phosphate produces more clover, then more clover can be plowed under
on that land; or, if the crops are fed, then more manure can be
returned to the phosphated land than to the land not treated with
phosphate and not producing so large crops. Really the phosphate is
not given full credit for what it has accomplished in the Ohio
experiments; because, while the land receiving phosphated manure has
produced about one-fourth larger crops than the land receiving the
untreated manure, the actual amounts of manure applied have been the
same, whereas one-fourth more manure can be produced from the
phosphated land and if this increased supply of manure were returned
to the land it would increase the supply of nitrogen and thus make
still larger crop yields possible."

"That is surely the way it would work out in practical farming,"
said Mr. West. "I think I did not tell that $4.80 a ton is the
lowest quotation I have been able to get as yet for ground limestone
delivered at Blue Mound Station."

"That would make its use prohibitive," said Percy. "You ought to get
it for just one-fourth of that, or for $1.20 a ton. In Illinois we
can get it delivered a hundred miles from the quarry for $1.20 a
ton. It costs no more for a thirty-ton car of ground limestone than
the farmer receives for a cow; and the cost of a car of fine-ground
natural phosphate is about equal to the price of one horse."

"Of course, our limestone supplies are essentially inexhaustible,"
said Mr. West, "but is that also true of our natural phosphate
deposits?"

"It is not true of the high-grade phosphate," replied Percy; "for,