The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-11-07
NITRATE INSURES
|. LARGE WHEAT CROP
Chilean Beds Will Be Ex-
hauSted in From Twenty
to Fifty Years.

Washington, Nov. ct was not until
Sir William Crooks, the great British
scientist, sounded a note of alarm about
q decade ago, regarding shortage in
the worlds wheat supply, that serious
attention was directed to .the nitrogen
problem" 49, -
Nitrate as a fertilizer is the open
sesame to large crops. Consequently
rapidly increasing demand with a rapidly
diminishing supply. 1t has been axlo-
matte that upon nitrogen depended the
maintenance Of the wheat crop at its
''The population of the world is in
creasing 50 rapidly, Sir William
Brooks said, that the supply of wheat
will shortly not be sufficient to feed it.
1 predict the approaching exhaustion of
the worlds stock of fixed nitrogen, the
great fertilizer for wheat, used in ever
Increasing quantities"
He added that the nitrate beds of
Chilli. which are the sole source of the
worlds supply, would possibly last fifty
years If used at the rate of a million tons
a year, but he foresaw its entire exnaus-
ton inside of twenty years.
There is but one solutiOn-it is
thought-the manufacture of nitrogen
from air When ii is realized that land
Welding but 11.9 bushels per acre with
out nitrogen fertilizer will produce 1914
bushels with it, the Importance OF the
problem is seen. Scientists fully realize
they are battling with one of the vital
set out to conquer it in that spirit.
LimitIess Supply.
Ten years has seen such radical prog
ress in chemistry that the element is be-
ing artificiaily produced now. and in
few years more the Chilean beds will be-
come a small factor in the total supply.
The problem, scientists claim. is solved.
The raw product is the atmosphere, when
contains exhaustless quantities Of nitro
gen That this source is lisnitless may be
seen from the fact that there is enough
nitrogen over each square mile of the
than is to be found in all Chill The
secret of extracting nitrogen from the air,
al such cost as to make it CONNER cially
valuable has been learned.
Plainly speaking, nitrogen is manufac-
tured by treating the air to an electrical
Turkish BATH" involving a heat of many
thousand degrees. Enormous power is
required, and unless it is cheap the propo-
sition is impracticable-
Under present conditions water pow
er alone is low enough in cost to
make artificial nitrogen, a commercial
proposition. Comparatively few coGn-
tries have this power in sufficient
measure TO provide the output required
and not so many years ago IL was not
known that the United States had it.
since then, however, the water power
question has assumed a new phase
and what seemed dream then has be-
come almost a commonplace today
Germany and Sweden were the first
countries 10 avail themselves OF the
new process. Scandinavia is rich in
water power, and has proved an adj
mirable field for experimentation.
There are now under construction
processes which will utilize 100000
horse power. The plants have proven
commercial success. and have led TO
movement to establish the nitrogen
manufacture on a great scale ia this
country.
This is the point where the struggle