OF THK University of Olifornia. GIKT OK ^ s > Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/centuryinphosphaOOchazrich Xhe Oenxury IN PHOSPHATES AND FERTILIZERS A Sketch of the South Carolina Phosphate Industry B^' PHILIP E. CHAZAL H. M. '< LIBRARY, '-"-tL£y, CALIFORNIA, Presses of Lucas-Richardson Lithograph & Printing Co. I 30 East Bay St.. CHARLESTON, S. C. 1904. .^- Professor Charles U. Shepard, Jr. "THE Century IN PHOSPHATES AND FERTILIZERS A Sketch of the South Carolina Phosphate Industry PHILIP E. CHAZAL E. M. 5^^ Ji ' 6(UUy^ /i. The following sketch of the Phosphate and Fertilizer Industry of South Carolina was prepared for the Centennial Edition of the News and Courier, issued April 20, 1904, and to this fact are due its form and some of the matter included, of a general rather than a local character. It contains .some necessarj'- corrections, and a few additions which, it is hoped, will add to its interest and value. THE CE^' IN X \ B R A ;f> or THE Phosphates and Fertilizers A SKETCH OF THE SOUTH CAROLINA PHOSPHATE INDUSTRY. The phosphate region of South Carolina lies along the coast, and practically parallel to the shore line, for a distance of abour seventy miles, extending from the Wando River, on the north, to Broad River, on the south, and at a distance of from ten to thirty miles from the ocean. North of this region occasional specimens have been reported in this State, notably in the neighborhood of Georgetown, but no deposit has ever been developed. The beds discovered still furthei north, in North Carolina, are of low grade and no com- mercial importance. South of Broad River, with the exception ot a few isolated specimens found in some of the Georgia coastal rivers, a similar condition of affairs prevails until the State of Florida is reached. Even here the deposits located on the eastern coast, unlike the valuable beds of the western and central portions of the State, have proven of no commercial value. The phosphate beds are, of course, not continuous within this region, unless, indeed, they are connected at depths so far not reached in prospecting. The level character of the beds, however, and their modes of occurrence make this continuity extremely improbable and practically non-existent. In any event, it is a matter of no practical importance under existing conditions, and of interest only in connection with the consid- eration of the mode of formation of the deposits. No State examination has ever been made of the phosphate region. In 1870 Professor N. S. Shaler was sent by the United States Coast Survey to make explorations to outline the limits of the deposits, presumably in the rivers and was so engaged for about two years. The work, however, was then suspended, 1 ^9B6c5 on account of legal difficulties about publishing its results in the reports of the Coast Survey, and no such publication was made. It was not until Professor Charles U. Shepard, Jr., of Charles- ton caused to be prepared, under his direction, a map of the lower portion of the State setting forth the results of his extended personal explorations and investigations, together with informa- tion gathered by him from various sources, that any attempt was made to outline the limits of the phosphatic area. The map so prepared was confined to the coastal region of the State, showing its main topographical features, and having outlined in red the areas within which phosphatic deposits existed at a depth of six feet or less, this depth being considered at that ^ime as the extreme limit of profitable exploitation. In 1881 this map was revised by Professor Shepard in connec- tion with an article by him on the phosphate industry of the State, which was published in the annual report for that year of the Commissioner of Agriculture of the State. This report, for which there was a great demand, is out of print and the map is no longer procurable, very unfortunately, as it remains practically the only one ever issued, the smaller, uncolored maps given in several national publications being in reality copies thereof, and, except in one instance, uncredited. SUB-DIVISIONS OF PHOSPHATE REGION. The phosphate deposits, as has been said, do not lie in con- tinous beds through the whole phosphate region, but occur at intervals within this territory. Beginning from their Northern limit, however, the principal beds may be divided into general groups, which may be desig- nated as follows: Wando River beds. Cooper River beds. Northeastern Railroad and Mount Holly beds. Ashley River beds. Stono River beds. Edisto and Ashepoo beds. Coosaw River beds. Beaufort River beds. WANDO RIVER BEDS. In the headwaters of this river there was a considerable de- posit of rock of fair quality, much of which was hand-mined by the Marine ana River Company with oyster tongs and rakes. Intermixed with the rock occurred large numbers of fossil bones, from which it was, at times, very difficult to distinguish the ' former, on account of its remarkably fine-grained structure. Large quantities of menillite, false opal, were also found in this river. The transition to this from the rock was so gradual, and the ex- ternal resemblance between them so close, that a considerable amount of this worthless material was mined and lightered to Charleston. I'he land beds of this vicinity never proved of value, the at- tempts to mine them having been generally unsatisfactory. COOPER RIVER BEDS. The land deposits along this river have not proven remunera- tive. Though some of the rock is of good quality, it has never been found in sufficient quantity to justify exploitation. NORTHEASTERN RAILROAD AND MOUNT HOLLY BEDS. Some bodies of rock of high quality have been mined in this locality. In spite of the fact that a portion of the rock was in the form of sheets, requiring more or less blasting, and that it also contained a larger proportion of fine rock than is usual in most Carolina deposits, the mining on some of the tracts was very highly profitable. Most, if not all, of the best deposits have been exhausted. There still remains, it is. true, a considerable phosphatic area, but the small size of some of the deposits and the poor or varia- ble character of the material contained in the others have made and make their profitable working practically impossible under past and present conditions, or any that are likely to obtain for many years. In this neighborhood the best rock is of a rich brown color. The poorer grades are generally lighter. Some of the small rock, or fines, resembles very closely the darker Florida land pebbles, but its quality is very much poorer. At one point, near Ten-Mile Hill, there is found a very light colored rock which is so soft and friable that it suffers great loss when handled by the ordinary methods. ASHLEY RIVER BEDS. The land beds of this group have up to this time furnished by far the greater part of the output of land rock. This deposit lies on both sides of the Ashley River. East of the river it began at a point about a mile below Bee's Ferry (C. and S. R. R. bridge), and extended to a point just above the present Ashley Works, a distance of some ten miles. The upper portion of the deposit has not proven of much value, on account of insufficient quantity or too great depth below the surface, and comparatively little rock has been taken therefrom. The remainder of the deposit, however, has been one of the main sources of supply, a very large amount of high grade rock having been mined therefrom, generally at very moderate depths, the rock at some points lying practically at the surface. So far as is known the rock on this side of the river, below Bee's Ferry, may be regarded as exhausted. Above this point, although the bulk of the deposit has been mined, there, is still a considerable amount remaining. On the west bank of the river and reaching from it over to- wards Stono River, Rantowle's Creek and the Bear Swamp road, and at points beyond this road, there is a large and very valua- ble body of rock land of good quality and moderate depth. Although this locality has been the scene of almost continuous mining from the commencement of the industry and very large quantities of rock have been removed, the area of its rock beds was so great that there has not been the same proportion of re- moval as on the opposite bank of the river. With the exception of a comparatively small amount now being mined in the Ashepoo-Edisto neighborhood, the Ashley River beds are at present the sole source of supply of land rock. The rock from these beds varies very much in hardness and color. Its phosphatic content is generally high. At points, however, the percentages of oxide of iron and alumina are above the average. On the other hand, in the marsh rock, along Stono River, the amount of these ingredients is generally lower, as is to be expected from its resemblance to river rock. Stono River was the. seat of the main operations of the old Marine and River Mining Company, the first of the river com- panies chartered by the State. The operations of this company were large and* long continued and the bulk of the deposits lying at the bottom of the stream, sometimes covered with mud and sand, was mined and shipped. Doubtless from the more or less irregular character of sub- marine operations, isolated spots were left untouched-. More- over, the washers used by the Marine and River Company were not equipped to handle rock embedded in tenacious clay. One such bed, left practically untouched, is now being mined by the Stono Mining Company and, it is said, with good results. In the lower portion of the river, near the bend, there is said to be a considerable bed of sheet rock, containing much carbonate of lime, and being so hard as to necessitate blasting, which was the seat of operations of the reorganized Marine and River Company. Stono River rock was generally hard and black or very dark. It was sometimes coated with a highly polished enamel, which gave it an extremely attractive appearance. As was the case with most of the river rock, it was admirably suited for the manufacture of superphosphate, in spite of the fact that its average grade was lower than the average of the land and most other river rocks. Between Rantowle's Creek and the Edisto River, a distance of about twenty miles, there is a considerable stretch of land in which, although rock deposits exist at various points, investiga. tions have failed to develop beds of any consequence until the Edisto River is reached, a state of affairs for which it is difficult to offer any explanation. On the north bank of the Edisto, some little distance above t.ie tracks of the Charleston and Savannah Railway, a consider- able amount of rock has been taken out and a certain area is still left, some of it said to be very valuable, though no mining has been done there for some years past. Higher up the river, on the same side, some heavy and, it is stated, rather extensive deposits occur, but they are of such poor quality as to be valueless, except under conditions of de- ficiency of supply not likely to obtain for many years, if ever. EDISTO RIVER ROCK. Some comparatively unimportant deposits are found in the bed of this river. For many years the great distance of water transportation would have prevented their utilization, had their quantity been sufficient. Even since the establishment of a local factory, no attempt has been made to utilize them, doubt- less on account of the greater attractiveness and cheapness of the neighboring land deposits. EDISTO-ASHEPOO BEDS. On crossing the Edisto River a different state of affairs is met with. Between this river and the Ashepoo there is a large area in which occur numerous deposits of rock valuable on account ot its unusually fine quality, running as high at times as 64 per cent, of bone phosphate of lime in the washed, though unburnt condition, and averaging over 62 per cent, of this ingredient. The very general thinness of the overburden is a conspicuous and valuable characteristic of these deposits. They lack the uniformity of the Ashley River beds, varying very much in thickness, sometimes in very short distances, and with a greater tendency to blank spots. The general high quality of the rock however, the very small amount of excava- tion necessary, as w ell as the fact that a large proportion of the territory remains untouched, except for prospecting purposes, make it one of the most valuable localities now left in the State. After the exhaustion of the more accessible lands now being excavated, its present high value must be greatly enhanced. TERRITORY SOUTH OF THE ASHEPOO. South of the Ashepoo River, no land deposits, at least none of consequence, have been found, except on the islands bordering on the Coosaw River and its tributaries. On South Williman's and Chisolm's islands, mining was car- ried on at greater or less intervals for many years. On South Williman's Island, mining operations were never resumed after the cyclone of 1893. How much rock is left on the island is not known. On Chisolm's Island there were deposits of land and marsh rock. The land mining, so far as can be learned, did not prove profitable, the quality not being of the highest and the over- burden in some parts heavy. Attention was soon turned to the more uniform, shallow and high grade marsh rock of this de- posit. A comparatively small portion was banked in and mined. Chisolm's Island, in time of storm, lies in a very exposed po- sition, the Coosaw River, which bounds it along its whole length, being in point of fact an arm of the sea rather than a river, and being noted for the roughness of its waters even under ordinary conditions. The construction and maintenance of banks is thus made troublesome and very expensive, the problem being further complicated by the fact that the best of the deposits lies imme- diately on the river edge of the marsh, appearing to be virtually a continuation of the neighboring river deposit. It would seem that the only profitable method of working would be by dredge from the river, and after the purchase of the property by the 7 Coosaw Company, in the last half of the nineties, this coui-s^ was followed, to what extent is not known. Chisolm's Island contained, also, several more or less bold creeks, containing rock, which were the subjects of prolonged litigation between the owners and the State, the verdict having been in favor of the latter. THL-: COOSAW RIVER BEDS. The Coosaw deposits have held, in regard to the river rock, the position occupied by the Ashley River beds in the exploita- tion of land rock. Being in reality, as has been said, a wide arm of sea, itsdeep bed was a receptable for the drift of a large area and its bottom was practically rock covered. The rock is found in great beds of nodules and boulders, and is black, hard, and of fine quality when free from marl. Since the exhaustion of the main beds, the usual difficulties of dredg- ing have been increased manifold by the necessity for dealing with the more or less mixed material which is present in lartre quantities. Most of the smaller lateral streams have been worked out, and the only mining being carried on any .where in this neigh- borhood is in Coosaw river proper. BEAUFORT RIVER BEDS. This river contained several good beds of rock of somewhat inferior grade, so far as analysis in concerned, but making, with the formula in use at the time, a super-phosphate equal in grade to those obtained by the treatment of the usual standard rocks. There were also one or more beds of better grade, but they were very deep and difficult to mine. PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ROCK. Carolina rock is essentially nodular, the nodules varying, it is true, from fines the size ot a pea to boulders of two thousand pounds, with an average weight, however, of only a few pounds. It occurs sometimes in flat cakes, more or less easily breakable into their component nodules, and, more rarely, in sheet-like strata, in which the nodules, if the mass ever existed as such, have been so cemented together in the process of phosphatiza- tion, that they can no longer be distinguished, and which offer an unbroken, hard, and frequently polished and resistant sur- face, yielding only to blasting. The nodules are sometimes kidney-shaped, oval, or almost rounded, more generally irregu- larly shaped, and, at times, somewhat angular, this variation i'n shape depending, doubtless, on the amount of attrition they received when drifted together by the water currents, by which they were collected into beds. They are sometimes almost solid, but more generally full of cavities and perforations, probably due to slight variations in the chemical composition of the original masses, and to the ac- tion of marine boring animals. The surface is sometimes very highly polished, as if covered with a lustrous enamel. Generally, however, it is dull and rough, the granular structure of the mass being clearly visible. The internal structure of the nodules is generally granular and identical with that of the Eocene maris. Very rarely, some- what laminated masses are found. When fractured, the masses sometimes glisten with small silicious particles. The structure is entirely amorphous, no evidences of crystallization being dis cernible. The porosity of the rock is great, especially where the pol- ished enamelled surface is wanting. After washing, the rock may contain 15 per cent, of moisture, though on air-drying this generally falls below 10 per cent. The color is extremely varied. The river rock is generally dark-colored, black or grayish black. The land rock is of lighter hues, varying from light gray or yellowish gray through red- dish shades (due generally to an increased amount of oxide of iron), to light brown, and a rich dark chocolate brown. The marsh rock is generally dark, resembling the river rock more closely than the land rock. Some varieties of the marsh rock, indeed, appear to be identical with that of the neighboring river deposits. When calcined or properly kiln-dried, the rock yields easily to crushing and grinding, and, especially in the absence of the small water-worn quartz pebbles occurring to a greater or less extent in most of the deposits, may be reduced without diffi- culty to an extremely fine state of division. Indeed, this pro- cess may be carried so far that most of the product will float in the air. So great is the ease, comparatively speaking, with which this can be done, that it was at one time thought feasible to sup- plant thereby the generally accepted method of chemical -sub- division with sulphuric acid, and considerable efforts were de- voted to this end before the advocates of the theory became satisfied that it was neither practical nor economical. 