COST OF LIMESTONE 265 



carbonate of lime enough to take away the sourness of the land and 

 make it sweet instead. Next some good growth on the land to turn 

 under and make life in the soil. Crimson clover or cowpeas will do 

 that. Then alfalfa or red clover, and after these crops the stubble 

 when plowed will grow gardens or potatoes or corn. True, one must 

 buy phosphorus; that costs not much when the lime is in the soil, 

 for a pound of phosphorus will last as long on land with lime in it 

 as 5 pounds will when the land is lime-hungry. In Jersey are great 

 mountains of limestone rock. Crushers there are and grinders ready 

 made to powder this rock and railways ready to take it to the soil. 

 It is almost parallel to the story of Idaho; there flowed the Snake 

 River in its deep canyon, doing no manner of good to herb or tree. 

 There came strong men and turned Snake River out to water 

 the fields. Here lie solemn mountains rich at heart with priceless 

 carbonate of lime; near by are barren fields suffering for this one 

 thing. Now should men come to grind this lime and make channels 

 to carry it out to the fields? If men with gold wished they could 

 indeed buy these Jersey lands for any song and fill them with lime, 

 sow them to alfalfa, make them rich and beautiful and sell them 

 again to farmers who would use them to make food for the markets 

 of our cities. It is a work that should belong to strong men, for the 

 need of such lime is great, ten full tons of ground and unburned 

 lime dust would be none too much for an acre of hungry land, and 

 men with means could own their own railway cars and grinders and 

 put the stuff out for a small price and in large amounts. 



"Strange it is, but in Illinois, state of rich soils, most has been 

 done in this endeavor. There Dr. Cyril G. Hopkins has persuaded 

 his state to set convicts to grinding limestone in the penitentiary at 

 Menard. There the men grind the stone and load it on cars, and the 

 state sells it to the farmers for 65 cents a ton, and the railways, 

 wishing to make farms more productive so that they in turn might 

 have the freight to haul, do haul these cars of stone dust a mile for 

 20 cents, each car laden with 40 tons of ground limestone. 



"It is a wonderful thought, is it not, that men leave their land near 

 eastern cities, crowded with hungry people willing and able to pay 

 their price leave these old states and migrate to the arid West, 

 thousands of miles from their customers and there expend more 

 money to get water on the land so that .they may grow crops to feed 

 the people of the eastern cities than they would have had to expend 

 on their old acres near those cities in putting carbonate of lime on 



