nto England rose and far exceeded those into France
where, between 1857 and 1867, about 50,000 tons were annually received.

The other great advance in the use of phosphatic plant nutrients started
with Liebig's recommendation (1840) to treat bones with sulfuric acid
for solubilization. This idea was not entirely new; since 1832, a
production of a "superphosphate" from bones and sulfuric acid had been
in progress at Prague. At Rothamsted in 1842, John Bennet Lawes
obtained a patent on the manufacture of superphosphate. Other
manufactures in England followed and were successful, although James
Muspratt (1793-1886) at Newton lost much time and "some thousands of
pounds" on Liebig's idea of a "mineral manure."

[Illustration: Figure 8.--FLORIDA LAND-PEBBLE PHOSPHATE MINING. (From
Carroll D. Wright, _The Phosphate Industry of the United States ..._,
plate facing page 58.)]

It was difficult enough to establish the efficacy of bones and
artificially produced phosphates in promoting the growth of plants under
special conditions of soils and climate; therefore, the question as to
the action of phosphates in the growing plant was not even seriously
formulated at that time. The beneficial effects were obvious enough to
increase the use of phosphates as plant nutrients and to call for new
sources of supply. Active developments of phosphate mining and treating
started in South Carolina in 1867, and in Florida in 1888.[25]

In a reciprocal action, more phosphate application to soils stimulated
increasing research on the conditions and reactions obtaining in the
complex and varying compositions called soil. The findings of
bacteriologists made it clear that physics and chemistry had to be
amplified by biology for a real understanding of fertilizer effects.
After 1900, for example, Julius Stoklasa (1857-1936) pointed out that
bacterial action in soil solubilizes water-insoluble phosphates and
makes them available to the plants.[26]

[Illustration: Figure 9.--FLORIDA RIVER-PEBBLE PHOSPHATE MINING. (From
Carroll D. Wright, _The Phosphate Industry of the United States ..._,
plate facing page 64.)]

The insight into the importance of phosphorus in organisms, especially
since Liebig's time, is reflected in the work of Friedrich Nietzsche
(1844-1900). This "re-valuator of all values" who modestly said of
himself: "I am dynamite!" once explained the human temperaments as
caused by the inorganic salts they contain: "The differences in