9 When ground, the color of the resultant powder varies from a light yellowish gray for land rock, to a darker, though still light gray when derived from river rock. In all cases the color of the powder is lighter than that of the unground nodules. The specific gravity of Carolina rock varies from 2 to 2}^, averaging according to a large number of determinations made by Professor Charles U. Shepard, Jr., about 2.4. The density of the river rock is generally greater than that of the land varieties. The river rock is also generally harder than land rock, though this is not invariably the case, some varieties of the latter, nota- bly the sheet rock mentioned above, being very hard and re- sistant, at least at the surface. This hardness varies between 3.5 and 4, though one very soft variety, identified by Professor Charles U. Shepard, Sr., as epiglaubite, had a hardness of only 2. The structure of the nodules is very seldom uniform. It is generally densest and hardest at the surface, the interior grow- ing softer and more granular towards the centre, the color also varying. The lumps also contain, though very rarely, internal cavities (not perforations) containing sand or clay. THICKNESS OF STRATA. The rock lies in strata of greater or less thickness, varying from two or three inches to thirty or thirty-six inches, the latter, however, being very unusual. The average thickness of the workable beds may be estimated at from 8 to 9 inches, deposits of 12 to 16 inches being considered unusually good. The thickness of the stratum, however, is by no means neces- sarily an indication of the yield per acre, and therefore is not the only factor to be considered. With varying conditions of density, solidity and greater or less freedom from mixture with clay or sand, it is evident that different deposits with the same thickness of stratum may yield very different returns. Ignorance or forgetfulness of this important, though simple and apparently self-evident fact, has been the cause of frequent error and loss. YIELD PER ACRE. The yield of the l^nd deposits varies from three hundred to twelve and fifteen hundred tons per acre, with an average of between seven hundred and eight hundred tons. It) ODOR OF THE ROCK. Pieces of freshly fractured Carolina rock, when rubbed to- gether, emit a peculiar odor bearing a slight resemblance to burn- ing horn. The odor generally increases with the density of the rock and the content of organic matter. It is probably due to the vaporization of some oily constituent of the latter ingre- dient by the heat of friction. CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF THE ROCK. As would be expected from what has been said as to the great differences in the physical characteristics of the rock, and its entirely amorphous character, its chemical composition varies greatly. The bulk of the mass is made up of phosphoric and carbonic acids, in combination with lime, and of sand or insoluble sili- cious matter, and the grade and consequent value of the rock is determined by the fluctuations in the amounts of these ingre- dients. The rest of the mass is made up of sulphuric acid, iron pyrites, (about I per cent.), fluorine, chlorine, iodine, magnesia, oxides of iron and manganese, alumina, potash, soda, organic matter and water, with occasional faint traces of other ingredients. On account of its variability and lack of uniformity of com- position, It is impossible to give any average analysis, which \v\\\ serve as an exemplar of the whole. A table taken from a lecture delivered by Professor Charles U. Shepard, Jr., in 1879, ^^ "South Carolina Phosphates," will serve to give an idea of the range of the various more important constituents. This table, which Professor Shepard stated was the result of many hundred analyses of clean, dry samples of rock, is as follows: (i) Phosphoric acid 25 to 28 p. c. (2) Carbonic acid 2>^ to 5 p. c. Sulphuric acid >2 to 2 p. c. Lime 35 to 42 p. c. Magnesia traces to 2 p. c. Alumina traces to 2 p. c. Sesquioxide of iron i to 4 p. c. F'luorine i to 2 p. c. Sand and silica 4 to 12 p. c. Organic matter and combined water 2 to 6 p. c. Moisture >^ to 4 p. c. 11 (i) Equivalent to bone phosphate of lime, 55 to 61 per cent. (2) Equivalent to carbonate of lime, 5 to 1 1 per cent. The organic matter is nitrogenous, containing occasionally as high as a quarter per cent, nitrogen. Developments by mining, or extensive prospecting carried on since the date of preparation of this table, would seem to necessi- tate some changes therein, The higher limit for bone phospliate of lime is somewhat low, there being in the Edisto-Ashepoo region deposits yielding 64 per cent, of this ingredient. Some quite high grade material, too, has shown as much as 13 per cent, of sand, and the higher limit for carbonate of lime is also somewhat low in the light of the experience of recent years. Comparatively few complete analyses of Carolina rock are at present accessible, and it may therefore be of interest to present a few of these, as well as some partial analyses, showing the grades of the material occuring at different localities. ANALYSIS OF LAND ROCK FROM BULOW MINES. (Made by Dr. VV. D. Wamer, Assistant to Professor Charles U. Shcpard Jr.) P. C. Moisture 2.43 Organic matter and water of combination 5.68 (i) Phosphoric acid 27.23 Sulphuric acid 1.45 Carbonic acid 3.05 Lime 39- 10 Magnesia traces Oxide of Iron 1.38 Alumina 0.40 Silicious (insoluble) matter 13-03 Fluorine, chlorine and other ingredients, undetermined. . . . 5.25 100.00 (i) Equivalent to 59.44 per cent, bone phosphate of lime. The following analysis of, unfortunately, a low grade rock^ was made by Professor R. Fresenius, the celebrated German chemist, and is of very great interest. No record is at hand of the variety of rock represented by the analysis, but from the results it would appear to have been a sample of river rock. 12 P. C. Lime '. 39.40 Magnesia 0.49 Soda 0.69 Potash .* 0.07 Alumina 062 Sesquioxide of iron 0.56 Iron i^y Sulphur i,5pr Sulphuric acid 0.53 Phosphoric acid 24.64 Carbonic acid 4. 54 Chlorine 0.02 Fluorine 3.24 Silica and sand 16.38 Moisture expelled at iOO° C r.83 Moisture expelled at red heat 4.66 Organic matter 0.75 Total 101.36 Correction for oxygen 1.36 Corrected total 100.00 Professor Fresenius combined these ingredients as follows: P. C. Bone phosphate of lime . .. 53.790 Fluoride of calcium 6.050 Chloride of calcium 0.035 Sulphate of lime 0.900 Carbonate of lime 9.090 Carbonate of magnesia 1.030 Soda 0.690 Potash 0.070 Alumina 0.620 Oxide of iron 0.560 Silica and sand. 16.380 Pyrites 2.940 Water at lOo"" C 1-830 Water at red heat 4.660 Organic matter and loss 0.755 100.000 13 Professor Fresenius considered the soda, potash, alumina and oxide of iron as combined with silicic or humic acid. The low amount of organic matter shown in this analysis is very abnormal in Carolina rock, a similar result never having come under the observation of the writer. Exactly what is meant by the term "water expelled at red heat" is also not clear. The water of combination or crystallization of rock is given off at a temperature somewhat above the boiling point, and very far below red heat. So low a percentage of organic matter could have been ob- tained only in a sample of rock that had been highly calcined, in which case all of the water of crystallization, as well aa a considerable part of the carbonic acid, would have been ex- pelled. It seems almost certain that a clerical error was made in reporting the analysis, and that the results should be "organic matter expelled at red heat, 4.66 per cent," and ''moisture, etc., 0.755 per cent." The following table of analyses, made by Professor Shepard in the early period of development of the industry, is of great value and interest as showing the results attained at that time. In the table as presented here, several errors that have crept into some previous publications have been corrected, and, for the sake of comparison, the percentages of bone phosphate of lime, calculated on the dry basis, have been added: •0 i t is II i u 7 -o "i a x: bo 13 > •0 a 1 ffia i a IS § ll 2 u 'S wo. •0 u '5 1 a > S St 2 II if £5 cs 9 11 CD 'r. CO < U CO z^ o . W» I'S. «o Moistiire at 100° C . .. UrKanic matter and com- bined water Carbonic acid Equivalent to Carbonate of lime Phosphoric acid Equivalent to bone phos- phatet'flime Sand Bone phosphate of lime on dry basis p. c. 3.68 4.78 4.68 p. c p. c. 1 50 5 5» 3.89 P.O. 0.00 526 4.47 P c. [■ 10 07 3.55 p c. 0.84 4.22 3.54 p c. 79 5.80 3.61 p. c. 0.57 4.81 3.19 10.64 2. .61 9 73 20.68 8 84 25.75 10.16 27 01 8 06 27 11 804 27.26 8.20 25.14 8.61 27.26 55 91 11.55 58 24 12.41 56.21 11 37 58.95 11.37 59.18 15 39 59.51 9.06 .^4.88 13.30 59.51 9.06 58 04 57.07 58.95 60 00 65.3J 59. »> 3.75 4.a4 26.78 58.46 11.77 58.85 14 ROCK FROM UPPER WANDO RIVER. P. C. 3.85 4.89 Moisture Organic matter . a S Carbonic Acid Carbonate of lime 1 1. 1 1 Phosphoric acid 25.14 Bone Phosphate of lime 54.88 Sand and insoluble matter * 12.06 Bone phosphate of lime, dry basis 57-o8 WANDO RIVER— OPPOSITE CAINHOY. P. C. Moisture 4.7Q 45 36 64 36 81 02 26 Organic matter 3 Carbonic acid 3 Carbonate of lime 7 Phosphoric acid 22 Bone phosphate of lime 48 Sand and insoluble matter 24 Bone phosphate of lime, dry basis 51 NORTHEASTERN R. R. DEPOSIT— NEAR MOUNT HOLLY. (Average of four analyses of crude, clean rock.) P. C. Moisture 0.91 Phosphoric acid ^ 26.98 Bone phosphate of lime 58.92 Sand and insoluble matter 9.70 Bone phosphate of lime, dry basis 59-45 The carbonate of lime in these samples was small in amount and was not determined. NORTHEASTERN R. R. DEPOSIT— NEAR MOUNT HOLLY. (On dry basis.) P. C. Bone phosphate of lime 59-35 Carbonate of lime - 12.28 Sand and insoluble matter 6.57 'Oxide of iron and alumina 4.13 15 FINES ROCK— NORTHEASTERN R. R. DEPOT- ABOVE OTRANTO, (Average of six analyses.) (On dry basis.) P. C. Phosphoric acid 23.88 Bone phosphate of lime 52.43 Sand and insoluble matter 18.96 The carbonate of lime in one of these samples was 16.43 per cent. NORTHEASTERN R. R. DEPOT— BETWEEN JUNC- TION AND TEN MILE HILL. (On dry basis.) P. C. Organic matter 6.58 Carbonic acid 3.51 Carbonate of lime 7.98 Phosphoric acid 26.68 Bone phosphate of lime 58-25 Sand and insoluble matter 1 1.89 EDISTO REGION— DEPOSITS WEST OF RIVER. (Average of over 100 analyses made by Shepard Laboratory.) (On dry basis.) P. C. Bone phosphate of lime 60.46 Carbonate of lime 9.64 Sand and insoluble matter 9.16 Oxide of iron and alumina 3.62 The bone phosphate of lime in these samples ranged from 58.41 per cent, to 63.86 per cent. EDISTO-ASHEPOO REGION— NEARER ASHEPOO RIVER. (Average six analyses.) (On dry basis.) P, C. Bone phosphate of lime 61.74 Carbonate of lime 11. 01 Sand and insoluble matter 6.88 Oxide of iron and alumina , . ■ 2.08 EDISTO-ASHEPOO REGION— NEAR ASHEPOO RIVER. (Average five analyses.) (On dry basis.) P. C. Organic matter 5.87 Carbonic acid 3.78 16 Carbonate of lime 8.59 Phosphoric acid 28.47 Bone phosphate of lime 62. 14 Sand and insoluble matter 7.7:^ BEAUFORT RIVER ROCK. (Average two analyses.) (On dry basis.) P. C. Organic matter 3.42 Carbonic acid 1.71 Carbonate of lime 3.90 Phosphoric acid 24. 5 1 Bone phosphate of lime 53-51 Sand and insoluble matter 22.27 In many of the nodules, or lumps, of rock the phosphoric acid is not uniformly distributed through the mass. As a general thing the outer shell, especially where this is enamelled and harder than the core, contains more phosphoric acid than the latter, sometimes to the extent of I per cent, or more. It is important to emphasize the fact that the above analyses, except in the cases of cargoes, represent crude rock, carefully washed and, generally, dried, but neither burnt nor calcined. In the early days of the industry the rock was dried in covered bins, open at the front, by hot air distributed through pcrfor- rated pipes laid under it near the bottom of the piles. The drying action was necessarily very uneven. The rock next to the pipes was thoroughly burnt and frequently calcined, particularly near the point of entrance of the hot air, where the heat was, of course, greatest. Toward the oppo^te end of the shed, and as the distance of the rock from the pipes increased, the heat and drying action diminished very materially, so that the bulk of the mass received little more than a fairly thorough drying, while a smaller portion was practically unaffected. In addition to this the cost of the pipes was great and their dura- bility small. This method was ultimately abandoned, and the system now in use was adopted, consisting, briefly, in burning the rock, in sheds, open on all sides, on wood carefully piled to permit a proper draft. The heat evolved is intense, that furnished by the wood being materially increased by the combustion of the organic material of the rock, and also by the formation ancl combustion of water gas. 17 Where the process is properly conducted, all of the rock, ex- cept a small thickness on the surface and towards the sides, is more or less burnt, while the portion at the centre and near the bottom of the piles is more or less calcined, By this method of drying, the moisture content of the mass, instead of being nearly 2 per cent., as with the old method, is frequently under one-half of i per cent. The amount of carbonic acid gas expelled is also greater than under the old conditions. As a consequence, the grade of the rock, as shown by its content of bone phosphate of lime, is ma- terially increased, an increase which is evidenced by the fact that the same rock which was formerly sold on a minimun guar- antee of 55 per cent-, and afterwards 57 per cent, of this con- stituent, is now required to meet a standard of 60 per cent. In considering, therefore, the analyses which have been given above it is important to bear these facts in mind and to remem- ber, for example, that a rock running 60.46 per cent, of bone phosphate of lime, like the crude Edisto rock, the analysis of which is given above, would readily yield, after calcination, 64 to 65 per cent, of that constituent. EXTENT AND QUANTITY OF THE DEPOSITS. In the absence of a systematic survey of the marine and river territory, and with the necessarily imperfect knowledge of the details of the land beds prevalent in the early period of the industry, the data necessary for an accurate estimate of the extent and probable output of the deposits were largely lack- ing-. The estimates then made were therefore based on general con- siderations and, with the varying conditions of occurrence and availability a^umed, were very widely apart, some indeed being scarcely more than wild guesses. The information afforded by the continued operation of the land and river deposits, the increased knowledge, in a general way, of the former, and the practical exhaustion of the bulk of the latter have of course lessened to a considerable extent the difficulties of the situation. In point of fact, however, it is only within the last few years that some of the largest land properties have been prospected with any degree of accuracy, and it having been impossible, up to the time of the former publication of this article, (April 1904), to obtain the results thus arrived at all that could then be reliably stated was that notwithstanding the large amount of 18 material already excavated, (7,143,216 tons of land rock and 4,628,158 tons of river rock, as shown by the valuable statistical tables prepared by Major E. Willis for the Centennial issue of The News and Courier), there still remained a very large amount of rock, especially of the land variety, sufficient to furnish a supply for many years. Since that publication, the writer has obtained private informa- tion which seems to justify him in estimating the amount of rock remaining in the land deposits at between 9,000,000 and 11,000, 000 tons. Prominence has also been recently given to the claim that there are rock beds of consequence in the marshes adjoining the rivers and estuaries of the State, but nothing definite is known, or has been disclosed, in reference thereto. TOPOGRAPHY OF THE PHOSPHATE