22 EXPERIMENT STATION EECOED. 



(1912), No. If, p. 196). — An investigation of the conditions affecting the odors 

 of mannre worlis showed that stocks of mineral phosphates gave off little or 

 no odor, but that dissolved bone and phosphatic guj^no evolved evil-smelling 

 odors which were increased by elevation of temperature, stirring, and varia- 

 tions in pressure and electrical conditions of the air. Odors from di^^ ferti- 

 lizers lessen with time, but from moist fertilizers intensify as they gradually 

 dry. 



Fertilizer resources of the United States, P. K. Cameron, R. B. Moore, 

 ET AL. ([/. S. Senate, 62. Cong., 2. Sess., Doc. 190, 1912, iw- 290, pis. 19, fig^. 3, 

 maps 19). — This document, transmitted to the Senate by the President of the 

 United States, is " a preliminary report on the fertilizer i-esources of the United 

 States, describing investigations which have been carried out by experts of 

 the Bureau of Soils, following a special authorization by the last regular session 

 of Congress," with appendixes containing technical reports on the natural phos- 

 phates of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Arkansas, with a list of references to the 

 bibliography of phosphates ; memoranda on the manufacture of acid phosphate 

 in the Southern States and on the manufacture of sulphuric acid and ammonium 

 sulphate in this country ; data regarding alkali crusts containing 0.5 per cent 

 or more of potash ; a list of patents for the extraction of potash salts ; memo- 

 randa regarding saline claims, potash deposits, etc., and jurisdiction over kelp 

 groves; and papers dealing with the botany, chemistry, industrial uses, and 

 food value of the kelps of the coast of the United States and Alaska, with a 

 bibliography of the literature of marine algfe and their uses. The report ex- 

 plains the purpose an^ scope of the work undertaken by the Bureau of Soils 

 and summarizes the more important results of this work to date. 



,It is stated that $120,000,000 worth of fertilizers are now annually used in 

 this country, but that " a much increased production and wider use of com- 

 mercial fertilizers must accompany or closely follow the economic changes and 

 readjustments now taking place in the United States." 



It is believed that the United States has within its borders supplies of raw 

 materials for fertilizers which " will be ample for a long but indefinite period. 

 . . . This country is fortunate in having within its confines enormous deposits 

 of natural phosphates, including the well-known fields of South Carolina, 

 Florida, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Kentucky, lesser deposits in many other 

 States, and the greatest deposit of the world in Montana, Wyoming, Utah, and 

 Idaho." 



Deposits of nitrates " have been found in this country, but none of com- 

 mercial importance have yet been exploited. Ammonium salts, a product of 

 the coke ovens and gas furnaces, slaughterhouse products, cotton-seed meal, 

 and in lesser quantities, other nitrogenous organic materials, are utilized in 

 the manufacture of fertilizers. The so-called atmospheric products, calcium 

 cyanamid and basic calcium nitrate, are finding an increased use." The 

 search for nitrate deposits in the United States is being actively prosecuted 

 and other sources of nitrogen, especially ammonium sulphate from by-products 

 of coke ovens, are being developed. 



" Up to the present there have been no sources of potash in this country 

 commercially developed." The search for mineral deposits of potash, which 

 has been actively carried on, has given results which seem to warrant the 

 continuation of such investigations (see abstract below), but the report holds 

 that the most promising source of potash yet discovered in the United States 

 is the kelp groves along the Pacific coast. These kelps "are essentially dif- 

 ferent in certain respects from the Atlantic kelps and apparently from those 

 of Japan. They yield a much higher percentage of potash (five or six times 

 as much as the Atlantic kelps), but have a much lower percentage of iodin." 



