Fitzgerald enterprise., 1902-11-14
SEVENTH LETTER ON AGRICUL.
TURAL CHEMISTRY.
Continuing the Letters of State Chem
ist to Georgia Farmers on AgrlcuI-
tureal OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES of
Fertilizer Materials
Continued.

fertlIlZef materials
Continued.
Cotton seed meal, blood, tankage,
etc., which I have destribed to you
In the last letter, are known as "or
ganic" sources Of ammonia, or rather
of nitrogen. Habit is so strong, you
see, it is hard to get rid of the use
Of that word ammonia. Nitrogen is
much the better term for our use. Be-
sides the organic sources of nitrogen
we also have what are known as the
inorganic sources. have explained
in a previous letter fully the meaning
of these two terms, but lest you may
have forgotten, will stop a moment
to say that an organic substance may
be either vegetable or animal, thus a
leaf, a seed, piece OF meat or of skin
are organic substances. An inorganic
substance is the opposite of these,
and is mineral in its nature, a piece
of rock or Of iron is inorganic The
chief Inorganic source of nitrogen,
then, is nitrate of soda, also commonly
called Chill Saltpetre;" saltpetre be-
cause it has many of the properties of
real saltpetre, which is nitrate of pot
ash and Chill because it is imported
from Chill in South America.
Nitrate of potash or true saltpetre
Is very valuable fertilizing compound,
yielding both nitrogen and potash to
the plant, but 1t is much too expensive
to buy In this form; it Is, therefore,
better, or, rather, cheaper to buy nj
trate Of soda and muriate of potash
separately, and then mix them to-
gether, when we will accomplish prac-
tically the same results from a fertil-
izing standpoint, and for smaller out
lay Of money, than If we bought the
same elements in form of nitrate of
potash. Nitrate Of soda is such an
important salt for fertilizer purposes
that I will SO into some Titled etaiI
about it.
The entire supply at present comes
from the western coast of Chilli. It ex.
tends in narrow strip OF land run
ming north and south for about 260
miles, at an average distance of about
IA miles from the ocean. The country
where 1t is found is desert, it never
rains there and the whole region is
bare OF vegetation and destitute of
water. The nitrate rock is call "ca-
liche" pronounced Ca-lee-chay) and
the best quality has the following CON-
position:
Sodium nitrate, 80 per cent. sodium
chloride rs per cent, sodium sulphate
6 per cent. magnesium sulphate 8 per
cent, insoluble matter IA per cent, So
dunn iodate, sodium nitrite, magnesi-
um chloride, magnesium nitrate. potas-
SUM chloride 1 per cent making tho
whole.
The average quality of "caliche". COLI
tains from 80 to 40 per cent of sodium
nitrate. and the poorest quality worked
ranges from II to 80 per cent sodium
nitrate. The "caliche" occurs from 6
to 10 feet below the surface of the
ground. and the vein or stratum va
rles from foot and half to twelve
feet in thickness.
The process of extracting and sepa-
rating the valuable nitrate of soda
from the rest ow the "caliche" is done
by means of water in which the nj
trate of soda disolves, and from which
1t is crystallized. A description of
the process would be tedious. Suf.
fee 1t to say that a costly plant is re-
quired for the purpose. and that the
work Is so we'll done that the product
when finished contains about 95 uer
cent nitrate Of soda. which is equiva-
lent to 1896 per cent Of Gitrogen, Oh