A PRELIMINARY REPORT ON CLAYS OV PrLORIDA 61

 INTRODUCTION.

 SCOPE Or~ THIS REPORT

 In this investigation no attempt has been made to cover completely the clay deposits of the entire State of Florida. It is intended to be only a preliminary report which will make available at an early date data conGerning the clays within r each of transportation. It will, moreover, furnish a basis or foundation upon which further and more extensive work on the clay resources of the State can be based as it becomes expedient to do so.
 This report, therefore, considers only the clay deposits known at the time the field work was carried on and situated not more than two miles from water or rail transportation.
 Unless a clay deposit is of very exceptional quality, it is not probable that it will be developed within the next few years if more than a mile or so from a railway. No definite distance from transportation, however, can be placed as a limit for workable deposits. The quality of the clay, availability and cost of fuel, labor, cost of mining or manufacturing, cost of equipment, proxim-ity to market, prevailing market price, distributing facilities and numerous other local factors determine whether or not a clay deposit can be profitably worked. Deposits of clay not within an economic distance from transportation are potential sources of supply and can be considered only as reserves. As general development proceeds in the State these deposits will become useful.
 Clay deposits underlying a great thickness of overburden are likewise not considered in this report. Here again the conditions mentioned above apply. The greater the overburden which must be removed the greater the cost of production. Clays which are now at too great a depth to be profitably worked may become workable at some future time.
 In most cases the thickness and extent of a clay, deposit were not given any further consideration than to determine whether or not sufficient clay was available to supply an average demand for a reasonable period of time. In many deposits enough clay was seen to be at hand to supply an average brick plant for more than thirty years. A dependable estimate is that 750,000 bricks can he made from an acre foot, (13,560 cubic feet,) of clay. A plant of 12,000,000 annual capacity would utilize 15 acre-feet of clay per year. The thickness and extent of a clay deposit and the cost of acquiring the property are factors, therefore,