32 



the soil was originally better as you go West, but that it is newer and has 

 not been so extensively robbed. President Kinley of our State University 

 recently called an agricultural conference, one of the prime reasons for which 

 lay in the fact that Illinois is today face to face with diminishing agricul- 

 tural returns. Just recently, a professional agricultural authority from one 

 of our northwestern states remarked to me that his state would never need 

 limestone as its soil is all sweet. It seems that we are determined to each 

 prove for himself, that soil alkalinity under cropping conditions is not a 

 self-maintaining or a permanent condition. 



The University of Illinois, Experiment Station, the Illinois Farmers' 

 Institute, and the Farm Advisors have each, in turn and in different ways, 

 effectively preached the gospel of soil fertility and, as a factor thereof, t"he 

 use of limestone. The various leading railroads and the limestone produc3rs 

 have played their parts in bringing into practice the teachings and doctrines 

 promulgated by these educational agencies. With the development of these 

 agencies and with the stimulating effect of high prices and demand for maxi- 

 mum crop production during and just after the war, the growth in the use 

 of limestone, as compared with the past, was remarkably rapid and great, 

 but, when viewed in the light of the real need, it has been insignificant. 



LIMESTONE NEEDS IN ILLINOIS. 



Dr. Bauer of the State University says that there are twenty million 

 acres of sour land in Illinois; that in the southern thirty-two counties alone 

 there are ten million acres which are so sour that they are fairly crying for 

 an initial application of five tons of limestone per acre, or fifty million tons; 

 and that thereafter they should receive upkeep applications aggregating sev- 

 eral million tons annually. As compared with these figures we have actually 

 used for the entire state as follows: 



Tons. 



1911 32,000 



1912 46,000 



1913 72,000 



1914 (Estimated) 82,000 



1915 94,000 



1916 (Estimated) 113,000 



1917 (Estimated) 132,000 



1918 200,000 



1919 350,000 



In the latter part of 1920, the demand rapidly fell off. That year shows 

 a total of 300,000 tons (50,000 tons less than the previous year) ; and last 

 year is estimated at not to exceed 140,000 to 150,000 tons considerably less 

 than half of our high point. Obviously, something is the matter either with 

 our doctrine or with our practice, whatever the cause may be. Perhaps 

 the outstanding reasons for the serious curtailment of demand during the 

 last year and a half are; first, the disastrously low prices at which farm 

 products have sold in comparison with other commodities and the resultant 

 financial inability of the farmer; second, the fact that as compared with 

 former years, the quarry prices mounted to a hifh point in rseponse to the 

 rapidly developing demand; third, the heavy advances in freight rates. 



The first of these, low farm prices, is now the subject of my remarks 

 today. We may pass it with the expressed hope that the present tendency 

 back in the right direction may be accelerated and the day hastened when 

 this unfortunate condition shall have been righted. 



PORTAHLK CRUSHING PLANTS. 



During the last two years there has been a great deal of interest dis- 

 played in the possibility of the rather widespread and general 

 establishment of what may be termed local portable crushing outfits, each 

 of which might serve a community, the area of which would be determined 

 by the natural hauling radius. Many have conceived the idea that such' 



