[2] Equivalent to 5 to 11 per cent carbonate of lime.
In 8 per cent there was shipped from
Florida 250,000 tons
North Carolina 150,000 tons
South Carolina 200,000 tons
Alabama 125,000 tons
Virginia 150,000 tons
Mississippi 50,000 tons
Louisiana 25,000 tons
Tennessee 25,000 tons
-------
975,000 tons
In Ontario there exists one area of from seventy-five to one hundred
square miles, and another from fifteen to twenty-five miles wide, and 100
miles long of commercial phosphate.
It is found in many other places, but not proven.
Here it occurs in flint and has been worked by farmers in a desultory
way, costing much and yielding little profit to the operators.
On the Lievre River, two and one-half miles from Highfall and twenty
miles from Bushman, there was the famous Watt mine, where, from a
cone-shaped mountain, a vast amount of pure apatite was mined, once
called “Emerald.” Quite a number of deposits have been worked in Canada,
but not any with great profit.
ANALYSIS.
Phosphoric acid 40.868
Fluoride 3.731
Chloride 0.428
Carbonic acid 0.105
Lime 48.475
Calcium 4.168
Magnesia 0.158
Alumina 0.835
Sesqui oxide 0.005
Insoluble 1.150
-------
100.823
Tribasic = 89.219
About the year 1880 a stratum of calcium phosphate was discovered near
Mount Fairview, Tennessee. At first it was not believed to be of great
extent, or good quality, but ere long both were abundantly proven, and a
large quantity of high grade phosphates was mined.
But owing to the rush of producers in every direction, without any system
or unity of action, the crazy competitors soon glutted the market,
forcing the price down below cost of production.
Of recent years, a few big operators have gathered in most of the choice
areas, and by introducing up-to-date methods, etc., have gradually
brought the production down to a normal basis, and the price up to a
profitable figure.
The volume of deposit in this region is very great, extending from about
ten miles south of Mount Pleasant to the line of the Tennessee Central
Railway and beyond, and a width of over fifty miles.
In and about Mount Pleasant the deposit lies under a very thin
over-burden, often only the surface soil of ten feet thickness or width,
a layer of from two to eight feet of white sandstone beneath this, the
substratum of limestone being near the surface, and of vast thickness.
Also somewhat uneven or undulating, making depressions of twenty-five
feet at times, which are in turn filled with the phosphate deposit.
As the topography becomes uneven the plains cease and foothills occur,
the character of the over-burden changes and that of the phosphate
likewise.
As an elevation of 600 feet above sea level is reached, and exceeded, the
over-burden becomes of greater thickness, and chert or flint and some
limestone and conglomerate overlie the phosphate.
In and about Mount Pleasant the deposit is mixed with sand and is soft
and easily excavated from the surface, whereas in the higher altitude,
the same becomes hard as stone and has to be excavated by tunneling under
the chert, as drift mining is done.
The protection of this latter deposit from atmospheric action and
percolating waters, both, or with the compression, renders the phosphate
of higher class. Although the stratum is not so thick as out in the
valley, it ranges from two to six feet. Two is a fair mean. Quite an
extensive area of this deposit has been bought or leased by a Cincinnati
company, which plans to develop same upon an intelligent modern plan and
gradually upon a large scale.
At Mount Pleasant, Mr. John Ruhm, Jr., a college-bred man of rare
intellect and great capacity, has devoted many years to a study and
operation of his phosphate deposits, in the most scientific manner
possible. He has kept in close touch with the most advanced men of the
age, such as Prof. Hopkins of the State University of Illinois, who has
given more time to the study and practice of fertilization than any
man in the United States. Prof. Hopkins finds it necessary to reduce
the phosphates to a 100-mesh fineness to enable him to obtain the best
results, and Mr. Ruhm has for years been experimenting with the grinding
machinery to discover the best and cheapest for this purpose. Only this
year, in July, did he discover that the “Hardinge” tube-mill is, in all
respects, the best machine tested. He got 90 per cent duty from over 200
tons a day at 100-mesh, and some of this over 200-mesh fineness; 100-mesh
is possible, grinding the same either wet or dry.
