USA > Florida > Florida, 1513-1913, past and future; four hundred years of wars and peace and industrial development > Part 18
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CHAPTER XV MINERAL DEPOSITS OF FLORIDA
T HE geological history and formation of Florida are particularly favorable to valuable mineral deposits. Some of these have been developed, as the phos- phates, which are described elsewhere; peat, and the varieties of clay, varying from the highest grades of kaolin and fullers' earth, to plastic potter's clays and other varieties adaptable to a large number of uses. These clays in their analyses and formations grade into each other so closely that often a distinct classification is impossible.
In its deposits of peat, Florida is probably richer than any other equal area in the United States, if not in the world. The geological formation of Florida is particularly favorable to the formation of peat, which by geologists is declared to be a preliminary stage in the creation of different grades and varieties of coal. Peat is formed by the decaying of vegetation under water which is clear and not muddy. Such deposits through the ages, under the pressure of the overlying burden of earth and by the internal heat of the earth, are trans- formed into coal. From this it would appear that the peat deposits of Florida in ages to come, if left undisturbed, would make this state one of the great coal producing sections of this country.
GEOLOGICAL CONDITIONS
Conditions in Florida are almost ideal for the formation of peat. The topography of the state is decidedly immature geologically, as there are very few evidences of recent erosion, especially in the penin- sular part of Florida. There are many times more lakes in this state than in all other coastal plain states combined; most of these lakes seem to have been formed by the solution of the underlying limestone (never by the damming up of streams by drift) and have no streams carrying sediment into them. The soil being mostly sand, very little rain runs off as it falls, most of it soaking into the ground immediately
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to reappear gradually in the swamps of the low lands. For this rea- son the streams which arise within this state fluctuate but little and consequently are bordered by peat deposits in many places. The rain- fall is ample and so distributed through the seasons that most of it falls during the warmest months, thus balancing evaporation to a large extent.
Florida undoubtedly has a greater varicty than any other section of swamps, bogs, marshes and other places where peat accumulates, but the resulting deposits of peat are of such large variety as almost to defy classification. The surface waters may be divided into four classes, namely-sandy, muddy, calcareous and swamp. The swamp water in which occur the most important peat deposits, may be further classified as flowing and stagnant, the latter varying in its fluctua- tions of depth and in the amount of vegetation growing in it, and here are the largest and richest peat deposits in the state.
EXTENT OF THE PEAT DEPOSITS
The occurrence of these deposits has been determined more or less accurately, but much investigation remains to decide even approxi- mately, their extent.
In the western end of the state a considerable area has been defined, which includes large sections of the counties from Santa Rosa east to Liberty. Another area extends eastward across the state, which includes large portions of Taylor, Madison, Hamilton, Suwanee, Baker and Bradford counties. Perhaps the most extensive area reaches from Duval through Marion, Putnam, Orange and other counties well down toward Lake Okeechobee, embracing large sec- tions of the St. Johns and Kissimmee River valleys. An indefinite and probably less valuable deposit includes Lake Okeechobee and extends almost to the southern end of the peninsula.
There are immense pcat fields to be found in Alachua, Levy, Pasco, Hernando and Hillsborough counties. Owing to the uncer- tain limits of these deposits and the determination yet to be made of their commercial value, it is impossible to estimate the combined area of Florida's peat deposit; but it is probably an entirely safe asser- tion that one-third of the area of this state is underlaid by this fuel.
Peat has entered but little into commercial uses in the United States as compared with older countries of Europe. In the more or less distant future, when the conservation of coal in this country
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may become a matter of moment, it is likely that this resource in Florida will have far greater consideration than now.
FULLERS' EARTH
Fullers' earth is not widely known or used in the arts, but it is nevertheless a valuable article of commerce and its uses, although restricted, are important. It is a form of clay varying considerably in its percentages of chemical content according to the localities in which it occurs. Formerly it was used almost exclusively by fullers in removing grease from cloth, and from this it gained its name. The principal uses now are for clarifying oils, particularly lubricating oils. Its occurrence in the United States was first discovered at Quincy, Gadsden county, Florida. Previously all that had been used in the United States was imported from England. Seven states reported the production of fullers' earth in 1907. In the order of their product, they were Florida, Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Colorado and Texas, and of the total output, Florida produced about twenty-five percent.
The Florida product, it is claimed, is equal to the highest grades known in the world. In color it varies from light buff, through the browns into gray and blue. Its occurrence in Florida is usually in strata varying from two or three to fourteen feet, and in some deposits a depth of one hundred and thirty feet has been penetrated without reaching the bottom.
METHODS OF PRODUCTION
The deposits which have been worked in this state lie near the surface under an overburden of from two or three to fourteen feet. This overburden formerly was removed by pick and shovel, but as the industry increased in importance steam operated dredges have been used. The product from the mines is passed through a crusher, which reduces it to pieces three to six inches in diameter, which are then put into driers and the surface moisture is removed under a moderate heat. When dried the product is ground fine, separated according to its grades, and then passed through bolters of thirty to sixty meshes to the inch. It is then ready for shipment.
