3S8 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



COMMERCIAL FEKTILIZEKS, THEIK NATURE AND Ut^E. 



Bv Uox. T. J, Philips, Atylen, Pa. 



The last quarter of the uineteeuth century has doue more to 

 utilize the waste than all time gone before. Minerals were lying in 

 the earth around and among us, only waiting for organized capital 

 to mine and prepare them for the use of mankind. Products that 

 always had been considered waste were husbanded and made useful 

 to man. 



The time, energy and capital spent in disseminating knowledge 

 of and a market for these products, has been only a little less than 

 that consumed in their preparation for our use. When human labor 

 alone was depended upon to prepare the soil, plant and reap the 

 crops, intensive farming was practicable only upon limited areas. 



The Civil War drained the country of one-sixth of its able-bodied 

 men, but the ingenious mechanic supplied the deficiency by building 

 machines to do their work. With the return of peace, business in 

 every line received an impetus before undreamed of. Cities grew as 

 by magic. ]\Iills, factories and shops poured great clouds of smoke 

 skyward. These busy thousands must be fed. The cultivated 

 farms under the most severe and exhaustive cropping showed evi- 

 dence of failure. The available plant food had been shipped to the 

 towns; its waste was in the river bottom or beyond the sea, and 

 could not be returned to the soil. 



Artiticial methods were tried to repair the loss. The islands of 

 the sea were denuded of their nitrogen in guano. Ashes from mill 

 and tannery furnished i)hosplioric acid and potash, but these sources 

 proved inadequate. The rainless desert, deep mines, etc., were re- 

 quired to give up their treasures. 



To-day more than five million dollars is expended annually in 

 IVnnsylvania alone for these elements, necessary to plant growth. 

 And when we realize that possibly one-fourth of this great sum is 

 Avasted because unwisely expended, this question of commercial fer- 

 tilizers becomes worthy of the attention of any one interested 

 in the growth of plant life. Our lawmakers and executive officers 

 have wisely assumed to regulate the business, and I confidently be- 

 lieve that the sum annually appropriated to the Farmers' Institutes 

 is returned four-fold, in teaching flio people who are not chemists, 



