composing organic matter. The presence of lime hinders 

 this action. 



In volume 30 of the journal of the Chemical Society 

 (Eng.), page 773, is an abstract of an article from the jour- 

 nal of the Eoyal Agricultural Society, 1884, by Dyer, which 

 states that the first experiments made in 1882, in a stiff clay 

 soil containing no calcium carbonate, ground and unground 

 coprolites were used. The comparison was made with 

 sweedes both Avith and without manures, in each case, the 

 better results was from«undissolved phosphate. On the same 

 plots, the following year, oats were grown without further 

 addition of manure, and the produce was again, on an aver- 

 age, better where the undissolved phosphate had been em- 

 ployed. The following year 225 bushels of lime per acre 

 were plowed in before sowing. The same quantities of 

 manure were applied as before. The season was dry and the 

 crop small, but in this case the produce was better where the 

 dissolved phosphate had been used. The ground coprolite 

 contained more than twice as much phosphoric acid as the 

 superphosphate. 



Coming nearer home, we find that experiments made at 

 the Alabama Agricultural station are of similar import. 



In bulletin No. 22, new series, January 1891, we find the 

 following statement: "In several experiments previously 

 conducted to ascertain the comparative agricultural value of 

 the phosphate rock ground to impalpable powder, known as 

 floats, with that of acid ulated phosphate, the results have 

 indicated that used in conjunction with cotton seed meal, 

 floats are more profitable than the acid phosphate, taking 

 into consideration the fact that floats contain nearly twice 

 the per centage of phosphoric acid. The soil used in these 

 experiments was sandy drift that had been lying out many 

 years. No commercial fertilizer had been previously applied 

 to it." The following conclusion is drawn from the experi- 

 ments made: "A part of the phosphoric acid in floats plainly 