The first statistical reports of Florida's product of fullers' earth were made in 1908, when the output was about thirty-three thousand short tons, most of which was used in the United States, about five Vol. I-23
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percent being exported. The principal deposits that have been worked commercially or that have been so far discovered, lie in Gads- den, Liberty, Leon, Columbia, Alachua, Marion and Manatec counties.
The total amount of workable fullers' earth in Gadsden county, which is the source of the most important production, is difficult to estimate. In the average thickness of stratum found in that sec- tion, it is assumed to yield a minimum of five thousand tons to the acre. While fullers' earth actually underlies the greater part of the county, the workable area under present conditions is restricted to the lands lying near the streams where the overburden does not ex- ceed fifteen fect in thickness. It is estimated that three thousand, five hundred acres of land in this county covers these deposits. This area, with the average of five thousand tons to the acre will supply more than seventeen million tons, or enough to supply the world's demand at the present rate of consumption, for five hundred years.
INEXHAUSTIBLE NATURAL DEPOSITS
The value of Florida's annual product of fullers' earth, by the latest available reports, even in the present but little developed stage of the industry, is something more than three hundred and fifty thou- sand dollars a year. From the localities in which it is known to occur, it is probable that these deposits extend under a large section of the state, reaching as far west as the Apalachicola river and south into Manatee county. An estimate of the total workable deposits in the state is impossible at the present time. The area in Gadsden county alone has been described, and other sections of the state in which this valuable mineral occurs have not yet been examined by the State Department of Geology sufficiently to determine their extent and value. It is believed that Florida has the most extensive deposits in the world which may be depended upon to supply the world's demands, even if no other territory should be developed for hundreds of years to come.
KAOLIN
Plastic kaolin or ball clay, is among the important products of the state. It burns white; it is found under an overburden of a few feet of sand, and its principal occurrence is in the central peninsular part of the state from Putnam to Polk counties. This industry has been developed to only a small fraction of its possibilities, but enough
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has been done to indicate that its possibilities in the future are almost beyond present comprehension.
The simplicity and ease of its removal from the deposits in which it occurs in Florida reduce the cost of production to a minimum. Taken from the pit it is placed under high compression to remove the water. It is then dried and is ready for shipment. No manufac- turing into pottery or chinaware from this product has been under- taken in the state, so far as is known, but specimens of the clay have been used in other sections with the result of producing the highest grades of pottery and china. It seems that with the probably very large deposits of this high grade clay in Florida, the industry with sufficient capital under the control of experts, will add greatly to the fame of the state. The output of the kaolin industry in Florida was about two hundred thousand tons, with a value of $98,000 in 1907, which was the first year in which accurate records were avail- able. These figures have more than doubled to the present time.
OTHER MINERAL DEPOSITS
With the variety of soils and mineral earths which exist in Flor- ida, it is not surprising that a large number of other earth products should be worth exploiting commercially. In its variety of clays, that which is adapted to brick-making is found in nearly every part of the state. Although the manufacture of clay bricks has not yet become a feature of Florida's industrial development, the conditions exist that will make it a source of large income to the state.
A sand-lime brick is being manufactured in several sections of Florida, and the existence of the raw materials in many sections make this industry one of the important possibilities of the future.
Portland cement has not been listed among Florida's manufac- tured products, yet the clays and limestone available for this manu- facture occur in large deposits in hundreds of localities in the northern half or two-thirds of the state. A mass of native sulphur weighing more than two tons, was discovered in Marion county, sev- enty feet below the surface. It was found to be unusually pure, and indications were that it was not a freak occurrence. It is not only possible, but probable, in the opinion of geologists, that extensive deposits may be discovered in sufficient quantities and in such occur- rence as to be commercially available and valuable.
Not unimportant are the mineral waters that come to the surface in numerous localities and inexhaustible quantities. The analyses of
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these waters vary in their chemical content. Several natural springs have been utilized for health resort and health restoring purposes. The waters have extended local use in different parts of the state, but the industry has not been developed to include large export trade. That there is an important future in this direction, with proper finan- cial development and advertising, admits of no question.
CHAPTER XVI NAVAL STORES
LORIDA owes its pre-eminence in a number of direc- tions to its natural resources, bestowed by the favor F of a kind Providence. It claims for itself the credit of developing these resources, of ministering to the necessities of the world, and of increasing its own wealth by enterprise and foresight. In a number of its products it is the largest single source of supply in the world. With its developed resources and undeveloped possibilities, it is probable that Florida could maintain, better than any other section in the United States, perhaps in the world, an economic existence inde- pendent of every product that comes to its citizens from sources out- side of its own boundaries.