I had the good fortune to witness these July tests and can confirm Mr.
Ruhm’s claims for his process, which he does not selfishly try to keep,
but generously gives to all who ask information.
The Tennessee phosphates of commerce are not quite as high grade, and do
not command as high a price as others, but this is entirely due to the
careless preparation of same for market. So soon as Mr. Ruhm’s plan is
followed, the grade will be raised, and price follow to topmost.
ANALYSIS.
Phosphoric acid 36.33
Lime 52.08
Oxide of iron 1.36
Aluminum 1.39
Magnesia and carbonic acid 7.17
Insoluble 0.85
-----
99.19
The above represents a mean of about thirty analyses of samples taken
from over a 10,000 acre area, principally from exposed outcrop, hence a
test of protected product would give larger percentages.
As the United States Geological Survey has not been extended over the
area embracing a large part of these phosphate lands, one can only
conjecture concerning their scope although it is safe to assume it to be
very great.
I believe this crude treatment of this question will suffice to suggest
two important facts:
First. That we have available in this country an abundant supply of
phosphates to enable us to replenish the fertility of our soils at a
reasonable cost.
Second. That this feature should be carefully studied by every farmer in
the country, and the maximum result obtained from every acre tilled and
every day’s labor performed.
In addition to the deposits of phosphate in Idaho, Utah and Wyoming,
which only need equal transportation facilities to introduce their
product, we must have others, as yet undiscovered, because few laymen,
and not all engineers, recognize the deposit when found, and it is not
always discoverable without excavation where it does exist.
“A little farm well tilled” can be made to produce more abundantly, more
profitably, than one larger and less effectively handled, hence no
matter how rich and fertile nature may have made your farm, it is hardly
possible that it may not be improved and reward you abundantly for it.
During the summer of 1911, I had the good fortune to be employed to
examine an area of phosphate deposit some fifty miles above Mount
Pleasant in Tennessee, and, in order to better understand the subject,
first visited Mount Pleasant and vicinity to note conditions, progress,
etc., hence my data relative to this section is fresh and new.
I know I am justified in asserting that there is a vast field for
the exploitation of this valuable deposit in this region, with ample
assurance of the development of a vast area that can be profitably worked.
One thing is certain, nowhere can the deposit be more fully determined,
and nowhere be more economically worked, hence this region should become
the most productive of any ere long.
Over an extensive area there is spread out a layer or blanket of this
phosphate rock, lying under a huge mass of chert or flint rock and
resting on a bed of shale or slate, which in turn rests upon a vast bed
of limestone several hundred feet deep.
The phosphate seam is from six inches to four feet in thickness and lies
about 600 feet above sea level and about 150 feet above the valleys that
cut through it, so that tunnels can readily be run in under the seam at
any desired place, and the phosphate be stoped out _ad libitum_.
Only a very small portion of the country has been surveyed by the United
States Geological Survey, hence but little is known of its contents and
characteristics.
But my investigations prove that a very large area contains this deposit,
extending for many miles east and west and north and south from Boma on
the Tennessee Central as a center.
It is therefore quite certain that there is no dearth of this commodity,
and there is not likely to be for many years to come, as other deposits
are likely to be discovered as the known ones are exhausted.
Now! the moral of the foregoing: We have available at reasonable cost
the elements to reënrich our soil. Hence, our farmers should first
cultivate their minds, that they may be able to discover in what elements
their soil is defective, or what is wanting, to enable them to get best
results. A very liberal education should be obtained, if possible, for in
no walk of life is a greater scope of knowledge required and profitable
to a farmer. Then, the farmers should unite all over the country to
endeavor to elevate and ennoble labor and the laborers, which can be done
only by example, by acts and deeds, not by preaching.