REGION AND OCCURRENCE OF THE BEDS. As has been stated above, the phosphate beds of South Caro- lina lie entirely within the coast region, in what has been called the "Lower Pine Belt" of the State. This coast region is freely intersected by numerous rivers, creeks and arms of the sea, the result being a series of low and, generally, long islands lying immediately on the ocean, and a chain of connected navigable waterways separating the islands from the mainland. This chain of waterways, with the rivers and creeks flowing from the interior, offers a safe and economical transportation from the mines to the points of consumption or loading. The average elevation of the region is very low, hardly ex- ceeding ten feet above high water mark. Occasional elevations of twenty to thirty feet are found, but these are very rare. Numerous marshes and swamps occur in the neighborhood of the various streams, and the low lands in the region, therefore, cover a large area. The phosphate deposits occur most gener- ally in the "leads," probably old waterways, extending up from the streams, and this has been a controlling reason for the fact that the depth of the rock below the surface is generally small, and its excavation, therefore, rendered very economical. The phosphate beds themselves are generally level, almost horizontal, and not following the contour of the surface, and hence the drainage of the trenches by which it is excavated is made comparatively simple. Where the ground rises the depth to the rock increases, and with the increase the availability of the rock comes into question. It is scarcely possible to make an accurate estimate of the average depth of the rock below the surface. The average depth of the areas already mined would probably be between six and eight feet. The rock beds are found at all depths, from a few inches down to twenty feet or more, in some few instances lying practi- cally at the surface. As has been noted, the depth has an important bearing on the cost of excavation. For many years the extreme limit of economical working was considered to be six feet, and practi- cally no deposits of greater depth below the surface were mined. Improved methods and experience showed that this limit could be extended to greater depths, varying with the surface condi- tions, the character of the overburden, and the difficulty of handling it. STRATIFICATION OF THE DEPOSITS. In his article on "South Carolina Phosphates" (1880) Professor Shepard, whose long connection with the phosphate industry of the State, and whose personal explorations and investigations of both its marine and land deposits, especially, however, of the former, gave him peculiar opportunities of observation over a wide extent of territory, gives the following description of the mode of occurrence of the "ordinary superficial beds of phos- phate — those now worked." "A— LAND DEPOSITS. I. Soil and subsoil; a few inches to a foot in depth. II. A light colored siliceous clay, iron stained in places, and containing much fine, transparent sand, and minute scales of silvery mica, with little calcareous matter — one foot or more in thickness. III. (Wanting in the more superficial beds.) A blue, argil- laceous (clayey) marl, probably altered marsh mud. It does not adhere to the tongue or give an argillaceous odor. Frag- ments of recent shells occur in this deposit. Its depth is about two feet. IV. A thin layer of coarse sand — one to three inches in depth. V. The phosphate nodules, in either a loose siliceous or a bluish or rich buff colored argillaceous marl, frequently accom- panied with abundant fossil bones and teeth. The upper nodules are often harder, the lower softer, and at some land 20 localities exhibit a gradual transition, by loss of cohesion and decrease of phosphatic content, into VI. A marl, highly phosphatic toward the rock-bed and occasionally containing twenty to thirty per centum of phos- phates, but at the depth of a few inches containing only ten to twenty per centum of these constituents. VII. Argillaceous or Arenaceous (sandy) marls, containing seven to ten per centum of phosphate. "B— RIVER DEPOSITS. Beneath the river deposits occur either: I. A gray marl — sometimes in nodules resembling phosphate, with 5 per centum of phosphates, underlaid by II. A white, hard marl, enclosing phosphatic grains, and containing three to five per centum of phosphates (Wando River;) or I. A green sand — with some clay, and rich in black phos- phatic grains, occurring with and beneath the phosphatic rock, containing 15 per centum of phosphates (Stono River;) or I. Hard marls — poor in phosphates (one-half to one per centum,) unless their tops be coated with phosphate rock (Coosaw River.)" DOUBLE STRATIFICATION. An extremely interesting fact, especially in connection with the question of the deposition of the beds, is the occurrence of two superimposed strata of rock. These occurrences have been reported at various points in the phosphate region, but their area has been generally so restricted that most of the observers, practical miners, have declined to be- lieve them to be anything but parts of the same bed, with an accidental interposition of clay or sand. Several instances that have come under the observation of the writer show clearly, in his opinion, the inaccuracy of this view. Some years since, in examining some deposits on the upper edge of the Edisto region, two such instances were observed. On one tract there was a fairly large body of rock, of no very great thickness, which was found to analyze as follows: (On dry basis.) P. C. Bone phosphate of lime 5o. 54 Carbonate of lim.e 12.17 Sand and insoluble matter I9- H Oxide of iron and alumina 2.93 21 In one portion of the deposit there occurs at a few inches above the regular stratum, and separated from it, if the recollec- tion of the writer is accurate, by a more or less sandy clay, another heavy seam, ten to eighteen inches in thickness, of a hard material somewhat resembling sandstone, which on analy- sis was found to contain : (On dry basis.) P. C. Bone phosphate of lime 44-97 Sand and insoluble matter 31.22 Oxide of iron and alumina 3,01 On another tract, about a mile or so from the above, a similar double stratification is found, except that in the upper stratum the excess of silica is replaced by carbonate of lime. Unfortu- nately, owing to a press of work, no analysis was made of this material. The most interesting occurence of the kind is found at the mines of the Bolton Mining Company. The deposits mined by this company have always been of great interest, as being the most extensively and highly developed instance of marsh mining in the state. The rock of these deposits, while partaking more of the character of river rock than of the land varieties, yet oc- cupies an intermediate position- between them. At a point of one of the dredge cuts on this property there occurs a very clearly defined instance of a double seam, extend- ing for a length of about three hundred feet along the line of the cut. The average stratification at this point may be stated as fol- lows: a. Soil and mucky marsh mud — six to seven feet. b. Sand — three feet. c. Upper rock stratum — three to six inches in thickness, lying entirely in sand. The rock is solid, nodular, black and hard, like Stono River rock. The nodules vary in size from pieces three to four inches in diameter downward, being gener- ally rather oblong in shape. With the rock occurs, almost per- sistently, a little rotten shell, generally in very small fragments. d. Blue sandy clay — twelve to thirty-six inches. e. Lower rock stratum — with an average thickness of about eight inches, entirely embedded in much sandy, blue clay. The rock is generally brown, sometimes black. Some pieces are partly brown, and partly black. It is not so hard or solid as the rock of the upper stratum. 22 It occurs chiefly in lumps of three or four inches in diameter, and is very much perforated, the perforations being entirely 511ed with the blue clay of the bed. At times these perforations are very small at the surface, and are seen only when the lumps are broken. The blue clay forms more than half of the mass of the seam. f. Blue clay — six inches. g. Marl. At both ends of the three hundred foot line the rock strata come together, the intervening blue clay disappearing, and for more than a thousand feet, to the end of the present cut, the upper black stratum, with the slight intermixture of rotten shell, lies immediately on top of the lower stratum, the differ- ence in physical appearance of the two being distinctly visible. Apparently the lower stratum was first deposited in a shallow basin, its surface following more or less that of the marl and clay beneath. The depression, or shallow basin, thus formed was filled with blue clay, the thickness of which varied with the depth of the basin, the edges of which were left uncovered. Thus, when the upper seam was deposited, while separated from the lower, within the area of the basin, by more or less mud, it was in immediate contact with the lower stratum at the edges. The following analyses of the rock from the upper and lower strata are of interest in showing the difference in character of the material, at least at one point of the occurrence, and as an evidence of the dual nature of the deposits. The samples were carefully hand washed and dried before analysis. In the case of the rock from the lower stratum, the permeation of the lumps by the clay made it necessary to break them into comparatively small pieces, in order to get rid of the latter, this being neces- sary to show the character of the rock material proper. (On Dry Basis.) Upper Lower Stratum. Stratum. P. C. P. C. Carbonic acid 4.39 4.45 Carbonate of lime 9.98 10 i J Phosphoric acid , 27.80 26.;; Bone phosphate of lime. ... , , 60.71 5^-47 Sand and insoluble matter 10.46 12.68 Oxide of iron and alumina 1.75 ^-7^ 23 MARL UNDER LOWER STRATUM. (On dry basis.) P. C. Carbonic acid 30.20 Carbonate of lime , 68.64 Phosphoric acid 4. 5 1 Bone phosphate of lime 9.84 Sand and insoluble matter 12.88 The rock of the upper stratum is exceptionally hifjh in bone phosphate of lime, the quality of the lower stratum being as high as, if not higher than, the average of the best class of rock of this locality. The mode of occurrence and the differences, both chemical and physical, between the two strata, as shown above, seem to point conclusively to an entirely separate deposition of the two seams, and to go far towards settling what has long been, as has been said, a much mooted question. Similar instances are said to occur, though not to the same extent, at the old Wando Mines, near Bee's Ferry, and on the adjoining property of the Charleston Mining Company, but it has not been feasible to secure information in regard thereto sufficiently detailed to permit description. GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS OF THE CHARLESTON BASIN. The calcareous strata of the Charleston basin, as outlined by Professor M. Tuomey, occur in an irregular area about seventy- five miles long and sixty miles wide, extending from the Santee River to the Ashepoo, and embracing within its limits the land phosphate deposits of the State. The geological history of this basin has been carefully and fully treated, first by Professor Tuomey, (Report on the Geology of South Carolina," Columbia, 1846), and afterward by Professor Francis S. Holmes, ("The Phosphate Rocks of South Carolina," Charleston, 1870), their conclusions being based on their studies of the various formations of the basin, with the fossils occuring therein, and in the case of Professor Holmes, on the observations made during the boring of the old artesian well (Wentworth Street) in Charleston, which was commenced ini846 and ulti- mately carried to a depth of 1,260 feet. Artesian wells subsequently sunk, one in 1872 to a depth of 323 feet at Sineath's Station, thirteen miles from Charleston, and the other in 1876 in Charleston (Citadel Green), and carried 24 to a depth of 1,970 feet, were both carefully studied, and have afforded valuable information as to the extent and occurrence of the several formations. The results of the various observations may be briefly sum- marized, as follows: The lowest formation so far reached is the Cretaceous. The marls and limestones of this formation outcrop on the Pee-Dee River, but (according to Holmes) were reached in the Wentworth Street well at a depth of 8(X) feet. According to Professor James Hall, of the New York State Mu- seum of Natural History, to whom the material obtained from the Citadel Green well was submitted for study and identification, the Cretaceous is reached at 600 feet below the surface, extend- ing continuously from that point to the bottom of the well, a distance of nearly fourteen hundred feet. While the marls of this formation, of a dark bluish gray color, contain only from 30 to 40 per cent, of carbonate of lime, the limestones are much richer, having from 60 to 75 per cent, of this constituent. Immediately above the Cretaceous lies the Eocene, called by Ruffin, on account of its thickness and richness, "the great Caro- linian marl bed." Its thickness was estimated by Holmes to be seven hundred feet, based on old well, but the results of the new well would indicate this estimate to be too high, the true thickness at that point being some five hundred feet. It is sub- divided into the Santee, Cooper and Ashley marl beds. The oldest and lowest of these are the Santee, composed principally of hard shells and corals or corallines forming Tuomey's "coralline bed of the Charleston basin." The marls of this group, white in color when dried, are of very high grade, containing in some cases as much as 97 percent, of carbonate of lime, but averaging 94 per cent, of this ingredient. The marls of the Cooper River beds, next in age to the Santee beds and lying above them, are harder than those of the Ashley beds, beneath which they occur, and richer in carbonate of lime, the amount of which varies from 42 per cent, to 95 per cent, in different varieties. As might be expected, however, they are poorer in bone phosphate of lime, of which they contain only from a trace to one and one-half per cent. (Tuomey, p. 236.) The Ashley beds were estimated by Professor Holmes to be about two hundred and sixty feet thick. The marls composing them have from 36 to 'j6 per cent, of carbonate of lime, but contain from 6 to 9 per cent, of phosphate of lime. 25 The fossils of the Cooper and Ashley marl beds consist chiefly of remains of "cartilaginous fish, especially ot the shark family, though they also contain numerous bones and teeth of cetaceans or whaie-like animals." (Holmes, p. 19.) Above the marl lie thin strata of sand and blue clay containing many fossil sharks' teeth and bones of cetaceans, forming what is known as "the Ashley fish bed." Next in order come the Post-Pleiocene sands and the strata containing the phosphate nodules and, above these, clay, sand and alluvial deposits. The phosphate deposits, from the identity of their fossil re- mains with those of the subjacent marl, were considered by Tuomey, to whom they presented themselves as "marl stones," as being of the same formation as the latter, (pp. 164, 165,) but after subsequent study, in the light of the development of scientific knowledge, they were located by Professor Holmes in the Post-Pleiocene age. This, however, is not the only horizon showing phosphatic stones. One specimen taken from the depth of 1,840 feet in the Citadel Green well contained 64.88 per cent, of phosphate of lime^ 5.68 per cent, of carbonate of lime, and 2.62 per cent, of sand and insoluble matter. In the Sineath's Station well this occurrence was more fre- quent. Speaking of it, Professor Charles U. Shepard, Jr., (Rural Carolinian, August, 1873,) says: "Phosphate of lime to the amount of 50 percent, more or less, occurs in layers of large nodules at the depth of 26, 70 and no feet ; and in pebbles at 280 and 312 feet; to the amount of 30 per cent, in comparatively large nodules at 104 and 125 feet, of over 5 per cent, in the upper layers of marl, gradually diminish- ing in amount with the increasing depth, until present only in traces in the stratum superior to that containing phosphatic pebbles (280 feet.) At greater depths than 280 feet the amount of phosphate appears to coincide with the greater or less per centage of the black phosphatic grains." The table of analytical results accompanying this article is of great interest, and the Journal in which it appeared being gen- erally inaccessible, it is reproduced here: ^^ Depth of stratum. Character of each stratum. o o <-. o Ed .2'S B .5 3 03.5 5 i ter, they derived their deeper color from a larger deposition of carbonaceous material, a substance which, in point of fact, is generally found in greater quantity in river rock than in that from the land deposits. IS THE PHOSPHATIZATION PROCESS STILL GOING ON? The factors necessary for the formation of phosphate rock, pointed out above, being still present in the swamps and waters of the state, though to a much smaller extent, of course, than at the time of the main deposition of the beds, and probably having always been so, it is a natural assumption that the pro- cess of phosphatization has been more or less continuous to the present day. From the nature of the case, however, it has been difficult to secure conclusive evidence of the recent continuance of this growth, as it has been called. Specimen lumps consisting partly of unaltered marl and partly of phosphate rock, and other lumps appearing to occupy a position between the two have been cited in evidence, but ap- pearing to be snsceptible of possible explanation on other grounds, they can scarcely be regarded as conclusive. Various objects, also, of human manufacture, found in the bed, with small adhering masses of phosphate, have also lacked conclusiveness, the articles not being imbedded in the phosphate, so far as the writer has been able to learn, and the adhesive process having possibly and probably been merely one of cementation. Especial interest, therefore, attaches to a specimen dredged, in February last (1904), from the bed of Stono River, opposite 31 Bolton Mines, by Dredge No. i, Captain John May, of the Stono Mining Company. The article in question, which lay under eight feet of sand, is an iron hook about five inches long, in a fine state of preser- vation, though of course highly oxidized, around the shank of which is a continuous ring of phosphate rock. IRON HOOK WITH RING OF PHOSPHATE ROCK. Both the hook and the phosphatic mass surrounding it are clearly shown in the accompanying photographic reproduction. It would appear that falling overboard from some vessel, or perhaps forming part of some anchor chain, the hook penetrated the soft marl, which was subsequently phosphatized, with the result shown. To avoid the unavoidable risk of injuring the specimen, only a small fragment has been removed, sufificient to verify its phos- phatic character, but not for quantitative determination. PHOSPHORIC ACID AND PHOSPHATE OF LIME. While the general question of manures, particularly in respect to the use and importance of their several constituent elements of plant food, manifestly lies without the scope of this article, it seems desirable to point out two facts which give pre-eminent importance to phosphatic manures and, therefore, to the raw materials of their manufacture. 