Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 January 1912 — ROCK IN OUR RIVER IS 94 PER CENT PURE LIME. [ARTICLE]

ROCK IN OUR RIVER IS 94 PER CENT PURE LIME.

B. Forsythe Has Report of Purdue Chemist Who Recommends It as Excellent Fertiliser. B. Forsythe recently sent to Purdue University samples of the river limestone rock for analysis and the chemist reports that the sample has a neutralizing power equal to 94 per cent pure limestone and on soil which is acid and in need of lime it would be an excellent quality if properly ground. This means that it would be just the fertilizer needed in very much of this country. Mr. Forsythe’s study of soil fertilizers for the past two years by means of correspondence with the surrounding state experiment stations has caused him to reach the conclusion that the only fertilizer the farmer can afford to buy is fine ground rock iphosphate and limestone, as they are soil builders and only need to be used once in five or six' years. The limestone can be furnished here at less tihan 50 cents a ton. Rock phosphate delivered from the southern states at $7.60 to $8.50 per ton. For further information address a postal card to any of the following experiment stations and ask for literature on how to fertilize the soil. Write to the Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station, Urbana, 111., Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind.; or Agricultural Station, Wooster, Ohio. The Urbana people tell the farmers not to use commercial fertilizers, as ; they only stimulate the soil and will burn up your soil in no time, also , that the farmers of Illinois spent over $200,000 last yekr for rock phosphate Land to produce the same amount of grain with commercial fertilizers ‘ would have cost ten times as much or $2,000,000. Illinois experiment station circular of 1911 proved that for a cost of $1 i per acre for rock phosphate they Increased eorn crops 20 to 29 bushels 1 per acre. Illinois worn out soil that produced only 25 bwahels of corn per acre by !- rotating crops and plowing under heavy crops of clover increased corn to 54 bushels per acre. The same land treated with $1 worth of rock phosphate and plowing under heavy crop of elover increased the cfop to 83 bushels per acre, a gain of 28 bushels per acre. It is reported that George Ade, who i farms on a scientific basis, has used about 300 tons of rock phosphate and about 300 ton of rock phosphate and ! Mr. Forsythe will have a thirty-ton | car here about March Ist for experi- ’ mental use on his big farm northr west of Rensselaer.