The growth of the naval stores industry in Florida has been largely since 1895. As the pine forests of the Carolinas and northern Georgia were depleted, attention was inevitably directed to the im- mensc tree deposits of Florida. Extensive tracts were acquired by the naval stores interests, who vied with the lumbermen in the size of their purchases and leases. Without question, these two interests today control the most extensive holdings of land in Florida, with the turpentine people in the lead. The exhaustion of the pine tracts in other states has emphasized the importance of conserving those in the Peninsular State, and it is in Florida that the greatest aggre- gate of capital is interested in the development of this industry.
In its product of naval stores-rosin and spirits of turpentine -Florida leads the world, both in the amount and the value of this output. The principal sources are in the pine forests of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, with some re- maining forests in the Carolinas. From these come ninety to ninety- five percent of the world's annual consumption. Spain and France produce all but a negligible fraction of the remainder.
IMPORTANCE OF THIE INDUSTRY
As in other great lines of commerce, the compilation of annual totals is slow and the publication of Government reports is fre-
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quently delayed for many months. Heretofore, a single organiza- tion has had compiled all authentic statistics of the production of these commodities, and this company, for reasons of its own, has not made public the figures. The large control of the trade has recently passed into other hands and reports of the industry will be given necessary publicity. There is a rather wide and varying difference between the amount of naval stores produced and the amount shipped. The export is determined by the records of various ports through which naval stores are shipped to foreign or domestic consumers. The amount of production is to be determined only from an accurate knowledge of the number of barrels held in storage by producers or factors, on account of low prices or for other reasons.
The production, according to U. S. Government reports for 1910, is taken for illustration, as it is the most recent official authentic com- pilation, and because by the best information, the annual output has varied but little from the figures given since that report was compiled.
This report shows the production of spirits of turpentine in casks of fifty gallons each:
Alabama
47,000
Florida 298,000
Georgia 139,000
Louisiana and Texas 19,000
Mississippi
35,000
North and South Carolina
17,000
Total
555,000
The value of this product, at prevailing market prices, was approx- imately $17,680,000.
By the same authority, the production of rosin in barrels of 280 pounds each, was as follows:
Alabama
310,000
Florida 1,818,000
Georgia 870,000
Louisiana and Texas 82,000
212,000
Mississippi
North and South Carolina
112,000
Total
3,404,000
FLORIDA TURPENTINE STILL
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The value of this product was $18,255,000, making the total value of the naval stores crop for the year $35,935,000.
Florida's proportion of this product, both of turpentine and rosin, was approximately fifty-four percent, and its value was $9,547,- 200 for turpentine and $9,857,000 for rosin.
The producing territory of Florida is divided into two portions, separated by the Apalachicola river. In the section west of that dividing line, Pensacola is the principal city and shipping point, and Jacksonville has a similar importance in the section east of the river.
FLORIDA'S PROPORTION
Following further the suggestion of these figures, it appears that fifty-six percent of Florida's product, or thirty and twenty-five hun- dredths percent of the world's production, comes from the Jackson- ville territory, and from the Pensacola territory forty-four percent of Florida's product, or twenty-three and seventy-five hundredths percent of the world's supply. These figures establish Florida's right to claim the two cities first in importance in the world in this immense industry; for it is in these cities that the operations in the respective territories are financed and directed. While the value of the product in the Jacksonville territory was approximately $10,880,000, the amount of working capital required to finance the industry far ex- ceeds the value of the annual crop.
The methods of operating this industry in Florida merit brief description. Nearly one-half the acreage of this state was originally covered with pine forests. As these lands passed from the owner- ship of the state or the Federal Government they were still held in immense, unbroken tracts by individuals or corporations. Their development by subdivision into farms proceeded but slowly, and principally along the lines of newly constructed railroads. It was further retarded by the recognized value of the timber and naval stores. The importance of this interest is recognized when it is re- called that less than six percent of the presumably arable lands of the state are under cultivation today.
TURPENTINE LEASES
And so, in clearing away these forests, the naval stores producer, "the turpentine farmer" as he is sometimes called, came first; and when he had exhausted the pine trees for his purposes, the lumberman
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followed with his sawmills and the land was cleared of its trees of merchantable sizes. And then the farmer and fruit grower came to occupy the country, the first permanent occupants of the soil.
Where the land was not purchased outright by the turpentine farmer, he gained possession by lease for a specified term of years, which gave him the right to use its resources in the production of naval stores. During the continuance of the lease, it became, in a measure, a cloud upon the title of the land and any change of owner- ship was made subject to these leases, which in fact excluded the new owner, as it had the former one, from actual occupancy. Hun- dreds of thousands of acres of land in Florida are held under such turpentine leases which eventually will become rich farming sections.
