Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 October 1894 — PHOSPHATE INDUSTRY. [ARTICLE]

PHOSPHATE INDUSTRY.

Tha Growth in the South Is a Com. mercisl Marvel. The growth of the phosphate industry in the past four or five years has been immense. It is located in the States of North Corolina, South Carolina, Florida and Georgia. But little is done, however, in the first and last named States. The commissioner’s report covers 187 phosphate mining establishments, 106 being in Florida, thirty in South Carolina and one in North Carolina. Phosphates were discovered in South Carolina in 186768, and the importance of the discovery was promptly recognized and apEreciated both by scientific and by usiness men. In 1868 the South Carolina mines produced 12,262 tons, while in 1891 they produced 572,949 tons. The Florida phosphate deposits were discovered in 1888, and their last annual output was 582,027 tons. The last annual output of the South Carolina mines was 698,976 tons, and the North Carolina mine reported 700 tons, or a total for the whole industry of 1,281,708 tons. This quantity was valued at the mines at $7,158,201.

As in other valuable things counterfeits will accompany real values. There have been bogus phosphate lands and bogus phosphate companies and much money has been sunk by investment in such. But the figures hero given represent actual products and not mere estimates: The operators in all the four States mentioned control 265,688 acres of land and 170. J miles of river. Of the land 188,848 acres are In Florida. The total value of capital invested in plants in the industry is $4,705,582 and in land $14,866,067. The total number of hands employed in the industry is 9,165; of tills number 5,242 are employed in South Caro-' llna mines. The total expenditure for labor for the last, year was $2,478,265. The average earnings in the Florida land mines was $214 for each person employed, and In the river mines, $855, a higher grade of skill being required in the river mines than in the land mines. In South Carolina the earnings in land mines wore $287 nor annum, and in the river mines $378. In addition to the wages paid in the mines, a large body of longshoremen have been brought into employment through the phosphate industry, the amount of wages paid to this class of men being for 1892, $121,685, while the wages paid for manipulating and converting phophate Into superphosphate are estimated at $1,587,600, or a total wage roll added to the industry of the State named, through the discovery of phosphate of $4,182,910, the payment of this large sum being duo to the new industry of phosphate mining, and it is of course a constant yearly addition to the economic force of the States in which the industry is carried on. It should be noted also that labor is benefited through the cost of transportation, drayage, warehousing and other handling which, in the aggregate, amounts to a very considerable turn. With so enormous a development in so few years it might bo Imagined that this industry must soon play out. But in the first place the need of fertilizers Is constantly on the increase. The soil nqf; only needs more as the years go by, but the benefits and uses of the various fertilizers and their adaptation to produce the results desired in agriculture are becoming every year better known. In the second place, the supply of the raw material seems to be comparatively Inexhaustible. A careful expert estimate gives for the State of Florida the amount of phosphate in sight as 188,055,835 tons, for other States 1,000,000 tons. These various estimates give a total of 149,056,885 tons of phosphate in sight, and this statement shows better than any other the future opportunities for the employment of labor in this industry. —[Farm, Field and Fireside.