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Show TO SAVE THE PHOSPHATES. The first tangible result from thU icasion of the National Consrvatiou Commission has been in favor of the agricultural interests of the countr and the action in question is of widespread, wide-spread, national significance. Tlve report prepared for the C0111-imssion C0111-imssion by the U. S. Geological Survey Sur-vey on the phosphate consumption and supply of the United Stales showed such, a startling condition of affairs that vigorous steps were immediately im-mediately taken by the Government, the President ordering the withdrawal withdraw-al from entry of the extensive area of - - phosphate lands recently discovered in the western States. The Gcologi- cal Survey is engaged in the invest i " gation and examination of mineral deposits, but in this instance its work j has resulted in the adoption of pro j visions which arc of vital concern to every farmer in the land. The dc- g scription of the lands withdrawn, H which arc situated in Wyoming, Ida- H ho and Utah, was furnished by the g Survey as a result of a preliminary M examination of the area, and further geologic work will be prosecuted as soon as practicable, in which the lands , will be carefully classified and those found to" be actually underlain with -phosphate will be held, pending action ac-tion by Congress. t At the present rate of production, it was stated, the known available I supply of high grade phosphate rock ' in the United States will last only about fifty years, and it was pointed I out that a large proportion of this is exported for the benefit of foreign farm lands and at the expen'sc of our own. While there is no method of preventing exportation from the eastern east-ern phosphate fields, it is believed 1 to be possible to prohibit export of the I western phosphates, since they are I found largely on Government lands This Western field embraces the larg- I est area of known phosphate beds in the world, and it is unquestioned that it is absolutely necessary to utilize ) these deposits solely for the benefit of the farms of the United States. Phosphoric acid, as is of course well known, is one of the three sub- i stances which must exist in the soil x to insure plant growth. President Van Mise, of the University of Wis-I Wis-I cousin, stated that it had boon shown j as the result of agricultural experi- Imcnt station work in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Illinois, that in 54 years certain cropped soils of those states have been depleted of one-third of their original phosphoric acid 1080 ndunds or 20 pounds per acre Annually. Annual-ly. Applying this rate of exhaustion ! to the 400,000,000 acres of cropped land in the United States, it would rc-t rc-t quire 12,000,000 tons of phosphate rock I annually to merely offset the loss,' or I us much as the total amount which H has been mined from the Florida de- posits. A The rapid rate of increase in the do ll mestic use of phosphate taken in oon- jj ncction with the limited supply is a I matter sufficiently sierious; but tlic , feature which should arouse the great est concern and call forth the most vigorous protest is the exportation of nearly half the output. From this ex- Iportation the United States received practically no benefit, whereas every pound of American phosphate is needed need-ed for American farni lands. The following fol-lowing figures show tire steadily in creasing prdduction of phosphate rock in the United States: Year . Tons. i8no ................................ 510,488 1900 .w............. .,.. 1,491,216 1905 ........M. ,.. i;(947i99 1907 .., 2,265,343 Of the 1907 rroduction, 900,000 tons or jf'rout 40 per cent was exported. Tl'e phosphate rock of South Carolina Caro-lina is nearly exhausedf, and the Florist Flori-st 1 dn deposits, once popularly considered consid-ered practically inexhaustible, have reached their maximum production. They will soon begin to decline. Tennessee has comparatively large deposits, de-posits, but this field alone would at the present rapid rate of increase in rroduction, last only, according to the government geologists, eleven years. There is some phosphate rock in Arkansas; Ar-kansas; but it is of low grade. The large deposits, therefore, of the Public Pub-lic Land States must furnish the most of the phosphate of the future, and to insure the enrichnvent of our own soil from our own phosphate beds some method's must be devised to prevent the profitable business of its exportation. exporta-tion. This, it is believed, can be done only by the Government's retaining title to the public lands underlain with phosphate phos-phate and providing for their development develop-ment by leasing under terms which will forbid exportation. The lands haive therefore been withdrawn by the Secretary of the Interior, as an emergency emer-gency measure, and will ibe reserved pending action by Congress. |