The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1902-05-28
Tennessee PIlosphates.


portant to our formers every year, and
it is we'll that they should be inform
ed on the matter in ail its phases
The chief ingredient in the fertilizers
used by our farmers is phosphate, and
fortunately the South possesses all
the phosphate deposits of consequence
in the world. The chief deposits are
found in Florida, South Carolina and
Tennessee, of which by far the great
est are in Tennessee. There is more
or less phosphate found in several
counties in Middle Tennessee, but the
principal beds are situated in tho
counties of Maury, Hickman, Lewis
and Perry, almost exactly in the CEN
tre of the State. The first discoveries
were made in Hickman about 1894 and
considerable mining was done there,
but this was nearly abandoned when
the wonderful deposits of Mount
Pleasant, in Maury County, were
found few years afterward.
The industry at Mount Pleasant has
grown until that station alone ships
annually 100000 tols of phosphate
rock, about one.ffth Of the world 8
supply. All the conditions for min
ing are perfect at that place. The
rock is of the highest grade, the
quantity is most extensive, the physi-
cal conditions are most advantageous
and the shipping facilities are the
most favorable to be found anywhere.
1t is possible to put the rock on the
cars at Mount Pleasant for about 81 so
ton and it is sold at from $3.50 to
$500 ton to the fertilizer factories.
The freights to the factories and from
them to the farmers constitute the
greatest source of expense in the cost
of the finished commercial product,
ready for use on the fields. The rock
is found in ledges, beginning foot or
two below the surface of the ground
and going down from four TO twelve
feet, one thin layer Of from one to
three inches thick, placed on top of
another. The ledges are not unlike a
stone wall made up of fat stones. The
mining is the easiest and simplest
process imaginable. The thin cover
Of top soil is removed and then the
ledge is attacked with the pick, the
fragmentary phosphate layers are pried
off and broken up with hammers and
dried either in the sun or in kilns.
There is more or less phosphate on
nearly every farm in Maury County,
which has long been noted as the
most fertile in the State Of Tennessee.
The cause Of the fertility is the dis
integrated phosphate in the soil. It
is only when the phosphate is in
ledges, as at Mount Pleasant, that it
is profitable at this time to mine.
The field at Mount Pleasant is only
about two miles wide by five miles
long and the ledges do not underlie
this area with entire regularity.
When this supply is exhausted,
however, it will be necessary to look
for other fields where the quality is
not so high, the deposit not so thick,
the mining deeper and the rock more
refractory. There are hundreds Of
square miles Of rock in Hickman and
adjoining counties, which will then
come in for attention from the fertili-
ger seekers. The supply Of this kind
is practically inexhaustible aud will
make Tennessee for centuries to come
the store house Of fertility for the ex-
hausted land Of the nation. The ex-
haustion is going on, Of course, every
where all the time and the demand for
phosphates, therefore, is constantly
on the increase.
It seems Providential gift of ma
ture at the place where it is most
needed. Here are the lands Of the
older South exhausted by improvident
cultivation and worthless, but for the
rich soil foods ready for their restora-
tion at the points most accessible to
the greatest number Of them. The
chief soil foods are phosphate. nitro
gen and potash. Phosphate is the
most important Of the three, being
generally needed in about two.thirds
proportion. These are the elements
that are supplied in the commercial
fertilizers furnished to our farmers.
Memphis il fine place for fertilizer
factories and one Of the largest Of
these institutions has recently been
established here.-Memphis News.
= A statistician has been working
pencil and Imagination, with this re-
suit: If all the petroleum produced