Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-05-24
WHAT THE GOVERNMENT IS DOING
BY RAYMOND W. PULLMAN.

BY RAYMOND W. PULLMAN.
The greatest problem Of today, accord
ing to many scientists of the federal
| government, is to keep
Greater the millions of the peo-
Cereal Yield. PIE pie, Of the, the world 4 from rom
in 1898 that Sir William Crookes sound
ed the first note of alarm as to the pos
sibility of nourishing the prospective mil
lions Of America and Europe in the COM
ing years. He based his calculations
chiefly on the limited area OF land suit
able for the profitable cultivation OF
cereals. He estimated that the bread
eaters in the world in that year num-
bered 516O00,0O0 and that they were in
creasing at the rate Of 5000, 600 annually.
Taking the maximum number Of acres
possible in the world for the growth OF
wheat the per capita consumption, the
average yield per acre of wheat and the
probable increase in the population. he
| figured that the world would go hungry
before the year 1910.
At that time. with bumper crops that
were SO great that we could ship mill
lions and millions of dollars worth to
| Europe, the United States paid but little
heed to the warning of the eminent Eng
fish scientist. but today. with the ex-
ports OF foodstuffs almost nil. and find
ing it difficult to supply our own needs
with prices continually soaring, this
| country is beginning to give some seri-
Gus thought to the problem.
Officials of the Department of Agricul-
ture more than a year ago made the
statement that the time for pioneer inva-
sion of virgin territory had passed in the
United States, and that in a broad way
| the country was now settled. 1t further
stated that any great increase in crops,
| to meet the increasing demands Of a
growing population, must come from the
adoption of more modern and intensive
agricultural methods, and that one i'm
portant way to obtain these methods was
through the use of fertilizers. This has
| led to a careful survey of the fertilizer
| resources Of this country with some rath-
| er astounding results. In the first place,
the United States is now spending each
cent Of this being used in the south At
| lantic states. Agricultural experts say
that this expenditure must be increased
several fold within the next few years.
| if the crops are to keep pace with the
population.
OF the s12O ,o00, 900 being spent for fer
tilizers. more than s32,O 100000 goes abroad
for the purchase Of nitrogen in its vari-
GUS combinations and over half of this
| sum is expended for single item and
| realization that the nitrate deposits of
Chile are not particularly extensive and
are destined at an early date to complete
exhaustion has been additional in
centive toward the search for fertilizer
resources in the United States.
The investigation has further shown
| that the United States Is annually i'm
porting $5,30O,O0O worth of ammonium
sulphate. one of the important sources of
heterogeneous fertilizers Government ex
perts declare that this is entirely I'M
necessary and is but another evidence Of
the great wastefulness of the American
people. Ammonium sulphate is a waste
product from gas-making plants and by
product coke ovens. Great Britain and
Germany, with coal supplies and coal
consumption Insignificant when COM
| pared with that of the United States,
save the ammonium sulphate from
every little village gas plant while in
this country this valuable product is
carried away in the waste water.
In the making of coke in this country
there Is the same American spirit Of
waste. The beehive type of oven is
generally used and the valuable by
products, including the ammonia, valued
at millions of dollars, are allowed to es-
cape. Calculated from the amount of
coal used in these industries in the Unit
| ed States, the annual production of am
| ly $4,000 tons. valued at $3O,0O0.O Actu-
ally, $4,000 TONS valued at $3.50, 600,
are being produced.
The federal experts who are interested
in this great problem have learned re-
Gently that this economic crime is not
to be continued much longer. Word
| reached Washington the other day that
one Of the big Independent steel COM
panies is about to invest $S,000,O0O in by
| product coke ovens and that they are to
place the ammonia on the market for
fertilizer purposes.
It is also said that the United States
Steel Corporation, after sending it's engi-
neers abroad more than a year ago to
investigate coke making, has, as a result.
decided to gradually change its old-fash-
toned, wasteful beehive coke ovens into
| by-product ovens and save the by-prod-
! ucts. This action. it is believed, will force
| other coke-making concerns into the
newer process with the result that there
will be sufficient ammonia to not only
supply all needs for fertilzing the farms,
| but may also lower the cost of fertilizers.
So important is this problem of ferti-
| lizers considered by the federal govern
ment that it sent special agent through
| Europe recently to make a report upon
| the utilization of atmospheric nitrogen,
process that has been developed to take
| the nitrogen from the air by means of
powerful electrical currents. The re-
port, by Thomas H. Norton, issued by the
Department of Commerce, is expected to
lead to the development of large plants
! for the manufacture of nitrogen, the need
| of which, according to Mr.. Norton, is one
of the pressing economic problems Of the
| twentieth century.
| It is not true that nobody loves a
smoker. For the last few years, with
| the advent of the closed,
Cigarette pay-as-you-enter street cars,
| =, it looked as if the Havana
ooAo' weed burners were slowly
being pushed into the discard, but the
! pail is beginning to lift Uncle Sam
has officially recognized the smoker by
providing funds for an investigation of
| what is known as the cigarette beetle.
| This beetle. which is not a beetle. but
| a bug, does not attack cigarettes, as
one would suppose from its name. But
| it does get on the choice tobacco leaves
| that 70 into the cigars, and after 1t has
| remained for some time in the heart OF
the fragrant cigar, it starts on tour OF
| inspection Being tightly wrapped up
| in the cigar, 1t has only one method OF
travel open and that Is tunne1ng.
| The little bug finally finds his way
| into the great world and Is so pleased
| that he never cares to go back. He
leaves in the cigar, as monument 10