THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
2 2 1 
Arbors and pergolas made with fruit trees as pears and apples. 
Fromow & Sons, Windelsham, Eng. 
[Note and Comment 
TO SAVE THE PHOSPHATES 
I The first tangible result from this session of the National 
Conservation Commission has been in favor of the agri¬ 
cultural interests of the country and the action in question 
is of widespread, national significance. 
The report prepared for the Commission by the United 
States Geological Survey on the phosphate consumption 
and supply of the United States showed such a startling 
condition of affairs that vigorous steps were immediately 
taken by the Government, the President ordering the with¬ 
drawal from entry of the extensive area of phosphate lands 
recently discovered in the western States. The Geological 
Survey is engaged in the investigation and examination of 
mineral deposits but in this instance its work has resulted in 
the adoption of provisions which are of vital concern to 
every farm and every farmer in the land. The description 
of the lands withdrawn, which are situated in Wyoming, 
Idaho and Utah, was furnished by the Survey as a result of 
a preliminary examination of the area, and further geologic 
work will be prosecuted as soon as practicable, in which the 
lands will be carefully classified and those found to be 
actually underlain with phosphate will be held, pending 
action by Congress. 
At the present rate of production, it was stated, the 
known available supply of high grade phosphate rock in the 
United States will last only about fifty years, and it was 
pointed out that a large proportion of this is exported for 
the benefit of foreign farm lands and at the expense of our 
own. While there is no method of preventing exportation 
from the eastern phosphate fields, it is believed to be pos¬ 
sible to prohibit export of the western phosphates, since 
they are found largely on Government lands. This 
western field embraces the largest area of known phosphate 
beds in the world, and it is unquestioned that it is ab¬ 
solutely necessary to utilize these deposits solely for the 
benefit of the farms of the United States. 
Phosphoric acid, as is of course well known, is one of the 
three substances which must exist in the soil to insure 
plant growth. President Van Hise, of the University of 
Wisconsin, stated that it had been shown as the result of 
agricultural experiment station work in Wisconsin, Ohio, 
and Illinois, that in 54 years certain cropped soils of 
those States have been depleted of one third of their 
original phosphoric acid—1080 pounds or 20 pounds per 
acre annually. Applying this rate of exhaustion to the 
400,000;000 acres of cropped land in the United States, it 
would require 12,000,000 tons of phosphate rock annually 
to merely offset the loss, or as much as the total amount 
which has been mined from the Florida deposits. 
The rapid rate of increase in the domestic use of phos¬ 
phate taken in connection with the limited supply is a 
matter sufficiently serious; but the feature which should 
arouse the greatest concern and call forth the most vigorovs 
protest is the exportation of nearly half the output. From 
this exportation the United States received practically no 
benefit, whereas every pound of American phosphate is 
needed for American farm lands. The following figures 
show the steadily increasing production of phosphate rock 
in the United States: 
Phosphate Productions in United States 
YEAR TONS 
1890 . 5 IO ’499 
1900 . 1,491,216 
I 9°5 . 1,947,19° 
i9°7 . 2,265,343 
Of the 1907 production, 900,000 tons or about 40 per 
cent was exported. 
The phosphate rock of South Carolina is nearly ex¬ 
hausted, and the Florida deposits, once popularly considered 
practically inexhaustible, have reached their maximum pro¬ 
duction. They will soon begin to decline. Tennessee has 
comparatively large deposits, but this field alone would at 
the present rapid rate of increase in production last only, 
according to the government geologists, eleven years. 
There is some phosphate rock in Arkansas; but it is of low 
grade. The large deposits, therefore, of the Public Land 
States must furnish the most of the phosphate of the 
future, and to insure the enrichment of our own soil from 
our own phosphate beds some methods must be devised to 
prevent the profitable business of its exportation. 
This, it is believed, can be done only by the Govern¬ 
ment’s retaining title to the public lands underlain with 
phosphate and providing for their development by leasing 
under terms which will forbid exportation. The lands 
have therefore been withdrawn by the Secretary of the 
Interior, as an emergency measure, and will be reserved 
pending action by Congress. 
