90 TKANSACTIONS OF THE [jAN. 27, 



as fast as removed. This is probably due simply to a constant 

 washing away of the fine sand, whereby the nodules are continu- 

 ally re-exposed. As compared with the Carolina phosphates, 

 however, the small size of the nodules, and the consequently 

 higher cost of working, seemed to preclude the idea of any very 

 formidable rivalry on the part of these Florida deposits. 



Until within a few months these were the only kind of phos- 

 phate-beds known in Florida, and were not considered of great 

 importance; but in the fall of 1889 an entirely different mate- 

 rial, but of great promise as a fertilizer, was discovered. 



An orange-grower near Ocala, possessed of more curiosity than 

 others around him, sent to a chemist for analysis a specimen of 

 a white subsoil material occurring in his grove. It was familiar 

 to every one in the region, but was supposed to be only limestone, 

 for it had been found in all the wells in the neighborhood. The 

 chemist reported that it was 80 percent phosphate of lime. The 

 secret got out, and then the excitement began. It may be said 

 now, in all seriousness, that there is more danger that too much 

 phosphate has been discovered than too little, and that a reac- 

 tion will take place which may maintain values below the cost 

 of Florida production for a while. Yet the world will take it 

 all, and there is really to-day a scarcity in the market. 



In the area described at the beginning of my remarks, cover- 

 ing Citrus, Marion, and Hernando counties, it seems that al- 

 most anywhere a pit or auger will reveal phosphate. In no 

 opening that I visited in this section did I find it wholly absent. 

 The very soil in some of the hammock lands is impregnated 

 with it, as in South Carolina, while the ground around old wells 

 and cisterns reveals its presence. 



Outside of this region, as already said, both north, south, and 

 west, there are undoubtedly large deposits whose extent and 

 grade are as yet undetermined. They lie in lenticular beds upon 

 the limestone, — or lime carbonate, as it might better be termed, 

 as it is rarely hard enough to be called a rock, — and are covered 

 by the sandy soil and clay subsoil, rarely cropping out at the 

 surface. A valuable indication to me of their existence beneath 

 the surface was an examination of the ant-hills and gopher-holes 

 upon the tract. The earth thrown up by the former was inter- 

 spersed with small whitish grains. These were found to be 

 phosphate, and on digging or boring in the vicinity the deposit 

 would be disclosed. A handful of sand from an ant-hill, sub- 

 mitted to analysis, showed the presence of about five per cent of 

 phosphate. The material occurs at varying depths below the 

 surface, from 2 feet to 10 or 12. In sinking a pit, it is some- 

 times difficult to tell where the clay ends and the phosphate 

 begins; they shade into each other, at times gradually; at other 