32 These facts are, first, the comparatively scanty occurrence and more or less unavailable condition of phosphoric acid in the soil; and, second, and the more important of the two, that, unlike the more costly nitrogen, it cannot be derived with greater or less facility from the atmosphere, but that its re- moval from the soil can be compensated only by the addition of more or less expensive phosphatic manures. While in this last respect it resembles potash, a much smaller addition of the latter is usually required for crop nutrition, and its role is consequently less conspicuous. The history of phosphoric acid is remarkable for its compara- tively modern character and recent development; and this in spite of the fact that its principle elementary constituent was separated from its salts and recognized almost a century and a half before its own nature was discovered, and still longer before its general occurrence and great importance in the economy of nature were made manifest. It was not until about the year 1669, that Brand, a bankrupt Hamburg merchant^ while searching for the philosopher's stone, separated from human urine a substance to which, from its striking property of luminosity in darkness, he gave the name of phosphorus, "light bringer." Though the remarkable properties of the newly discovered substartce naturally attracted great attention among the scien- tists of the day, its method of separation remained a secret until it was rediscovered by Kunkel, of Rendsberg, whom Meyn (in his valuable monograph on natural phosphates, which has been freely followed in this connection), describes as the '* first great, really practically chemist." In 1688, nineteen years later, phosphorus was found in mustard seed by Albinus, and its presence thus shown in vege- table life as well as in the animal organism. The backward condition of chemical knowledge and experi- mental processes probably accounts for the fact that, while the new substance continued to attract great interest as a sort of scientific toy, its discovery remained otherwise barren of results. As phosphorus, on exposure to air, is converted by oxidation into phosphoric acid, escaping under the form of dense white fumes, the discovery of the latter was necessarily coincident with that of the former. The relationship between the two, however, does not seem to have suggested itself, the fumes being supposed to consist of a mixture of vitroil and muriatic acid. 33 This decidedly hazy view subsisted until 1743, when the true nature of the presumed mixture was discovered and phosphoric acid was identified as such. A quarter of a century later the next great step towards modern manuring was made by Gahn, a Swede, in his discovery of the occurrence of phosphoric acid in bones, and its subse- quent recognition as a common and indispensable constituent of all more highly organized animal life. About 1780, Gahn discovered the presence of phosphoric acid in the mineral kingdom in a specimen of phosphate of lead, and shortly afterwards Klaproth and Vanquelin showed several dif- ferent varieties of apatite to be composed of the same phospliate of lime as that which forms the earthy constituent of bones. *'These," says Meyn,*' are the plain but significant com- mencements of the chemical discoveries as to the presence of phosphorus in animals, plants and minerals. None of the dis- interested naturalists to whom we are indebted therefor antici- pated, or could then anticipate, how boundlessly important these facts were to prove to their successors for the comprehen- sion of nature." He might well have added "and to mankin'd at large for its welfare and preservation." When the nineteenth century dawned, no great progress had been made in the development of phosphatic manures. Al- though the use of bones as manures had been begun about the middle of the previous century and had been continually in- creasing, their fertilizing value was ascribed to other consti- tuents than the phosphate of lime, to the gelatine and grease. Th. DeSaussure, in 1804, again called attention to the presence of phosphate of lime in animals, and to the fact that no one doubted that this salt was an essential constituent of bones. He also announced that he had found the same salt in the ashes of all vegetables he had examined therefor, and was of opinion that there was no reason for supposing that they could exist without it. The use of bones increased very rapidly, especially in Eng- land. To such an extent was this the case that, in 1822, more than 33,000 tons derived, it is said, "mostly from the battle- fields of the late wars," were imported into that country from Germany alone. So great was the demand that even catacombs, it is stated, were robbed to meet it. In 1859, the importation into Great Britian had become 84,820 tons. In the meanwhile the accumulation of analytical evidence was bringing about the conviction that the invariable presence of 34 various salts in the ashes of plants was more than accidental, and that they were necessary to a proper development of the organism. When Justus Von Liebig showed this in 1840, and recom- mended the use of sulphuric acid as a solvent for the phosphate of lime in bones, to render it available for plant food, the final step was taken to the introduction of the present system of artifi- cial manures. DISCOVERY AND USE OF MINERAL PHOSPHATES. In 1818 Berthier had shown the presence of phosphate of lime in nodular form at several localities in France, a discovery soon followed by similar ones in England. The successful application of sulphuric acid to bones at once suggested the possible utilization of these mineral phosphates by the same process. The first mixture of this kind was made, in 1841, by a Mr. Fleming, of Barrochan, England, who used English coprolites, mixing them with acid on his barn floor. Experiments with material made in this way were so success- ful that its use grew rapidly and the fertilizer industry, as now known, was inaugurated by the erection of a factory for its manufacture by J. B. Lawes, afterward knighted for his great and invaluable services to humanity as an agricultural in vestigator. THE FIRST STEPS IN SOUTH CAROLINA. In South Carolina, in the meanwhile, the need of fertilizers had made itself felt, and steps had been taken towards meet- ing it. In 1842, the services of Edmund Rufifin, a native of Virginia, were secured for an agricultural survey of the State, and his report, made in 1843, was devoted chiefly to its marl and lime- stone deposits. These he describes at great length, but, as re- gards their composition, confines himself to stating the percent- ages of carbonate of lime, in his opinion the only constituent of any agricultural value. In his examination of the Ashley River marls the phosphatic strata did not escape his observation, for in his description of these beds he mentions **lumps of stony hardness, full of im- pressions of shells, found in great quantity in the neighbor- hood," a few feet above the marl, that contained 6 per cent, of carbonate of lime. 35 The stony lumps were undoubtedly phosphate nodules, the Brisbane place alluded to by Mr. Ruffin ("J. S. Brisbane's land- iny, nine miles above Charleston,") having been either just above or below Bee's Ferry, the property in question ex- tending at that time on both sides of the ferry, on the eastern bank of the Ashley. Edmund Ruffin, Resigning at the end of the year, Mr. Ruffin was succeeded by Professor M. Tuomey. A part of the latter's report, dated November, 1846, is devoted to the calcareous manures of the State, but, besides giving the quantities of carbonate of lime in the various marls, he calls attention to the presence of phosphate of lime therein, the discovery of which he credits to Professor C. U. Shepard, Sr., and to Doctor J. Lawrence Smith, a pupil of Professor Shepard. He presents detailed analyses of the Ashley River marls, made by Professor Shepard, in all of which the presence of the phos- phate of lime is shown. In describing the Ashley beds Professor Tuomey says, (p. 164) : "In ascending the Ashley, from Charleston, marl is first seen at Bee's Ferry, on both sides of the river, below high water level. Both here and elsewhere, on the river, it is exceedingly uniform in structure and internal appearance, with the excep- tion of about two or three feet of the surface, which is composed 36 of irregular and waterworn fragments of marl stone, embedded in clay, and containing numerous fossils, in the state of casts. These fragments are scattered over the surface, so as, in some places, to offer obstruction to the cultivation of the land. On the Rev. Dr. Hanckel's plantation I had good opportunity of examining these fragments; and at Drayton Hall they have been gathered from the lawn and thrown into heaps." Professor Tuomey goes on to state that, though at first dis- posed to refer these fragments to a different formation from the underlying marl, he had found that nearly all the fossils were common to both, and concluded that the fragments were only the surface of the marl torn up and scattered. He concluded, also, that the dispersion of the fragments was of comparatively recent occurrence, and was probably due to the recession of the waters of the ocean at the time of the elevation of the Post Pleiocene to its present level. He says in continuation; "I have more than once alluded to the removal, by solution, from calcareous rocks, of a portion or all of the lime. This has taken place, to a great extent, in the' beds under consideration. In many instances there is little more left than the silica and alumina of the marl, with a trace of lime; and the latter ingredient rarely exceeds 6 per cent." In making this statement Professor Tuomey doubtless had in mind the marl analyses of Ruffin, which he quotes further on in his report, particularly that of the "lumps of stony hard- ness," previously alluded to in the present article, when speak- ing of Ruf^n's work. By the term "lime," also, he doubtless meant carbonate of lime. Tuomey evidently did not suspect the presence of phosphoric acid in the lumps in question, doubtless misled by the fact that, while he was aware that the agricultural value of the marls was enhanced by the presence of the phosphate of lime which had been shown to exist therein, he was of opinion that the phos- phate was of small value when compared with the carbonate. For he says specifically: "I apprehend that the carbonate of lime will always prove the constitutent of greatest importance, valuable as the phosphates are." (p. 235.) He could have been led to this opinion only by the great preponderance of the car- bonate, for in the appendix to his report he publishes several analyses of marl made by Professor Shepard, in which the latter gives the amounts of phosphate of lime present in the samples examined and then makes the following comments. (Tuomey's Report, page xxxvii) : 31 "Prior to these analyses, it was very difficult to account, in any very satisfactory manner, for the known efficacy of such marls in agriculture ; since the soils on which several of them had been employed were known, by analysis, to be no more defi- cient in carbonate of lime and magnesia than the prolific soils of the Mississipi Valley." "The reason assigned for marling in South Carolina, by Mr. Ruffin, viz: that carbonate of lime is thereby afforded to land, does not appear to me to be the chief motive the planter has for following up this practice. * * * while the phosphate of lime and magnesia is that constituent which, in my opinion, is decidedly paramount to all others." It would seem that so clear and striking an announcement would have proved fruitful in suggestion and that, when in spite of the great differences in appearance and other physical characteristics between the nodules and the subjacent marl, as well as the distinct segregation of the former from the latter, Tuomey had been led to the abandonment of his first views, and tv the conclusion that the nodules were but detached and altered fragments of marl, attention would have been closely directed to them, and an investigation made to determine more accurately the nature of a material that had undergone such a notable alteration. That such was not the case is made more remarkable by the number and character of the investigators. The probable ex- planation is found in the general limitations of geological surveys. In surveys of this character, and where a large amount of territory has to be covered, the work involved is invariably greater than the means for carrying it on, necessitating economy of every kind and in every possible direction. The aim of the geologist is to examine and determine, as far as is possible, the structural character of the region in which he is operating, and it being manifestly impossible for him to examine every fragment he meets with, and as the character of such fragmentary material is apt to show differences from that of the parent bed, having been more or less altered by exposure to air and weather, it is the practice to draw all samples from the bed proper to insure arriving at the real character of the formation in general. At the time of these explorations, also, the 1 nowledge of phosphatic materials was comparatively recent and extremely 38 limited, while its analytical determination, to-day still a matter of experienced skill, was then involved in many difficulties. In addition, the utilization of amorphous phosphatic rocks in Europe was so recent, that it is doubtful whether they had yet come to the knowledge of those engaged in work at so distant a point as South Carolina. These considerations explain and justify the failure to bring to light, at that time, the true nature of the phosphatic nodules. To show that the course thus taken by events was in no way exceptional, two very conspicuous instances of similar occur- rences, at a recent date, may prove of interest. Shortly before the discovery of the hard rock deposits of Florida, an expedition, expressly equipped for the purpose, as- cended the Withlacoochee River in search of phosphate rock. This river is crossed by several limestone dykes, either only slightly below the surface of the water or projecting above it. Samples taken from these dykes were carefully tested and the absence of the desired material asceitained. In every case, or nearly so, there were lying immediately alongside the dykes numerous lumps and even boulders of phosphate rock of ver}^ high grade, but appearing to be merely fragments detached from the main mass, no attention was paid to them and they escaped testing and discovery. Still more conspicuous is the fact that the heavy and exten- sive beds of the Tennessee deposits, from a similar cause, en- tirely escaped the observation of a systematic geological sur- vey, conducted at a much later date, when the character and value of such material were well known to all geologists; whereas, in Tuomey's day, as has been pointed out, the value of amorphous phosphates had been discovered only a couple of years, the artificial fertilizer industry was in its early infancy, and there was probably no knowledge of these far-reaching changes to give an impetus to the search for suitable phosphatic material. THE DISCOVERY OF THE PHOSPHATES. In an address delivered before the Medical Association of South Carolina in 1859, Professor Shepard, after describing various foreign stone phosphates that he had examined and urging a careful investigation of the marl beds, with the view of determining which contained the largest amount of phosphate of lime, struck a prophetic note when he stated that he sincerely entertained **the opinion that, as the supply of guanos from 39 abroad fails, We shall be looked to fill the vacuum their dis^ appearance will occasion ; and it would not be strange if a few years hence Charleston, besides supplying, her own State, should ship more casks of phosphatic stone to the North than she now receives of ordinary lime from that region." Professor Charles U. Shepard, Sr. Though Professor Shepard failed to so specify in his address, it seems evident from several considerations that in using the term " phosphatic stone" he had in mind material other than marl rich in phsophoric acid. As stated by himself, in the same lecture, he had just been engaged in so careful an investigation of several foreign rock phosphates, that he had succeeded in identifying two new mineral species, one of which he had found to contain 80 per cent, of phosphate of lime. To the keenly analytical and acute mind of this distinguished mineralogist it must have been evident at a glance that no mere phosphatic marl could ever be "exported to the North" in competition with phosphates of the sorts that he had recently had under examination, or be expected to supply their places. Indeed it was just about this time that he pointed out the Ashley River marls and rocks as a source of phosphoric acid, in connection with what was perhaps the first fertilizer plant estab- lished in the State, under the auspices of Col. Lewis M. Hatch, of Charleston. 