42 The Phosphates of America. 



material required for the manufacture of fertilizers for home con- 

 sumption, and it would be wiser policy to dispense with all the 

 expensive processes of hand selection and cobbing at the majority 

 of the mines, and to rest content with such an assortment at the 

 quarry side as would insure an average grade of sixty per cent. 

 The proportion of this quality to the total vein matter removed 

 would be about double that of the pure apatite ; in other words, 

 instead of seven, the output could be placed at fifteen per cent., 

 and the cost of cobbing would be saved. 



The costliness of handling at the mine, however, is not the 

 only impediment to the greater development of the apatite indus- 

 try in Canada; another, and very serious obstacle, is the comparative 

 inaccessibility of the deposits. One or two of the most important 

 companies have gone to the expense of constructing shutes, or in- 

 clined railroads, for the carriage of their product to the river's 

 banks, but by far the greater portion of the output is at present 

 rolled in wagons or sleighs over very indifferent roads generally 

 leading to a rough storehouse, provided with a weighing shed and 

 -3, Howe's scale. At this point different compartments or bins 

 receive the phosphate according to its grade or quality, and a 

 series of tramways connect the stored heaps with inclined shutes, 

 whence the material is loaded directly into scows or barges on the 

 river. 



The actual cost of transport from the chief mining centres in 

 the Quebec district to the wharf-side at Montreal has been the 

 object of special inquiry, and the following figures have been ob- 

 tained from official sources : 



COST OP TRANSPORTING APATITE FROM THE CHIEF MINING CENTRES IN 

 OTTAWA COUNTY TO THE WHARF AT MONTREAL. 



Loading at mines, carting to and unloading at Riverside 



Store $1 50 



Loading- into scows 05 



Towing to Buckingham Village 18 



Unloading scows and loading on cars of C. P. R. R 12 



Railway freight to Montreal 1 25 



Wharfage, insurance and incidentals at Montreal 50 



Total cost of transport from the mines per ton $3 60 



It would hence appear that the average cost of Canadian apa- 

 tite delivered free on board vessels at Montreal outward bound 

 for European ports must be placed at about $14 per ton, and 



