The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1667 T 
t 
Raw Phosphate Rock In Manure 
For a score of years now there have been numerous 
attempts to show that raw ground phosphate rock may 
ho made available by mixing it with stable manure. 
Of course if such a thing were possible the problem of 
obtaining a supply of available phosphorus on a dairy 
farm would be made easy. All one would need do would 
he to mix the raw phosphate in the manure, and thus 
save all the expense of using sulphuric acid on the 
ground rock to make acid phosphate. After long study 
The advocates of this plan seem to have abandoned it. 
While the use of raw phosphate with manure has given 
emori results, there is no such action in the manure pile 
as would justify any statement that the raw phosphate 
js made equal to acid phosphate.- Dr. .T. G. Lipman. of 
the New Jersey Station, has devised a plan for using 
sulphur with the phosphate rook in manure. This 
makes the rock available, and the process may become 
of great practical importance. The Georgia Experi¬ 
ment Station has recently printed the results of experi¬ 
ments in mixing ground phosphate, cottonseed meal and 
soil. We have asked Dr. Lipman to discuss these ex¬ 
periments, and he does so as follows: 
T HE experiments conducted at the Georgia Ex¬ 
periment Station deal primarily with the possi¬ 
bilities of using cottonseed meal and similar mate¬ 
rials for rendering the phosphoric acid in ground 
phosphate rook available. In the experiments in 
question there were used mixtures of COO pounds of 
ground Florida pebble phosphate, 400 pounds of 
cottonseed meal and 200 pounds of rich garden soil. 
The heaps were kept moist: samples 
were taken from time to time and 
determinations made of total water- 
soluble and citrate-soluble phosphoric 
acid. Determinations were also made 
of the nitrogen present at the dif¬ 
ferent dates of sampling. The re-' 
suits recorded by the Georgia Station 
show' that the maximum amounts of 
available phosphoric acid were cb- 
weeks—at times 
The maximum 
phosphoric acid 
per cent, 
cent. In 
carried on by the Georgia Experiment Station. 
N. J. Experiment Station. 
JACOB G. LIPMAX. 
Hill Farms and Prosperity 
Another View of the Hills 
'‘HERE are hills and hills. At home I look out 
on the same hills as Mrs. Willeox, but I fre¬ 
quently visit a narrow valley, perhaps three miles 
long, on either side of which are gently sloping, 
fertile hills. It is 10 to 12 miles from a small but 
famous city. Not one of the farms on these hills 
has had, so far as I can learn, and certainly does 
not now have, a large dairy. I think I am safe in 
saying that half of the farmers keep only cows 
enough to produce milk for their own use. Small 
flocks of sheep have maintained the fertility. On 
the most fertile farm steers were fattened until that 
ceased to be profitable; since then sheep have been 
These farms are what I might 
call one-man 
the work 
kept. 
farms; that is, a strong man can do all 
with extra help in haying, harvesting, etc. 
Sheep improve pasture land. One man told 
that he can already seen an improvement in 
me 
his 
tained in six to eight 
somewhat earlier, 
amount of available 
at any time found was 6.11 
and the total was 20.81 per 
other words, about one-fourth of the 
total phosphoric acid was made avail¬ 
able in this instance in the course of 
about 12 weeks. In the same heap the 
available phosphoric acid was 1..N4 per 
cent at the beginning of the experiment 
and 3.95 per cent at the end of about 
three to four weeks. After that time 
the amount of available phosphoric 
acid decreased again through the next 
six to seven weeks; increased as 
already noted at the end of about 12 
to 13 weeks, and decreased finally to 
1.11 per cent at the end of about live 
months. 
In another heap the maximum 
amount of available phosphoric acid 
was also 0.95 per cent. The initial 
amount was 1.92 per cent. Hence, 
there was a gain of about 5 per cent 
of available phosphoric acid in a period 
of about six to eight weeks. 
The gain in available phosphoric 
acid is, however, somewhat more than 
losses of ammonia from the cottonseed 
I was discussing this article with the owner of 
one of these farms, a member of my family. He 
said: “If I could buy either of two farms, one in 
the valley and one on the hill, and I could pay cash 
for the hill farm, but had to take a mortgage on the 
valley farm, I would buy the hill farm. I figure 
that the interest money spent on fertilizers would 
develop the hill farm enough to make it the better 
proposition.” 
It is possible to he too near to a good market. 
One man had three pigs, 60 chickens and half his 
potato crop stolen one Fall. Similar losses in suc¬ 
ceeding years compelled him to abandon the farm. 
One of these farmers had two calves which he 
could not sell. He was induced to advertise in the 
daily paper of the city, 12 miles distant. He was 
so dubious of success that he paid for three inser¬ 
tions. Before the ink was dry . on the first, three 
automobiles came; before the third was printed, 12. 
He could have sold the calves several times over. 
A successful merchant said to him: “The first thing 
in selling goods is to have a good article to sell.” 
