The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1906-05-08
Potash in Granite Good as
Fertilizer
GREENHOUSE TESTS OF II
Have Been Successful May Partly
Displace the Imported Article
Costs About So
Ton.

Washington, May s.--One series OF
experiments just concluded by the De-
partmcnt Of Agriculture promises TO be-
Of immense value to the farmers Of the
country II furnishing them with d new
supply Of fertilizer at very much cheaper
rates than has ever been possible before.
and al the same time emaneipating This
country from Germany: which has here
toforc furnished our whole supply 81
carbonate Of potash fertilizer. The idea
originated i'll Che Bureau If Roads, u hica
nominally has nothing to do with fertil-
Tigers,
Last summer when DR.. Cushnian of
roads office was working on some gran
| ite road material he was working in tie
Laboratory with very iinely powdered
rock, and the idea struck him, as II has
struck q good many other chemists, that
this country with an unlimited supply
( Of rock high in its percentage uf potash
ought not to be dependent on other
countries Tor III potash salts, Tor there
has never been any commercial deposit
81 & salts foarl III this country as it
Is in Germany He extracted some OF
So ss.gs.. g. csccsiseity though il Is
! ~ nv means certain gel that this can
be done on paying commercial basis.
But then he decided that as ground rock
was very cheap il night be worth wniic
Hi tFv lie Experiment of letting the
mi, IL
the experiment on his own place up the
country AMI found thar the powdered
reck did actually act as Fertilizer.
though the potash il carried was 50 tied
iEp taat Il took the chemistry of nature
to exract il AMI feed it into tie plant.
But the first trial promised we'll.
The work Was teen tunnel over to the
Bureau of Plant Industry and three
plots 81 tobacco were planted IN the
gicenAouse tine III these was treated
with tae imported German fertilizer an
other was left without any fertilizer at
I ali and the third WAS frrtiiMed wish fine
~ ground granite. fhe granite was high
in potash, hut il had not been treated
in any way, and ii the experiment sue
ceedei it simply meant that there was
q big new fled 81 nome grown fertilizer
open to tie farmer Recently the crops
OF tobacco were cut. The Imported fer
Itiiizer hal produced 4 crop gfeen that
weighed l55 poands lac powdered
ls9e4 pro.lacel crop Of I54 pounds and
she iiestiizri cgop was spotted and
pfinas or little M Ter.
Ills crop was examined By experts, and,
ss,A.st ss ssiu, lie zeal was not
a. 4ty ~ tt.x+
texture in lie rock fortified pstea AZ
III the patch on which tAeimported fcstil
izer had been usel The crop is being
dric now. aIi:l i win takc long time
before il j al serncnted and property
cArci 20 that II can te made UP for
smoking and tested in that way.
hut tnat was 1vsennonse experiment
an1 greenhouse work 10 field work is
about like Laboratory experiment. to
commercial work Msat succeeds under
glass may or may not 90 out Of doors.
But the department was 30 well pleased
with the results that 1t has tried the
new fertilizer Oh crops OF tobacco up in
Connecticut. IN Virginia. Kentucky and
Florida. These crops are NOW Just get.
ting under way, and there is great deaf
I Of interest felt in the success OF the
work out of doors. The principal qucs-
ton seems 60 be whether there Will be
enough water in tie natural rainfall 20
make the potash in the grounl rock
available Tor the plants. During anything
ike 4 deeently wet season there Is little
question that there would DO water in
plenty. But IL IS possible that for
very dry crop there viii nave to be as
much as tenth Of imported fertilizer
added 60 the native rock.
Now the commercial value oil the work
is in the fact that The imported fertil-
izer costs in this country about 500
ton. IL is an absolutely necessary fer
tilizer In the tobacco field, and there are
a number OF other crops ON which II Is
used. The ground rock on the other
hand, can be produced for about 50
ton. and there is so much of II in the
country that runs high in potash and il
available for use that the supply could
never be eornered 1t Is true that the
native fertilizer takes about two tons
"a the acre ~ give THE same results 4
one ton Of the soluble imported salts
But it amounts to Sc IN acre for fertil.
izcr against 800. so the result Is not
bad Several mills are already being
erected oae in Maryland and one in
Now England grinding rock for
iist this purpose. and there are q npm-
her Of other concerns that haso tailed
u going into tie business before even
TIE field experiments Of the department
are finished.