The Bulletin. 67 



Because potash increases the yield, you cannot say that that element did it 

 for its own sake. It may have acted only indirectly, as by liberating some 

 other element. I will pass this with the mention that dolomite or dolomitic 

 limestone, found in almost every State, contains these elements, calcium and 

 magnesium, and where there is a quarry where it can be obtained and ground 

 at a low price, and where freight rates are not excessive, where those two con- 

 ditions are met, a large plant to be operated economically for grinding the 

 limestone and railroads to handle it at reasonable rates, the limestone can be 

 gotten and put on the land at very moderate cost. It will then supply both 

 calcium and magnesium. There are enormous quantities of potash in all 

 normal soils, though some sandy soils and some peaty or mucky soils are 

 almost devoid of potash. All normal soils, however, have plenty of it, and it 

 can be set free or liberated by the action of decaying vegetable matter. 



I do not intend to say anything to you about nitrogen, because you had a 

 lecture on that this morning. Phosphorus is the special element I am to talk 

 about, and the question is. How shall we get it? How should it be applied? 

 Where shall we get the information to guide us in this? Shall we get it from 

 our past experience? Well, of course, if we have no better guide we will 

 follow that vmtll we do have. Some people decide it by asking the fertilizer 

 agent, don't they? And in many cases they apply the fertilizer that enriches 

 not the soil, but the seller, and after the crops are removed the soil is poorer. 

 Now. I hold that we ought to have a quantitative knowledge of our crop 

 re<iuirements and of the soil composition. You have a quantitative knowledge 

 of your bank account. You know how much money you put in the bank and 

 how much you draw out. You might just as well have a quantitative knowl- 

 edge of your soil, and know what it contains ; what you apply and what j'ou 

 take out. I have a farm, and where I treated part of it in the way that I 

 am planning to treat all of it I know that the plow soil is now twice as rich in 

 total phosphorus as when I started. How much do you suppose it will cost 

 you to double the phosphorus content of your plowed soil? Did you ever 

 think of it? We have land in Illinois selling for $250 an acre, and by invest- 

 ing $30 the farmer can double the phosphorus content of his soil. He can 

 make it tn-ice as rich ; $2.50 land can be made twice as rich in phosphorus at 

 an expense of $30. Illinois farmers are using rock phosphate, but they know 

 how to use it. They know it is not available plant food. You can get 250 

 pounds of the element phosphorus (multiply it by 2i^ and you have the "phos- 

 phoric acid"). I say 250 pounds of phosphorus can be delivered at the 

 Illinois farmers' station for $7.50. You can get the same quantity of the 

 element phosphorus in a ton of steamed bone-meal for about $25 or $30. You 

 can get the same quantity of phosphorus in two tons of acid phosphate for $28 

 to $30. or you can get the same amount of phosphorus in four tons of ordinary 

 complete commercial fertilizer for about $80. You can get a ton of raw rock 

 phosphate, fine ground, delivered here at Raleigh for about $7.50 or perhaps a 

 little less. That contains as much phosphoric acid as two tons of acid phos- 

 phate. Two tons of acid phosphate would cost you about $30, or four times 

 as much for the same quantity of phosphorus in the acid phosphate as in the 

 raw rock. Are you going to buy phosphorics at 12 or 14 cents a pound in acid 

 phosphate, or are you going to buy the raw rock phosphate, in which the 

 phosphorus costs you 3 cents a pound, and make that soluble by plowing in 

 with decaying organic matter? 



You have heard it said that the man is lucky who can kill two birds with 

 one stone. Decaying vegetable matter accomplishes six things. Six different 

 things can be accomplished by the addition of this decaying vegetable matter to 

 the soil. On some soils the one thing needed is decaying vegetable matter; 

 but if I could not do anything on my farm but add vegetable matter I would 

 not take the farm as a gift, because it will pot grow anything to plow under. 

 I called your attention to the fact that some soils need lime, some phosphorus. 

 Let us find out what the land needs. 



In the first place, this growing vegetation may get nitrogen from the air — 

 nitrogen from an inexhaustible supply in the air. I think you might very well 

 buy water, especially just at this time; but don't buy nitrogen. Don't do it as 

 a system ; you can do it in an emergency, but don't plan to buy nitrogen as a 

 general practice. I hold that even though the purchase of nitrogen pays, even 



