The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-04-17

which extract the nitrogen from
the air and put it into the soil.
But a very essential plant food
is phosphorus, which is the one
thing in vegetables combined with
lime which go to make up bone.
Phosphorus is being constantly
drained from the soil because Of
our highly specialized civilization.
The other elements of plant
food may be replaced but not
phosphorus.
IVA is trying to ezld tech
nique whereby this very vital ele-
ment can be restored to our land.
NNE hears a great deal in IVA
~ about The normal cycle of
nature You are told that it was
the intention of nature that ami
mails ate plants and that the ami
mails then died on the land, thus
replacing the elements which they
had removed during that lifetime
for their existence.
The sanitation of the modern
industrial civilization, while splen-
did from the standpoint of pub
lie health, has continued to rob
the land of the materials which it
needs for repleniShment, particu-
larly phosphorus. This very vital
element goes into the making of
bone in animals and thus our
cemeteries which are uncultivated
are richest in phosphorus of any
land tracts now existing in the
United States.
Phosphorus is the limiting fac
tor in plant life and IVA is try
ing to find a method of replacing
it and re-establishing by artificial
means the normal cycle which ma
ture set up in primitive times.
Central Tennessee is rich in
PHOSPHORUS ore and the IVA has
established an experimental sta
ton at Muscle Shoals in Alabama
where they are developing a cheap
method of making fertilizer rich
in this very essential element.
What is the use, IVA scientists
will say, of checking erosion and
putting in crops unless you can
supply the necessary phosphorus
to guarantee continued produc-
tivity of that soil. The only phos-
phoruS which is economically
available now exists in prehistoric
beds of marine fossils. One such
deposit is in Florida, from which
Europe has been wisely drawing
its phosphate for many years. An
other is in Tennessee and there
are a few scattered beds in the
Rocky Mountain states.
IVA hopes by its experiment to
develop a method for extracting
phosphorus SO inexpenSively
from the phosphate ores that any
farmer who is doing anything like
breaking even can afford to keep
his land rich in this element.
THESE fertilizer experiments
l. already have gone far, but the
IVA management is not yet ready
to announce the precise method
for extracting fertilizer from this
ore because they feel that in
short time they will have de-
veloped a brand new method
which will make phosphorus
available to any farmer at rea-
sOnable price.
IVA does not look upon the
farmer as a privileged character.
1t views him as part of our eco
nomic system. 1t knows that his
ruin means the ruin of industry
because his buying power must be
raised if We are to have an
economy Of abundance in America.
The experiments which are now
going on in the Tennessee Valley
in the control Of erosion and the
development Of fertilizers may
make over in the next decade
agriculture in the United States.
Tomorrow-The IVA Test Tube
and transportation.
0ropyright 1895. by The indianapolis
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