Show peculiar fertilizer in tasmania tasmania fas manla la Is a great farming farmin g and fruit countr yi and there Is a good local market tor for all the spent oil shale from the distilling retorts the rock from which the oil has been taken sells at 2 per ton for agricultural uses use the assays essays do not disclose any rich fertilizing matter matte r in the spent shale yet when it Is pulverized and distributed over farming lands and garden soils it produces such auch wonderful results as AB to make the demand for it greater than the supply it appears to act on the soil mechanically by aerating it and possibly by condensing moisture from the atmosphere and transferring it to the crops it Is expected that the prices obtainable for the spent shale will eventually adver mining and retorting costs dr arthur selwyn brown in the engineering magazine |