Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-01-18
"On Board the
Good Ship Earth
Shall We Starve for Potash :?
BY Herbert Quick

our acts make for or against that
happiness.
There are many lands even now
! which need potassium. We import
millions of dollars of it annually AS
"kainit" and in other forms it IS q
+ very important article of commerce.
The lands which need it most are
mot yet under cultivation to anything
/ like the extent which the future will
require. AS the passengers on the
good ship Earth multiply and need
land, instead of swarming out against
other peoples, they will, let us hope
draw off the water from the lands
that are only just submerged and
reclaim them. In other words, we
shall drain sWamps.
BY doing this we may dry up addi-
tional deck room in the United States
SO al to add to our habitable heritage
an area as big as the three States of
Ohio Indiana and Illinois-about
&c. 600. 900 acres.
We often say of a swamp, Drain
it and it will be the richest land in
the world This is always said, and
in a way it is true. The land of
swamps is usually rich in nitrogen,
in PHOSPHORUS, and most other plant
foods. But watch a cornfield in
drained swamp. and you will often
see the corn turn yellow in July.
and you will note a failure of yield.
This spot is not helping to feed the
passengers. The thing it lacks is
potassium. So, as we drain our
swamps, and as we exhaust the uot-
ash from other lands, we shall need
to put on the fields untold tons of
it, And we do now buy it by the
millions of pounds.
Whence comes it? Nitrogen, we re-
call comes mostly from Chill, 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 awful day of the Lord.
Is there a potash king, then? Yes,
and no. If there is one, he is Kaiser
Wilhelm of Germany. The great po-
tassium beds of the world are in his
realm. 1t lies there, in beds 1000 feet
deep-enough for the world for thou
sands of years. if there we're no other
place from which to get it. There are
no such beds known elsewhere.
But the kaiser dreams no such
dream as that of Colonel North: for
he knows that we can get potash
elsewhere. Not so cheaply, nor in
such accessible masses, but we can
get it. There are plenty of rocks
that contain from to per cent. of
notassium-we may be able to grind
them and extract their potassium
and put it on the land.
And did you ever run over from
the California coast to Santa Cata-
lima island for an outing? If so, 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 have in this weed
a possible source of potash, to the
value of 100000 a year, if we
choose to extract it. And out of the
weed too, would come by-products
like iodine. glue, shellac and paper
Probably these things will in part
or in whole pay for the work, and
the potash may be clear gain. Isn't
which we were unaware in the sea?
For potassium is food, remember
when the crops have worked it up
for us. The Geographical Survey,
too. have recently found small de-
posits of potash in the government
domain-enough for thirty years.
The German potash princes and
the German government have been
little stingy about their potash
lately. We have had a fuss with
them about it. And 1 don't blame
them for looking closely after SO i'm
portant a 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 race, whose very flesh must
be made of the planking of the decks
of the good ship Earth. I'd like to
see shiploads of potash come from
the kelp of California to the hungry
lands of the East, through the Pan
anna canal from those government
works.
See tomorrow's Evening Star for
announcement of the next article in
this great series.