants, manatees
| muskrats and horses. They are nj