21 



it is worth i/6d. per lb., say $Soo per ton. These are fluor-apatites, 

 although they contain also some chlorine. 



Continental geologists (Broggcr and Rensch) who have studied 

 these formations, have supposed them to be of eruptive origin, in 

 consequence of the absence of phosphoric acid in the surrounding 

 rocks, but the question seems to be most doubtful, as well here as in 

 the case of the same opinion held on the Canadian Apatite deposits. 



THE SITUATION OF CANADIAN PHOSPHATE TRADE. 



Although this Canadian industry has not progressed on the same 

 scale as many other phosphate fields, Somme, Cipley, Liege, Carolina 

 and Florida, yet there are some facts offering an explanation for this. 

 The peculiarity of the occurence of the mineral in vein-like formation 

 in hard rock, calls for a scien;;ific and economic system of mining, which 

 has been little applied to the development of our deposits, and the 

 cost of production is thereby more considerable than that attained in 

 other fields of supply. 



Certain centres of manure manufacture still require our high 

 testing products to complete their standard types of concentrated 

 supers, and the rapidly increasing demand for fertilizers by all the 

 civilized world, both the new and the old, will tend to maintain a fair 

 value for natural phosphates. We are getting into the era in which 

 steam does not work fast enough, and on every hand we are seeking to 

 accomplish our ends by electricity with lightning speed. Someone has 

 said that the man who could made two blades of grass grow where one 

 grew before, was a benefactor to his race, but the rush and the struggle 

 for existence imposes that every cultivator shall be a benefactor in this 

 regard, and carry on agricultural science at the highest possible tension 

 for his very existence. 



With increasing populations, with better means of transport, and 

 lastly but not least, advanced scientific education, fertilizers and all 

 other artificial means of stimulating our exhausted soils will continue 

 to be in increasing demand. 



We see no reason therefore to suppose that the mineral-phosphate 

 ■Industry or phosphate mining has attained its zenith, and so far as we 

 can see at present, the future demands of the world for phosphoric 

 acid are destined to increase with time and agricultural progress. 