40 Colonel Hatch, in a letter to the Rural Caiolinian, (Vol. 11, page 357). gives an extremely interesting account of this enterprise, from which the following extracts are taken : "In the autumn of 1859 ^Y brother-in-law, Mr. T. P. Allen, proposed that we, together with my son, Melvin P. Hatch, then in Europe, should utilize the refuse matter of Charleston for fertilizers. I had been selling Columbian guano; and, for secu- rity to my customers, had engaged Professor C. U. Shepard to examine each cargo as it arrived. We called Professor Shepard to our consultation, and determined to prosecute the new work with Professor S. as our chemist." "We used mainly bones, charcoal, ammoniacal liquors, ashes, refuse from soap boilers, burnt rice, sulphuric acid and Peru- vian guano, making a fertilizer which we thought worth thirty dollars a ton, and sold for that price. It was in every way a success. "We gathered enough bones to have lasted us perhaps, with increased business, another year; but seeing that the supply of phosphates would be short from this source, Professor Shepard advised that we should look to the Ashley River marl or rocks for a supply, saying *he felt sure that these would prove to be richer in phosphates than was usually supposed.' No sooner proposed than acted upon. In the spring of i860 we went to Major Vardell's place, finding the rock there and elsewhere along our route." "Subsequently making up my mind that the best place from which to obtain supplies was Gen. Brisbane's plantation, now^ the site of the Wando Works, I caused to be gathered there a quantity of the rock or nodules, which I sent to Prof. Shepard at New Haven. I did this to make sure that the material at this place was of such quality as would suit our purposes and make the purchase of the land safe. When I met Prof. Shepard, in the autumn of i860, he said in reply to my inquiry as to quality : " 4 found it richer far than I expected; so rich, that with it we can drive all other fertilizers out of the market, and may invade foreign markets." The samples shipped to New Haven were powdered and ap- plied to Professor Shepard's garden, yielding results which helped him to form the high estimate of value expressed to Colonel Hatch. a Unfortunately, not having spent the summer in New Havetl, and thus being away from his laboratory, he made no analysis of the ground nodules. Why, in the absence of such an analysis, he was so strongly impressed with the idea that their content of phosphate of lime was so much higher than usual, is not known, though it is ex- tremely probable that it was largely due to physical resemblances to some of the foreign phosphates he had examined not long before. Professor Shepard was a mineralogist of high reputation, and possessed to such a remarkable and exceptional degree the power of detecting the minute differences in physical characteristics that distinguish many minerals, that it seemed rather intuition than conscious discrimination, and it is, therefore, very proba- ble tliat the suggestion made above is true. Not only to Colonel Hatch did Professor Shepard give the advice to seek phosphatic material in the nodules of the Ashley beds, as is shown by the following extract from a letter dated July II, 1873, addressed by Geo. T. Jackson, Esq., of Augusta, Georgia, to Professor Charles U. Shepard, Jr. "In i860 your father and myself entered into an agreement to manufacture a fertilizer at this place and, under his direc- tion, I secured a location and at once proceeded to gather mate- rial. I had purchased all the raw bone to be had here and other material and had gathered sufficient to make a fair start. "The supply of- bones, however, we early saw would not be sufficient and, in looking about for a substitute, he told me that there was a large deposit of marl on the Ashley River which he thought would answer our purposes. "At my request he sent me some specimens of the identical phosphate now being used so advantageously in the manufacture of fertilizers. These specimens I retained for two or three years. This was in the spring of 1861. Owing to the war our operations were suspended and consequently we were not able to reap the advantages that I have no doubt we should have." The same cause, the outbreak of the war, put a stop to the operations of Colonel Hatch, who, believing after the war that the people of the South were too poor to buy fertilizers, decided to move to North Carolina. He concludes the communication quoted from above as fol- lows: "After I was committed here, I found to my surprise, on a visit to Charleston, that our people were buying fertilizers largely from the North. 4i ''Consulting with Professor Shepard, (unable at ttie moment to take hold myself,) a partnership was formed between Major Vardell and Mr. Blake, of New Haven. Mr, B. was to furnish capital; and the firm proposed to use a quartz crusher, the in- vention of his father, for crushing the material. I sold them the materials already gathered, — land, buildings, steam engine, etc. Going South to spend a few days at Christmas, Mr. Blake was unfortunately drowned ; and with his death that effort ended. "During the war I mentioned to Mr. John R. Dukes that Professor Shepard had remarked to me, in relation to the Ashley River deposits: "That about nine miles from Charleston there was a deposit which reminded him very much of the Columbian o^uano," and from this sprung the search for these nodules which has resulted, through the agency of Doctors Ravenel and Pratt, in this valuable discovery. The truth is, that the first step was taken when Mr. Allen proposed to utilize the refuse matter of Charleston. "Mr. Allen made the germinal suggestion. Professor Shep. ard, as chemist, pointed out the source of needful supply, and proved its value. He did this in advance of all others. In ad- vance, please bear in mind, of Professor Ansted, whose book we did not need, even in 1864, to give us the thought. We were convinced in i860, that, with the Ashley River phosphates, we could compete with the world in fertilizers. "Let us give to Mr. Allen that which is his due, and to Pro- fessor Shepard his, — that as a scientific man he pointed out and predicted their future use." Other parties now entered the field of fertilizer manufacture. In November 1866, Doctor St. Julien Ravenel, of Charleston, a man of very distinguished scientific attainments and an able chemist, associated himself with Messrs. W. C. Dukes & Co. and Mr. D. C. Ebaugh, for this purpose. The factory established by Colonel Hatch and his associates had been located near the forks of the road. The new enterprise was started, early in 1867, on Palmetto wharf, on the city water front. The factory was provided with "a huge iron crusher which breaks the limestone and other hard substances into fragments, a pulverizer and a mixer," but, having no acid plant, had to bring its sulphuric acid from the north. Meeting with the usual experience, a threatened dearth in the supply of bones, the company had recourse to Navassa phos- phate rock, receiving the first consignment of four hundred and fifty-nine tons, on November 10, 1867. This shipment, to- gether with some four hundred and fifty tons received thirteen days later, was never used, being ultimately shipped to Balti- more. THE FINAL STEP. The end, for which all these incidents had been but a long chain of preparation, was now near at hand. The opportuness of its advent no man can question. The temporary reaction that followed, as is usually the case, the close of a devastating and disastrous war was rapidly losing its energy, and the outlook, particularly for the neighboring sea- coast country, was gloomy in the extreme. Made up in large part, as it was, of swampy and undrained and unreclaimed lands, with most of the expensive improvements necessary to its peculiar crops falling to decay or entirely gone, its future seemed fraught with disaster and the outcome no man could foretell. Doctor St. Julien Ravenel. Some time in the summer of 1867 Doctor Ravenel's attention was directed to the nodular deposits of the vicinity. What gave it this direction is not authoritatively known. Doctor Rave- nel, so far as the writer has been able to learn, never having published any statement of the matter. Colonel Hatch thought and said that the information given by him to Mr. John R. Dukes during the war, quoted above, was u the cause of the search. While this is possible, it is extremely improbable. Had Doctor Ravenel had any information that there was even a remote possibility that he might be able to supply the needs of his company with a material so easily ac- cessible, it seems hardly probable that he would have agreed, as must have been the case, to the purchase of at least so large an amount of Navassa rock. Wnat is probably the true version of the matter is that given by the writer (anonymous) of an ex- tremely valuable article on the subject of phosphates in ''The Trade and Commerce of Charleston, ''published by the Cham- ber of Commerce in 1873. The statement therein contained is as follows: "During the summer of 1867 Dr. St. Julien Ravenel received from Dr. F. M. Geddings specjjjiens of teeth nodules and marl, taken from 'The Elms* plantation. Goose Creek, owned by his father, Dr. E. Geddings. While examining these specimens, Doctor Ravenel became aware of the true character of the nodules and through Mr. Theodore Stoney, made an effort to procure them from the banks of the Ashley River." Whatever the inciting cause, Doctor Ravenel was soon satis- fied by his investigations of the suitability of the nodules for the purposes of fertilizer manufacture, and doubtless had in mind their utilization in his works, for, in a foot note to the article from which the above extract is made, Mr. Stoney is quoted as saying: "Early in the sum.mer of 1807, Dr. St. J. Ravenel in formed me that he had been examining the nodules from Ashley River, and found them so valuable that he wished me to engage a competent person to collect and bring them to the city. I did engage Capt. Beese, who had run on the river all his life, to do so." About this time Doctor N. A. Pratt came to Doctor Ravenel to confer with him in regard to an enterprise for which he had been laying the plans. Doctor Pratt, a native of Georgia, had visited Charleston on inspection tours during the war, and while there learned of the fact that the marls of the State contained from 10 to 15 percent, of phosphate of lime. Struck by their superiority, in this respect, to those of his native state, which contain, on an average, some two and a half per cent, of this constituent, he secured specimens and forwarded them to his laboratory, with the purpose of analyzing them, a purpose how- ever, which was never carried into effect. Doctor Pratt states that during the war he formed a plan to erect chemical works at some point in the South. Being satis- 45 ficd with the location of Charleston, he settled there after the war, and early in 1866 endeavored, without success, to secure the necessary capital to erect an acid plant and fertilizer works. It is stated, that the object of his conference with Doctor Ravenel was to inquire of the latter, with whose high attain- ments and great knowledge of local conditions he was well ac- quainted, as to the feasibility of finding some use for the output of his proposed acid plant. Doctor N. A. Pratt. Doctor Ravenel in reply handed him one of the nodules, in- formed him of its value, and, according to one account, without mentioning any figures as to content of phosphate of lime, told him that the nodules, of which the one he was handing him was a sample, would yield a raw material requiring all the acid he would be able to make. Doctor Pratt's account of this interview differs from the above. He stated that he went to Doctor Ravenel's office to look at some foreign guanos that had been received by the latter. While there, Doctor Ravenel showed him one of the nodules, telling him that it contained from 10 to 15 per cent, of phos- phate of lime, and gave it to him for examination. The two accounts differ materially in important points, but the differences were probably due to misconceptions on both sides. From the subject of foreign guanos to that of local acid- 46 making the transition was natural and short, and the import- ance of the latter to the manufacture in which both gentlemen were earnestly interested was so great, that it probably became the main sul)ject of discussion, and the idea might readily have been engendered in the mind of Doctor Ravenel that this had been the object of Doctor Pratt's visit. On the other hand, when the nodule was handed to Doctor Pratt there was doubtless some discussion of its occurrence in connection with the adjoining marl, and some remark made by Doctor Ravenel as to the phosphoric acid content of the latter might readily have been misunderstood by Doctor Pratt as hav- ing reference to the nodule, which was the immediate object of discussion. That this, or something similar, was probably the state of the case, is made almost certain by the consideration that Doctor Ravenel could scarcely have been ignorant of the value of the nodules. He had been long and prominently en- gaged in the scientific life of the neighborhood, had been familiar with the men who had studied and knew the facts con- nected with the subject, and in so small a circle could not pos- sibly have escaped becoming more or less familiar therewith. Whether or not he had ever heard of Professor Shepard's esti- mate of the value of the nodules, the ones in question had been handed him for examination, and the mere fact that he selected one of them for Doctor Pratt is proof presumptive that he had some special reason for the segregation, especially when the insignificance of the phosphate stratum, as compared with the marl bed, is remembered. To the writer it seems certain, that Doctor Ravenel did not become acquainted with the value of the nodule until after the purchase of Navassa rock, alluded to above, had been made. It is impossible to believe that, if he had had even a remote idea of the possible availability of a material, the truth as to whose value it would be so easy to ascertain, he would have allowed his company to make the expensive purchase in question. It seems further certain that, subsequent to the Navassa purchase, he analyzed the nodules which had been placed in his hands and ascertained tliat they contained an amount of phosphate beyond that shown by any analysis previously made, and there can ht no doubt that, such being the case, he was fairly entitled to the credit of an inde- pendent discovery of the value of the nodules. The following letter, received since the preceding paragraphs were put in type, is of great interest, and strongly confirmatory of the views that have been set forth above. 