Every honor, reward and benefit of every character should be open to and
be given the farmer and artisan laborer, and, in the degree that each
deserves credit for work well done, the reward should follow.
Why not offer prizes for workers? Why not fill all of our executive and
administrative government bodies with the best farmers, business men,
carpenters, etc., instead of lawyers? Just think of it. Everyone knows
lawyers are proverbially poor business men. Yet our Nation, states,
counties and cities all are governed principally by men who privately are
considered as inferior business men.
By compelling the lawyers by some labor, some successful work, to first
prove their business ability and capacity, and making labor—work—the
honest, real basis for the elevation of men and women to places of trust
and profit, and by this course only can labor be exalted and every child
in the land be led to look with pride and pleasure upon the laborers, who
are the true bone and sinew of the world.
Preaching that “labor is ennobling,” then bestowing honor and benefits
upon those who never have cheerfully done a day’s hard work will not
exalt the laborer.
Let us get back to the farm and honor the farmer, that our days may be
long in the land that the Lord has given us, and let the laborer be truly
ennobled.
If farmers “were the founders of civilization,” as Mr. Webster states,
then are they also the main pillars supporting the same, and should be
looked up to, be honored and rewarded as such. And far above any lawyer,
merchant or millionaire, we can trust our workingmen and women. Let us
try it at once, one and all of us.
ADDRESS.
BY E. G. GRIGGS, _President of the National Lumbermen’s Manufacturing
Association_
It was my pleasure to attend the Second Annual Conservation Congress
a year ago in St. Paul. That I am here today representing a lumber
producing delegation would intimate that my interest in these proceedings
is at least perennial. I deplored the introduction of politics and
regretted the delay in publication of the excellent reports submitted
with leave to print at the Congress. Just recently I have read the many
excellent technical reports, the discussion of which I deemed of more
importance to the upbuilding of the conservation movement than the
political outbursts that rankle in our breasts and tend to array class
against class. Conservation is education, and we all have something to
learn. The experience of the older and great states of this Union should
profit the younger and perhaps greater.
As a lumberman, conservation to me is not a theory. It is the proper
utilization of a great heritage and the elimination of waste in the
process of manufacturing and logging. What theory is more vital
commercially to the lumberman than that? The establishment of values will
determine to what extent conservation will be practiced and reforestation
followed. When men devoted to the general welfare of these United States
are giving liberally of their time and money and energy to protect the
vast resources of this country from wasteful extravagance, I feel it is
little enough to expect those who are actively engaged in commercial
enterprises to second their efforts.
The importance of sane laws and wise legislation must be apparent to all
of us. Unless the business interests of the country heed the call and
guide the effort, an outraged public will some day awaken to its lost
opportunities.
As an official of the National Lumber Manufacturers’ Association, I feel
that we, as lumbermen, are vitally interested in the proceedings of this
Congress. I come to you from a state that stands in the front rank as a
lumber producer—a citizenship interested from its lowliest to its highest
in the proper utilization of its wonderful forest growth. It is true
that there is a divergence of opinion among some of our Washington state
officials as to state and federal control—but to me, the important issue
seems a national one. The value of our timber resources is determined
altogether by the demand existing outside our own states. If conservation
depends on values, then I say the price you in the Middle West must pay
for lumber has a great deal to do with reforestation and utilization
of our raw product. It is therefore entirely a national issue, and the
question of supply and demand, that inexorable commercial law, concerns
us all.
I am a strong believer in the knowledge of conditions and in the benefits
of coöperation. The final outcome of the reciprocity pact, conceived, as
it was, in secret, emphasizes the fact that our Canadian brethren intend
to adopt a conservative policy of their own. As a lumberman, I have never
agreed with our honored President in the belief that the trade was a
good one for us. To a man not concerned in politics, it seemed that our
Canadian traders out-traded the Yankee. Why the argument for a permanent
tariff commission, non-partisan and thoroughly competent, should apply
on wool, cotton, steel and not on lumber, hardly appeals to me. Now that
we know where we stand, is it not high time the tariff issues be studied
as in foreign countries, particularly Germany, by a body of experts
permanently engaged, that Congress hear and discuss officially its report
and that facts be placed before the people? I am democratic enough to
still believe in the great American people.
