MINERAL INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES OE EEORIDA. 



E. H. SELLARDS. 



STATISTICS ON PRODUCTION COLLECTED IN CO-OPERATION WITH THE 



UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



I 



CLAY AND CLAY PRODUCTS. 



BALL CLAY OR PLASTIC KAOLIN. 



The ball clays or plastic kaolins are among the most important 

 clay products of the State. The Florida ball clays are white burn- 

 ing, highly refractionary and very plastic. These are used largely 

 to mix with the less plastic clays to bring up the grade of plas- 

 ticity. This clay as it occurs in Florida is intimately mixed with 

 coarse sand. The presence of the sand in the clays necessitates 

 washing, after which the clay is allowed to collect in the settling 

 basins. It is then compressed into cakes by which excess of water 

 is removed. The cakes are then broken up and either air-dried 

 or artificially dried for shipment. The deposits at present known 

 lie in the central peninsular section from Putnam to Polk Counties. 

 The Putnam County deposits occur in and about Edgar and Mc- 

 Meekin. Deposits have been worked in Lake County along Palat- 

 lakaha Creek. Ball clays have also been reported from near Bar- 

 tow Junction in Polk County, and probably extend into DeSoto 

 County. 



At Edgar, 4 to lo feet of loose sand lies above the kaolin- 

 bearing sand. This top sand is coarse, containing siliceous peb- 

 bles up to one-third of an inch across. The large pebbles are 

 flattened and all are rounded. The kaolin-bearing sands beneath 

 are gray in color, although the weathered surface is sometimes 

 slightly iron-stained. Thev are said to have a total thickness of 

 30 feet or more. These sands are distinctly cross-bedded, espe- 

 cially the upper five feet as seen in the pit at Edgar. They are 

 underlain by a sticky blue clay. It is reported that beneath the 

 blue clay a fullers earth occurs, and that this in turn passes at 

 the depth of about 70 feet into a scarcely indurated shell stratum. 



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