The Case of American Potash 
For fear that you may be missing your opportunities 
I enclose this clipping. I doubt the truth of the state¬ 
ments. especially that which states that potash will be 
produced at less “than has heretofore been paid for it 
abroad.” I think that presently farmers and others 
will be invited to buy stock in said companies and get 
rich quick. What do you think? I think all of your 
readers would be interested to know exactly what the 
potash situation is. Personally, I hope the Government 
will give all the encouragement possible to the potash 
manufacturers in the Western States. The clipping 
follows: 
“Shrewsbury, X. J.—Owners of farms along the shore 
having marl under the soil are being offered big acreage 
prices for their land, it is said, by companies organized 
to mine the marl for the potash it contains. 
“The war cut off the potash supply from Germany 
and the quantity that was stored in this country has 
been exhausted. A satisfactory process has been found 
to extract the potash and make it much less than has 
heretofore been paid for it abroad. 
‘‘.Some of the farms are bringing hundreds of dollars 
an acre. The Charles McCue farm, near here, of 40 
acres, was sold for .$21,000.” r. l. ii. 
Wollaston, Mass. 
In reply to this question the following statement is 
made by Dr. J. G. Lipraan of the N. .T. ^experiment 
Station : 
T HERM is lio doubt that European potash will 
become available for use in the United States 
during the coining Summer. Unless import duties 
are placed on potash thus brought into this country 
to protect the American manufactur¬ 
ers of potash fertilizers, there will be 
a very material reduction- in the cost 
of potash to our farmers. It is 
not probable that the prices of im¬ 
ported potash will be as low as they 
were before the war. Nevertheless, 
in order to gain control again of the 
American market, the potash miners 
of Germany and of Alsace-Lorraine 
will be tempted to sell their products 
to us practically at cost. Just what 
this may be is hard to say. 1 have it 
on good authority that, under pre¬ 
war conditions. German potash miners 
could have sold muriate of potash- 
containing 50 per cent of actual 
potash—as low as $15 to $20 per ton 
at the port of entry. 
It is clear in my mind, at any rate, 
that the price of actual potash should 
not be more than 10 cents per pound 
in the coming Summer and Fall. At 
that price potash derived from green¬ 
sand marl or from brines in the West¬ 
ern States would find it difficult to 
compete with the European product. 
It is claimed by manufacturers con¬ 
trolling certain potash patents that 
they will be able to compete with the 
European product when normal con¬ 
ditions are restored. One of the pro¬ 
cesses for extracting potash from 
greensand marl looks promising to 
me. but will have to be tested out 
under the stress of competition. We 
do know that the deposits of green¬ 
sand marl in New Jersey are practi¬ 
cally inexhaustible and that any 
process that would allow the economi¬ 
cal extraction of potash from green¬ 
sand should make us independent of 
the European supply. 
Our Experiment Station has been carrying on 
experiments at Elmer. X. ,1.. on the value of different 
fertilizer mixtures for the production of potatoes. 
Among other matters, we have been studying the 
availability of potash in greensand marl. We have 
results for two growing seasons—those of 1917 and 
191S. These results are very interesting. Prior to 
the planting of the potatoes in 1917 greensand marl 
was applied at the rate of two tons per acre. The 
increase in 1917 from a 4-8-0 fertilizer plus the 
marl, as compared with a similar application of a 
4-s-O fertilizer without the marl, was about 35 
bushels per acre. In 1918 the increase from the 
marl was about 40 bushels per acre. Hence there 
was a total increase of about 75 bushels per acre 
from a single application .of marl at the rate of two 
tons per acre in 1917. It is probable that the full 
effect of the marl has not yet been exhausted and 
that a further increase may be expected in 1919. 
Assuming, however, that no further increase from 
the marl will be apparent in 1919. there are already 
to be credited to the marl 75 bushels of potatoes to 
the acre at. let us say, $1 per bushel. At that rate 
the income from the marl already exceeds the value 
of $35 per ton. If similar results from greensand 
marl can be obtained on other soils, it would seem 
that the use of greensand marl in its natural state, 
or previously calcined and ground, would become a 
commercial possibility. The New Jersey Experiment 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Station is planning experiments for the season of 
1919 to further study this question. If the results 
already at hand are confirmed by additional study, 
we should find in the greensand marls of New Jersey 
a satisfactory and economical source of potash for 
potato production. Jacob, g. lipmax. 
New Jersey Experiment Station. 
Big Questions For American Farmers 
Part II. 
ORGANIZED LABOR.—IIow many farmers today 
realize the peril which they face themselves from 
the attitude of organized labor? You say our farm 
laborers are not organized, and we ai’e not compelled 
to pay them the extravagant prices that are being 
paid to union labor. Very well, but when your farm 
hand who is receiving, we will say. 25 or 30 cents 
an hour, knows that he can go to a hundred sources 
and make 50 cents an hour, does he do his work as 
"ell and as cheerfully as lie did before these labor 
prices went to where they are? Does he keep you 
in hot water all the time for fear he quits and goes 
to a higher-paid place? You know what wage you 
can afford to pay, and you know that it is much less 
than 50 cents an hour, at least for the ordinary run 
All A hoard for a -Job of HUtkhfg. Fitj. 