No industry not unduly protected need fear the light or a business
upheaval. Today a presidential year causes stagnation in business, either
assumed or real. Our country never will settle the tariff issue right
until business integrity governs. The revelation in accumulated wealth
and control of millions can only be justified if our country prospers.
Neither should the people be taxed to accumulate swollen fortunes. The
prices at which the same commodities are sold to the people of different
nations ought to determine the tariff issue. America is for Americans;
let us develop our latent resources, not squander our heritage with
prodigality. Golden opportunities or luxurious surroundings do not
warrant idleness, but rather a higher sense of individual and national
responsibilities. To get the best out of that which we have should
concern us all.
Our taxation problems, the methods which have prevailed so long, do not
encourage timber holding. Lumbermen have one crop and yearly taxes, while
the farmer has yearly taxes and annual crops. A timber investment of
$5,000, say at $1.50 per thousand, with taxes and interest compounded, in
twenty years will equal $7.50 per thousand, allowing no profit at all,
nor considering the fire risk. In President Taft’s address a year ago,
he says that “States must legislate to protect their individual holdings
from waste and private greed.” Had the Reciprocity Agreement become a
law, the Nation would have been responsible for an increased competition
and uncalled for development of timber resources in no way beneficial to
the United States, except those speculators who have invested in British
Columbia timber. The development of Canadian timber holdings will not
save our trees as long as growing trees are taxed, capital invested
and timber is sold on time contracts. The more competition, the more
will be left in the woods, as only in the higher grades will there be
profit. Lumber is constantly rising in value because of its increasing
inaccessibility and the distance it has to travel to market.
Why deprive our great lumber producing states of the great purchasing
power resulting from the manufacture of this resource? Over
three-quarters of the cost at the mill of one thousand feet of lumber
represents pay roll, and to the Western states this means outside
capital. Of the money received for 1,000 feet of 2×4’s delivered on a
fifty-cent rate of freight today, the railroad takes $13.00 freight
money, leaving $7.00 to pay for logging, manufacturing, selling and
stumpage. What your retailers charge I do not know. As manufacturers,
we have no trust controlled product and do not control the price to the
consumer. Suffice it to say that there is little or no margin in the
price of common lumber today to the manufacturer. A comparison of the
selling prices at home and abroad, with due regard for grades furnished,
should determine the existence of a lumber trust, and the same reasoning
applies conversely to steel and other industries. Harassed as the
industry has been by government proceedings and investigation of alleged
trust and monopoly, we feel that a great injustice is being done that
should be righted. If the marketing through retailers is not legal, I
predict a commercial upheaval is due in all lines of industry.
Reforestation will come when it is profitable—when the land is more
suitable to grow trees on than to sow annual crops or build cities.
The methods followed in the East will not apply to the South and West.
The character of the timber must be studied to determine how it can be
profitably handled. Its proximity to market, and the rail and water
haul are to be considered. This was emphasized in the Congress last
year and is more apparent today, as the completion of the Panama Canal
approaches. It was stated that adequate and economical transportation
facilities are viewed among the means of conservation, and realizing that
the growth of the country has exceeded its transportation facilities,
I trust a comprehensive resolution will be adopted by this Congress
regarding the Panama Canal tolls. With our coastwise shipping laws and
regulations governing shipments from one American port to another, the
benefits of this canal will be seriously menaced unless Congress acts
intelligently in the matter, and with due regard to the development of
our country. If we are to have tariff revision or free trade, let us at
least be consistent and give to our own manufacturers access to ships on
a competitive basis.
