Quoting "Beckert, Shawn" <shawn.beckert@...>:

Thanks for the list of cars spotted at Farmers Coop in 1947-48.
This gives me a feel for what kind of loads were moving in and
out of the facility. Wonder what the phosphate was for?

For a number of years following W.W. II one of the governmental
agricultural "assistance" programs provided phospate at extremely
low prices to encourage farmers to put something back into their soil.
I have photos of four to six carloads at a time being unloaded at the
teamtracks in Morrisville, VT in the late 1940's and early 1950's.
The results of that program were not always good because the phosphate
was only one of three groups of nutrients needed. As an example, when I
first bought my present home roughly twenty years ago I had to have
fertilizer custom blended for two years to get the soil equation back
into balance from the over use of cheap phosphate.

I could go into more detail but this should suffice to answer your
question without going too far off topic. BUt all of the phosphate that
I ever saw used from that program came in boxcars in 85 lb. bags. A couple
of car loads made a long days work!

Take care, Don Valentine