Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1908-08-06
NITROGEN TO BE
TAKEN FROM AIR.
Combined with Calcium Oxide, II Is
Already Used ms n Fertilizer.

sit uation. agricultural chemists all over |
the world have been concerned with the |
search for nitrogen. or. rather. for means |
by which that widely distributed hut |
inert gas can be made to serve plant |
growth.
Sir William emphasized tho fact that |
Chlian nitratcs. upon which the world |
depends for It's supply of fertilizer must
soon be exhausted Adequate deposits of
nitrat .s being unknown elsewhere, says
the New York Press. this might mean
the starvation of all plant life and the
consequent suffering and possible sttrVa-
ton of the human race. However. the
modern scientific investigator did not
view tho falling of of the supplies of
nitrate Of soda from South America with
alarm To him the atmosphere. with its
50 pcr cent. Of nitrogen. is vast store
which In the near future Will he made to
contribute to agriculture's needs.
Researches in this direction. therefore,
are of tho deepest interest to all human
itN. The problem OF the chemist has
been to find some means by which the
nitrogen of the atmosphere" can he bound
up in some form in which It can be
transported to the land, and there made
use OF Just as other ntroEenoUs ma
terials are. The work Of each succeed
ing year has brought the prospect of its
evolution nearer.
In the beginning II must be romem-
hercd that the assimilation of nitrates
and nitrogen from the soil is absolute
y necessary to any plants life ana
growth. It has been shown by lnNcSu-
gators. too, that certain plants ntilize
Mt
proper cell termination "A certain amount
Of nitrates must be ass'nllated ny
plants. consequently nitrates' or nitrate
bearing. fertilizers must nc efnp'oFeo'
AS Is we'll known by scientific hrricul-
turists the value or anV tert'Zer' Such
as horse manure. depends upon It's mi
trogen content. Tho deVeiopmeht ~
all plant organisms has been found 10
he proportionatcly feeble ms the amount
OF the nitrogen content OF the SOIL or
fertilizer employed dminishes
Soil conditions greatly influence THIS
assimilation For instance In 1875 III"
buread of soils of the United states
department of agriculture showed con-
clusivelv that loss of nttrat"s in IN"
soil due to suhsoil affections ana CON
seGuent sickly grain and poor yield.
Tho artihcial f"rtili2ers used AZ pres
cnt are manufactured entirely from
Chile saltpeter. This chile saltpot"r
as used contains from Is to 50 per
cent. of nitrate OF SODA aIthongh IN a
number of factories in Chile 1t is gen
orally changed into the so-called raw
I saltpctre," which contains per cent.
of nitrate of soda and In this form
is shipped all over the world. In 1901
r. all cd IN n
of this saltpetre. or this quantity 80
per cent. was used for fertilizer.
| In regard to tho extent of the
Chilian Saltpetre deposits. EdStrom.
Swedish chemist AMI Investigator. has
! calculated that OO,OO0.OOO tons still
| exist Assuming that the exploration
of saltpetre from chill VIII proceed
at the same rate 1t has for the last ten
years, these deposits Will ineNltahlE hH
exhausted in 1904. No new d sits
have ever been discovered. Hence IN"
next generation, If forced to depend
upon nature for nitrat"s. will be- con-
| fronted with n possible world wide
failure of crops and consequent fam
inc and suffering. 1t is this posshil-
ity that lends such Importance to the
| efforts to find some new way Tor OBJ
| tanning nitrogen.
one way of counteracting the short
age of saltpetrc has been to substitute
saltpetre of ammonia. which is OBJ
tanned from gas works. But the sup
ply Is small and is not entirely salts
factory II has been shown by ex-
periments that the use of ammonium
salts on soil containing very little lime
has brought about an acid condition
resulting in complete stcrility An
other ex~ariment has been the pro
duCtion of the necessary nitrogen by
the application of hactcriology It
was found that the artificial proiuc-
tion of a large amount of bacteria in
tho soil and in the seeds of n plant
tended to increase the assimilation OF
nitrogen from the air. This method
however proved to he too costly for
practical use. SO. discouraged in these
directions. scientists have turned to
other methods Of producing nitrogen
compounds. The vast medium. the air
Is most fortunately placed at their
disposal, and 1t is not to be doubted
that the air Will he the future source
OF commercially used article. Chem
lists have now turned to II as hnal
resort.
1t has been found possible tn pre-
pare from n combination or air and
calcium oxide. or common lime, two
products which can be used as fertll-
izcrs. viz. cyanamidc and calcium
nitrate. Tho former Is a compound OF
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