The Detroit times., 1913-01-18
ON BOARD THE GOOD SHIP EARTH"
Shall we Sta,pe for POfashs
BY HERBERT QUICK.

"kanit" and In other forms It is very important
article OF commerce
The lands which need Il most not yet under
cultivation anything like the extent which the future
require As the Passengers the good ship Earth
multiply and need land. instead OF swarming out
against other peoples they WILL let hope, draw on
the water from the lands that are only just SUP,
merged and reclaim them. In other words we shall
drain swamps
BY doing this we may dry up additional deck room
in the United States SO as 70 add to our haoanie
heritage On big the three states OF Ohio,
Indiana, and nlinois-about 100000 acres.
We often say OF a swamp Drain II and II will be
the richest land I'm the world This is always said.
and way II is true The land Of swamps Is usually
rich nitrogen In phosphorus, and most other plant
foods But watch a cornhed in drained swamp, and
you will often the corn turn yellow In July, and
you will failure OF yield This rpot IS not clip
ing feed the Passengers The thing It lacks is po
tassium So a drain our swamps and IS We ex
haust the potash from other lanis we shall need to
buy II by the millions OF pounds.
Whence comes IL? Nitrogen, recall comes
. mostly from Chile and the nitrate beds with which
Colonel North the Nitrate King dreamed OF ruling the
world in that dreadful day when the world should crawl
TO him on its belly for nitrogen-that great and
Is there Potash King, then2 Yes, and no. II
there is one he is Kaiser Wilhelm OF Germany The
great potassium beds Of the world are in his realm.
IL lies there in beds 5000 feet deep-enough for the
world for thousands OF years, II there other
place from which TO get it. There are no such beds
But the Kaiser dreams no such dream as that OF
Colonel North: for he knows that can get potash
elsewhere. Not cheaply In such accessible
masses. but get it. There are plenty OF rocks
be able to grind them and extract their potassium
and put in on the land
And did you ever from the California coast
TO Santa Catalina Island for outing II did you
notice the great fields OF water plant called kelp
that grows in huge beds all along that coast? Well,
the Department of Agriculture has discovered that we
in this weed possible source OF potash to the
value OF $4000O0O0 year. II choose to extract it.
And out OF the weed too, would come by-proiucts like
iodine glue shellac and paper Probably these things
will in part or In whole pay for the work and the
potash may be gain Isn't 1t fine to discover so
much food Of which unaware In the scar
For potassium is food. reconsideration the crops
have worked II up for o.. The Geological Survey, too
have recently found small deposits OF potash in the
government doman-enough for 80 years.
The German potash princes, and the German gov
eminent have been little stingy about their potash
lately We have had fuss with them about II. And
/ don't blame them for looking closely after 80 Inn
portant matter But I'D like to see our government
develop our potash industry by opening up our mines
and setting up works to make potash out OF kelp-for
the benefit of the human whose very flesh must
be made of the planking Of the decks OF the good ship
Earth I'd like to shiploads OF potash come from
the kelp California to the hungry lands OF the East
through the Panama Canal. from those government
works.
See Mondays Times for announcement Of the next
article In this great series