3. Stiff clay vari-colored at times, capping of sandstone color brown to

pure white.

Land pebbles average from 65 to 70 per cent tribasic phosphate of lime. River pebbles are of the same origin, but slightly less value, 60 per cent to 63 per cent phosphate of lime. The whole Peninsula of Florida is underlaid with white limestone of the Vicsburg age (Lower Eocene). according to Professor Lyall, upper middle Eocene, according to American geologists, which is the oldest rock in Florida. Florida was submerged until the end of the Eocene period, after which its elevation occurred. Then came the Miocene submergence followed by a second elevation, next the Champlain period and submergence, when it was covered with a mantle of sand and clay, before it arose to its present elevation.

The phosphate pebbles were formed before this last submergence, and hence washed into the depressions of limestone and over same.

Early in this century the marl beds of New Jersey were worked and used for fertilization. This led to the discovery of similar deposits in South Carolina. One Lardue Venaxen, who made the first geological survey in 1826, discovered same, but no work was done until 1842, when Edward Ruffin of Virginia confirmed the reports of previous explorers.

First carbonate of lime only was evolved; 20 per cent up to 90 per cent, but later from 2 per cent to 9 per cent of phosphate of lime was found by Dr. C. W. Sheppard and J. Lawrence Smith, Esq.

During the war, nodules and strata of rock phosphate were found by Dr. N. A. Pratt near Ashley River.

It was not until April 14, 1868, that any systematic production of phosphate was accomplished in South Carolina, when the first cargo was shipped from Charleston and the arrival of same created a veritable epidemic of phosphate fever in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and other cities.

*Equivalent to 55 to 61 per cent tribasic phosphate of lime. !Equivalent to 5 to 11 per cent carbonate of lime.

In Ontario there exists one area of from seventy-five to one hundred square miles, and another from fifteen to twenty-five miles wide, and 100 miles long of commercial phosphate.

It is found in many other places, but not proven.

Here it occurs in flint and has been worked by farmers in a desultory way, costing much and yielding little profit to the operators.

On the Lievre River, two and one-half miles from Highfall and twenty miles from Bushman, there was the famous Watt mine, where, from a cone-shaped mountain, a vast amount of pure apatite was mined, once called "Emerald." Quite a number of deposits have been worked in Canada, but not any with great profit.

About the year 1880 a stratum of calcium phosphate was discovered near Mount Fairview, Tennessee. At first it was not believed to be of great extent, or good quality, but ere long both were abundantly proven, and a large quantity of high grade phosphates was mined.

But owing to the rush of producers in every direction, without any system or unity of action, the crazy competitors soon glutted the market, forcing the price down below cost of production.

Of recent years, a few big operators have gathered in most of the choice areas. and by introducing up-to-date methods, etc., have gradually brought the production down to a normal basis, and the price up to a profitable figure.

The volume of deposit in this region is very great, extending from about ten miles south of Mount Pleasant to the line of the Tennessee Central Railway and beyond, and a width of over fifty miles.

In and about Mount Pleasant the deposit lies under a very thin over-burden. often only the surface soil of ten feet thickness or width, a layer of from two to eight feet of white sandstone beneath this, the substratum of limestone being near the

surface, and of vast thickness. Also somewhat uneven or undulating, making depressions of twenty-five feet at times, which are in turn filled with the phosphate deposit.

As the topography becomes uneven the plains cease and foothills occur, the character of the over-burden changes and that of the phosphate likewise.

As an elevation of 600 feet above sea level is reached, and exceeded, the overburden becomes of greater thickness, and chert or flint and some limestone and conglomerate overlie the phosphate.

In and about Mount Pleasant the deposit is mixed with sand and is soft and easily excavated from the surface, whereas in the higher altitude, the same becomes hard as stone and has to be excavated by tunneling under the chert, as drift mining is done.

The protection of this latter deposit from atmospheric action and percolating waters, both, or with the compression, renders the phosphate of higher class. Although the stratum is not so thick as out in the valley, it ranges from two to six feet. Two is a fair mean. Quite an extensive area of this deposit has been bought or leased by a Cincinnati company, which plans to develop same upon an intelligent modern plan and gradually upon a large scale.