In my judgment, it will not do to merely resolute and spread high
sounding, well-meaning platitudes on the records; we should organize
to actively acquaint our citizenship throughout the states with the
prevailing conditions and the benefits to be derived through experience
of others and knowledge of conditions. Educate the people, and a great
public sentiment will demand improved conditions. The efforts of
conservationists are often misjudged because considered impractical. I
say eliminate the visionary and theoretical, get down to the practical
and immediate remedies. We will have a movement so widespread and
effective that the Nation will rejoice and problems undreamed of now will
be solved by an enlightened, unprejudiced public.
We should encourage men and money in the development of our resources,
but by wise supervision control their operations. This government is
bigger than any of its component parts, and not only have railroads and
corporations felt its guiding hand to their betterment, but the court of
final resort must always and forever be the people of this, our native
land.
Let us strive for the highest type of citizenship which demands the best
that is in us, and we will play our part in the ascendency of the star of
the greatest of empires—the American Republic.
INCREASING THE YIELD BY PROPER CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL
BY A. M. TEN EYCK, _Professor of Farm Management Kansas State
Agricultural College and Superintendent Fort Hays Branch Experiment
Station._
How to increase the acre yield of staple crops is the important problem
which the American farmer must solve in order that the world may not
go hungry, and also that his own prosperity may continue. The average
crop yields in this country are too low. It is possible to double our
acre-yields of staple crops by adopting better farming methods.
There are three principal factors which have to do with increasing crop
yields: (1) increasing the productive power of the land by fertilizing
the soil; (2) planting seed of high-bred and better producing varieties;
(3) practicing proper and more thorough cultivation of the soil.
The work in testing varieties and breeding crops at the Kansas Experiment
Station has shown that it is possible to increase the average yield of
the standard crops in this state twenty-five per cent by the single
factor of introducing and planting pure seed of well-bred and high
producing varieties. To illustrate,[3] one of the improved varieties
of winter wheat grown on the Kansas Agricultural College farm actually
produced twelve and one-half bushels more grain per acre each year,
or a net profit of nearly $7.00 per acre per annum, as an average for
three years, above that produced by common scrub wheat of the same type.
Farmers all over the state who have planted this improved wheat have
reported similar results, the increase in yield from the well-bred wheat
being often much larger than the differences secured at the station.
It is hard to believe that one variety of wheat, improved by breeding
and selection, will outyield another strain of the same variety, which
has not been improved, as much as fifty per cent; but a large number of
reports from reliable Kansas farmers indicate that this has occurred,
when the two strains of wheat were grown in the same field side by side.
[3] See Kansas Experiment Station Bulletin 144.
Corn is more susceptible to soil and climatic changes than wheat, so that
the well-bred seed does not always give the best results from the first
year’s planting; but breeding will tell in the corn crop, as shown by
experiments at the Kansas Station,[4] in which the high-yielding row,
seed has produced from ten to twenty per cent larger yields per acre, and
twenty-five to thirty-five per cent more good seed ears than the average
corn from which the improved strain was originated.
[4] See Bulletin 147.
The possibilities along this line of increasing the yield of corn by the
planting of better seed are shown by the reports which have been received
from Kansas farmers, reporting sixty and eighty-bushel yields where the
average for the county was twenty or thirty bushels.
The soil of our western states is abundantly fertile; but mismanagement
and continuous cropping with corn and wheat have reduced its productive
power. It is possible by the proper use of barnyard manure to double
the yield of corn and increase the yield of wheat thirty-three per
cent, as shown by the results of the experiments at the Station. A
single experiment in manuring wheat land previous to planting to alfalfa
increased the wheat yield thirty-three per cent, and doubled the crops of
alfalfa for the first two years after seeding, making a total increase in
the returns per acre of nearly $45.00 for the three years, or $15.00 net
increase per annum.[5]
[5] See Kansas Experiment Bulletin 155.