pkxrose.1 PHOSPHATES OF ENGLAND. ( J7 
were J. M. Paine and J. T. Way, 1 who analyzed many specimens of the 
material and made many practical experiments, which went far to open 
up the phosphate mining industry in England. From that time on the 
use of the English phosphatic nodules became more and more extensive, 
until within the last few years the immense exports of phosphate of 
lime from South Carolina, the West Indies, and other localities have 
thrown so much of that material on the market that the English de- 
posits have become a source of minor importance. 
The principal mining operations are carried on in the counties of 
Cambridge, Bedford, and Suffolk. According to O. Fisher, 2 writing in 
1873, the miners in Cambridge had to pay $700 per acre for the right to 
dig phosphate and had to return the land to its original level condition 
and resoil it. With all this expense the average yield was only 300 tons 
per acre, which sold at $12 a ton ; while in the South Carolina diggings 
the yield is 300 to 1,500 tons per acre and it sold, at that time, for $9 
a ton. The nodules in England were dug to the depth of 20 feet, but 
it did not pay to go any deeper. 
Dr. C. U. Shepard, jr., informs me that he visited the diggings at 
Whaddon, near Rowsley, in 1875. They were then working at the 
depth of 8 to 18 feet, all the surface beds having been exhausted. 
Sums from $500 to $1,250 per acre were paid for the right to take the 
rock, and the yields per acre were from 150 to 400 tons. The mining 
was done in open trenches. The phosphate rock was washed in circu- 
lar horizontal tubes and was kept moving by rakes worked by steam. 
The capacity was about 5 tons daily, and the cost of washing about 85 
cents a ton. Wages were $6 a week. The nodules were sun-dried and 
then carted to the railroad for 50 cents per ton. 
The production for the three counties of Bedford, Cambridge, and 
Suffolk from 1875 to 1881 is given as follows : 3 Ton8 
1875 250,000 
1876 258,000 
1877 69,000 
1878 54,000 
1879 34,000 
1880* 30,000 
1881 31,500 
Analyses of the amorphous nodular phosphates of England. 
[I. "Molluskite," from the Upper GroeDsaud. by M. Berthier.] 
Phosphate of lime 57.00 
Carbonate of lime - - - 7. 00 
Carbonate of Magnesia 2. 00 
Silicate of iron and alumina ~">- 00 
Water and bituminous matter 7.00 
98. 00 
1 Jour. Royal Agric. Soc, 1848. 
2 Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. London, vol. 29, 1873. 
3 Mineral Statistics of the United Kingdom, by Robert Hunt, F. R. S. (From D. C. 
Davies, Earthy and Mineral Mining, London, 1884.) 
Bull. 46—7 (571) 