47 Summerville, S. C, November 5, 1903. My Dear Mr. Chazal: In connection with our recent conver- sation on the subject, I would state that I recall a visit paid my father by Dr. St. Julien Ravenel at the chemical laboratory of the Medical College of the State of South Carolina, in the winter of 1867-68, at which Dr. Ravenel imparted to him the results of his investigations as to the occurrence and value of the South Carolina phosphatic deposits, more particularly the nodular beds on the Ashley. My father at that time expressed his surprise and gratification that some had been found which contained over sixty per cent, of bone phosphate of lime, whereas his own previous examina- tions had indicated less than fifty per cent., i. e., in the "forties." ' * I have every reason to believe that the conversation referred to was the first intimation that my father received of the re- newal of the attention being paid to the local phosphatic beds, so happily inaugurated by Dr. Ravenel, and so diligently prosecuted by him and others. Yours very truly, CHARLES U. SHEPARD. INAUGURATION OF THE PHOSPHATE INDUSTRY. In any event, Doctor Pratt, on receiving the nodule from Doctor Ravenel, entered upon its analysis and found it to con- tain 34.40 per cent of phosphate of lime. Appreciating at once the great interests at stake, he hastened to consult Professor P'rancis S. Holmes as to the occurrence of the nodular strata and the possible supply of nodules. To Pro- fessor Holmes they were old friends. He had made the pursuit of science, for the love thereof, his life work, had studied dili- gently the geological history and conditions of the low-country of South Carolina, had been intimately associated with Tuomey, with whom he had collaborated in valuable treatises on the Pleiocene and Post-Pleiocene fossils of the State, and in his ex- tended investigations had acquired a thorough knowledge of the country immediately around Chaileston. Professor Holmes showed Doctor Pratt a large collection of the nodules and gave him some specimens, two of which yielded^ on analysis, 55.92 per cent, and 55.52 per cent, bone phosphate of lime. Samples obtained by Doctor Pratt himself on his visits to the deposits, made in company with Professor Holmes, gave results varying from 57 to dj per cent, of bone phosphate. 48 Doctor Pratt appreciated fully the importance of the infor- mation afforded by these analyses and by what he had learned from Professor Holmes as to the occurrence and quantity of the nodules. In company with the latter, he made an effort to secure in Charleston the funds necessary for a proper development of the enterprise. Failing to do this, they proceeded to Philadel- phia, where their efforts were effective and resulted in the formation of the Charleston, S. C, Mining and Manufacturing Company, which was formally organized at Charleston on No- vember 29, 1867, with a paid up capital of one million dollars, Professor Holmes being elected president, and Doctor Pratt, cliemist and superintendent. Professor Francis S. Holme's. The new company speedily secured for itself a large area of phosphate lands on both sides of the Ashley River, about Bee's Ferry and Ten Mile Hill. The intimate knowledge of local geological conditions pos- sessed by Professor Holmes was of infinite value in this work, and the territory secured at that time, together with other lands purchased at a later period, formed a phosphate property which could not be duplicated .which was extremely valuable on account of the quantity and quality of the deposit, and which was in im- mediate proximity to navigation. In the meanwhile. Doctor Ravenel and his associates, organ- ized as the Wando Fertilizer Company and acting indepen- 49 dently and, it is said, without any knowledge of the efforts being made in Philadelphia, proceeded to gather a supply of the nodules from their Bee's Ferry property and utilized them in their fertilizer manufacture during the following winter, ship- ping their Navassa rock , as has already been stated, to Balti- more. Relying entirely, as they did, on local capital, their efforts were very much restricted; they were prevented from making any attempts to secure a large acreage of phosphate property, and looked mainly to securing a supply for their own use, as manufacturers. The formation of these two companies not only marked the inauguration of the new industry in both its branches, mining and manufacturing, but it was also the last step, in the work begun long since, even though unconsciously, by Ruffin and Tuomey, and carried along, added to and completed by their successors. Delayed in its first stages by the slow spread of knowledge of the new ideas in manuring, it had met, when apparently on the verge of completion, with a serious check, in the breaking out of the civil war, a war so all-absorbing and, in Charleston at least, so ruinous in its consequences of destruction of prop- erty and paralysis of trade and activities, that the only matter for surprise is that the end was arrived at so soon. DEVELOPMENT OF THE DEPOSITS. On December 4, 1867, Messrs, Dukes & Co., the agents of the Wando Company, shipped the first small sample lot of rock to George E. White, of New York; on the i6th of the same month the Charleston Mining Company made its first shipment, also a sample lot of sixteen tierces, by the steamer Falcon, to Balti- more, whence it was forwarded to Philadelphia, where a part of it was made into super-phosphate by Messrs. Potts & Klett. The first cargo, of 100 tons, was shipped by the schooner Ren- shaw to Baltimore, on April 14, 1868, by the Wando Company. Eight days later, on April 22, the schooners T. G. Smith and Anna Barton sailed for Philadelphia, carrying the first cargoes of the Charleston Mining Company, of 296 and 329 tons res- pectively, loaded at Lamb's. So far, no mechanical washers had been devised or erected, and the only cleansing received by the rock comprising these two shipments was such as could be given by a rough scrubbing 50 with hand brushes in a convenient creek. It is not surprising, then, to learn that the cargoes were so dirty that they had practically to be mined out of the vessels. The price fixed in this first contract was fourteen dollars per ton, netting about ten dollars per ton, f. o. b. In spite, how- ever, of the small preparation given to the rock, this price was not found remunerative and the contract was cancelled. The cause of this lay chiefly in the way the rock was mined, consisting, as it did, in digging a series of separate small pits, the labor being greatly increased, the yield small, and the output per acre greatly reduced by the amount of ground left undug. On these very properties of the Charleston Mining Company, some of the fields that had been pitted in this way were afterwards mined systematically, and as much rock taken from them as had been obtained at the first digging. These were, of course, the usual troubles of a new mining in- dustry, and were soon overcome. The first washer built by the Charleston Mining Company, the Washer No. i, was given practically no elevation above the ground, and all the material had to be rolled up on the rock- piles in barrows. The costliness of this handling was soon real- ized, and the No. 2 Washer, erected in 1869, was considerably elevated. During the year 1868 the shipments of this company amounted to 4,403 tons, all of which went to Philadelphia. Until the latter part of 1879 ^^^ ^^ their rock was shipped in a washed, undried condition. After that time, however, a por- tion of the product was dried in bins with hot air, until 1882, when the bins were abandoned and the present system of kiln burning over wood was adopted. FAVORABLE RECEPTION OF THE NEW ROCK. The new material caused great excitement in the fertilizer world. A part of the first sample shipment to Philadelphia was forwarded to Messrs. Coates Sl Co., of London, and distributed by them for examination and, in a letter from them, it was stated, that "it had been analyzed by distinguished chemists of Eng- land, France, Prussia, Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Switzer- land, and a high opinion of its value held by them." Unfortunately for the land phosphate industry, more or less negligence in preparation and carelessness in shipment were the rule for several years, whereas the opposite was the case with its river rival. 51 The latter rock, too, generally contained, naturally, a smaller amount of oxide of iron and alumina, the difference between the two classes of rock in this respect, however, being greatly in- creased by the respective methods of preparation. The amount of these two constituents in a rock having a potent influence on the solubility in water of the super-phosphate pro- duced from it, this point was one of great importance in countries, like England, where no value was assigned to any other form of phosphoric acid than the water soluble. These points produced a strong prejudice against the land rock, which prevailed for many years, during which it was practically excluded from the European market and its activities limited to the domestic field. THE RIVER DEPOSITS. On March i, 1870, the General Assembly of the State, by a vote of more than three to one, passed over the veto of Governor R. K. Scott, the act giving the Marine and River Phosphate Mining and Manufacturing Company "the right to dig, mine and remove for the full term of twenty-one years, from the beds of the navigable streams and waters within the jurisdiction of the State, the phosphate rocks and the phosphatic deposits," subject of course, to riparian rights and freedom of navigation. The terms of the Act were extremely liberal, the only require- ments by the State being that the company should file a bond of $50,000, to secure the making of true returns of the amount of rock mined, and pay a royalty of one dollar per ton. No conditions were imposed in reference to a thorough and sys- tematic mining of the deposits, and apparently the only changes made by the General Assembly in the bill presented to it was the striking out of the word ''exclusive", in describing the charac- ter of the rights granted. The absence of knowledge as to the extent and character of the deposits, and the varying conditions of quantity, quality and accessibility prevalent therein, would, it is true, have made a rational handling of the question one of great difficulty even for an honest and intelligent body. The General Assembly that had the settlement of the matter possessed neither of these qualifications, but was distinctly and notoriously ignorant and purchasable, a large number of its members being unable to read or write. Governor Scott's veto, ostensibly at any rate, was largely based on the idea that the corporators, for the most part owners of 62 land deposits, would fail to operate the river territory to any ex- tent, if at all, to prevent competition with their land mines. He professed to fear that, although the word "exclusive" had been stricken out in the Senate, such rights had been given, either really or practically, and that private citizens would be deprived of the privilege of mining. Supposing the deposits to be of practically unlimited extent, their proper utilization and development, if the question ever suggested itself to him, doubtless seemed a matter of compara- tively small moment. Experience has demonstrated that the true policy of the State, at that time, was to have had the territory properly examined and subdivided, and to have sold exclusive rights to mine in the various subdivisions to responsible individuals or companies, the mining to be subject to the supervision of the authorities and royalty to be paid on the output. This, or some similar course, would have prevented the dete- rioration and partial ruin of some of the deposits that followed, in consequence of the mining of only the more easily accessible portions of the beds. The State, however, failed to see the wisdom of this course, and for the most part, then and afterward, acted on the fallacious idea that, instead of being the property of the people of the State as a whole and as such to be worked in the way to obtain the largest returns, the phosphate beds were the property of the peo- ple as individuals, to be a source of profit to them as such, this being, of course, particularly applicable to the residents in the vicinity of the beds. The only special right the latter should have enjoyed was the opportunity of employment afforded them by the development of the new industry, but the exploitation of the general rights system offered too fertile a field to political demagogues to be overlooked, especially when the other citizens of the State fail- ed to realize the state of affairs and to take steps to preserve their rights, which were thus trespassed upon. It is true that no good could have been accomplished in this respect during the existence of the carpet-bag regime, but even after its overthrow in 1876, when the exclusive rights system was recom- mended by Attorney General Conner and afterward by Special Assistant E. L. Roche, no change was made and the old system was adhered to. Fortunately for the interests of the State, the profitable hand- ling of the river beds to any extent demanded the installation of 53 large and expensive plants for the excavation and treatment of the rock, and the large investments required necessitated more or less thorough exploitation. THE MARINE AND RIVER MINING COMPANY. This company, organized March 15, 1870, with a capital of $500,000, half of which was paid in, commenced operations the following June, and raised and shipped about 3,000 tons by the end of the same year. In the meanwhile. Professor Charles U. Shepard, Jr. had been employed by the company to examine the river territory, with the exception of Coosaw River and North Wimbee Creek, and as the result of his investigations reported that, although there were large beds of rock in Stono and other rivers, their charac- ter was such as to require great care and prudence in mining to make the new enterprise profitable, and that he did not consider the outlook for large returns as favorable. Prior to this, the Marine and River Company, which in spite of the excision of the word "exclusive" from its act of incorpora- tion, claimed to have received exclusive rights to mine in all the navigable waters of the State, had transferred these rights in Coosaw River to the Coosaw Mining Company, and in North and South Wimbee creeks to the South Carolina Phosphate Company (Limited), generally known as the Oak Point Mines Company. The General Assembly, however, disregarding the claims of the Marine and River Company, proceeded togrant other licenses to mine, the result of which was a suit brought in the United States Circuit Court, in 1874, by William L. Bradley, of Massa- chusetts, a large stockholder in the Marine and River Company, against the South Carolina Phosphate and Phosphatic River Mining Company, in which the Court decided that no exclusive grant had been made to the Marine and River Company. No appeal was made from this decision, which was thus, apparently, accepted. THE COOSAW MINING COMPANY. The Coosaw Mining Company commenced operations in Nov- ember, 1870, locating its works on Chisolm's Island, on Coosaw River. The royalty due by it on the rock mined was paid, at first, through the Marine and River Company, but later on, in 1878, it was paid directly to the State, the Company having filed a bond for $50,000. 54 The decision of the United States Court in the Bradley case, referred to above, necessarily involved the validity of the rights that the Coosaw Company was exercising under its grant from the Marine and River Company, but in 1876 an act was passed, nominally to settle the periods at which returns should be made and royalty paid, by which, however, ''its right to dig and mine in the navigable waters of the State" was recognized, and it was granted **the exclusive right to occupy, dig, mine and remove phosphate rock and phosphatic deposits from all that part of Coosaw River lying opposite to and south of Chisolm's Island, whereon their works are located, and to the marshes thereof." THE OAK POINT MINES COMPANY. The Oak Point MinesCompany,an English corporation organized in 1870, and which had purchased a body of land deposits on North and South Wimbee creeks, known asKean's Neck, engag- ed in both land and river mining. It received, as has been mentioned, a grant from the Marine and River Company to mine in the neighboring streams, but having raised the claim that North Wimbee Creek was not a navigable stream, that, therefore, the riparian rights of the com- pany extended to the middle of the stream and that the rock mined therefrom was not subject to royalty, and no rovalty having been paid in 1873 and 1874, the question was carried into the courts by the State and a decision obtained adverse to the claims of the company. The Act of 1876, by which the Coosaw Company had benefited, conferred on all other companies and persons then engaged in mining under authority from the State exclusive rights to the territory in which their operations had been carried on previous to the passage of the Act, ten days after that date being allowed for the acceptance of the terms offered. The Oak Point Mines Company at once accepted the terms of the Act and claimed the exclusive rights granted thereby. The Act of 1876 was the nearest approach made by the State to a proper subdivision of its territory, but having been too long postponed and the general rights system being retained practi- cally in all the streams save those occupied by the Coosaw and Oak Point companies, the plan was exceedingly defective and to that extent failed to subserve the interests of the State. THE PROGRESS OF THE RIVER INDUSTRY. The Marine and River Company, after enduring many vicissi- tudes and reorganizations, ceased operations in 1882. It had never been profitable to its stockholders and the efforts made under its last reorganization were fraught with disaster to many. The Coosaw Company, in the meanwhile, after an initial period of disappointment and threatened disaster had been reorgan- ized and, by extremely skilful management, had so successfully