PHOSPHATE LANDS. 123 



within national forests, but none are included in public water reserves, coal, 

 phosphate, or power-site withdrawals. 



Very respectfully, Geo. H. Ashley, 



Acting Director. 



September 21, 1912. 

 Respectfully referred to the President, with favorable recommendation. 



Samuel Adams, 

 Acting Secretary. 



Order of Restoration. 

 Petroleum restoration No. 12 — California, No. 7. 



So much of the orders of withdrawal made heretofore for classification 

 and in aid of legislation affecting the use and disposition of petroleum lands, 

 namely, reserves No. 2, No. 18, and No. 20, as affects the lands hereinafter de- 

 scribed is hereby revoked, for the reason that the Director of the Geological 

 Survey reports that the lands are not valuable for the purpose for which 

 withdrawn. 



And It is further ordered that all such lands not otherwise reserved or with- 

 drawn are hereby restored to the public domain and shall become subject to 

 disposition under the laws applicable thereto upon such date and after such 

 notice as may be determined upon by the Secretary of the Interior. 



Mount Diablo meridian. 



T. 16 S., R. 11 E., sec. 21, N. i of SW. i, SE. i of SW. i, S. i of SE. i. 

 [Here follows the remainder of the land description.] 



Wm. H. Taft, 

 September 23, 1912. President. 



The areas classified as oil land remain withdrawn pending the 

 enactment by Congress of appropriate legislation for the disposition 

 of oil and gas deposits. 



PHOSPHATE LANDS. 



USE OF PHOSPHATE. 



Phosphorus is one of the mineral elements that are essential to 

 plant growth and therefore necessary to make soils productive, and 

 it is one of the three most likely to become exhausted by continued 

 removal in crops taken from the soil. Work at the agricultural 

 experiment stations in Illinois, Ohio, and "Wisconsin has shown that 

 lands under cultivation in these States during the last half century 

 have been depleted of one-third of their original content of phos- 

 phoric acid. This depletion per acre annually is equivalent to the 



