The St. Johns herald., 1900-12-22
INCREASING ENERGY.
Scientific oDiaisa sE ths KartA's
 Productive Possibilities.
FAA EstsA D1sSsxseAaA, 1see&A ReaAA. DAs0essss aAs PsoAsS0 se Rss- t1ltaAG1es kv A&eas ss Ko-
 taaas Ros~As.

''rhe Problem of Increasing HamAA
 Energy" with special reference to ths
 hsrnessing of the suns energy, is dis
 cussed in the Century, by Nikols TealA-
 To increase materially the pr0dpe-
 tivity of the soil. it must bs more sHse-
 lively fertilised by artificial means. The question of food production rs-
 solves itself, then, into the ,questiou
 how best to fertilixe the coil. What 10
 is that made the soil is still mystery.
 To explain it's origin is probably equiv
 slent to explaining the origin Of life
 itself. The rocks, disintsgretsd by
 moisture and heat and wind and wsath-
 CT. were in themselves not eApASls ot
 maintaining life. Some unexplained
 condition arose, and some new prinel-
 pie came into effect, and the frst layer
 capable Of sustaining low organiazn,
 like mosses, was formed. These, hy
 their life and death, added more of the
 hfs-sustaining quality to the soil and
 higher organisms could then subsiss,
 and so on and on, until at last highly
 developed plant and animal life could dourish. But though the theories are. even now, not in agreement ss to how fertilization is effected, it is fact, onlT too we'll ascertained, that the soil can not indefinitely sustain life, and that some way must be found to supply it with the substanees which have been abstraeted from it by the plants. The chief and most valuable among these substances are compounds of ni- trogen. and the chief production os these is, therefore, the key for the 90 lution of the ail-important food prob lem. Our atmosphere contains an in- exhaustibfe supply of nitrogen. and could we but oxidixe it and produce these compounds, sn incslculshls ben cit for mankind would follow.
 Long ago this idea took powerful hold on the imagination of scisntiAe men, but an enicient means for accom- plshing this result could not bs as, vised. The problem was rendered aR tremsly difficult by the extraordinary inertness of the nitrogen. which F1 fuses to combine even with oxygen Baf here electricity comes to our sid: ths dormant sfnnities of the clements Aes oWoAGheu " oA SesS pG1S SdxE Eeoe o& s&8 proper qualities.
 "In the manufacture of nitrogss compounds by shis method, of eouTss every possible mesnS bearing upon tAs intensity of this action and the e4t eiency of the process will be taken s4 vantage of, and. besides. special sr rangements will be provided for the nxAtion of the compounds formed. ss they are generally unstable, the nitro, lapse of time. Steam is a simple sndet feetive neans for fixing permanently the eompounda. The result illustrated makes it practicable to oxidEEe the s& mospheric nitrogen in unlimited quAn. titles, merely by the use of cheap me chaniesI power and Ample electrical apparatus. In this manner many com pounds of nitrogen may be menufse. tured all over the world. at . email cost, and in any desired amount, and by means of these eompounds the soil can be tertilized and it's produetivenesa increased. An abundance of cheap and heslthful food, not srti. heiel. but such as we are accustomed to, may thus be obtained. This new and inexhaustible source of food sup ply will be of incaleuisble benefit tc for it will enormously con tribute to the increase of the human mass, and thus add immensely to hu- man energy. Soon, hope, the world will see the beginning of an industry which, in time to come, will, belieye be in importance next to that of iron