The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1911-11-17
IMPORTS OF POTASH SALTS
INTO THE UNITED STATES

The recent announcement by the
department of agriculture and from
other sources regarding discoveries of
large supplies of potash in the United
States lends interest to a statement
prepared by the bureau of statistics,
department of commerce and labor,
showing that the importation of potash
salts is now running at the rate of
over a million dollars a month and has
aggregated since 1900 approximately
rs million dollars. While these potash
salts enter the country in various
forms and thus under various titles,
including muriate of potash, sulphate
of potash, carbonate of potash, kainit,
etc, their aggregate import value in
the months ending with September,
1911, was liz million dollars, against
about million in the corresponding
months of 1910 and little over mil
lion in the corresponding months of
1909, thus indicating a steady and
rapid growth in the importation of this
class of products. Taking the figures
for fiscal years, the total for 1911 was
IA million dollars, compared with less
than IL million in 1910, less than
million in 1900 and less than two mill
lion in 1890.
The principal classes of potash salts
imported into the United States are,
in the order of magnitude of imports
in the fiscal year 1911: Kainit, 1900
million pounds; muriate of potash, 431
million pounds; sulphate of potash, or
crude saltpeter, 8 million pounds; caus-
tic potash, million pounds; and all
other salts of potash, million pounds
Measured by value the largest impor-
Itations during the year occurred in the
muriate, 61a million dollars; kainit,
II 2-3 million; the sulphate, nearly
million; and the corbanate, three-quar-
ters of a million dollars.
American farms absorb a large pro-
Iprotion of the imported potash salts,
most of which are valuable as fertili-
zers by reaso rof their large content
of potash. This is especially true of
kainit, muriate of potash, and the sui
lphate of potash. Nitrate of potash. or
crude saltpeter, is chiefly used in the
manufacture of gunpowder and nitric
acid caustic potash, in the manufac-
ture of soap; and carbonate of potash,
or potash" as popularity called, OBJ
tanned largely from the ashes of GER
tain land and marine plants, is used
in the manufacture of soft soap, for
cleansing purposes, in dyeing, and for
the emulsifying of oils; while the
chemical and other industries utilize
the foregoing and other potash salts in
the preparation of drugs and medicines
and in other technical processes.
Germany is the chief source of
kainit and, indeed, of all the imported
potash salts except crude saltpeter. OF
the murite imported in 1911, 431 mil
lion pounds, Germany supplied all ex
cept 81 million pounds received from
Belgium and / h million pounds from
the United Kingdom, most of which
was, in each case, presumably, of Ger
man origin Practically all the i'm
ports of sulphate of potash are from
i Germany, and of the % million pounds
of carbonate of potash imported in the
} last fiscal year, Germany is credited
with 16 million pounds, compared with
f less than half that sum from all Other
European countries In the case ot
J nitrate of potash, or crude saltpeter
however, British India is the chic
source, that country being credited
with over million pounds out of {
t total importation of SA million pounds
in the fiscal year which ended June 80
? 1911.