44 THE CANADIAN HORTICUITLTRISr. 



this Spring, and though this industry has been greatly retarded by 

 reason of the small quantity of snow that has fallen during the Winter, 

 yet it is expected that some four thousand tons will be delivered on the 

 banks of the Ottawa or ©■n the navigable waters of the Li evre,. ready far- 

 shipment in barges, either to New York city or to Montreal, where it 

 will be reshipped to Britain, France, Germany, and Spain. The price 

 realized per ton is aboirt $15, which varies according to the assay, 

 when deposited on the wharf. In Liverpool or .New York it is worth, 

 in its crude state, from $28 to- $32 per ton ; and when manufactured 

 into superphosphate, by treatment with sulphuric acid, it brings $50 

 per ton on this continent. This manure is principally used, on this side 

 of the Atlantic, in the southern States, where the climate is of a humid 

 nature ; further north, or in Canada, it is stated it cannot be used with 

 success, as our atmosphere is not sufficiently moist, and it would there- 

 fore lay inactive in the soil; should this apprehension prove to be 

 correct, it can never come largely into-use here until some means of irri- 

 gation is de\'ised to dissolve it, so that it may be absorbed by the tender 

 rootlets of young and growing plants. This fertilizer is principally 

 used in England for turnips, and is drilled in with the seed. When 

 applied to this crop it produces the most wonderful effects, stimulating 

 the young plants to a rapid growth, thereby overcoming the ravages of 

 the fly so destructive in its early stages. 



The great rival to the Canada phosphate beds are those of South 

 Carolina, which were opened ten years ago. I find by the United States 

 government returns, that in 1870 the sum of six millions of dollars was 

 then invested by capitalists in working tliem, and the products from 

 these mines have been shipped to Europe in large quantities. These 

 phosphates are not nearly so pure as those on the Ottawa, yielding only 

 40 per cent., and as ours become better known in the old world, they 

 will be the more sought after. 



The Canadian phosphates supplied to the States are principally 

 used there to mix with the poorer class received from South Carolina, 

 which are manufactured into superphosphate at Brooklyn ; the sul- 

 phuric acid used for treating the ores being that which has already done 

 service in the coal oil refineries of Ohio and Pensylvania. The margin 

 is so great betwen. the phosphate and the superphosphate, the former 

 being worth $15, and the latter $50 per ton, that the question of 