utilized the magnificent deposits embraced in its grant as to have proven a bonanza to its stockholders as well as to the State. Of the 3,123,550 tons of rock that had been shipped by the river companies up to the eiid of 1894 the Coosaw Company had produced about I,5CX),000 tons, or nearly one-half. The following table, giving the production of river rock by years, shows more clearly and concisely than would be possible in words the rapid growth of the river industry from its inception in 1870 to its culmination in 1893 and 1894, after which time the results of the almost criminally senseless policy of the State to- wards the Coosaw Company, with the attendant litigation and the disastrous effects of the cyclone of 1893, became fully opera- tive, and brought about the rapid decline and practical ruin of this branch of the industry. TABLE OF SHIPMENTS OF RIVER ROCK FROM 1870 to 1894. (Years ending September i.) Tons. 1870 1,989 1871 17,655 1872 22,502 1873 45,777 1874- •••• 57,716 1875 67,969 1876 81,912 1877 126,560 1878 97,700 1879 98,586 1880 65,163 1 88 1 124,541 1882 140,773 1883 129,318 1884 151,243 1885 171,671 1886 191, 174 1887 202,757 1888 190,274 56 1889 212, I02 1890 237, ISO 189I 169,293 1 892 I 56,095 1893 249,339 1894 1 14,282 Total 3,123,550 In the meanwhile, besides the four companies mentioned above, other companies and individuals had been attracted by the opportunities offered by river mining. It is impracticable in this sketch to do more than mention the companies of a more or less permanent character. Some of the individual miners received licenses from the State and paid their own royalties. Most of them, however, including all the small operators, worked under permits from the licensed companies, their production being sold to these companies, and the royalty thereon paid by them. Amongst the companies may be mentioned, (with their fields of operation), the following: Palmetto Phosphate Company — Ashley and Wando rivers. Farmer's Phosphate Company — Bull and Coosaw rivers. Sea Island Chemical Company — Johnson and Beaufort rivers. Carolina Mining Company — Broad, Johnson, Morgan, Bull and Coosaw rivers. Beaufort Phosphate Company — Beaufort and Coosaw rivers. In 1890 the Coosaw, Sea Island and Oak Point Mines com- panies were consolidated under the name of the Coosaw Com- pany, the object being partly a reduction of general expenses, but more especially a termination of the excessive competition which had brought great loss to all and was threatening to neces- sitate an early shut-down. THE COOSAW LITIGATION. Reference has been made to the litigation between the State and the Coosaw Company. The original grant of twenty-one years, received by this com- pany from the Marine and River Company, was to expire in 1891. The company claimed that the Act of 1876 had removed this limitation and given it a practically perpetual charter, con- ditioned only on the prompt payment of the royalty of one dollar per ton, a condition which it had always fulfilled promptly. The question had been carefully investigated by Attorney 57 General Conner in 1877, and in an extremely interesting and valuable report on the subject he gave the opinion that the claim to perpetual rights was baseless. On the expiration of the original grant, in 1891, the State carried the matter into the Courts and, after prolonged litigation, gained its cause and threw the territory open to the general rights miners. While, under the decisions of the Courts, the State was en- tirely within its rights in pursuing this course, the folly of the step is and was equally clear, that is, so far as her true interests were concerned. The causes of the action thus taken are not far to seek. The Coosaw Company after its first reorganization, as has been said, had developed a comprehensive and efficient system of mining and preparation by means of an expensive plant and athoroughl}^ ordered force of employees, whom it had made devoted to its interests. It had been compelled to start practically ab initio, devising costly machinery, experimenting with it and adapting it to the service required. It had mined its territory systematically and, expecting to retain permanent control thereof, had worked it so as to economize the deposits and thus increase the revenue to be derived by the State. The company had, it is true, received very large returns on its investment, but, as has already been stated, it had at the same time paid the State in royalties as much as the latter had received from all other operators combined. In a word, the history of the company had been an ample justification of the privileges it had enjoyed, and a striking testimony to the superiority of the exclusive rights system over the general rights system in force elsewhere. The impression, produced by the great financial success of the company, that the deposits in Coosaw River had been originally almost unlimited, and that there was consequently a large supply remaining therein, together with the gradual exhaustion of the open territory, had led the outside miners to look with longing eyes on the forbidden land. The assurances of the Coosaw Company to the contrary were considered false. Its statements, that the bulk of the better de- posits had been exhausted, that though there was still remain- ing a considerable body of rock, it was of poorer quality and much of it contaminated with marl, that what was left of the good rock was in more or less isolated and small beds, in a word. 58 that at no time in its history had there been more need of the systematic efforts of a single operator, were all held to be only desperate attempts to retain, by plausible and baseless arguments, a rich and desirable monopoly, and were disregarded. The opinions of men of high character, who could have con- firmed the statements of the Coosaw Company, were not desired. Indeed a letter of this character written by one of the leading expert authorities of the State to the Governor was pigeon-holed by him and saw the light some time afterwards only by publica- tion by the friends of the company. Disregarded, also, were the recent discoveries of phosphates of various grades in Florida, in supposedly unlimited quantities and producible at a minimum of cost. That the danger threatened thereby to the phosphate industry of South Carolina seemed so great, that it had been deemed advisable to send the Special Phosphate Assistant to visit the new discoveries, and that his report had shown that there was serious cause for alarm, were matters of no consequence. The influences at work, together with the political necessities of unscrupulous demagogism, were too strong and prevailed over the interests of the State. The General Assembly of 1890 passed an act creating a board of phosphate commissioners, who were directed, on the expira- tion of the original Coosaw grant, March i, 1891, to take charge of the company's territory, to issue licenses to mine therein, and to enjoin all parties interfering with them or attempting to mine without their license. The Act further provided that rock mined by such parties should be considered the property of the State and suits entered into to recover it; that all boats, vessels, dredges or other appli- ances used in such mining should be confiscated, that the officers of such companies should be subject to fine and imprisonment, and that the State should not be required to give bond in any such case it might be compelled to bring. On March i, 1891, the Coosaw Company, in view of the drastic nature of the penalties imposed by the Act, and unable to apply for a license, as such action would have been a virtual surrender of the perpetual rights it claimed to possess, suspended its opera- tions. A proposition made by the company to continue work, under the direction of the Board of Commissioners, until the matter should be decided in the Courts, without prejudice to the rights 59 of either party, was rejected by the State, without any regard to the necessary consequences of such rejection. The works of the company were at once closed down and re- mained so until April of the following year. The Carolina Mining Company and the Farmers' Mining Com- pany received licenses from the board and entered the territory, but were at once served with injunctions obtained from the United States Court by the Coosaw Company and compelled to suspend operations. CONSEQUENCES OF THE LITIGATION. The loss of royalty to the State was very great, the damage to the company even greater. In addition to the loss of its earn- ings, it had to sustain the heavy expense of maintaining a large amount of valuable property subject to rapid deterioration when not in use. Burdensome as these things were, they were as nothing com- pared with the loss of market that followed the suspension. The Florida river pebble deposits had been in operation for some years before the discovery of the hard rock and land pebble phosphates of that state. The grade of this Peace River pebble was a little higher than that of the Carolina river rock, of which it was a serious competitor. Up to the time in question the high reputation that the latter rock had earned in Europe, together with some slight advantages in shipping, had enabled it to retain the field, and the Florida rock had not been able to make any serious inroads upon it. The stoppage of the Carolina supply, of which the Coosaw Company had been the main producer, forced European con- sumers to supply their wants with the Florida product, and their experience therewith was so satisfactory that the preference which the Carolina rock had enjoyed was forever lost. The higher grade of the Florida rock, its cheaper cost of production and heavy output were suflficient to retain the foothold that had been gained, and the ground lost by the Carolina industry was never recovered. The Coosaw Company resumed operations in April 1862, mining for a time in Mud Creek, a non-navigable stream, under an arrangement with the owners thereof. No royalty, of course, accrued to the State on this rock. Later, the company accepted the situation and, with the other companies which had taken out licenses to mine therein, again entered its former territory and began an energetic struggle to re- gain a part, at least, of the lost trade. 60 Its efforts in this regard were paralyzed by the disastrous effects of the cyclone of August 31, i8q3, which practically destroyed the plants of all the companies, and compelled them to apply to the Board of Phosphate Commissioners for relief, in the shape of a reduction of the royalty to fifty cents per ton ; and they agreed that if this reduction were granted, they would rebuild their plants and renew their operations. The petition, refused by the Board, was granted by the Legis- lature in December of the same year, and work was again started on January i, 1894. The royalty was fixed at a minimum of 50 cents per ton, with a rising scale based on increased prices. The consequences of the four months' delay, however, had been very serious. Uncertain as to the action of the Legislature, they had not only lost the four months' work, but had been un- able to make contracts for future deliveries, and so what little ground had been regained was again in control of their com- petitors. The consequence of this condition of things was such a great reduction in prices that, in 1895, the State Phosphate Inspector stated in his annual report that the companies were selling at a loss, and recommended a further reduction of royalty to twenty- five cents. The recommendation was disregarded. The Carolina Mining Company was forced to the wall, and its property was sold piecemeal and scattered. In 1896 additional competition from Tennessee and Algiers forced the companies to make another appeal to the Board of Commissioners. The Board, after obtaining the necessary au- thority from the Legislature, made the reduction asked for, but nullified its action by refusing to apply the reduction to the large stocks of rock on hand, in spite of notice from the Coosaw Company, which was the largest holder of such rock, that such refusal would necessitate a cessation of their operations, which followed in May, 1897. In February 1898. the works were again started up and kept in operation until March 1902, when the struggle against the adverse conditions prevailing was decided to be hopeless, and the plant was closed down, dismantled and sold. It is difficult to consider with patience the senseless folly of the course that precipitated this final outcome. Granted that the same result would have followed in time, in the natural course of events, still the end would have been materially de- layed by a different course of action, and the financial results to the State have been materially larger. For, it must be remem- 61 bered, the whole Coosaw claim rested, admittedly, on the pay- ment of the dollar royalty, and had it been allowed to continue undisturbed, the company would have been compelled to strain every nerve to meet this payment, with, of course, a much larger return to the State. The Farmer's Mining Company, in 1897, became involved in the failure of other parties, and was ultimately sold to the Cen- tral Phosphate Company, which is still operating it, and which since the comparatively recent destruction by fire of the dredge of the Beaufort Phosphate Company, is the solitary surviving important operator in this once busy territory. Since the first appearance of this article the Central Phos- phate Company has discontinued operations. It recently made an ofler to the State authorities to exploit some of the marsh deposits adjoining Coosaw River, conditioned on a reduction of the royalty. The reduction having been refused, no further steps, as far as can be learned, have been taken in the matter. DEVELOPMENT OF THE LAND INDUSTRY. The development of the land companies was rapid and im- portant from the beginning of the industry, but being all prac- tically private enterprises, they were less in the public eye, and offer less material for description. The great importance of the Charleston Mining Company has already been alluded to. especially the success that had attended its efforts to gather a large and compact body of rich and shallow ■phosphate lands. The enterprise speedily became profitable and remained so until a change of management in 1891 or 1892 brought about a new state of affairs. The new management was, unfortunately for the company, composed of men ignorant of the phosphate business, and who, while thus unhampered by the prejudices of experience, were equally unfamiliar with its lessons and results. Carried away by wild opinions as to the dangers threatened to the value of their property — though of its real value, indeed, they could have had but a very hazy idea— by the recent Florida developments, and disregarding the advice of the experienced and skillful management which had been in successful conduct of the business of the company for so many years, they thought they had found a panacea for their anticipated troubles in a cheapening of the cost of production by the abandonment of their old plant at Lamb's, and the erection of a new, larger and more costly one on the Fetteressa plantation at Bee's Ferry. 