The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1908-08-21
PHOSPHATE AND PETROLEUM

VI the pronl-payIng worth of Florida
phosphate lands and mines is the
truth That no stocks or shares in any
phosphate mining company are listed
Tor sale in any of the exchanges in
elIher domestic or foreign countries.
and the further fact that in every
newspaper of recognized worth we
nnd stocks Of bonds and gold. silver
and copper and other mined metals
and investments being adve1 tised and
Oegglngly hawked for sale every
Where, while such money-grabbing
capitalists as J. Hull, J. Ogden Ar
mour, the Swifts, the Bradleys. and
Others Of the great profit-making IN
'eStors OF the earth, are letting every
KIND Of mining stocks go begging
ieaVlng them severely alone. and to
The ndiscriminate proIetariat, while
they put every dollar they can OBJ
tain into Florida phosphate lands.
Nine years ago I claimed to find
surface indications of petroleum in
FLORIDA, Just west of and near my
Rosebank plantation, near Dunnel-
Ion. The claim created a furore Of
excitement in Florida and very large
tracts Of land were bought near Bush
nell, In Sumter county. and Chronicle
In Citrus county, and in other sec
tons of Florida. These locations
were selected by oil field experts, and
three oil wells were bored, one at
Bushnell, one near Crystal River and
one near Chronicle, just south of and
very near my Rosebank plantation
and all three of these wells were plug
ged. Mr.. John W. Pearson, one of
the principal oil explorers H. Florida,
who was practically hopelessly broke
just prior TO this oil excitement. insti-
gated or begun on my initiative, just
nine years ago, is mining phosphate
very big now, and We read in the
press dispatches that he owns 10000
acres of the best stock-farm lands in
Missouri. Do people anywhere on
earth, outside of Florida, grow wealth
equal to vast phosphate mining plants
and S0-000-acre stock-farms in Missou-
RI, costing hundreds of thousands of
dollars, by boring buster or nOn-pro-
ducing oil wells?
And now We find people from Hi
all over the peninsular of Florida
buying every available acre of cut
over" denuded of forest, land at the
beggarly price of s1.35 per acre. Are
the land owners of Florida mostly
big fools?
In every sample of pebble phos-
plate analysed by DR.. r. R. Snow
den of Lakeland he has found traces
of petroleum. The simple truth is
that the capillary attraction brings
this petroleum up out of the earth to
the surface. Practically all of it that
reaches the upper strata of sand or
other burden, on account of it's ex-
IRENE pOrosity is speedily evaporat-
ed, because of the penetrating inhu-
ence Of the suns rays on the earth's
surface. And on account of the den
sity of the clayey, fOssilized stratus
bearing phosphates-the af1nities of
of the petroleum is retain
ed in the matrix stratas, and always
found by the chemist who looks for
il. One of the most successful oil
field finding experts known rode with
me in buggy for days in peninsular
Florida four years ago. and repeat
eddy said to me: "On account of being
in the right latitude. and with every
known recognized surface indication.
Florida promises soon TO be the great
est oil-producing territory in the
known world"
/ declare there has been found oil,
or petroleum. in a we'll bored in Flor
ida. and of a quality better than is
found in Texas fields. Is there any
man in the United States who Will
udIt NCLA the CDOft dSStIlloh
VIII Mr.. John W. Pearson of Ocala |
make and sign an affidavit that I Will
dictate, declaring that he did not
find oil or petroleum in one of the
three wells he has bored in Florida? /
[ dare him TO DO il.
When all Of the lands in the most
promising fields in Florida have been
in by syndicate and trust
agents and the time is ripe. very many
people now 90 years of age will see
oil gUsheTs in Florida.
During last winter there came into |
Florida TWO of the most capable civil /
and mining engineers and biologists |
now living-One of them named |
Drake, from Chicago, and Mr.. Banks, /
from Pittsburg. They spent a couple |
Of months in South Florida looking
over the situation. Then |