The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1914-08-28

VI 0ld0AoOhs = No. <xA6Js A<1 80 - A~A'
Oak, Fla, Messrs. Shoemaker and AID
ans of Jacksonville, Fla, Mr.. Wyllis
of Scotland, Messrs. Frank and Sam.
uel league of Florida, and you know,
of course, that Mr.. Dunn is large
shareholder. Mr.. Albertus Vogt, hav
ing sold his interest, is not now in
the company. AS a further item
about the company" remarked the
doctor, 81 might say that it YVES in
corporated under the basis of $4,000
and $4,000 acres of lan0."
Pretty solid company, that??'
Eyes, sir
do you know 9ry thing of any 9th
er company besides the one you have
been working for?"
Il have been informed that the
Baldwin Fertilizer Company, of which
Mr.. E. Agnew is large stockhold
er, is actually digging out the phos-
plate and shipping it off,
Il understand this company has
shipped twenty carloads of phosphate
over the S. S. O. & G. R. R., but to
what point they are shipping l am
not advised"
This company is operating on what
is known as the Tompkins place, not
far from Dunnellon. Mr.. Agnew him.
self is largely interested in the phos-
plate finds, and he and his company
have bought up large tracts of land.
1t will be necessary to establish fac
tories in Florida to make the super
phosphates, in order that the state
and the companies engaged in the
business may obtain the greatest
amount of good from this interest
and this will doubtless be done at
an early day"
We'll, doctor, any other points of
information to the public on this
subject?"
mo, sir, not at this time, but I will
in the future try and keep you posted
as to what is going on under my OBJ
servation. 1t might be matter of
interest to your readers" the doctor
came back to- say, that l am now
kept busy analyzing samples sent me
from almost every part of the state,
and l can assure you that the infor-
nation that l have thus gained OF
the geology and minerology of the
state causes me to wonder at her pos
sible resources. Rocks continued
the doctor, "of the greatest variety
and most divers composition are for
warded to me, and as Colonel Eichel
berger's gypsum craze (no reflection
intended upon the coloneD led to the
discovery of phosphate, so likewise
the phosphate fever may lead to Their
equally valuable discoveries, and so
on until the old state that was once
thought to be only fit abode for
alligators and crackers, may, and pos
sibly will, be the richest nher now
hidden wealth of any state in the Un-
ion"
This short but pregnant history
of the phosphate finds seemed almost
like the Eastern tales of the Arabian
Nights. The Aladdin who had just
left me, by whose magic touch the
good GEM had been summoned, and
who in obedience to the demand of ne
cessity had revealed the countless
treasures hidden in the secrets of
the earth, is only different from the
other in that the latter is a reality.
Our reflections brought to mind also
the fact that in all important discov-
cries the slenderest thread of the
Fates seems to have drawn man to a
realization of the good, slowed away
for his comfort. The law of gravita.
ton was discovered by the falling of
an apple; the power of steam was
suggested by the simmering of a tea
kettle; the incalculable benefit of an
thracite coal was made known by the
stumbling of hunter-and here in
the Land of Flowers the discovery of
phosphate was made by similar &C.
cident. Mr.. Albertus Vogt, in some
OF his deer hunts, imagined that he
had found gypsum, on seeing cropping
out of the ground the richest of the
phosphate finds yet known to the
world.