OUR GREATEST PLANT FOOD 



By Guy Elliott Mitchell 



IN estimating the possible limit of 

 American civilization, strength, and 

 supremacy, has any economist ever 

 recognized as a factor the phosphorus 

 supply ? Why, how absurd ! Phos- 

 phorus? What has it to do with civili- 

 zation ? Its principal uses are for match- 

 heads and as a fertilizer for plants. Ah, 

 a fertilizer? 



"Westward the course of empire takes 

 its way — and leaves the ruined lands be- 

 hind." 



This is not a pleasing paraphrase, but 

 it is true, and largely because those lands, 

 after years of cropping, become deficient 

 in phosphorus. Therefore it may be ad- 

 mitted that the government's present 

 activity in applying conservation methods 

 to the public phosphate lands, just as it 

 does in the cases of coal and petroleum 

 lands, is wise. But is it really necessary 

 to carry out such drastic measures as are 

 proposed for the phosphate lands and 

 prevent the exportation of phosphate 

 from government deposits, and thus un- 

 questionably curtail the development of 

 what is rapidly growing into a great 

 American industry ? Let us see. 



The problem of farm production is the 

 most important question which the Amer- 

 ican nation has to consider. It transcends 

 all others, economic or political. If the 

 broad farming lands of the Republic 

 maintain or increase their fertility and 

 productivity, all other problems will 

 eventually right themselves more or less 

 satisfactorily and the prosperity of the 

 country be absolutely assured. 



Phosphorus is one of three absolute 

 essentials to plant growth. If you take 

 a flower-pot of clean, sharp sand, con- 

 taining no fertility, and add nitrogen, 

 potash, and phosphorus, plants will grow 

 and thrive. If you leave out any one of 

 these three, the plants cannot grow. Now 

 the natural supply of phosphorus is sur- 

 prisingly, alarmingly small. 



In the early alchemy of the earth, 

 commencing when time was very young, 

 and when the Archean rocks were just 

 beginning to push their way upward 

 through the universal Silurian sea, and 

 then passing on down the inconceivable 

 geologic ages to the advent of man — 

 which was but yesterday — Mother Na- 

 ture industriously and, in most instances, 

 lavishly provided for all the necessities 

 of the human family which was to ap- 

 pear. In most cases it is seen that she 

 allowed a generous margin — enough to 

 provide for use and abuse of the unre- 

 placeable resources. On all sides the 

 earth is found to be a vast storehouse 

 of crude materials which, through the aid 

 of human genius, are convertible into the 

 necessities and luxuries of existence. 

 But in stocking the earth with one neces- 

 sary element Nature certainly overlooked 

 entirely the attributes with which she was 

 to later endow the human family, namely, 

 his tendency in the midst of present 

 plenty to disregard the future. This ele- 

 ment is phosphorus. 



"Now what new crazy scare is this?"" 

 exclaims the thoughtless optimist, the 

 man who blindly preaches that human, 

 ingenuity will solve every problem as it 

 is presented. "We are so tired of this 

 talk of waste! waste! waste! Of being 

 told that our forests are all disappearing;: 

 that our grandchildren will have no coal ; 

 that our iron supplies will not outlast the 

 century. The earth and the air consti- 

 tute a huge reserve of elements. Wheir 

 wood becomes scarce for building, if it 

 ever does, its place will be largely filled! 

 by stone and other earth prodVicts ; when 

 the coal supply gets low, in lOO or 500 

 years, according to the various guessers^ 

 we will use electricity for power and the 

 sun for heat ; when the iron deposits be- 

 come depleted, many centuries hence, we 

 will perhaps have to stop Building ridicu- 

 lous sky-scrapers,, and will then erect 



