The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1907-12-06
UNACIDULATED
PHOSPHATE ROCK
CRANBERRY JACKSON DISCUSSES
ITS HIGH VALUE AS A
FERTILIZER.
COMPARISONS BY EXPERIMENT
Untreated Rock Yields Twice the
Profit Of Acid Phos-
phate.
lNashville American.l

sion and contention recently as I
! whether or not unacidulated phosphat
rock is of value as a fertilizer whe
placed directly on the soil: There
a law in Tennessee which prohibit
the sale of such material for use as
fertilizer without previous acidulation
Many people contend that the rock 4
as efficient as a fertilizer in an un
calculated form as any other way, anC
many Of those who support this opin
| ion argue that the above law was
enacted merely to protect the interests
of the large fertilizer industries.
CRANBERRY Jackson, who is interested
in the phosphate mines in the Mt
Pleasant field, delivered an interesting
and valuable address on the "Me-
chanical Drying of Phosphate Rock"
before the members of the Engineering
Association of the South Monday
night. In treating Of phosphate rock
as a fertilizer In an untreated stage,
Mr.. Jackson said:
eff We are to accept as true the vari-
Gus reports being issued by the sew
eral State experiment stations and
United States Department of Agricul-
ture on this subject, We can not escape
the conclusion that aciduiation OF the
ground rock is not always a necessary
preliminary to the successful and sat
isfactory use of this material as fer
tilizer; and the owners of phosphate
deposits are making a serious mis-
take when they allow themselves to
be persuaded to any such theory, the
Tennessee law to the contrary not
In support of the above contention |
beg to append the following state
nent from Farmers Bulletin No. 262,
ssued in 1906, from the Office of Ex-
pertinent Stations, United States De-
,artment of Agriculture: "The fer
liking value of the Insoluble phos-
,hate, such as crude foreground Flor
da or Tennessee rock phosphate. as
with the more soluble and
eadily available forms of phosphoric
cid, such as acid phosphate, Thomas
lag, ETC., has been carefully investi-
ated in recent years by a number of
experiment. stations, particularly those
f Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts
nd Ohio, and, while the results have
OF been entirely conclusive, they in
eneral bear out those obtained by
he Main Station, and indicate that
lch phosphates may in many cases
rofitably replace to large extent the
ore expensive phosphates, PARTICULAR
on soils naturally or artificially SUPPL
led with an abundance of decaying
'ganic matter (humus) and with GER
in kinds of crops, especially those =
lving long season of growth and :
18th which early maturity is not an :
lportant consideration. On the other =
md, crops which must be forced In =
cir early stages of growth and
ought to early maturity require y
ore soluble forms of phosphoric =
i'd p
Experiments made by a number Of
lstern experiment stations show :.
Their conclusively that the insoluble
osphates can not be probably used. :.
example, in market gardening on :.
3 light soils best adapted to that !,
rpose, while 1t has been clearly -
by several of the South
i and Western experiment stations
1t, when used In connection with
eral applications OF stable manure
green manures, the cheap insoluble
osphates are about as effective and tn
ch more economical in general mi
ming than the high-priced acid
osphates. The use OF the fine ~
und phosphates or floats IN connec- he
Il
al and other organic matter, the on
OF which in the soil is ho
leved to render the phosphoric acid ell.
re available, has long been prac- int
ID in the South, and the advantages ar,
he practice have been demonstrate rIe
by the Alabama Experiment Sta 70,
The more recent experiments OF ~,
Ohio station showed that when rec
ground phosphate rock was sprink- anC
On barnyard manures at the rate Of cor
Y pounds per ton OF manure 1t not oe o,
acted as a preventive of the loss kid
nitrogen, but was itself improved mt
The floats was appar- son
y as effective as gypsum and kainlt We We
reventing loss OF nitrogen, and at dow
same time reinforced the manure Kid
constituent (phosphoric acid) in wer
II 1t is usually deficient. G. @. . on,