Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1899-06-05
is SCORED BY C. WOOD DAVIS
PROOF THAT HE rs A DEALER IN
vAGARIES.
Makes a misrepresentation in Regard
to FertiIizinE Materials and
When COrnercd Admits His
Ignorance - Kansan's
Pertinent Queries.

| explains Itself and is as follows:
Il am in receipt of your letter of May
| %, and must say that its contents are as
| tonishing, especially what is said in re-
lation to your former statements .eSard-
ing the existence of deposits of phosphate
or potash, and | beg leave to direct your
! attention TO the fact that on page OF
the pamphlet edition of the article appear
ing in the Popular Science Monthly in De-
cember last, in referring to the necessity
| for and the existence of fertilZng ma
| terials, you stated that:
g Our enormous supplies of the phos.
pilates of lime and potash give assurance
and our one deficiency. or rather the one
element OF high cost, has been the neces-
sary proportion of nitrogen required to
maintain an even balance in the soil
Again. on page l., in referring 10 the
| future necessity for fertilization, you are
! found saying that: a.. .
- But regard must he given to the fact
that we have the most complete and ade-
quate o. supply of phosphate of lime and
phosphate of potash in the vast deposits
of bone and mineral phosphates of Ten
nessee, kentucky and Florida,
Not only did you thus, inform and as
sumo to instruct the public that we had
enormous, complete. adequate and vast sup
plies of phosphate Of potash, but on April
I, in reply to my specific inquiries as TO the
verities of such deposits and a request to
be informed of the exact location of the
| beds of so rare substance, you wrote:
There are great deposits of phosphate
of lime and potash in Tennessee and Ken
lucky which are now being worked even
more extensively than the phosphates in
| Florida. l have not the exact citation of
| them at hand, but the account of them is
very wonderful The so-called Bluegrass
country, as L understand, gets its extreme
| fertility from fiaky phosphate of lime and
potash in the sedimentary deposit of the
former curve of the gulf which extended
nearly to the Ohio river.
What so astonishes me is that the per-
| son who made such wholly unqualified
| statements in an elaborate article relating
to subject of grave public import, and
then reiterated them in response to inquir-
les directed specifically to the existence
and exact location of the alleged deposits
| should have the assurance after l had in
formed him, and only after so informed,
| that both American and European authori-
ties were in agreement as to the fact of the
non-eNistence of phosphate of potash in a
natural state, and that officials of the
states named had written that it was not
| found in those states, to write me:
e." 1 am not familiar with exact chem
notes (?) that L used the words .'phos-
phate deposits" which crept into print as
| phosphate of potash. AS [ am not familiar
with chemical terms l thought your first
| inquiry had reference merely TO the mineral
phosphates; the misuse of the term phos-
| phate of potash not striking me at the
time. I suppose you are right about that
1t is not material. 1 am aware that we
have no natural deposits of potash
Permit me to ask IL it is not material
whether you are informed upon subject
upon which you assume to instruct the
public? Is 1t not material whether we
have deposits of the very fertilizers which
you tell the public are essential to sue
cessful agriculture, and sufficient world
supply OF bread? Is it not material
whether you are qualified to deal with the
subject of fertilization when you assume,
as in the Popular Science Monthly, to in
struct the public in relation thereto? Are
you as little informed in relation to fertil-
iZers in general, and their terminology, as
you now confess yourself to be in relation
| to chemical ones? Are you as little IA
miiar with the chemical terms you use
in the analyses of foods in the Popular
Science Monthly as you now confess your
self to be with chemical terms in gen.
eral? Should you not-ought you not before
again attempting TO instruct the public in
relation to fertilizers and fertilization to
familiarize yourself with the meaning of
such common chemical terms as pertain to
that branch of huSbandry?
IF, as You now state, you were aware
that we had no natural deposits of potash
| how could you make such Il statement as
| that the one costly element of fertilization
| in which we are deficient is nitrogen! Is
| not potash as essential a soil element as
| nitrogen, and is it much less costly? Is
| not nitrogen an exact chemical term and
| not being familiar with exact chemical
! terms how can you speak with such
| abounding confidence in relation to nitro
| gen? Does not the great authority upon
chemical fertilizers Georges Fille) show
| that the potash usually used in four
! years rotation costs but small percent,
| age less than both the nitrogen and soda
| As potash is speedily washed out of the
| soil by the percolation Of rain water how
| do you explain the existence of it in 'flaky,
| so many centuries after the depositins gulf
| had receded from the vicinity of the Ohio
| river? Is the editorial management of the
| Popular Science Monthly so lax that 'phos.
| phate of potash could creep into print
| in that magazine when your typewritten
| manuscript read phosphate deposits"
Did the statement in relation TO the
| very wonderful accounts of the deposits
of phosphatcs of potash also creep into
| your letter?
rs it not material to the public which
| is expected to confide i'll your statements
whether they are verities. or but the prod
uct of what you. in your last Popular
| science MbHiIlS dEIitlS. term IilttIltttudi
| examinations and which you there con-
| feSs are but Speculatons?
| Having in your letter of May 23rd con-
! fessed that you did not know what you
were saying in your article in the Decem-
| ber Popular Science Monthly, IS it not
| your duty to at once come before the
| public and make a clean breast of ii by
| telling this long-suffering community that
| in all these years. instead of furnishing
| information of value, as the public at one
| time believed was your object, YOU have
| simply been indulging in the pleasant vag
| aries of an active imagination?
| open confession is said to be good for
! the soul. and ii is possible that a full
| course of that regimen might result in your
| mental IL not moral. regeneratinn'