Morris tribune., 1898-11-12
THE WORLDS WHEAT.
Continued from Page 8.

we to do? We are born wheat eaters
Other races, vastly superior to us in
numbers, but differing widely in ma
terial and intellectual progress, are eat
ers of Indian corn, rice, millet and 9TH
er grains but none of these grains has
the food value, the concentrated health
sustaining power of wheat, and it is
experience of civilized mankind has set
wheat apart as the fit and proper food
for the development of muscle and
brains
Then comes one more argument,
showing that the price of wheat tends
to increase:
"Cheap production of wheat depends
on variety of causes, varying greatly
in different countries. Taking the cost
of producing given quantity of wheat
in the United Kingdom at 100 shillings,
the cost for the same amount in the
United States is 81 shillings, in India
66 shillings and in Russia 81 shillings,
We require cheap labor, fertile soil, easy
transportation to market, low taxation
and rent and no export or impore du
ties. Labor will rise in price and fertil-
ity diminish as the requisite manurial
constituents in the virgin soil become
exhausted Facility of transportation
to market Will be aided by railways, but
these are slow and costly to construct,
and it will not pay to carry wheat by
rail beyond a certain distance.
Then the laboratory door is opened
and the bread eaters salvation brought
forth, but not all at once. Sir William
likes to work up gradually to his eli
max. Referring to the recognized fact
that all crops require what is called
dominant" manure, he says:
Wheat re-eminently demands nj
trogen, fixed in the form of ammonia or
nitric acid All other necessary constit
uents exist in the soil, but nitrogen is
mainly of atmospheric origin and is
rendered fixed by slow and precari
Gus process which requires a combina-
tion of fare meteorological and geo.
graphical conditions TO enable it to adj
vance at sufficiently rapid rate to be-
come of commercial Importance. I"
Nitrogen, then, is evidently the fairy
godm other which has to work the mir
acle But how? We are not to be made
happy just yet. Sir William ran over
the several available sources of nitrogen,
and little comfort was to be found
therein. First of all, there was the sui
plate of ammonia formed by the distil-
lation of coal in the process of gasmak
ing. But all Europe only produces 400,
600 annual TONS so this is dismissed as
of not much significance.
Guano deposits go by the board in the
same way as being SO near exhaustion.
Next is the discovery of Hellriegel and
Wilfarth that leguminous plants bear
on their roots nodosities Astounding in
bacteria endowed with the property of
fixing atmospheric nitrogen. The sug
gestion therefore arises of cropping the
soil with clover and blowing in the
plant, when its nitrogen assimilation is
complete. But that has already been
done as far as is safe, for the land soon
becomes what is called "clover sick
and turns barren. Another invaluable
source of fixed nitrogen to which Sir
William referred was the sewage and
drainage of the towns. He said:
Individually the amount so lost is
trifing, but multiply the loss by the
number of inhabitants, and we have the
startling fact that in the United King
dom we arc content to hurry down our
drains and water courses into the sea
fixed nitrogen to the value of no less
than 916, 600, 600 per annum. This I'M
speakable waste continues, and no effect
i've and universal method is yet con-
trived of converting sewage into corn.
The store of nitrogen in the atmosphere
is practically unlimited, but it is fixed
and rendered assimilable by plants only
by cosmic processes of extreme sloWness.
The nitrogen which with light heart
we liberate in battleship broadside has
taken millions Ct minute organisms pa
tiently working for centuries to win
from the atmosphere. J"
Nitrate of soda, or Chile saltpeter,
Sir William declared to be the only
available compound con njng sufficient
fixed nitrogen to be N a world
wide scale as nitro1~ is manure
The growing exports CT nitrate from
Chile at present amount to about ], 200,
600 tons. The present world wheat
area is about l63 600, 600 acres.
AT the average Of 1877 bushels per
acre this gires 2,070, 600, 900 bushels
But 80 years hence the demand will be
$500, 600, 600 bushels, and there will
be difficulty in finding the necessary
acreage on which to grow the additional
amount required By increasing the
present yield per acre from 1877 to 90
bushels we should with our present
acreage secure crop of the requisite
amount Now, from IL. to 20 bushels
per acre is moderate increase of pro-
ductiveness, and there is no doubt that
a dressing with nitrate of soda will give
this increase and more. The action Of
nitrate Of soda in improving the yield
of wheat has been studied practically
by Sir John Lawes and Sir Henry
Gilbert on their experimental field at
Rothamstead. This field was sown with
wheat for Is consecutive years without
manure and yielded an average of 11.9
bushels to the acre. For the next Is