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Thorough /‘regain I ion of the Seed Bed. Fig llf/f 
of your work. Do you not find that frequently your 
work goes undone because you cannot hire help at a 
price which you can afford to pay? 
LEATHER PRICES.—Now. let us follow the mat¬ 
ter a little further. The manufacturer, the Govern¬ 
ment. and all of the city people pay union labor the 
price that they demand, and one way that this comes 
directly back to us was illustrated very recently. I 
had a few cattle hides to sell. Prices for leather 
are the highest. I presume, in all history. I was 
surprised to see how low a price they offered me for 
my hides, and when I remonstrated, they said that 
labor had become so high now that they could not 
afford to pay the farmer much for the hides. In 
other words, labor was getting their end all right, 
the manufacturer and the retailer were getting 
theirs, we producers take what is left without any 
regard whether our end is fair or not. It will re¬ 
quire very little study on your part to see that this 
principle applies just as well to everything else that 
you produce as it did to these few hides of mine, 
and it will require no effort whatever to show the 
part taken by high-priced labor in bringing about 
this effect. „ 
CA8II VALUE.—Now. all human effort sooner or 
later resolves itself down to the money received, to 
the cash value. What does the city man consider 
a fair return for his labor? What does he consider 
a fair return for the money lie has invested? This 
question is answered first by the price which at 
559 
present is being fixed by labor unions for their serv¬ 
ices. Let us say 60c an hour. How much profit would 
you be able to show on your farm if you paid your 
help 60c an hour, and if you also paid yourself the 
same price for your work? P>ut you are surely 
entitled to a better salary than you pay the men 
who work for you. and you are also entitled to pay 
for your investment. 
RETURNS ON INVESTMENT.—Now, what does 
the city man think is a proper return for money in¬ 
vested? This question I think is very capably 
answered by Swift & Company. This great firm is 
spending thousands of dollars on all of the papers 
to show how reasonable their profits are. They 
show that the producer gets 85c of their $1.00, 
that their operating expenses require 13c. and their 
net profit is 2c. If you will further study their 
figures you will find that they show a net profit of 
9% on the capital invested. This 9% they evidently 
consider reasonable, and. frankly, f consider it so. 
I think that everybody else would so consider it. I 
am not making this argument as any criticism on 
Mr. Swift's business, but to bring about a compari¬ 
son. How many of you can show a 6% profit on your 
investment, let alone 9%? If you cannot show what 
Mr. Swift considers, and all the rest of us consider, 
a very moderate profit of 9 c ' f on the 
_ money invested, then are not your 
profits unreasonably low? And if it 
can be shown, as I think it can, that 
if you allowed yourselves, say 75c 
an hour for your time, and if you 
paid your hands, say 60c an hour, 
that there would probably be no pro¬ 
fits whatever? Then your business 
makes a still poorer showing, and one 
that is decidedly out of line with 
those being operated by the city men. 
Now. it is idle for us to complain that 
conditions are unjust. It is idle for 
us to worry over the fact that they 
will probably be more unjust as union 
labor demands more and more ex¬ 
orbitant wages, unless at the same 
time we plan something to offset 
these troubles which are attacking us. 
THE HELP OF ADVERTISING.— 
I have studied advertising in a good 
many phases, and I am thoroughly in 
sympathy with the ideas brought out 
by Mr. O'Connor. I think these would 
materially help to accomplish what 
we need, but I do not think that they 
will go far enough, and the only 
thing, as I see it. that will go far 
enough is co-operation on our part. 
New York State has really shown the 
nation what can be done with co¬ 
operation among farmers. Your 
Dairymen's League has fought splen¬ 
didly and has achieved a result which 
I think would have beeu impossible 
to handle in any other manner. All 
the advertising in the world, and all 
the showing to city people that your 
farms were being operated at a loss, 
would not, in my opinion, have given 
you a living price had you not beeu 
in position to enforce it. I think that 
the same principle constantly enlarged and intelli¬ 
gently handled can accomplish everything else that 
we need. The problems to be attacked are immense. 
They cannot be handled by a few of us alone. 
CO-OPERATIVE FEEDING.—For instance, before 
we could be sure of a satisfactory price for fat 
cattle, we would, no doubt, have to control at least 
two-thirds of the feeding. In other words, two- 
thirds of the cattle feeders throughout the corn belt 
would have to belong to a co-operative organization 
rlmt was as efficiently managed as is your Dairy¬ 
men's League, and. incidentally. I think the organiza¬ 
tion would have to have teeth to it. just as your 
Dairymen's League had to have. All of these things 
will require considerable time, a good deal of un¬ 
selfish effort on the part of the organizers, and you 
who belong to really strong leagues will have to con¬ 
duct yourselves in a fair-minded and business-like 
manner before other people will follow your example, 
but we believe that your are going to do this. The 
spirit of co-operation is in the air now. and if we 
can point to your organization as one that is fair- 
minded. thoroughly capable and practical, it will do 
much towards bringing other conservative and re¬ 
luctant farmers into similar organizations, that are. 
in my opinion, absolutely required before we can 
obtain justice from the rest of the Nation. 
Ohio. CHARLES B. WING. 
There is one time when most of ns “can do full jus¬ 
tice to our surrouudings." That is dinner Line. 