At Mount Pleasant, Mr. John Ruhm, Jr., a college-bred man of rare intellect and great capacity, has devoted many years to a study and operation of his phosphate deposits, in the most scientific manner possible. He has kept in close touch with the most advanced men of the age, such as Prof. Hopkins of the State University of Illinois, who has given more time to the study and practice of fertilization than any man in the United States. Prof. Hopkins finds it necessary to reduce the phosphates to a 100-mesh fineness to enable him to obtain the best results, and Mr. Ruhm has for years been experimenting with the grinding machinery to discover the best and cheapest for this purpose. Only this year, in July, did he discover that the "Hardinge" tube-mill is, in all respects, the best machine tested. He got 90 per cent duty from over 200 tons a day at 100-mesh, and some of this over 200-mesh fineness; 100-mesh is possible, grinding the same either wet or dry.

I had the good fortune to witness these July tests and can confirm Mr. Ruhm's claims for his process, which he does not selfishly try to keep, but generously gives to all who ask information.

The Tennessee phosphates of commerce are not quite as high grade, and do not command as high a price as others, but this is entirely due to the careless preparation of same for market. So soon as Mr. Ruhm's plan is followed, the grade will be raised, and price follow to topmost.

The above represents a mean of about thirty analyses of samples taken from over a 10,000-acre area, principally from exposed outcrop, hence a test of protected product would give larger percentages.

As the United States Geological Survey has not been extended over the area embracing a large part of these phosphate lands, one can only conjecture concerning their scope although it is safe to assume it to be very great.

I believe this crude treatment of this question will suffice to suggest two important facts:

First. That we have available in this country an abundant supply of phosphates to enable us to replenish the fertility of our soils at a reasonable cost.

Second. That this feature should be carefully studied by every farmer in the country, and the maximum result obtained from every acre tilled and every day's labor performed.

In addition to the deposits of phosphate in Idaho. Utah and Wyoming, which only need equal transportation facilities to introduce their product, we must have others, as yet undiscovered, because few laymen, and not all engineers, recognize the deposit when found, and it is not always discoverable without excavation where it does exist.

"A little farm well tilled" can be made to produce more abundantly, more

profitably, than one larger and less effectively handled, hence no matter how rich and fertile nature may have made your farm, it is hardly possible that it may not be improved and reward you abundantly for it.

During the summer of 1911, I had the good fortune to be employed to examine an area of phosphate deposit some fifty miles above Mount Pleasant in Tennessee, and, in order to better understand the subject, first visited Mount Pleasant and vicinity to note conditions, progress, etc., hence my data relative to this section is fresh and new.

I know I am justified in asserting that there is a vast field for the exploita tion of this valuable deposit in this region, with ample assurance of the development of a vast area that can be profitably worked.

One thing is certain, nowhere can the deposit be more fully determined, and nowhere be more economically worked, hence this region should become the most productive of any ere long.

Over an extensive area there is spread out a layer or blanket of this phosphate rock, lying under a huge mass of chert or flint rock and resting on a bed of shale or slate, which in turn rests upon a vast bed of limestone several hundred feet deep.

The phosphate seam is from six inches to four feet in thickness and lies about 600 feet above sea level and about 150 feet above the valleys that cut through it, so that tunnels can readily be run in under the seam at any desired place, and the phosphate be stoped out ad libitum.

Only a very small portion of the country has been surveyed by the United States Geological Survey, hence but little is known of its contents and characteristics.

But my investigations prove that a very large area contains this deposit, extending for many miles east and west and north and south from Boma on the Tennessee Central as a center.

It is therefore quite certain that there is no dearth of this commodity, and there is not likely to be for many years to come, as other deposits are likely to be discovered as the known ones are exhausted.

Now! the moral of the foregoing: We have available at reasonable cost the elements to reënrich our soil. Hence, our farmers should first cultivate their minds, that they may be able to discover in what elements their soil is defective, or what is wanting, to enable them to get best results. A very liberal education should be obtained, if possible, for in no walk of life is a greater scope of knowledge required and profitable to a farmer. Then, the farmers should unite all over the country to endeavor to elevate and ennoble labor and the laborers, which can be done only by example, by acts and deeds. not by preaching.

Every honor, reward and benefit of every character should be open to and be given the farmer and artisan laborer, and, in the degree that each deserves credit for work well done, the reward should follow.

Why not offer prizes for workers? Why not fill all of our executive and administrative government bodies with the best farmers, business men, carpenters, etc., instead of lawyers? Just think of it. Everyone knows lawyers are proverbially poor business men. Yet our Nation, states, counties and cities all are governed principally by men who privately are considered as inferior business men.

