70 MODERN HIGH FARMING. 



SULPHUR (or BRIMSTONE) is found in nature in abundant quanti- 

 ties, and may even be said to exist in nearly every rock, and to be 

 closely associated with all mineral ores, copper, silver, zinc, lead, 

 tin, iron, etc. 



Its abundance in copper and iron ores is sometimes sufficiently 

 great to turn them into sulphurets, and these are, to-day, the princi- 

 pal sources from whence sulphur is derived for acid manufacture. 



The chief deposits of brimstone are found in Italy, France, Spain 

 and Greece, but those of the first-named country are by far the 

 most important, and have hitherto been capable of furnishing to 

 the whole world the bulk of the required supply ; the mines of 

 Sicily alone being credited with a production of 250,000 tons a 

 year. 



In its raw natural state it is amorphous, and of a yellowish 

 brown color, being associated with sulphate of lime (gypsum), sul- 

 phate of barytes and carbonate of lime. 



The working of the mines in most cases is conducted by means 

 of shafts or pits, sunk in the deposit, and are most primitive and 

 totally devoid of modern machinery or appliances. They are pro- 

 vided with ladders on each side, and up these the mineral is carried 

 in small wicker baskets, on the backs of children, their loads vary- 

 ing from thirty to seventy pounds, according to their age and 

 strength. 



Serious accidents frequently occur to the men engaged below, 

 through the falling of these baskets before they reach the surface. 



Near the mouth of each pit are built a series of kilns, like lime 

 kilns, calculated to hold from 300 to 400 tons of sulphur at one 

 charge. When the children arrive at the top of the shaft, they 

 pitch the contents of their baskets into these kilns until they are 

 quite full, when the fire is applied, and the brimstone, reduced by 

 the heat to a liquid form, falls into a sort of basin at the bottom. 



From the basin it is run off into moulds, whence it emerges in 

 blocks of a reddish brick color. 



In this preliminary process of separating the sulphur from its 

 grosser impurities, a serious loss of weight is incurred, amounting 



