The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1912-07-27
PEOPLES COLUMN

SuCSapcdhc lily, uu., July 20, 1ol1
r CECIL WING:
Dear Sir:-Mine would surely be
soul II l did not utter word OF
1t against the Sabbath Dissertation
occurred last Sunday in Chesa-
City
he hill where the farm stands which
lars another a pFs rliaFfffaatt OF sr5u
was made by Congress to the Department
OF Agriculture, and Investigations have
been carried on by that department In
the hope of developing some practical
method of extracting potash from field
spars and other rocks. OF several scores
of processes already patented, two are
believed 20 be "all but assured sue
cesses.
The most promising field for harvesting
potash is offered by the inexhaustible
meadows of seaweeds at the bottom OF
the ocean. In a bulletin by w. c. Pha-
len, issued by the United States Geolo-
gical Survey, attention is called to a
paper by David NJ Balch on the giant
keeps OF the Pacific coast as sources OF
potash. Here" Mr.. Mitchell excraIms,
sis potash supply readily available for
the use of the farmer. 1t only remains
to devise a plan for reaping the unique
crop; the rest of the process is simple,
for seaweed has been used as a fertilizer
from time immemorial." The ocean lie
vast and inexhaustible reservoir OF
potash. II we attempt to extract the
do EN- ounces OF potash contained in each
ton of seawater We shall find ourselves
engaged in a difficult and unremunera-
tive endr.vor; but along ouI coast there
are growing with the rapidity and the
vigor of the bamboo countless millions
of marine plants, each Of whicn may
store up during its short life from one
to two pounds of chloride ana suiphate
of potassium.
"A ton of air dried kelp in addition TO
valuable by-products can be depended on
for a minimum yield OF 500 pounds of 10
dine. These are worth above $50 in the
markets, and with the addition of the by
products Mr.. Balch conservatively places
! the value of the product of ton of air.
dried kelp at $25. This value ne con
pares with yield of So per ton from the
distillation of wood, which is cut, split,
stacked, seasoned for a year, and after
that period is transported to the plant
for distillation.
THE harvesting and handling of the
kelp, according to Mr.. Balch, should pre-
sent no great difficulty. A steam scow
or launch, manned and fitted with labor
saving devices, could move quickly from
place to place, cut the kelp, draw 1t on
board, carry 1t to shore, and unload cargo
at a minimum cost. The next step would
be to put 1t into condition for transpor-
taton. Dried by wind and sun or by ar
tiiicial methods to point where the weed
is soft and p1iable, ton of kelp would
be reduced, he states, to a ba.e of about
$50 pounds, in which form 1t is easily
transporta BILE, while its contents will
keep indefinitely. The subsequent eX-
traction of the potash and by-products
presents no difficulties. 1t would seem,
therefore, that the Department CT Agrl-
culture is following at least one solution
of the potash pdoblem. One species OF
the KEEP, NereocysIs gigantea, grows at
depth of from sixty to 10 feet. An
other species of nerecocysts fiourishes
in water from fifty to sixty feet in depth,
in patches so dense as to impede navi-
cation, and another giant kelp abounds
from Mexico to Alaska and from Cape
Horn north almost to the equator at a
depth OF about sixty feet. Thls plant at
tains great bulk and during rough wea-
ther 1t is often stra ,ded in vast quaint
ties, entire plants many nunureds OF
pounds in weight strewing the beaches.
Experts OF the Department of Agriculture
have been investigating these kelp fieIAs
of the Pacific Coast and are now con-
sidering the practical proposition of an
nually harvesting the crop. rney have
made sort of survey, during the past
year, of about 100 square miles of these
kelp groves, and Secretary Wilson ex-
presses the greatest conference that the
American people have here an eternal
source of potash, readily available as a
fertili er, which will make the United
States entirely independent of Ger
many"