62 Needless to relate, the conditions neither required nor justified this step, the most prominent result of which was the conversion of a large surplus into a bonded debt of the same amount, and only the great intrinsic value of the property prevented disaster in the more or less critical years that followed. Ultimately, in 1901, it was sold to the Virginia-Carolina Chemical Company, which is now operating it. A strong com- mentary on the action of the former management is furnished by the fact that the present owners have found it advisable, the Fetteressa plant being in need of heavy repairs, to dismantle it and return to the former location, where they have just com- pleted the erection of the largest phosphate plant in the world, the capacity of its washers being 1,200 tons per day. Of the numerous land mines which have been operated at various times it is only practicable to give here a list of some of the more prominent. Amongst these have been the following: Pacific Guano Company, Chisolm's Island. Oak Point Mines Company, Kean's Neck. Horse Shoe Mines, Ashepoo region. Pon-Pon Mines, Edisto region. Bulow Mines, near Stono River. St. Andrew's Mines, near Stono River. Bolton Mines, on Stono River. Cherokee Mines, Ashley River. Pinckney Mines, Ashley River. Drayton Mines, Ashley River. Pinckney Mines, Ashley River. Gregg Mines, Ashley River. Millbrook Mines, Ashley River. Mount Holly Mines, Mount Holly. Of these the Bulow and Pinckney properties are the only two that are being operated as entirely independent concerns. The Bolton Mine, while operated by its owners or lessees, sells its whole output to the Virginia-Carolina Chemical Company. The other mines have for the most part been purchased by the same company, the few exceptions having been either exhausted or shut down. THE FERTILIZER COMPANIES. The Wando Fertilizer Company, as has been stated, proceeded at once to utilize the new material in its manufacture. It was not long left in sole possession of the field. On May 26, 1868, a charter was applied for in the name of "The 63 Sulphuric Acid and Superphosphate Company," the distinctive purpose of v/hich was to make the sulphuric acid to be used in the manufacture of superphosphates. On its acid chamber, the first to be erected south of Baltimore, work was begun August 21, 1868. The location selected for the work was on Town Creek, near the Cooper River, on the spot where the John Adams, the first frigate of the United States navy, was built, and which was subsequently the site of the Confederate navy ship yard. Here on December 8, 1868, the first sulphuric acid produced in Charleston was made. A second set of chambers was soon added, the two sets having a capacity of i8o,coo cubic feet, and consuming 7,200 pounds of sulphur per tvventy-four hours. One of the chambers of the second set was 140 by 30 by 25 feet, and at the time was the largest single cham- ber in the United States. This plant was known as the ''Etiwan Works," a name which was subsequently assumed by the company, which was capitalized at $350,000. The Trade Review of Charleston, (published in 1873, by the Chamber of Commerce), shows that at that time the number of factories had been increased to six, namely: Wando Company. Sulphuric Acid and Superphosphate Company. Pacific Guano Company, Stono Company. Wappoo Mills (J. B. Sardy's). Atlantic Company. The Wando Company, formed in June, 1867, had begun work, it w^ill be remembered, in November of the same year, its factory being located in the city, and its sulphuric acid supply imported from the North. The city plant proving insufficient, a new factory and acid chamber were erected at the mines, convenient to the rock supply. The works were subsequently removed to a site on the Ashley River about five miles from the city. The capital stock of the company was $300,000. The works ultimately passed into the hands of the Virginia-Carolina Chemical Com- pany. The Sulphuric Acid and Superphosphate Company has already been described. The Pacific Guano Company started operations in September, 1869. It operated its own mines, on Chisolm's Island, for many years, and in the Edisto region, not far from Jacksonboro, for a comparatively short time. Its fertilizer and acid plant were 64 located near the city, just above the forks of the road. Its capital stock was $1,000,000. It had a successful and eventful career, being finally involved in the failure of the' Boston com- pany, of which it was" an offshoot. The Atlantic Company, located on Ashley River, was started in December 1870, with $200,000 capital. It proved one of the most successful of the companies, and was ultimately sold to the Virginia-Carolina Chemical Company. The Stono Company, also on Ashley River, had a capital stock of $160,000. and commenced operations in December, 1870. Though not so largely developed, ultimately, as the Atlantic works, its career was very similar to that of the latter company and its ending was the same. J. B. Sardy mined in the Ashepoo region. His factory, Wappoo Mills, was located on Ashley River and Wappoo Cut, opposite Charleston. It afterward passed into the hands of Capt. C. C. Pinckney, who operated it for many years as an acid phosphate mill, the only one ever operated strictly as such in the State. It is now the property of the Virginia- Carolina Company. , An idea of the early activity of these works is given by the fact that up to July I, 1872, their acid plants had produced 10,614 tons of sulphuric acid, valued at over $350,000. They had consumed 36,610 tons of rock and shipped 87,406 tons of fertilizer. The figures for the amounts of acid produced and rocks con- sumed are interesting as showing the rather chary use of acid at the time, less than one-third of the amount now generall)' employ- ed. ANALYSES OF EARLY PRODUCTS. The following analyses, made during the years 1869-71, are of interest, as showing the quality of the goods manufactured at that time. It must be remembered, in this connection, that for the first two or three years no value was placed on reverted phosphoric acid, and it was not determined. ANALYSIS OF FERTILIZER. (Average of 7 Analyses.) Soliible phosphoric acid 3- 5^ Insoluble phosphoric acid 10. 17 Total phosphoric acid 13-73 Ammonia. . . , , , ^ r, ^ 2.45 r Philip E. Chazal, E. M. 65 In the seven analyses averaged above, the soluble phosphoric acid varied from 2.19 per cent, to 4.44 per cent. In four of the samples moisture was determined, the average being 20,19 per cent., and the range from 18.28 per cent, to 21.80 per cent. FERTILIZERS MADE IN 1871. I. II. III. p. c. p. c. p. c. Phosphoric acid, soluble 4. 12 5.70 2.94 Phosphoric acid, reverted 2.60 2.47 1.76 Phosphoric acid, available 6.72 8,17 4.70 Phosphoric acid, insoluble 6.55 6.09 9.24 Phosphoric acid, total 13-27 14-26 13.94 Amnjoiiia 3.09 326 2.22 ACID PHOSPHATE WITH POTASH (1871). P. C. Phosphoric acid, soluble 994 Phosphoric acid, reverted 2.00 Phosphoric acid, available 1 1.94 Phosphoric acid, insoluble 4. 1 1 Phosphoric acid, total 16.05 Potash 1. 21 SUPERPHOSPHATES, (1871). I. II. P. C. P. C. Phosphoric acid, soluble 4- 50 8.79 Phosphoric acid, reverted 4.23 1.96 Phosphoric acid, available 8.73 10.75 Phosphoric acid, insoluble 8.64 3.88 Phosphoric acid, total 17-37 H-^? It was about this time that so-called "complete fertilizers" were first made, the analysis of one of which was as follows: 66 P. C. Phosphoric acid, soluble 6.06 Phosphoric acid , reverted 2.00 Phosphoric acid, available 8.06 Phosphoric acid, insoluble 4.47 Phosphoric acid total 12.53 Ammonia. 3.00 Potash 1.50 At the period represented by the above analyses, the strength of the acid usually employed was 40° B. to 42° B., and it is therefore not surprising that, with the increased amount and strength of acid employed at the present time, modern pro- ducts yield, in round numbers, three times the amount of soluble phosphoric acid and only one-third the amount of insoluble obtained in the older manufacture. The progress so happily begun, was continued. As the years went on and the demand for fertilizers increased, the old com- panies enlarged their plants, and new ones were added to the list, two of which were erected at Beaufort and Port Royal. A list in the Trade Review of The News and Courier for 1880-84 shows that all the original companies, except the Sardy plant, were in operation and in addition gives the following new names : Ashepoo Phosphate Company, capital $100,000, Ashley River. Edisto Phosphate Company, capital $200,000, Cooper River. Ashley Phosphate Company, capital $100,000, Ashley River. Charleston Phosphate Company, capital $50,000, Ashley River. Wilcox & Gibbes, manipulators, city. Hume Bros. Phosphate Company, capital $500,000, near Beaufort. Port Royal Phosphate Company, capital $100,000, near Port Royal. Later on the following companies were added to the list in Charleston. Berkeley Phosphate Company. Imperial Fertilizer Company. Chicora Fertilizer Company. Royal Fertilizer Company, afterwards known as the Standard Phosphate Company. Read Phosphate Company. 67 The Beaufort. County companies changed their owners and were enlarged and known as the Hammond, Hull & Co., and Baldwin Works. The Etiwan Works which had discontinued operations for several years, passed, ultimately, into the hands of a new set of owners, who, putting them in complete order, made a fresh start, under the old name, in April, 1900. Outside of Charleston and Beaufort the records of the com- panies established and their outputs are apparently inaccessible, and only the principal ones can be mentioned, as follows: Georgia Chemical Works, Pon-Pon. Columbia Phosphate Company, Columbia. Globe Phosphate Company, Columbia. Royster Guano Company, Columbia. Darlington Fertilizer Company, Darlington. Anderson Oil and Fertilizer Company, Anderson. Greenville Fertilizer Company, Greenville. Blacksburg Company, Blacksburg. It would be interesting and instructive, when viewed in the light of subsequent developments, to sketch the history of the fertilizer interests of the State; to show that, from the modest beginnings of 1867, the shipments of Charleston alone had reached 100,000 tons in 1881, 261,650 tons in 1890, and 437,138 tons, the high water mark, in 1898; to give an account of the periods of depression and prosperity and to study the causes producing them; to follow the companies in their futile efforts to arrive at some plan of mutual co-operation, if not of combination, and the final absorption of many of them by the Virginia-Carolina Chemical Company. Even if the limits of this article permitted, it seems advisable not to attempt such a presentation at the present time, but to close the account, as so far given, with a list of the works now in operation in the State by the independent companies and the Virginia-Carolina Chemical Company. The list, with the estimated capacity of each company, as nearly as could be ascertained, is as follows: INDEPENDENT COMPANIES. Tons, Ashepoo Fertilizer Companv, Charleston 55, 000 Etiwan Fertilizer Company, Charleston 30,000 Read Phosphate Company, Charleston 30,000 68 F, S. Royster Guano Company, Columbia 30,000 Anderson Oil and Fertilizer Company, Anderson 26,000 Total capacity, tons 171,000 To these must be added the following manipulating companies, which, having no acid plants, purchase their supplies of acid phosphate ; The W. C. MacMurphy Company, Charleston. Combahee Fertilizer Company, Charleston. Spartanburg Fertilizer Company, Spartanburg. Anderson Phosphate and Oil Company, Seneca. It is estimated that these companies have a capacity to pre- pare and ship, over and above their acid phosphate purchases, say 20,500 tons of goods. Together the independent companies have a capacity of 191,500 tons, an amount equal to a little less than 60 per cent, of the re- quirements of the State, which last year amounted to about 325,000 tons. VIRGINIA-CAROLINA CHEMICAL COMPANY. Tons. Atlantic Works, Charleston 35 ,000 Chicora Works, Charleston 35, 000 Imperial Works, Charleston 35, 000 Standard Works, Charleston 70,000 Stono Works, Charleston ... 30,000 Wando Works, Charleston 25,000 Ashley Works, near Charleston 20,000 Georgia Chemical Works Pon-Pon 30,000 Baldwin Works, Port Royal 36,000 Columbia Works, Columbia 15,000 Globe Works, Columbia 18,000 Greenville Works, Greenville 16,000 Blacksburg Works, Blacksburg 12,000 Total capacity, tons 377,000 TOTAL CAPACITY IN STATE. Independent companies 171,000 Manipulating companies, 20,500 Virginia-Carolina Chemical Company, 377,000 Total capacity 568,500 69 CONCLUSION. Although the story of the rise and progress of the South Car- olina phosphate industry is a more than "thrice told tale", its full and detailed history is yet to be written. In the preceding sketch an effort has been made to present only the more prominent facts connected with the subject in all its branches. Lack of space is responsible for many omissions, the most conspicuous of which is the story of the men whose knowledge, energy and skill built up, advanced and successfully developed this great work, which was the salvation of the low-country of South Carolina, and to whom the State is even more indebted than to the distinguished scientists who opened the way to them. Though much has been written in times gone by on the sub- ject matter of this article, but little of it is in accessible form, and an important part of even the brief description here present- ed has been rendered possible only by the kindness of Professor Charles U. Shepard, Jr., in putting at the disposal of the writer manuscript notes, made many years since, which embody some of the early results of the varied and extensive labors which made Professor Shepard the foremost authority on phosphates in this country. Except where otherwise credited the analyses given or re- ferred to in this article were made by Professor Shepard or his as- sistants in his Laboratory for Analytical Chemistry, or by its successor, the Shepard Laboratory. Philip E. Chazal, E. M. Shepard Laboratory, Charleston, S. C. NOTE. As has been almost unavoidable from the way in which the necessary data had to be obtained, the annual estimates of the production and shipments of phosphate rock and fertilizers made by different parties have at times varied very widely, so much so as to make it impracticable to reconcile the differences, or decide betwe»Mi them. These statistics have not been presented in the preceeding sketch, this branch of the subject having been assigned for treat- ment to Major Edward Willis, of Charleston, who, from the inception of the industry, has devoted particular attention to these questions, and has prepared the annual statement thereon for The News and Courier. to The following table is taken from his article as published in the Centennial Edition, and is of great interest as affording a con- densed statement of the results arrived at by him. For the sake of comparison, there is also given a table showing the estimates made by the United States Geological Survey to, the end of the year 1902 only, the writer having been unable to obtain those for 1903. TABLE SHOWING THE PHOSPHATE INDUSTRY of South Carolina land and river rock mined and shipped to foreign fand domestic ports, tons consumed, amount of royalty paid to State on river rock, and amount of fertilizers shipped annually from 1867 to 1903. (Years ending August 31st.) Prepared by Major E. Willis for Centennial edition of The News & Courier. Years. 1867, 1888 1869. 1870 1871, 1872 1873 1874, 1876 1876 1877, 1878 1879. 1880 1881. 1882, 1883. 1884 1885, 1886 1887. 1888 1889. 1890. 1^91. 1892. 1893. 1S94. 1895. 1896. 1897 1898. 1899. 1900 1901. 1903. 1903. OCQ H o 1% I o Ctfo , 6 12,362 31,958 63,352 56,533 36,258 a3,426 57,624 54,821 50,566 36,461 112,622 100,779 125,601 142,193 191,305 210,()0t 250,000 225,0001 250,000 262,000 275,000 290,500 300,000 375,000 371,736 316.456 339,791 276,778 330,837 322,272 323,121 365,165 292,809 232,704 201,638 242,852 1,' 17,655 22,502 45,777 577-" 67,9 81,9i2 126,569 97,700 98,586 65,163 124,541 140,722 180,000 181,800 184,000 195,000 228,000 254,000 220,000 296,758 197,949 176,600 312,113 135,498 154,597 124,177 121,846 86,460 125,991 135.753 93,?i64 137,281 127 971 6 12,262 31,958 65,241 74,18S 58,760 79,203 109,340 122,970 132,478 163,030 210,322 199,365 190,763 266,734 332,077 378,380 431,800 409,000 445,000 480,000 509,000 510 500 586,758 573,949 648,396 618,569 475,194 431,375 44.5,004 434,118 409,581 481.076 438,562 327,768 338,819 7,143,216 4,628,158 11,771,374 4,993,903 6 7,500 19,000 39,000 24,805 19,160 33,737 37,820 32,560 38,239 47,500 68,946 60,899 107,348 157,824 173,305 210,000 20;3,000 158,000 203,000 200,000 232,483 308.643 228,757 274,083 179,025 183,814 2^8,324 174,95)0 225,388 195,710 175.389 223,986 216,705 125,357 101,383 78,218 3 600 7,314 14,000 7,108 12,000 18,431 18,980 20.000 19.000 13,600 17,700 18,96(« 2;j,000 38,900 42,9;{6 42,620 69,7:^3 67,000 72,000 85,000 89,(J0O 91,450 98,000 102.250 105,600 162,300 152,000 131,000 146,000 162,0(10 186,000 164.000 145,000 180,000 164,000 225,000 00 o t: ft o a 4, 12,8.59 42 283 27,600 27,035 52,540 70,546 75,815 102,677 121,746 119,566 61.375 70.66S 116,832 123.000 159,000 184,000 iro,oo'> 195.100 189,000 136,000 219,000 126,7t8 12t,459 178,068 94,875 125,o85 84,616 76,408 49,4H3 89,870 6f5,347 24,231 73,636 57,605 1, 17,655 22,502 45,700 57,716 67,970 81,910 126,.570 97,700 98,586 65,151 124,541 140,773 129,319 151,243 171,676 191,175 203,757 225,000 312,100 337.149 185,1)00 193.461 249,3;J8 114,281 174,400 121,602 39,801 23,522 39,042 33,938 35,521 25,671 15,262 2,918,481 3,452,675 $3,712,062 6,362.191 ^ o8 SOD g 13,822 14,863 39,789 46,265 22,589 37,759 56,298 46.382 50,837 46,443 45,76ti 52,000 60,000 80,C00 102,525 103,490 130,000 143,000 1,50,000 143,700 131,901 183,000 181,990 261,650 287,975 314,3;« 325,618 316,611 1.59,.526 357,715 374,494 437,138 333,912 376,314 439,378 361,653 ,356,560 71 ESTIMATES OF U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, Phosphate rock (washed product) mined by the land and river mining companies of South Carolina. Years ending Land Companies River Companies Total May 31st. Lont^ Tons Long Tons Long Tons 1867 6 12,262 31,958 ' 63, 252 6 1868 12,262 18b9 31,958 1870 1,989 65,241 1871 56,533 17.655 74,188 1872 ! 36 ,258 22. 502 58,760 1873 33 .426 45,777 79,203 1874 51,624 57,716 109, 340 1875 1 54.821 67.969 122. 790 1876 i 50, 566 81,912 132, 478 1877 i 36, 431 126,569 163,000 1878 ! 112,622 97. 700 210,322 1879 ' 100 ,779 98, 586 199, 365 1880 ' 125.601 65, 162 190.763 1881 142,193 124,541 266.734 1882 . . 191,305 219, 202 140,772 159,178 332. 077 1883 378.380 1884 ' 250, 297 181.482 431.779 1885 225,913 169. 490 395,403 1885 June 1- Dec 31 149, 400 128.389 277,789 1886 253.484 177.065 430,549 1887 261,658 218. 900 4<- 0,558 1888 290,689 157,878 448. 567 1889 329,543 212. 102 541.645 1890 353,757 110.241 463,998 1891 344.978 243,653 130. 528 150,575 475,506 1892 . 394.228 1893 308.435 194, 129 502,564 1894 307,305 142,803 450, 108 1895 270, 560 161,415 431,975 1896 . . 267, 072 135. 351 90,900 402, 423 1897 267,380 358,280 1898 298,610 101,274 399,884 1899 223,949 132. 701 356.650 1900 266, 186 62,987 329,173 1901 225 .189 95,992 321.181 1902 245,243 68,122 313, 365 1903 1 Totals. . 6,702,140 3,930,352 10,632,492 v<^TbrT?^Si. r ^' TME \ THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY WILL INCREASE TO 50 CENTS ON THE FOURTH DAY AND TO $1.00 ON THE SEVENTH DAY | OVERDUE. MAR 24 1934 "^ " ^^^■i-.v^50r);r .^tO * ^ t,>AV 12^960 1 1 LD 21-100jn-7,'33 YC 2095 •*•*>*%