The Banner-Democrat., 1900-10-13
POTASH BETTER THAN GOLD.
A Mine OF 1t Would Be Richer Than
EnIconda.

A Mine OF 1t Would Be Richer Than
GoIeonda.
DR.. Edward Atkinson Of Boston mas
thrown another bombshell among the
scientists gathered at Columbia uni
versity, says the New York Heraid'
The doctor is an Unsuitable inyestiga-
tor and has an interest In practlcai
problems. He presents them to scleh-
tific thinkers in way that ruoeiy
awakens them from their theorizing.
The geologists were discussing rare
minerals.
"Where is the potash of the United
States?' asked the doctor. lhe
world now depends for it's entire sup
ply upon a single mine in Saxony, anu
yet there should be vast de-
posits of that mineral In the
alkaline and salt plains OF TINS
country. Where are they? 1t
is the duty of geologists to find them.
When they are discovered the geoio-
gists to find them will confer
greater blessing upon this country
than they would by unearthening all
the gold and silver in the world.
DR.. Atkinson, in talking of this SUD-
ject, said that some years ago he had
turned his attention to the subject OF
nutrition. He found that the necess-
ary element of nitrogen is contained I'D
the atmosphere in the proportion OF
Il per centum, and that it Is disso'
ciated from the atmosphere only
through the processes of life, deatn
and decomposition. The nitrogen Is
absolutely necessary. 1t is being
rapidly exhausted from the soil, re-
sulting in such impoverished lands
that crops can no longer be produced.
The world will be in want OF 1000
by 1890, Sir William Crookes .prophe-
sled a few years ago, when he OBJ
served this rapid waste of nitrogen.
and did not see where a new supply
was to come from. But what the
great British scientist did not see was
seen by the small pea vine farmers
of the southern states. Compelled to
get a living out of exhausted soil, they
sought a means Of cnriching 1t. They
finally hit upon the pea vine," re-
generated their lands, saved them
selves. and came to the reiie1 OF
science, which soon discovered the
| reason for the thing.
The pea vine. the buckwheat the
| bean-all leguminus plants are breed
ing places for the kind of bacteria that
dissociate the nitrogen from the at
mosphere, and, dying, beneath it as
a rich legacy to the earth, transmut-
| ing an impoverished soil into the fer-
tility of the Nile Valley.
| Crookes said the wheat eaters would
have no wheat to eat by 1880. Inc
southern pea vine farmer says lie
| shall have wheat to eat SO long as
the earth shall be here to give forth
| it's abundance.
"Some one asked me 10 years ago,
| said DIR. Atkinson, what was the
next great discovery of science that
| was needed; and l replied, a cheap
source of nitrogen Bacteria and the
southern farmer have solved that
problem; and the great reservoir OF the
atmosphere is now available, in com
bination with phosphates and potash
to maintain the perpetual fertility oi
the SOIL"
Phosphate has already been found
according to DR.. Atkinson, in sum
cient quantity in the coast lands OF
South Carolina, Florida and Georgia
and in Tennessee to last at least 9
century. Potash is now the problem
that agriculture must face.
All the potash of the world, he said
is now supplied by mine at Stoss
furt, Saxony, Germany. This wa
discovered by accident There was
mine there, and when i
was exhausted the owners though
they could find more salt b!
boring deeper. They bored, throwing
the borings to one side as trash.
A chemist wandered by, was attract
ed by the looks of some of the borings
analyzed them and discovered tina
they were rich in potassium. III
dircers had unwttingly found min
far richer than Potosi, Golconda o
El Dorado.
DIR Atkinson thinks that this his
tory will be repeated in the west. ID
said that he thinks potash should b
found, by deep borings, In the nelgn
borhood of those springs of the wes'
which contain so much potassium tina
ranchers have to keep their cattl
from drinking their waters. 1t ma
also be found in all that region extend
ing from West Virginia to the arr
lands of New Mexico and Arizona.