310 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
February 14, 192(» 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
What I write this week may not inter¬ 
est most of you, but I will try to make it 
into a broad question. During the past 
year I have had at least 150 questions 
about Barium-phosphate and its value. 
It has become a burden to try to answer 
them privately, and some of the scientific 
men are questioning our position regard¬ 
ing this product. So I think a plain, 
frank talk about it may help. I will take 
up questions as they have been put to me. 
What is Barium-phosphate? 
A mechanical mixture of finely ground 
phosphate roc-k and sulphide of barium. 
Is it the same as basic slag? 
Not in any respect. The slag is a prod¬ 
uct formed by putting lime into the fur¬ 
nace where iron ore is melted. Under 
fierce heat the lime combines with the 
phosphorus in the ore. There is no heat 
or chemistry about Barium-phosphate. 
The ground rock and barium sulphide are 
simply mixed together as salt and pepper 
might be. 
Nor like acid phosphate? 
In no respect whatever. Acid phos¬ 
phate is made by mixing the ground rock 
with sulphuric acid—which gives a fierce 
chemical action. 
Is ground rock alone without heat or 
acid action of any value as a fertilizer? 
In former years I doubted it. We have 
now spent much time studying the use of 
this rock in Illinois and other Western 
States, and I am forced to admit that 
when used with manure or plowed under 
with clover the ground rock does give re¬ 
sults. On a soil low in organic matter I 
do not believe it will pay, and the results 
are not as rapid or sure as with acid 
phosphate. 
Do you mean rock just simply ground 
■fine? 
Just simply ground fine. I remember 
that when the lime question began to 
wake farmers up we were told that burned 
lime was in every way superior to ground 
limestone. That was because the lime¬ 
stone was coarsely ground. Now it seems 
to be admitted that fine lime dust is as ef¬ 
fective as burned lime—provided it can be 
ground fine enough. It has come to be a 
matter of fine grinding. To a certain ex¬ 
tent. I think this will apply to the ground 
phosphate rock. When made into the 
finest dust, I think it will be like the lime¬ 
stone. more available. 
Why, then, do the scientific men so gen¬ 
erally condemn phosphate rock? 
They are conscientious in their position. 
They have worked out a definite plan for 
the use of fertilizers, and know that any 
radical change would be misunderstood 
and misused. If they were to admit, for 
example, that dairymen, with plenty of 
manure and sod to plow under, would 
find phosphate rock a valuable fertilizer, 
an entire army of people with soil abso¬ 
lutely unfitted for such fertilizing would 
rush in and try it, fail and then blame 
the scientists. For example, in a State 
like Ohio the use of mixed fertilizers 
never became as much a part of farming 
as in New Jersey. Thus, the Ohio Ex¬ 
periment Station has been able to show T 
the great value of phosphates when used 
with manure and also to make farmers 
understand the limit of this system. 
What, then, is the theory of all these 
plans for using phosphates? 
The whole things is based on the neces¬ 
sity of treating the phosphates in some 
way so as to make them soluble or avail¬ 
able to plants. In basic slag it is the 
fierce heat that does it. In acid phos¬ 
phate it is the sulphuric acid. Very fine 
grinding will do it, and the bacteria and 
ferments in manure or in organic matter 
will do it to some extent. Dr. Dipman of 
New Jersey has a plan for mixing sulphur 
and phosphate rock in the manure pile. 
This gives much the same action as sul¬ 
phuric acid—only much slower. The acids 
of the soil alone will slowly work on the 
rock. In the Barium-phosphate, as I un¬ 
derstand it, the sulphide of barium helps 
make the phosphate more available. 
How does it work to do this? 
I do not know. Some of the scientific 
men say they can see no reason why it 
should. Others tell me that “it is not im¬ 
possible” that the sulphur in the barium 
sulphide acts much as it does in the Lip- 
man process. I think it does, and I think 
the barium acts somewhat like lime, and 
that it stimulates bacterial life in the soil. 
What makes you think so—you are not 
a scientist? 
I admit that, but we have given this 
material what we call a fair trial, and I 
know many others who have done the 
same. 
What do you call a fair trial? 
Well, we have used, all told, about 
seven tons on various crops. We were 
not able to measure and weigh these crops 
accurately, but farmers know' when a 
crop responds to any particular treat¬ 
ment. 
But what crops? 
Last year we planted in one field sev¬ 
eral acres of sweet corn. The ground was 
well manured and on about one acre we 
broadcast 600 lbs. of Barium-phosphate 
and plowed it in with the manure. In 
every other respect that cornfield had the 
same treatment. When we picked the 
ears every farmers who looked the field 
over said that the ears on that phosphate 
acre were a little larger, and with better 
developed kernels. That is what we 
should expect from phosphorus. 
Wliat else? 
