The St. Mary banner., 1906-07-14
HEW uses FOR GRANITE ROCK
TESTING ITS VALUE AS 4 FERTl-
l!ZER WHEN GROUND FINE.

Use OF valuable ReSultS-lf Sue
cessfuI the Price Of Common
Farming Requisite WIN Be
Cheaper.
Germany. which has long had 4
| monopoly in furnishing carbonate OF
! potash fertilizer to the farmers OF this
| country, will hereafter. be compelled
to seek ether markets for that pro-
duct, If some experiments which are
now being conducted by the Depart
ment OF Agriculture are so success
1ul as officials think they will be, says
the Washington correspondent Of the
New York Mail
These experiments promise to fur
nlsh new fertilizer to consumers in
the United States at price much
lower than has heretofore prevailed.
They are of immense Importance to
agricultural interests, and especially
to tobacco growers of Texas.
Oddly enough, the movement has
its genesis in the bureau Of roads,
which ordinarily has nothing to do
with such subjects as fertilizers. Last
summer, when DR.. Cushman, of the
roads Office, was testing some granite
rock material he was working in the
labatory with very finely powdered
rock
The idea struck him, as it has
struck a good many other chemists.
that it was a shame that this country,
with an unlimited supply of rock high
IN its percentage of potash, should
have to depend on other countries
for its potash salts. No commercial
deposits cf the salts have ever been
found in this country, as in Germany.
He extracted some of the potash
by electricity, then decided that as
ground rock was very cheap it might
be worth while to try the experiment
IF letting the plants do their own
extracting.
He made tests on his own place
and found that the powdered rock
did actually act as a fertilizer, though
the potash it carried was so tied up
that it took the chemistry of nature
to extract it and feed it into the plant.
But the first trial promised we'll
The work was then turned over to
the bureau of plant industry, and
three plots of tobacco were planted in
the greenhouse One of these was
treated with the German fertilizer.
another was left without any ferti-
lizer and the third was fertilized with
finely ground granite. The granite
was high in potash, but it had not
)een treated in any way. and If the
experiment succeeded it simply meant
hat there was a big new field OF
lomC grown fertilizer open to the
armer. ~
Recently the crops of tobacco were
ut The imported fertilizer had pro-
luced a crop green that weighed 1856
The powdered rock produced
crop of 154 pounds and the unfertf-
lied crop was spotted and ran about
90 pounds Or little under.
The crop was examined by experts.
nd, SO far as could be told the leaf
'as not only just as heavy, but of just
S good texture in the rock fertilized
atch as in that on which the i'm
orted fertilizer had been used. The
rop is being dried now, and it viii
Ike long time before it is all pro-
erly cured so that it can be made up
1r smoking and finally tested.
But that was a greenhouse expert
ent, and greenhouse work to field
ork is about like laboratory experi-H
ents to commercial work. What
lcceeds under glass may or may not
success out of doors. But the
partment was so well pleased with
e results that it has tried the new
rtilizer on crops of tobacco in Con-
cticut, Virginia, kentucy and Flori-
These crops are now just getting
der way, and great deal of inter-
is felt in the success of the work
of doors. The principal question
ems to be whether there will be
ough water in the natural rain
l to make the potash in the ground
* available for the plants.
During anything like a fairly wet
lsOn there is little question that
re would be water in plenty. But
S possible that for very dry crop
re will have to be as much as
tn of imported fertilizer added to
native rock.
he commercial value of the work
n the fact that the imported ferti-
r costs in this country about $1OO
IN. The ground rock, on the other
ID, can be produced for about s.
on, and there is SO much of it in
country that runs high in potash
is available for the use that tho
ply could never be cornered.