The Colorado statesman., 1917-05-19
WILL AID FARMER
New Methods of Obtaining Nj
trates Most important.
Getting Supply From Air Not Only Big
Factor in Natlon's Defense But
in Enlsreing Crops.

The National Geographic society
discussing the question of the nitrate
supply of the world points out that
as a result of the scientific expert
ments that have been going on for the
past two or three years, processes for
securing nitrogen from the air, as well
as others for securing it from our
coal deposits, promise to give us an
absolute independence of any other
nation in the world for nitrate supplies
In the future. The bulletin says:
The much-dlscussed issue of future
nitrogen supply seems to have been
solved by scientists here and abroad
since the outbreak of the war in Eu-
rope. Heretofore the world has had to
depend mainly upon the nitrate beds OF
! Chile for the nitrogen. Many processes
for extracting nitrogen from the air
where it is to be found in superabund-
ant quantities, since it constitutes
about three-fourths of all of our at
mosphere, have been developed, but
most of them have proved so expensive
as to be prohibitive except in times Of
emergency. Recently, however, there
a new process that is said to reduce
the horsepower required to extract a
given amount of nitrogen to one
twelfth of the former proportion. The
result of this will probably be that in
the years to come the world will find
a cheaper source of nitrogen right at
hand in the air than has ever been
found in the nitrate beds of Chile.
1t has also been found that through
the cooking process big supplies of nj
trogen can be extracted from coal. En-
gineers now estimate that if we were
to coke twice as much coal as we have
in the past, which would still be less
than per cent of our total coal out
put, the nitrogen that we could secure
therefrom would be more than enough
to meet all of our needs as a nation,
either in peace or in war. In the cox
ing of coal n substance is recovered
which is called by the chemist ben
zol." The expenses Of recovery are
not excessively great, and just at the
time when our government was an
nouncing that there was no real nj
trate deposit anywhere in sight in the
OnlteO states Oh really lupOrlHHI
value, the descriptions of the Haber
process of extraction from the air and
of the processes for recovery from coal
have been most timely.
Not only will the new processes or
extracting a bountiful supply of nitro
gen from the air and from coal be an
advantage to us in the matter of de-
Tending our country, and in putting
it upon an independent basis from Il
world standpoint, but 1t will be an i'm
mense advantage to us in our agricui-
ture. The most expensive element
that we have to put into the soil to
farm profitably is nitrogen. We ordi-
narily buy 1t in the shape of nitrate,
green bone, or decomposed animal mat
ter. and the farmers fertilizer bill is
always heavy If he wants to produce
large crops. A cheap source Of nitro
gen, such as we might expect from a
system of cheap filtration from the air.
will enable the American farmer, large
as his crops may have been in the past,
to produce two bushels of grain where
formerly he produced one, and to help
feed rapidly expanding world popu-
lation.