As for the “farmer of the rich and abundant 
West,” in some parts of Montana they have not had 
a crop for five years. I was visiting 
in Oklahoma one Winter when they 
had a three years’ drought. Bank¬ 
ruptcy faced many of the farmers if it 
continued another year. In Kansas 
they count on crops two years out of 
five. MARGARET GRACE. 
offset by the 
meal during 
the fermentation of the mixtures. The maximum 
losses were found to represent more than two per 
cent of the ammonia out. of a maximum total of 
approximately three per -cent present at the begin¬ 
ning in this raw phosphate rock, cottonseed meal 
and manure experiment. With available phosphoric 
acid to be had in acid phosphate at a market price 
of about seven cents per pound, and with organic 
ammonia costing 30 to 40 cents per pound, the process 
described does not hold out much promise of being 
profitable. It'is possible, of course, that the Georgia 
Experiment Station, after a further series of in¬ 
vestigations in this line, may succeed in both increas¬ 
ing the amount of available phosphoric acid and 
decreasing the losses of ammonia from the cotton¬ 
seed meal. Under those conditions the plan might 
find profitable application. 
Many efforts have been made to increase the 
availability of the phosphoric acid in ground phos¬ 
phate rock by composting it with manure or other 
vegetable and animal materials. 14 seems that the 
fermentation of the vegetable or animal matter 
does lead to the formation of more readily soluble 
phosphates. Unfortunately, however, the bacteria, 
fungi and other micro-organisms present in the 
fermenting mixtures seem to use up the avail¬ 
able phosphates and make them again insoluble, 
'■'lie same tendency is apparent in the experiments 
Bringing In the Squash Crop. Fig. 532 
pastures, although lie has had sheep on them not 
over four years. 
Does "poor soil” mean a poor soil type or a run¬ 
down farm? Strange to say, this narrow valley 
opens into a larger one which is of poorer soil type 
than the hills, according to the United States Soil 
Survey. On both types farmers have made a good 
living without working day and night, except in 
lambing time. One hill farm, which has long had 
the reputation of being “too poor to raise buck¬ 
wheat.” was bought two years ago by a Canadian, 
and the indications are tlwit it was not poor soil but 
poor management which gave it its had name. 
Another farm lay idle for over 20 years, save that 
the hay was cut. On one field “they” said that no 
hay had never been grown, and never could he. The 
first year a man could have carried the hay crop on 
his hack, so far as weight was concerned. It now 
loads. There are several acres 
Alfalfa, and the yield of grain 
of the best of the surrounding 
crops are buckwheat and beans, 
these crops would bring more 
cuts several wagon 
of a good stand of 
is now about that 
farms. The money 
It looks now as if 
money than cabbage and potatoes. They also can 
be held. 1 know a farmer who once hold his beau 
crop three years. Within the last two years four 
men living near this region have bought ton trucks. 
They do the heavy hauling for farmers at a reason¬ 
able rate, and are making money. Last Winter they 
paid the farmers $2 a cord for kindling wood. 
Changes in Wheat Growing 
On page 1532 we spoke of the way 
wheat growing is changing in the West, 
where this grain is raised as a one-crop 
proposition. The following is written by 
Prof. M. R. Benedict of the South Dakota 
College—right in line with what we 
stated: 
S TATEMENTS of large and heavy 
losses in wheat growing are com¬ 
mon. The 1919 crop was produced at 
a very high cost throughout most of 
South Dakota because of the low yield, 
and was sold at a loss. Much of the 
State’s crop is unsatisfactory this year. 
If there is no remedy for this condi¬ 
tion it would seem that the only solu¬ 
tion for the wheat farmer would he to 
abandon wheat growing. Fortunately, 
however, this is not the only way out. 
It lias been the history of most of 
the new sections of this country that 
their first important cash crop was 
wheat. Wheat was easily transport¬ 
able, yielded quick returns, involved 
comparatively little capitalization and 
required little specialization. Conse¬ 
quently it was grown almost to the ex¬ 
clusion of other crops until low pro¬ 
duction made it decidedly unprofitable. 
Such was the history of Illinois, Wisconsin. Iowa 
and even of New York. Lowered fertility, together 
with scab, anthraenose and other diseases, practi¬ 
cally drove out wheat growing from these States. 
After a few years with practically no wheat grow¬ 
ing, most of these States are beginning to grow 
wheat again, hut instead of being the main crop, it 
is a part of a rotation which includes corn and 
clover or other crops. 
The surprising thing is that such States as Ohio 
and Illinois, with their high-priced land, are growing 
wheat at a lower cost per bushel than are the newer 
lands of the Dakotas. The reason for this lies in 
the fact that good crop rotations, good farming 
methods and well-adapted varieties have come into 
more general use in these States than in the West. 
Since higher yield is one of the biggest factous in 
lowering cost per bushel, the cost has in many cases 
been lowered below that of Western growers. 
Wheat growing was driven out of England by the 
cheap wheat produced on the cheap lands of the 
United States, but it is rapidly coming hack, because 
the high yields resulting from good farm practices 
make it profitable. The average yield per acre in 
England and Germany before the war was around 
30 bushels. In the United States it was a trifle over 
14 bushels. It probably would not be desirable to 
bring European methods of farming into the United 
States, but there is much room for improvement in 
present American methods of the culture of wheat 