Our most striking result was in an ap¬ 
ple orchard, which has stood for several 
years in sod. Late in the Summer of 1918 
we scattered Barium-phosphate on top of 
the ground under the trees. Then we 
scattered chicken manure on top of the 
phosphate, cut the grass and piled it 
around the trees, on top of the manure. 
My object was to see if the use of this 
phosphate would increase and stimulate 
the fruit buds for the 1919 crop. It did. 
We had last year from that orchard the 
finest fruit we ever raised. In another 
part of the farm, on somewhat different 
soil, we used chicken manure alone. The 
trees grew well, but the fruit was not as 
fine as where we used the phosphate. 
Will the scientific men accept this evi¬ 
dence? 
They accept it, but proceed to tear it 
all apart as inconclusive. They admit 
that the sweet corn experiment may be 
counted as evidence. As for the apples, 
they say I do not know whether the ma¬ 
nure or the phosphate did the business. 
They also say that I should have tried 
slag, phosphate rock and acid phosphate— 
each on other trees, so as to compare 
them. Several of them go so far as to 
say that the result, which meant several 
hundred dollars’ income to me, is of no 
value as an experiment. As I understand 
them, the scientific men desire to find or 
prepare a soil very deficient in phospho¬ 
rus. Then they will take small quantities 
of it and use other materials for compari¬ 
son—to see what plants prefer. A farmer, 
on the other hand, cares less for these 
comparative tests. He wants to know 
what to put on acres of such soil as he 
happens to have on his farm in order to 
raise a paying crop. 
What do practical farmers say? 
Thus far I have heard from 40 to 50 
farmers—some of whom used carload lots 
—all but one report favorably. None of 
them weighed and measured the crop, but 
with such estimates as farmers easily 
make they say that when used with ma¬ 
nure or a green crop plowed under their 
crops evidently made use of the phos¬ 
phate. One man says he used it like any 
other fertilizer in rather thin soil, and 
could not see any results. As nearly as 
I can make out, he used no nitrogen or 
potash with it. 
Have the scientific men really tested it? 
They think so. In Maine the experi¬ 
ment station used it on one-tenth of an 
acre with turnips. Though asked to use 
it with manure, they did not do so, and 
pronounced it inferior to phosphate rock 
alone. In Rhode Island they seem to have 
used it in large flower pots, say a spoon¬ 
ful of the phosphate at a time. From 
these small pot experiments they denounce 
the phosphate, while within 50 miles of 
them farmers are using carload lots suc¬ 
cessfully. In Connecticut the Barium- 
phosphate with manure gave a gain of 
about 10 bushels of corn per acre oyer 
manure with no phosphate. Dr. Jenkins 
cannot see that the Barium-phosphate is 
any better than ground rock. In Massa¬ 
chusetts this phosphate wms used with 
manure. I am not at liberty-to give fig¬ 
ures, but on the whole the Barium-phos¬ 
phate was about equal to acid phosphate. 
In Delaware, on adjoining acres, manure 
and acid phosphate and manure with 
Barium-phosphate (equal money values) 
were used on corn. The Barium-phos¬ 
phate gave an increase of about 15 per 
cent. I think this is the only acre trial 
that any of the officials have attempted. 
Are not these trials fair enough? > 
Not entirely so. from the standpoint of 
a practical farmer. From the very na¬ 
ture of this phosphate its chief value must 
be as a reinforcement for manure. I 
doubt if it can hope to compete fully with 
basic slag or acid phosphate on light soil, 
low in organic matter. I think organic 
matter a necessity in order to obtain full 
results from this phosphate. I think 90 
per cent of the manure used in the East¬ 
ern States fails to give full value, because 
it is not reinforced with some form of 
phosphorus. I think our scientific men 
should go right after it as a material to 
use with manure with the frank under¬ 
standing that manure needs something of 
the sort. 
How could they do it? 
By going to a dozen farms in each of 
the Eastern States and taking one-acre or 
five-acre fields, say. of corn. Have them 
manured as we did for our sweet corn and 
scatter different kinds of phosphates on 
acre lots with the manure. Then treat 
the whole field alike and take accurate 
notes—which we could not do. I think 
it should also be used in the stable under 
observation. I thought that when used 
on the horse manure it prevented much 
of the fly breeding. It also seems like a 
good substance to use on chicken manure. 
I wish that could be tested. 
Is there a quicker way? 
I think so. The Lipman process of mix 
ing sulphur and phosphate rock in manure 
and soil was tried in New Jersey and 
Iowa. They took pots and put the mix¬ 
ture in them, first analyzing the rock and 
then after a time analyze the mixture. In 
every case they found that the sulphur in 
the soil had acted just about like sul¬ 
phuric acid to make the rock available. 
That evidence was generally accepted. 
Now I think the scientific men should do 
the same thing to test out this Barium- 
phosphate. Mix it with soil and manure 
in the pots and we shall have in a small 
way an idea of what happens when on a 
larger scale the phosphate is used with 
manure. 
Have you suggested such a test? 
(Continued on page 332) 
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