By compelling the lawyers by some labor, some successful work, to first prove their business ability and capacity, and making labor-work-the honest, real basis for the elevation of men and women to places of trust and profit, and by this course only can labor be exalted and every child in the land be led to look with pride and pleasure upon the laborers, who are the true bone and sinew of the world.

Preaching that "labor is ennobling," then bestowing honor and benefits upon those who never have cheerfully done a day's hard work will not exalt the laborer. Let us get back to the farm and honor the farmer, that our days may be long in the land that the Lord has given us, and let the laborer be truly ennobled.

If farmers "were the founders of civilization," as Mr. Webster states, then are they also the main pillars supporting the same, and should be looked up to, be honored and rewarded as such. And far above any lawyer, merchant or millionare, we can trust our workingmen and women. Let us try it at once, one and all of us.

ADDRESS.

By E. G. GRIGGS

President of the National Lumbermen's Manufacturing Association

It was my pleasure to attend the Second Annual Conservation Congress a year ago in St. Paul. That I am here today representing a lumber producing delegation would intimate that my interest in these proceedings is at least perennial. I deplored the introduction of politics and regretted the delay in publication of the excellent reports submitted with leave to print at the Congress. Just recently I have read the many excellent technical reports, the discussion of which I deemed of more importance to the upbuilding of the conservation movement than the political outbursts that rankle in our breasts and tend to array class against class. Conservation is education, and we all have something to learn. The experience of the older and great states of this Union should profit the younger and perhaps greater.

As a lumberman, conservation to me is not a theory. It is the proper utilization of a great heritage and the elimination of waste in the process of manufacturing and logging. What theory is more vital commercially to the lumberman than that? The establishment of values will determine to what extent conservation will be practiced and reforestation followed. When men devoted to the general welfare of these United States are giving liberally of their time and money and energy to protect the vast resources of this country from wasteful extravagance, I feel it is little enough to expect those who are actively engaged in commercial enterprises to second their efforts.

The importance of sane laws and wise legislation must be apparent to all of us. Unless the business interests of the country heed the call and guide the effort, an outraged public will some day awaken to its lost opportunities.

As an official of the National Lumber Manufacturers' Association. I feel that we, as lumbermen, are vitally interested in the proceedings of this Congress. I come to you from a state that stands in the front rank as a lumber producera citizenship interested from its lowliest to its highest in the proper utilization of its wonderful forest growth. It is true that there is a divergence of opinion among some of our Washington state officials as to state and federal controlbut to me, the important issue seems a national one. The value of our timber resources is determined altogether by the demand existing outside our own states. If conservation depends on values, then I say the price you in the Middle West must pay for lumber has a great deal to do with reforestation and utilization of our raw product. It is therefore entirely a national issue, and the question of supply and demand, that inexorable commercial law, concerns us all.

I am a strong believer in the knowledge of conditions and in the benefits of cooperation. The final outcome of the reciprocity pact, conceived, as it was, in secret, emphasizes the fact that our Canadian brethren intend to adopt a conservative policy of their own. As a lumberman, I have never agreed with our honored President in the belief that the trade was a good one for us. To a man not concerned in politics, it seemed that our Canadian traders out-traded the Yankee. Why the argument for a permanent tariff commission, non-partisan and thoroughly competent, should apply on wool, cotton, steel and not on lumber, hardly appeals to me. Now that we know where we stand, is it not high time the tariff issues be studied as in foreign countries, particularly Germany, by a body of experts permanently engaged, that Congress hear and discuss officially its report and that facts be placed before the people? I am democratic enough to still believe in the great American people.

No industry not unduly protected need fear the light or a business upheaval, Today a presidential year causes stagnation in business, either assumed or real. Our country never will settle the tariff issue right until business integrity governs. The revelation in accumulated wealth and control of millions can only be justified if our country prospers. Neither should the people be taxed to accumulate swollen fortunes. The prices at which the same commodities are sold to the people of different nations ought to determine the tariff issue. America is for Americans; let us develop our latent resources, not squander our heritage with prodigality. Golden opportunities or luxurious surroundings do not warrant idleness, but rather a higher sense of individual and national responsibilities. get the best out of that which we have should concern us all.

To

Our taxation problems, the methods which have prevailed so long, do not encourage timber holding. Lumbermen have one crop and yearly taxes, while the farmer has yearly taxes and annual crops. A timber investment of $5,000, say at $1.50 per thousand, with taxes and interest compounded, in twenty years will