The Opelousas courier., 1900-10-06
POTASH BETTER THAN GOLD,
A Mine OF 1t Would BE Richer Thar
G0lsonda.

:" ~AAhS VA ~ WOuIO &c Richer Thai
Gole0nda.
DR.. Edward Atkinson of Boston has
thrown another bombshell among the
scientists gathered at Columbia uni.
versfty, says the New York Herald;
The doctor is an Unsuitable investiga=
tor and has an interest In practical
problems. He presents them to scien-
tific thinkers In a way that rudely
aWakens them from their theorizing:
The geologists were discussing fare
minerals,
Where is the potash of the United
States?" asked the doctor. 1.-THE
world now depends for its entire sup
ply upon a single mine in Saxony, and
yet there should be vast de-
posits Of that mineral in the
alkaline and salt plains of this
country. Where are they? It
is the duty of biologists to find them.
When they are discovered the geolo-
gists to find them will confer a
greater blessing upon this country
than they would by u1earthening all
the gold and silver iii the world"
DR.. Atkinson, in talking of this stib-
Ject, said that some years ago he q
turned his attention to the subject OF
nutrition. He found that the necess-
airy element Of nitrogen is contained in
the atmosphere in the proportion Of
u per centum, and that it is disso>
ciated from the atmosphere only
through the processes Of life, death
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 food
by 1880, Sir William Crookes prophe-
sled a few years ago, when he OBJ
served this rapid waste Of nitrogen,
and did not see where q new supply
was to come from. But what the
great British scientist did not see was
cen by the small pea vine' farmers
Of the southern states. Compelled to
get a living out of exhausted soil, they
sought a means of e%nrichlng it. They
finally hit upon the "pea vine," re-
generated their lands, saved them
selves, and came to the relief of
science, which soon discovered the
eason for the thing.
The pea vine, the buckwheat, the
bean-all leguminus plants are breed
ing places for the kind Of bacteria that
associate the nitrogen from the at
mosphere, and, dying, beneath it as
a rich legacy to the earth, transmit
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. The
southern 'pea vine farmer" says he
shall have wheat to eat SO long as
the earth shall be here to give forth
its abundance.
"Some one asked me 10 years ago."
said DR.. Atkinson, 'what was the
next great discovery Of science that
vas 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
hination with nhnsnhates and potash,
to maintain the perpetual fertility of
the soil"
Phosphate has already been found,
according to DIR. Atkinson, in sufh-
pinn& nyrank14r IN tho an0c& fnnfc of
South Carolina, Florida and Georgia,
and in Tennessee to last at least a
century. Potash is now the problem
that agriculture must face.
All the potash of the world, he said,
is now supplied by a mine at Stoss-
furt, Saxony, Germany. This was
discovered by accident. There was a
mine there, and when it
was exhausted the owners thought
they could find nor salt by
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.
analysed them and discovered that
they were rich in potassium. The
diggers had unw.ttingly found a mine
far richer than Potosi, Golconda or
Ell Dorado.
DIR. Atkinson thinks that this his
tory will be repeated in the west. He
said that he thinks potash should be
found, by deep borings, in the neigh
borhood of those springs of the west,
which contain SO much potassium that
ranchers have to keep their cattle
from drinking their waters. 1t may
also be found in all that region extend
ing from West Virginia to the arid
lands of New Mexico and Arizona.