44 The Phosphates of America. 



The custom of throwing the entire cost of production upon the 

 high grades is unfair and should be discontinued. In its stead a 

 rule should be established of setting aside for foreign shipment 

 only such portions of the pure apatite as may be obtained directly 

 from the lode without hand-cobbing at the surface. There would 

 be no difficulty in disposing of these choice lots in Europe at very 

 high prices, and there is no doubt that with proper care and skill 

 in the management they could be brought up to one-fourth of the 

 total output. The balance of the material mined would certainly 

 average more than sixty per cent., would probably go up to sixty- 

 five, and would of course, as we have already explained, bear a far 

 larger proportionate relation to the total rock removed than it 

 does now. Since there is no lack of grinding facilities at Bucking- 

 ham Village, quite close at hand, and since there are several abun- 

 dant deposits of pyrites the material required for sulphuric acid 

 manufacture in the immediate vicinity, it is self-evident that this 

 low-grade material could be readily and cheaply transformed into 

 an excellent superphosphate, containing at least fourteen per cent, 

 of soluble or available phosphoric acid. 



There would be no difficulty whatever in establishing a sale for 

 such an article at a very fair rate of profit, and the demand simul- 

 taneously created for sulphuric acid by the adoption of this method 

 would stimulate the development of the chemical industry in vari- 

 ous branches, and new channels would thus be opened up for the 

 safe and profitable investment of capital and the constant and re- 

 munerative employment of labor. 



