FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL CONVENTION 51 



is more readily available, but is more expensive, but the ques- 

 tion is still open to discussion which form will ultimately prove 

 to be best under various conditions. For one who has very little 

 vegetable matter in his soil, the acid phosphate should be used, 

 but most farmers in Illinois, under ordinary conditions, where 

 they have pretty fair supply of organic matter yet in the soil, 

 certainly have the conditions for using the lower priced phos- 

 phate. As an average at the prices in Ohio, Director Thorne put 

 on the field manure to the value of $2.93 per ton. He put 17 

 cents worth of free raw ground phosphate with that manure and 

 it became w^orth $4.18. That is, $1.25 came from an investment 

 of 17 cents. That is 17 cents brought back $1.25 in the increase 

 which it produced, or about 700^^. If you know any other way 

 to invest money to pay you 700*^^, I think it is worth while to 

 announce it here, particularly when you can invest it in your 

 own business, under your own control and for the protection of 

 your own capital. The protection of the fertiHty of your soil 

 protects your capital, and it looks to me a good deal better than 

 investing in some oil well or gold mine, or any other enterprise 

 that may pay you possibly 8 or lo^^, putting your money out 

 under the control of some one else. Some of you men know 

 what that means. The principle I adopted for myself a good 

 while ago was to invest what little money I had under my own 

 control, as I would not be likely to lose it. 



When acid phosphate was used in place of the raw phos- 

 phate, an investment of 30 cents paid back $1.53 net. There 

 again you have an enormous return on the investment. Director 

 Thorne reports there are two ways of figuring the increase 

 there. These results are figured by comparing the production 

 from given plots with adjoining plots. If this plot produced 31 

 bushels and the next untreated plot produced 34 bushels, then 

 he would presume the two intermediate plots would have pro- 

 duced 32 bushels and 33 bushels, if not treated. Another method 

 was to subtract the average of all of the unfertilized plots from 

 the average results he got where he used manure and phosphates. 

 On this basis for every application of the raw phosphate the net 

 value has increased from $2.96 to $4.19, and with each applica- 



