Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-05-01
TRY ODD Fertilizer
GunpoWder as Crop Raiser Is
Tested.
RESULTS AT INDIAN HEAD
Fine Red Tomatoes, Beets and Tur.
nips Come Up on Truck
Patch.
RESULTS AT INDIAN HEAD

Raising crops with gunpoWder Is the
latest sample of government activity. 1t
would seem to the lay mind that gun
powder properly combined with matches
ought to raise almost anything. but in
raising crops it is proposed to combine
the powder with water and use it as
fertilizer
The matter came up when the Navy
Department had lot Of old powder on
hand that it did not know what to do
with. Fashions in powder change almost
as much as they do in clothes. The navy
formerly used the old brown powder.
commonly known as cocoa powder" be-
cause it was brown and had some shred
ded cocoanut husk mixed with 1t as q
binder. This was a quick-burning pow
der and generated lot of gas in a hurry
at the breech of the gun, the pressure de-
creasing rapidly toward the muzzle. In
this case what was needed was gun
with an enormously thick breech COM
paratively short barrel and thin muzzle.
The brown powder made a lot of smoke,
but this was a disadvantage supposed TO
be inseparable from warfare, until the
bright young men fthe navy developed
the present smokeless powder This was
slow-burning and developed almost as
much pressure at the muZzle of the gun
as ii did at the breech. Thus the style
OF gun had to change and the navy was
left with about million and half
pounds of perfectly good but entirely OBJ
solete powder on hand.
Contained Much Potash.
1t happened that the old powder con-
tanned about 50 per cent of potassium nj
trate Potash and nitrogen are both fer
tilizer constituents. In fact. it is over
potash that we have been having diplo-
matte complications with Germany. To
be sure, a million and half pounds OF
pure potash would not have been Very
much for this country TO consume in fer
tilizer. but 1t represented as it stood
about 1000 tons of commercial fertilizer.
and il seemed a pity to have it go to
waste. The Navy Department tried to
..xap it of with Grace Co.. the big
South American traders. who bring IN
most of the nitrates from the Chilean
could not see a use for II even in the
perennial South American revolution.
1t was too big an order for the small
man to handle and too small an order for
the big man to bother with. So. being OF
6 cautious and economical turn of mind,
the authorities at the Indian Head prov
ing grounds turned to the Department OF
Agriculture.
said there was no theoretical reason why
the old powder should not make good
fertilizer. but they would rather some one
else used It, DR.. True, who Is managing
the experiment stations, said he was not
raising crops that way and declined to be
party to the experiment.
Water Truck Patch.
So the naval authorities finally mixed
up some of the brown powder with lib
eraI portion of water dipped straight
from the Indian Head wharf and used It
TO water the truck patch that is grown
on the proving grounds. The result was
happy beyond expectation. The garden
grew tomatoes that were big and red
enough to use for channel buoys, and the
beets and turnips We're almost large and
iridescent enough to be utilized for night
signals.
The next year the experiment was tried
on a larger scale. with almost equal sue
cess, and the Navy Department now has
decided to ship the brown powder around
to Fort Hunt and Fort Washington and
other Conveniently adjacent points and
let them use it to water the lawns with.
What will happen il the officers smoke on
the parade grounds that have been treat
ed this way can be determined only by
actual experiment.