PRINCIPAL PHOSPHATE DEPOSITS. 



31 



1890, Florida has not ceased to increase its production, and the 

 low price caused thereby has led a certain number of those engaged 

 in the industry in Carolina to stop work. Since that time the 

 Carolina production has continued to diminish. The average com- 

 position of South Carolina nodules is the following, by Dr. C. W. 

 Shepard of Charleston :■ — 



TABLE XXII.— AYEKAGE COMPOSITION OF CAROLINA PHOSPHATE _ 



Phosphoric acid 



Carbonic acid . 



Sulphuric acid . 



Lime 



Magnesia . 



Ferric oxide 



Fluorine . 



Sand and silica 



Organic matter and combined water 



Moisture ..... 



Florida. — This peninsula of the American continent contains,, 

 throughout its whole length, phosphatic deposits of great magnitude,^ 

 but which were not utilized before 1890. Dr. Simmons of Haw- 

 thorn in 1879 discovered that the chief quarries of building-stone* 

 of Central Florida contained a considerable amount of phosphoric 

 acid. Again, Francis Le Baron, a French engineer of Jacksonville- 

 (Fla.), discovered in 1884 the deposits of fossil bones forming the 

 bars of Peace River, and also sent at the time several barrels to the 

 Smithsonian Institution in Washington. This engineer returnee! 

 to the district in 1886, made measurements and estimated the 

 profits to be drawn from the working of these superficial deposits. 

 When these were published, Col. T. S. Menchald installed in 1877 

 phosphate works to exploit the nodules, and sent his first delivery 

 to the Scott Manufacturing Co. of Atlanta, Georgia. In June, 

 1889, Albert Vogt discovered the hard rock phosphate in sinking- 

 for water about twenty miles S.W. of Ocala, a small town in 

 Central Florida. The Dunellon Phosphate Co. was then formed to 

 buy and exploit several thousand acres on the alignment of the- 

 hard rock phosphate. Since that time the different kinds of phos- 

 phate as rocks, and as nodules, have been actively prospected for, 

 and recognized over a tract 200 miles long by 6 miles in width.. 

 This belt is developed, parallel with the coast of Florida, at an 

 average distance of 26 miles, and extends from the district of 

 Richland. Pasco County, to the north as far as the environs of the 

 River Apalachicola, bending towards the west and the bouth. 

 The most important deposit of nodules (Land Pebbles) was dis- 

 covered in 1890, in the neighbourhood of Bartow (Palk County). 

 As far back as 1892, both rock phosphates and nodule phosphates 

 were known with diverse percentage contents and values far beyond 



