140 



the rentral States for about $20 per tou. or $80 for the 4 tons of material 

 containing no more phosphorus than 1 ton of raw rocli which can be bought 

 for $8. 



Is it any wonder that farmers who use " complete fertilizer " can not afford 

 to api)l.y it in sufficient amounts to positively enrich their soils; that they must 

 ni>ply it for its effect on a single crop, and that they must depend upon the small 

 amount of phosphorus added. to.i,'ether with that which the soil would naturally 

 give up and that which the stinuilating action of the land plaster forces the 

 soil to liberate, in order to make a temporary profit? Is it any wonder that 

 essential land niin follows such a system? 



Exi)eriment-stati()n men everywhere advise against the use of manufactured 

 complete fertilizers, and some experiment-station men advise against the use of 

 acid phosphate. Why should we pay $80 for 4 tons of " complete fertilizer," or 

 'even $:iO for 2 tons of acid phosphate, for the same amount of phosphorus as 

 we can buy for $8 in 1 ton of finely ground natural-rock phosphate? 



Some will answer that the raw rock is not readily available. This is true, 

 but it is also true that it is the business of the farmer to make it available by 

 means of decaying organic matter, the same means by which he makes available 

 the insoluble potassium and the raw-rock phosphate naturally contained in the 

 soil. 



As an American, as an investigator, and as a farmer, I thank Director Pat- 

 terson, of Maryland, and Director Thorne, of Ohio, who planned systematic 

 experiments, to cover many years, to ascertain whether finely ground natural 

 rock phosphate could be made available by turning it under with decaying 

 organic matter, such as farm manure or green manure from legume crops. 



Before we had begun the general investigation of Illinois soils. Patterson had 

 some good evidence that when turned under with crimson clover raw rock 

 phosphate is as valuable as bone meal, and Thorne had demonstrated that when 

 used in intimate connection with farm manure rock phosphate is much more 

 profitable than acid phosphate, on the basis of money invested. 



The Maryland station now has eleven years' records and the Ohio station has 

 nine years' records in these investigations. 



Some of the Illinois i)lat experiments in soil investigation have been conducted 

 systematically for twenty-nine years, and probably furnish the longest continu- 

 ous history of any such experiments in the United States, but the Illinois 

 experiments with rock phosphate, although extensive in scope, were begun too 

 recently to afford much data. It may be stated, however, that where we have 

 used finely ground natural rock phosphate in direct comparison with equal 

 money values of steamed bone meal, both being api)lied in connection with 

 decaying organic matter, we have thus far obtained a larger average increase 

 with the rock phosphate. 



So far as I can learn, whoever has persistently tried the use of liberal amounts 

 of finely ground rock phosphate, in connection with abundance of decaying or- 

 ganic matter, has obtained results l)e.vond his expectations, while those who have 

 tried HO cents' worth of rock phosphate in comparison with two dollars' worth 

 of acid phosphate, usually for a single year, and withoiit any provision for 

 decaying organic matter, have condenmed the rock phosphate. 



How long will American farmers continue to pay $80,000,000 a year for fertil- 

 izers containing less total phosphorus than we export to Europe for $4,000,000 

 received at the mine, and which for $8,000,000, or one-tenth of our i)resent 

 national fertilizer bill, could be delivered to o;ir farmers in finely ground natural 

 rock iibos]»hate? 



Two dollars an acre is not counted a large bill for complete fertilizers, but $2 

 an acre would ])ay for a ton of raw rock phosphate delivered in Illinois every 

 four years, and this ai)plication would actually double the total phosphorus con- 

 tent of the ]>lowed soil of the Illinois corn belt in twenty years' time. 



This would provide a system of permanent agriculture, limited only by the 

 limit of our natural phosphate deposits. We hope for the discovery of still 

 greater deposits of phosphate rock ; but unless such discoveries are made, we 

 must use high-grade rock while it lasts ; then we must use the lower grades, of 

 which there are some large deposits; and finally we nnist work over the old 

 dump pili's. in order to store our lands with phosphorus; and then we must 

 gu.-ird tliat suitply. using it for the production of crops and returning it again to 

 the land in evi'ry ])Ossible recoveralile residue. 



Tile American farmer is still pros|)erous on our new rich lands, and there is 

 no need of any sensation, but there is need for sense and for the greatest possible 

 simplicity, in order that the people whom we serve may understand. 



