140 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
expected to be producing 2,000,000 tons 
of phosphate annually. 
Practically all of the hard rock phos¬ 
phate produced in Florida is exported, 
the home consumption of this grade be¬ 
ing insignificant. During 1908 only 9,- 
900 tons of hard rock was consigned for 
use in the United States, 6,000 tons of 
which is reported as having been used in 
Florida. The river pebble, although not 
used in Florida, is used entirely within 
the United States, no part of the 1908 
output having been exported. Of the 
land pebble output for 1908, 150,377 
tons is reported as consigned for use in 
Florida. Of the total amount marketed 
the remainder was approximately equally 
divided between domestic and foreign 
ports. 
In the United States, Tennessee and 
South Carolina are, next after Florida, 
the largest producers of phosphates. Oth¬ 
er states which in 1907 produced a lim¬ 
ited amount of phosphate were: Ar- 
kasas, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. The 
deposits of the western part of the United 
States although as yet undeveloped are 
reported to be very extensive. The re¬ 
cent withdrawal from settlement by ex¬ 
ecutive order of large tracts of public 
lands will somewhat delay the exploita¬ 
tion and exhaustion of these western 
phosphates. The United States is now 
supplying almost two-thirds of the total 
phosphate produced in the world. Of the 
total for the United States, Florida pro¬ 
duces more than one-half, and of the to¬ 
tal for the world approximately one- 
third. 
LOSS OF PHOSPHATE IN MINING. 
That there is considerable loss of phos¬ 
phate in mining is well known. Practi¬ 
cally all deposits contain along with oth¬ 
er material more or less phosphate in a 
soft or pulverulent condition. Under pres¬ 
ent methods of mining, this “soft” phos¬ 
phate is necessarily lost in the process of 
washing, being carried to the dump along 
with the sand, clay and other ingredients 
of the matrix. The amount of phosphate 
thus discarded may be expected to vary 
with different deposits and under differ¬ 
ent conditions. After reaching the dump 
there is also more or less mechanical sep¬ 
aration, so that samples taken from one 
part of a dump may be found much rich¬ 
er in phosphate than samples from some 
other part of the same dump. Samples 
• 
taken by the writer somewhat at random 
from the dumps in the hard rock region 
gave the following results: Sample No. 1 
is from mine No. 5 of the Cummer Lum¬ 
ber Company, at Newberry; No. 2 is from 
the dump of the Camp Phosphate Com¬ 
pany, five miles southeast of Dunnellon. 
Analyses by the State Chemist: 
No. 1. No. 2. 
Total phosphoric acid. 9.99 12.14 
Equivalent to calcium phosphate. .. .21.81 26.50 
A sample of floats from the dump in 
the land pebble section gave the follow¬ 
ing results. This sample was taken by 
the writer from the dump of the Charles¬ 
ton Mining and Manufacturing Company 
at Ft. Meade. Analysis by the State 
Chemist: 
Total phosphoric acid.11.47 
Equivalent to calcium phosphate.25.04 
Selected samples of floats could un¬ 
doubtedly be taken containing much more 
phosphate than the samples analyzed. 
Analyses of two samples from the 
wash of the plate rock phosphate mine at 
