MORE WONDERFUL THAN STASSFURTH. 109 



the products of this mineral bed ; and I believe that chemistry 

 is to evolve out of that mineral deposit an immense mine of 

 wealth for the ao;riculture, not only of this country, but of all 

 countries where science is applied to that branch of industry. 



But I rose particularly this morning to call attention to a 

 more wonderful discovery in this country than that at Stassfurth. 

 It was said, years ago, by Prof. Liebig, that we had a supply of 

 phosphates for only twenty years in all the world ; that the 

 guano islands would soon be stripped, and then where were we 

 to look for phosphates ? That has been the great problem for 

 those who have looked for the future progress of agriculture. 

 There is a limit to the number of guano or bird islands, and the 

 question was, what should we do ? They talked about phos- 

 phatic minerals. Where ? Why, there have been found small 

 deposits of phosphate of lime, very hard and difficult of solu- 

 tion, in Spain, England and Canada, but furnishing no adequate 

 supply for the future. Now we are to supply the world with 

 phosphates, and the world may thank the Yankees of these 

 United States of America, (it is all Yankee now clear down to 

 the Gulf ; the Yankees have marched over it and left their foot- 

 prints that will never be wiped out ;) the world, I say, may 

 thank the Yankees for the very thing I have to reveal here to- 

 day. It is only since the war, and since Northern capital has 

 gone to work at the South, that this discovery has been fairly 

 developed. 



Now the announcement which I have to make is this. That 

 there has been discovered in South Carolina a bed of phosphate 

 of lime, the origin of which the wisest geologists have as yet 

 been unable to discover, which contains, after it has been roasted 

 and ground to a fine powder, seventy-five per cent, of phos- 

 phates, easily dissolved in sulphuric acid and converted into 

 superphosphates. The quantity there is absolutely inexhaustible. 

 The whole world may come to Charleston and run their ships 

 up the Ashley and Cooper Rivers and take in cargoes of the 

 phosphate anywhere along the banks. There are hundreds of 

 tons to the acre over just as many acres as you please to travel. 



I compare that, as a discovery for the interests of agriculture, 

 with the discovery of petroleum for enlightening the world. It 

 is of the same sort, and this mineral will be utilized and will be 

 of immense benefit to mankind. In order that you may have 



