The Savannah morning news., 1904-09-11
SCIENCE ALONE CAN SAVE =
A WORLD FROM STARVING.

Nl9We
The greatest part of the atmosphere
consists of the gas called nitrogen.
and compounds of this same SUBJ
stance nitrogen enter into the most
intimate constitution of all living it's
sue, animal or vegetable.
Free nitrogen, the gas which exists
in such enormous masses in the air.
is of no service to the plant or the
animal, yet the plant is absolutely de-
pendent for its life on being able to
obtain some of the simpler compounds.
nitrates of ammonia, of this same ele-
ment. Thus provided, and it only re-
qures about one five-hundredth of its
weight, it is able to feed and grow.
building up those elaborate compounds
which animals in their turn feed upon.
Thus the worlds stock of nitrogen
compounds goes round in endless cycle.
the plant taking the simplest forms and
celebrating them, the animal bringing
these completes back to the starting
point. All the time, however, the great
stock of nitrogen gas in the atmosphere
stands outside the cycle.
On the whole also the worlds
stock is diminishing. When we burn
coal or wood the small proportion ap-
propriate to all plant tissue is set free
from its combination and goes to swell
the uncombined mass of nitrogen in
the air; all our explosives again owe
their energy to the sudden transition
from certain dry accumulated stores
which are working very hard, such as
the beds of nitrate of soda in Chill
and of guano on various tropical is
let's and the nitrogen which is recov-
cred as sulphate of ammonia when
coal is turned into gas or coke.
Even in the use of a fertilizer some
inevitable waste goes on; if a certain
amount of nitrogen as nitrate of soda
be converted into crop and after con-
sumption by stock be reconverted into
manure there is a loss, and the farm
as a whole is not enriched by quite the
quantity of nitrogen introduced. For
these reasons many people have con-
ceiVed that the world must gradually
become less and less able to support
its population Sir William Crookes,
in his British Association address in
1885, prophesied that the worlds wheat
area was nearing it's limits, and that
there no longer remained that indefinite
area of virgin soil which the wheat
grower could break up year by year.
hence he foresaw the near approach of
a time when it would only be possible
TO continue to feed the worlds popula-
ton by increasing the production Of
wheat per acre through the use of fer
tilizer nitrogen.
If then the combined nitrogen in the
world is both limited and suffering
waste the ultimate outlook is starva-
ton unless there are some compensat-
ing influences at work which will render
available the great masss of FIRE nitro
gen gas in the atmosphere.
Of course some of these compensat-
ing influences are well known; the
beneficial effects accruing to the land
from the growth of such crops as
clover is piece of farming experience
old enough to be inshrined in the
Georges. Certain bacteria dwell on
the root of the clover plant, and are
able to seize upon free nitrogen and
bring it into combination.
Two processes for utilizing the free
nitrogen of the air at present seem to
be on the brink of success. By one
method the substance calcium carbide,
with which we are familiar in our BIZ
cycle lamps, forms a kind of internle-
diary. This substance is made by di-
rectlng a great electric current upon
a mixture of chalk and coal, and if at
the moment of it's formation the nitro
gen gas of the atmosphere is also al
e to play upon the mixture,
II is swept into the combination.
The resulting body, calcium cyana-
mlde, gives off ammonia in contact
with water. and can be so applied to
the land as a manure. It's manufacture
has already passed the experimental
stage, and the first field trial of it's
value as a manure in this country are
being made at Rothamsted on the cur
rent crops.
The second process is one indicated
by Sir William Crookes six years ago,
and consists merely in using the cleo
trlc current to make the nitrogen and
oxygen of the atmosphere burn togeth-
er until they reach the state of nitric
acid.
On the theoretical side, the process is
simple enough, the working difficulties
now appear to have been overcome, and
one of the great companies which draw
their power for generating electricity
from Niagara is preparing to put on
the market a crude nitrate of soda thus
manufactured from the nitrogen of the
atmosphere. Not only are we thus able
10 repair the wastage of combined nj
trogen that was going on, but we are
promised 1t far more cheaply than it
mas been obtainable from other
sources. At the present time combined
nitrogen costs the farmer about seven
pence a pound in whatever form he
Buys it. Advocates of both electrical
methods declare they can produce at
half that price with profit. If so we
DO not hesitate to say it will mean a
sensible cheapening of food of all
Kinds the world over.