Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-11-06
Potash Deposits in America.


1t is to be hoped that the Depart
ment of Agriculture has not been
misled by it's experts who announce
the discovery of vast deposits OF pot
ash in America. The next precaution
should be that the lions share of the
returns are public and not Individual.
Last spring this country was more
or less aroused over the arbitrary ae-
ton of the German syndicate whleh
lcontrols the product of its potash H.
Idustries. The dispute became acute
land Secretary Wilson and his advis-
ers of the U. S. Department of Agri-
Iculture at once undertook field study
of fertilizer deposits in this country.
That their work has been successful
| beyond what the most optimistic had
dared hope, we are assured.
One of these investigating parties,
| for which Congress appropriated
funds, investigated the phosphate de-
posits. and the other was sent to the
Great Plains region to prospect for
potash. The Department of Agricul-
ture has been accommodating data on
fertilizers for several years, and the
lpresent systematic Investigations is in
tended to correlate much of this infor-
lmation. First of all the department
has come to the rather startling con-
clusion that there is no such thing as
I"worn-out land" This has been a
phrase in use so long that it has come
to be generally accepted as true. An
other thing that points to similar
conclusion is that 80 per cent of the
fertilizers used in the United States is
used east of the Mississippi River ana
IS5 per cent of this is used south of the
Potomac and Ohio.
There is an immense amount of
waste in the phosphate works of the
lSouth, and experiments will be tried
to see whether at present prices it is
worth while to recover this waste
from the phosphate rock dumps.
There have been immense discoveries
of highs grade phosphate rock made in
the northwest recently Idaho, Mon
tana and Wyoming all seem to have
deposits of phosphate rock greater
than all the rest of the world put to-
lgether. AS the cost of transportation
lenters largely into the cost of fertili-
lzer anywhere, efforts will be made to
develop deposits as near as possible to
the places where they will be used.
One of the possible sources from
(which potash may be derived is in as
Isolation with saline deposits left by
the drying up of large bodies of salty
waters, such as are known to have
Iexisted at one time in many of the
lnow desert areas of southwest Oregon,
Nevada, southeast California, in Utah,
Testing these saline deposits some
Knight be found sufficiently rich in
potash to have a commercial value. In
1.-THE light of this investigation the an
lnouncement of Secretary Wilson last
Tuesday is of great interest
The German press, as rule. is in
cined to belittle the results of Amer
Iican discoveries, claiming that freight
rates from the West would prevent
, competition on the eastern coast. This
> may be true to an extent, but the dis
e lcovery of rich potash deposits pre-
e lcludes the holding up of American
= farmers by the German syndicate. The
y Berlin Tageblatt bluntly declares that
y the discovery of potash in America is
Z the first fruits of Germany's short
IS sighted policy. The paper continues
~ that it will be equally easy for the
at United States to manipulate its tariffs
" so as to exclude German fertilizers
r. now that a home supply is available.
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