110 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



the exact facts, I propose, with your permission, Mr. Chairman, 

 to read a short statement, which I have requested a friend of 

 mine, resident in South Carolina, to prepare, in regard to this 

 matter ; and I have here some specimens of the phosphate as 

 dug up. There are two kinds, as you will see by the descrip- 

 tion which I will read. The writer is a very intelligent young 

 man — Prof. C. U. Shepard, Jr., M.D., — who is not only a grad- 

 uate of Amherst College, but of a German university also, and 

 who knows whereof he affirms : — 



" It is an erroneous opinion that the discovery of the beds of 

 nodular phosphates is a recent one, as has been stated in the 

 newspapers. That the marl contained phosphate of lime was 

 mentioned by Tuomey in his geological report as far back as 

 1850, although he had no idea of the extent of the beds nor of 

 the high percentage of phosphates. Prof. Shepard, of the 

 South Carolina Medical College, was the first to become aware 

 of its existence and value as a fertilizer, and urged the impor- 

 tance of the subject upon the agricultural society of South 

 Carolina, at a meeting of the same, a few years before the com- 

 mencement of the secession movement. In 1860, in company 

 with Col. Hatch, he commenced operations for manipulating 

 these deposits, with every prospect of success ; but the breaking 

 out of hostilities put an end to the work. After the close of 

 the war attempts were made to put the old plans into execution, 

 but they all failed, until, through the energy of Dr. Pratt and 

 Prof. Holmes, of Charleston, the attention of Northern capital- 

 ists was directed to the high percentage of the phosphates and 

 their extent. It was supposed, a year ago, that the phosphates, 

 if not confined to the beds of the Ashley River, in the neigh- 

 borhood of Charleston, were still to be found there nearest the 

 surface, of higher percentage and in closest proximity to trans- 

 portation by water. Companies were formed, which sought to 

 buy up all the land on the banks of the river and extending as 

 far back from the same as there was any probability of finding 

 it. At that time the phosphatic beds were thought to extend 

 from the Santee across to the Cooper River in a soutlierly direc- 

 tion, but as the beds were irregular and generally down deeper 

 than in other quarters, but little attention was paid to them. A 

 few beds were found along the banks of the Cooper River which 



