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On EiipyrchroUe of Crown Pointy N. Y. 73 



■* AuT. XL— Or* Eiipyrchroiie of Crown Pointy New York; by 

 Charles 1\ Jackson, M,D., Assayer to tlie State of Massa- 

 chusetts, &c. 



The specimens of Eupyrchroite which 1 have analyzed were 

 sent to me by Mr. C. F. Hammond of Crown Point, and he 

 writes to me, that one hundred tons of the mineral have been 

 taken from the mine, and it is understood it is to be employed in 

 the preparation of phosphates for agricultural use. This enter- 



♦ prise has followed the movement which Mr. Alger has made at 



my suggestion, in working the mine of phosphate of lime in 

 Hurdstown, New Jersey, and I hope it will awaken the attention 

 of mineralogists and geologists to other neglected or overlooked 

 deposits of this valuable mineral, so desirable as a fertilizer, and so 

 important as a constituent of the vegetable products used for food. 

 When the mode of managing this manure is generally known, 

 there will be a demand for it that all our present known locali- 

 ties will not be able to supply, and therefore, every new discov- 

 ery of any extensive deposit of it, will be hailed with pleasure. 

 I learn that measures have been taken to export this mineral 

 to England, where it is most highly valued for agricultural use, 



K particularly in the preparation of the land for the growth of hops- 



It is also extremely valuable in the preparation of the soil for 

 other crops, all of which contain phosphates in considerable pro- 

 portions. It appears that the exhaustion of wheat lands by inces- 

 sant cropping, without adequately replenishing the soil by ma- 

 jeures, is owing to the removal of phosphates from the soil. Our 

 farmers should therefore look into this matter, and remedy the 

 evil that an early want of attention to the chemical principles of 

 agriculture has led them into. It is hardly necessary for me to 

 say that burned or ground bones may be used for the same pur- 

 pose as the mineral I am about to describe ; nor will it be ne- 

 cessary to enter upon the discussion of the question as to the 

 mdispensal^le necessity of the existence of phosphates in food, 



> which is to form flesh, blood and bones, for most men know that 



they have seven pounds of phosphate of lime in their bones, and 

 nearly as much of other phosphates in the soft parts of their 

 oodles. It is also known that the ashes of all cereal grains con- 

 tam almost fifty per cent, of phosphoric acid, united with lime, 

 potash, soda and magnesia, and that plants derive these phos- 

 phates from the soil, which contains generally but a very minute 

 proportion rarely amounting to three-tenths percent* 



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Description and Analysis. 



This mineral was first described by Prof. B. Emmons in his 

 j^eport on i\ie Geology of New York, and was analyzed by Prof. 



*^e\vis C. Be6k and publihed in his JEleport on the Mineralogy 



Second Series, Vol. XII, No. 34.— July, 1851. 10 



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