76 The Phosphates of America. 



continue to the full term of the contract, unless the phosphate or 

 phosphatic deposit be previously exhausted. 



The passage of this law has, of course, elicited a great deal of 

 opposition, and will undoubtedly lead to litigation between the 

 State and many of the companies which claim vested rights in the 

 river deposits. A considerable number of these companies are, how- 

 ever, unaffected by its provisions which do not apply in cases of navi- 

 gable streams or parts thereof that are not meandered, and the own- 

 ership of the lands embracing which, is vested in a legal purchaser. 



With the extremely low cost of production of the "pebble " ma- 

 terial, however, it is hardly conceivable that so trifling a tax as 

 that imposed by the new law can be regarded as a burden, or that 

 it will have the least injurious effect upon the progress and profits 

 of the industry. Nor will the present trouble between the Coosaw 

 Mining Company and the State of South Carolina fail to facilitate 

 and hasten the introduction of the new material, and when once 

 this introduction has been thoroughly and favorably secured, it 

 will soon win for itself the good opinion of European as well as 

 of domestic superphosphate manufacturers. 



The chemical composition of Florida phosphates, and more 

 especially of those known as "hard rock" or "bowlder," is far 

 from being constant or reliable, as would be naturally anticipated 

 in such an irregular and varied formation as we have attempted 

 to describe. Nor is it more uniform in its physical aspect, for 

 while in some regions it is perfectly white, in others it. is blue, yel- 

 low or brown. In many instances it is practically free from iron 

 and alumina, but in not a few districts it is heavily loaded with 

 these commercially objectionable constituents. A large proportion 

 of the land rock is very soft when damp, but becomes so hard 

 when dried that it has long been used by the natives, ignorant of 

 its other values, as a foundation or building stone. 



For the purposes of general illustration we present the follow- 

 ing averages, selected from the results of several hundreds of our 

 complete analyses, made either in Florida or New York. The 

 samples, in every case, were taken from exploratory pits in differ- 

 ent counties, and were marked before leaving the ground with full 

 details of their origin. We have classed them as 



1. Bowlders of hard-rock phosphate, or cleaned high-grade ma- 

 terial. 



2. Bowlders and debris, or unselected material, merely freed 

 from dirt. 



