1870.] 



BROOME — ON CANADIAN PHOSPHATES. 



24^ 



acid, equalling 2,340 tons (292,534.5X16=4,680,552 lbs. 

 =2,340 tons) would require, in order to counterbalance the 

 loss, the annual employment of 5,850 tons of apatite, con- 

 taining 88 per cent, of phosphate of lime ; a quantity equiva- 

 lent to 6,864 tons of apatite of 75 per cent., or to 13,728 

 tons of " super-phosphates" of good quality. 



The corresponding money value, at $35 per ton, makes 

 the total annual deficiency no less than $480,480. 



The losses resulting from the exportation of wheat alone 



(either as grain or flour) have been here estimated ; and the 



following table, compiled from Mr. Patterson's Statistical 



Report, will aftbrd some idea of the approximate worth of 



all the phosphates contained in crops annually shipped from 



this port : — 



TABLE III. 



Substances Causing Loss of Phosphoric Acid. 



Moreover, the exports of wheat from British North 

 America are only about 7 J per cent, of the total amount 

 received by Britain : so that the phosphoric acid, exported by 

 foreign countries for consumption in England, in the shape o ^ 

 wheat alone, amounts to no less than 31,200 tons^ andrepre 

 sents a money value of about $6,406,400 annually. 



Adding to this the imports of mineral phosphates, we have 

 a grand total o/ $15,156,400. 



From these figures it is at once evident that, wherever no 

 restorative agents containing available phosphoric acid are 

 employed hy agriculturalists, the exhaustion of lands by 



