The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1912-09-28
NITROGEN OF THE AIR.
How Ii il Made Available i'm Fertilizer
Production.

Manufacturers Record.
Among the many important enter
prises being carried forward in the
south there is. perhaps, none Of
broader significance than that of .
southern lectro-Chemical Co., at
Nitrolee, ). c., near the power de-
vxeiopment of the Southern Power
Co., at Great Falls where by the use
of high degree OF electric heat. nj
rogen Is gathered from the air and
converted into nitric acid. This, be-
ing sprayed upon limestone. forms
calcium nitrate, a substance used in
place of nitrate Of soda in the manu-
facture of fertilizers. The Southern
Electro Chemical Co. has not been in
operation long, but it is said il has
found Its business thus far so success
fut that it will largely increase its
plant within a short time. A similar
plant is being erected by the Ameri-
can Cynamid Co. at Nigara Falls.
which will install like one at some
point in Alabama in connection with
the power development Of the Ala
bama Interstate Power Co., a million
dollars of European money having
been already secured for this Ala
Dama nitrate plant. This will doubt
less be followed by other plants in
various sections Of the south, where
large amounts of hydro electric DOW
er can be economically developed. In
this connection an article by Walde-
mar kaempfiert in the Outlook for
August is of absorbing interest, deal
ing. as II does. with the growing
need Of the world for the refertiliza-
ton of the soil in order that the peo-
pie may have bread and clothing. and
the discoveries made by scientists in
connection with the need, and some
Of it's leading features are summarize
ed here.
For centuries agriculturists have
known that they could perpetuate the
productivity of their farms by crop
rotation, whereas succession Of
crops of one kind would absolutely
exhaust 1t. The favorite rotation was
root" crop. barley, clover, wheat.
system which experience taught was
invaluable in soil treatment, but the
reason for which was hidden. Final
ly. German bacteriologist named
Hellriegell discovered and demon
strated the fact that the reason soil
was benefited by root" crops. leg
umes. or pod bearers was that there
clustered about the roots Of these
Jumps or knoules, each Of which con-
sisted Of whole colony Of bacteria.
and each bacterium was in itself a
laboratory in which the nitrogen was
gathered from the air and conveyed
to the roots, which absorbed and pro-
fitted by 1t. In other words, it was
learned by Hellriegell and by him
taught to the world, that leguminous
crops restore fertility to exhausted
soil because they gather the nitrogen
from the atmosphere and transfer it
tO the soil.
For hundreds Of years farmers have
known that barnyard manure spread
upon land makes it more fertile. but
they did not know why il did so until
modern chemists told them it was be-
cause the manure contained nitrogen
IN such form that it could be readily
absorbed by growing plants.
The process Of restoring soil fertil-
ity by means of crop rotation is, in
the nature of things, slow one: the
supply of animal manure is too small
in comparison with the large and con-
stantly increasing demand for fer
tillZation to be depended upon, and so
1t became necessary that some other
means of refcrtiliZation be found.
more rapid than the use Of lcgumes,
more certain than the use of barnyard
manure. The discovery in Chile of
vast deposits Of sodium nitrate. or
saltpeter. seemed for a time to have
solved the problem, and for IA num-
ber of years millions of tons of that
substance have been mined and ship
ped TO the various countries O Eu-
rope and America. 1t was thought
that the 1920 square miles of salt
peter bearing land owned by the gov
ernment and the three or four times
that area owned by private individ-
uals would produce q sufficient guam
tity to supply the world for centuries
until expert engineers. after examina-
ton, reported that the deposits would
probably be exhausted in ffty years