A PRELIMINARY REPORT ON CLAYS OE FLORIDA 
61 
INTRODUCTION. 
SCOPE OE THIS REPORT 
In this investigation no attempt has been made to cover completely 
the clay deposits of the entire State of Florida. It is intended to be only 
a preliminary report which will make available at an early date data con¬ 
cerning the clays within reach of transportation. It will, moreover, 
furnish a basis or foundation upon which further and more extensive 
work on the clay resources of the State can be based as it becomes ex¬ 
pedient to do so. 
This report, therefore, considers only the clay deposits known at 
the time the field work was carried on and situated not more than two 
miles from water or rail transportation. 
Unless a clay deposit is of very exceptional quality, it is not prob¬ 
able that it will be developed within the next few years if more than a 
mile or so from a railway. No definite distance from transportation, 
however, can be placed as a limit for workable deposits. The quality of 
the clay, availability and cost of fuel, labor, cost of mining or manu¬ 
facturing, cost of equipment, proximity to market, prevailing market 
price, distributing facilities and numerous other local factors determine 
whether or not a clay deposit can be profitably worked. Deposits of clay 
not within an economic distance from transportation are potential 
sources of supply and can be considered only as reserves. As general 
development proceeds in the State these deposits will become useful. 
Clay deposits underlying a great thickness of overburden are like¬ 
wise not considered in this report. Here again the conditions mentioned 
above apply. The greater the overburden which must be removed the 
greater the cost of production. Clays which are now at too great a depth 
to be profitably worked may become workable at some future time. 
In most cases the thickness and extent of a clay deposit were not 
given any further consideration than to determine whether or not suf¬ 
ficient clay was available to supply an average demand for a reasonable 
period of time. In many deposits enough clay was seen to be at hand 
to supply an average brick plant for more than thirty years. A depend¬ 
able estimate is that 750,000 bricks can be made from an acre foot, (43,- 
560 cubic feet,) of clay. A plant of 12,000,000 annual capacity would 
utilize 15 acre-feet of clay per year. The thickness and extent of a clay 
deposit and the cost of acquiring the property are factors, therefore, 