BOXING AND CUPPING
The method of obtaining the sap from the pine tree is, or for- merly was, by "boxing," which was a scarifying of the tree through the bark and into the live wood a perpendicular cut several inches wide and from two to four feet long, and at the bottom cutting a deep pocket into the tree, in which the sap collected as it flowed from the wound. As the scar healed or was covered by the gum of the sap, is was cut over again to renew the flow of the sap. The life of a vigorous pine tree is shortened by such treatment by half a dozen years, more or less, according to its vitality, and then it belongs to the lumberman.
This method, however, has given place in most sections of the south to less destructive and less exhausting means of securing the sap. A metal cup is attached to the tree at the lower end of the scar, which is made not so deep into the trce nor over so wide a surface as by boxing. And so "cupping" has practically replaced boxing in the woods of Florida. The change, it is claimed, has indefinitely prolonged the life of the industry in this state, and has warded off for years the destruction of one of the greatest natural resources of Florida.
CONVICT LABOR
The Florida turpentine camp is no less interesting than its lumber camps or its phosphate mines. A large portion of the turpentine farmers have but small capital and require financial assistance until they can sell their annual crops. This is furnished by one or two large corporations which advance credit in the form of tools, sup-
PINE TREE BOXED
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plies or groceries and cash, taking as security the exclusive right to handle the crop. In many of the turpentine camps convict labor is used almost entirely, and the convicts are leased from the state under a system which still prevails in Florida, but which is likely to be abolished at an early date. The lease by which the labor of the convicts is secured, obligates the lessee to house, feed, clothe and guard the prisoners under regulations fixed by the state and enforced by a thorough and careful system of inspection.
The labor of gathering a turpentine crop is in the boxing or cupping the trees, gathering the sap and bringing it to the still, and in the operation of distillation. These operations demand no high degree of skill, and the average ability of the negro convict is suffi- cient. The process of distilling, however, is usually directed by free labor and from the still the product is barreled ready for shipment.
NAVAL STORES MARKETING
The chief market for the naval stores product of Florida has been for years at Savannah. The Georgia city has been the greatest single shipping point for naval stores in the world. Here have been gathered the greatest on-hand stocks of turpentine and rosin, and here the prices for consumers all over the world have been deter- mined, presumably by the relation of supply and demand of which a most complete knowledge was available here. Immense aggrega- tions of capital have been necessary to maintain this supremacy. The recent liquidation of this power as a single identity has made possible a change of supremacy. It is natural that the control in any market, so far as it can be controlled, should be at the point or points where are held the largest stocks of goods. The financial interests which are backing the naval stores industry in Florida are centered at Jack- sonville and Pensacola. The latter city is already one of the most important storage and shipping cities for naval stores in the world. Jacksonville also has a large importance in the same direction. The disintegration of the Savannah interests has made an opportunity to bring to Florida the principal marketing places; and that this opportunity will not be lost is likely to be established within a few months.
The future of the naval stores industry in Florida is uncertain. Hundreds of thousands of acres of virgin pine lands remain to be developed. The methods that have been adopted to conserve these
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lands have been in part described. Each year more strenuous rules are enforced to reduce the wastage of these resources. Yet the best authorities differ widely in their estimates of the time that may take from Florida its present supremacy in the naval stores industry.
CHAPTER XVII FLORIDA FISH
Vol. I -24
HE indulgence in the superlative is distinctively, if not exclusively, an Americanism. With the enthu- T siasm of youth what is not the most beautiful or largest and commercially the most productive, seems hardly worthy of attention. Yet the temptation to indulge the habit is strong in describing the fish that belong in Florida waters.
The report of the United States Commissioner of Fish and Fish- eries is quoted in the facts given herewith. From this it appears that, according to the most recent studies by the experts of the Fed- eral Government, the total number of species of fish known in Flor- ida waters is five hundred and seventy-six, or more than one-sixth of the entire fish fauna of America north of Panama. This number is far larger than is found in any other section of the United States, and it is due to the diversity and peculiarities of climatic conditions found in the state.
Florida's fish fauna is divided into at least five distinct classes: The salt-water fauna of the south Atlantic states; the sub-tropical fauna of the Florida Keys; the Gulf of Mexico fauna; the fresh- water fauna of the lower Mississippi valley; and the fresh-water fauna of the Everglades. Naturally some of these fauna overlap and their distinctions are more or less poorly defined. From Fernandina south to Biscayne Bay are found most of the species characteristic of the Atlantic coast south of Cape Hatteras. From Biscayne Bay to Key West and the Tortugas is found a fish fauna marvelous in its multitude of species and in their richness of coloration.
The fish fauna of the Florida Keys resembles closely that of Cuba. The warm waters of the keys serve more or less as a barrier to the passage of fishes living in colder waters and as a result, many species are found on the Atlantic coast of Florida which do not occur on the Gulf side, and vice versa. Indeed, so many species are found
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