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FARM AND STATION.
SULPHURIC ACID AND
MANURES.
Farmers and others closely concerned
in the use of land are very directly in
terested in having a cheap local supply
of sulphuric acid. That the future pro
gress of the agricultural industry is
practically bound up with the more
frequent uso of fertilizers will
not he denied by any one who
has noticed the most recent signs of
the times. Professor Lowrio not long
ago expressed gratification on account of
the measure of success which lias attended
his persistent advocacy of the policy of
occasionally enriching the land, and not
allowing it to become worked out by con
stant cropping, which takes much away
from it whilst giving nothing in return.
In Bomc places the judicious utilization of
sheep as an adjunct to cereal-growing may
bethe only feasible method of fertilizing the
soil; bub the localities in which it will
pay to apply manure to the land aro
far more numerous than has been
generally admitted. Professor Lowrie
has directed attontion to the impor
tance of trying to discover local
supplies of mineral phosphates, and
there is, indeed, a wide field for the
development of a new mineral industry
in the opening up of any acccssihlo
deposits which may contain the proper
elements of phosphatic plant-food. Still,
probably the kind of manure containing
soluble phosphates' in the smallest
bulk, and therefore most suited for,
carrying in , a sparsely populated
country- like South Australia, will
prove to be superphosphate of lime. The;
main constituents of this fertilizer
are simply burnt bones, but for render-.
ing the plant-food' readily soluble
certain parts of tho bones have to be
attacked and reduced by sulphuric acid. ..
A Common method of making the
manure is to mix two-parts by weight of
burnt bones with one - part of
sulphuric acid and three - parts of
water, allowing the mixture to stand in a
warm place for a few days until the
chemical action has been completed. In
a country like Australia, which possesses
so large a proportion of live stock com
pared with its cultivated area, more pro
fitable use should be made of the bones
of sheep and cattle. Crude bone
imanure is for some purposes in
applicable to the soil, and the
price of" sulphuric acid has greatly mili
tated against its more general conversion
into superphosphates. Several years ago
the Agricultural Department of New
South Wales tried an experiment to
settle the question whether a farmer,
having a large supply of bones on hand
could economically make his own supply
of superphosphate, but the result was not
encouraging, the price, of the acid being
too high. In any country where sulphide
ore is Smelted on a largo scale this con
dition ought not to -continue long. A
sufficient quantity of sulphurous gas is
given o/f from the smelters at Ports Ade
laide, Pirie, and Wallaroo to make far
more superphosphate than South
Australia would require for many years.
Tho Wallaroo and Moonta Company
will probably hike the lead in measures to
obviate the immense waste now incurred.
The practical remarks of the Chairman of
that Company lit.the latent meeting of its
Shareholderswith reference to theproposed
establishment of sulphuric- icid works,
and tho wide local requirement of
the acid for manures, may have already
indicated to our readers how closely in
the future the mining anil agricultural
industries may bo inter-related. In the
early days of the colony the opeiiing-up
of tho first copper mines at Kainmda, the
Burra, and Wallaroo gave a local market
to the farmer; and now it seems most
likely that the .benefit, will be to
some extent mutual, because the farmer
will utilize what lias hitherto been a
waste product of the mining industry.
In this way some classes of mineral do
posits formerly below the payable limit
may now become workable. With a
good demand for sulphuric acid, the
smelters of Swansea, Cardiff, and Glas
gow can profitably treat grades of sul
phide ore so low that they could not
otherwise be turned to any good account.
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