The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-01-19
THE, TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INF ORMATHON BUREAU
By FREDERIC J. HAsKIN, Director.
Washington. d. O.
NITROGEN.
The Governments Is Now Buying Chill
can Nitrate for the Farmers.


secretary of agricultures announces
that eighteen thousand tons of nitrate
from Chile will be delivered Here dur
ing January, for the use of American
farmers. and that the government has
bought IN all 1000 tons of this prec-
ious Substance to be used in making
the soil productive.
This is easily the most important
importation made this year, for nitrate
II flfteen per cent nitrogen, and nitro
gen is food. Science has just recently
arrived at the realization that every
nNlnS substance is essentially COM
pound of nitrogen. And just as it be-
gan to appreciate this fact. a most
convincing demonstration of the i'm
portance of nitrogen was staged in the
shape of the world war, which is rap.
idly leaving the world in a state of
nitrogen starvation. Meat and wheat
are the foods of which we cannot get
enough. They are the most common
forms in which we eat nitrogen. And
the amount of them that we can take
out of the soil is dependent upon the
amount of nitrogen we put into it.
That is why the nitrate beds of Chile
loom so large in the affairs of the
world, why shipping that would save
lives in Europe is diverted to bring
some of that Chilean nitrate here.
This world nitrogen shortage-is rem
not only eat nitrogen. but we shoot
nitrogen. 1t is the basis of the high
explosives. The embattled countries
are shooting their enemies with food
for lack of which they themselves are
dying of starvation.
How is Germany, cut off from the
world, supplying herself with nitrogen?
In all probability she is making some
of it from the air. For this precious
element, like the water in the AN
cient Mariner" is everywhere, but not
in a readily disable form. There are
$3.50 tons of nitrogen in the atmoS-
phere over every acre of ground in
the world. Methods for extracting this
nitrogen from the air were~success-
fully worked out several years ago.
In Norway they have been making
nitric acid from the air by water pow
er for some years. and one company
has been successful in Canada. But
in the United States in spite of much
noisy promotion and some attention
from congress, the industry of manu-
featuring nitrogen compounds from
veloped to a sufficient extent to be an
important factor in the situation.
There can be no doubt but that great
quantities of nitrogen will be extracted
from the air in the future, and there
by the fertility of the soil and the
be enormously increased. In fact this
is the only possible solution, for the
nitrate beds of Chile, which are now
the main dependence of the world, will
be exhausted in few generations.
Likewise the coal by-products, the
animal offal, the fish scrap and all
the other animal and vegetable sub
stances which we have been using as
fertilizer for the sake of their nitro
gen content are becoming scarcer and
\ ct fr0f ~
nitrogen from the air, or else greatly
diminish in numbers. And get it from
the air he doubtless will. The nitro
gen problem, as world problem OF
the future may be regarded as solved.
But the nitrogen problem as an Amer
lean problem of the moment is far
from solved.
In addition to the Chilean nitrates,
the most important source of nitro
gen in this country is the Surphate of
ammonium which is obtained as a
by-product in the making of coke
from bituminous coal, which contains
from IL to 1874 per cent of nitrogen.
In this country much of this valuable
substance has been wasted by the old
fashioned beehive" coke ovens
which make it impossible to save the
by-products.
Another source of nitrates is the
butchery generally. Hoof, horn. scraps
of hide, entrails and especially blood
are valuable fertilizers. The blood
which is wasted by country farmers
when they butcher stock is rich in
nitrogen. Doctor Woodruff reports
that in the Philippines where the
people of the lowlands are all nitro
gen starved because of the scarcity of
meat and cereals. the first thing the
natives do when deer is killed is to
eagerly drink the hot blood. And this
literal bloodthirstiness is not limited
to the lower classes. either.
The sewage of cities is rich in nj
trogen, and enormous quantities of
valuable fertilizer are wasted by run
the sewage of London alone would be
worth $50, 100000 a year. In China
and Japan, ell of this is saved and
brings a high price. Without such
economy of nitrogen the orient could
not support its swarming populations.
Nitrogen is known to be fixed in the
soil by bacterial action-that is. the
soil to a certain extent is able to
ma nufactu"e it's own nitrogen. We
exhaust it by taking too much out
But the soils of forests, botanists tell
us, manufacture more nitrogen than
the forests need. SO that dead leaves
and leaf moulds have considerable
value as fertilizer.
No doubt Germany survives in the
face of blockade by utilizing all of
these methods of saving nitrogen, and
by making some from the air. We,
too, if the war is long continued will
be forced to save some of the enor-
nous quantities of nitrogen that are
being annually wasted in this country.
There is always a possibility that
the nitrogen question may be an
swered by the discovery somewhere in
our arid west of nitrate deposits SINH
lar to those of Chile. There are great
areas in our country where the eli
matte conditions are favorable to the
formation of nitrates, but so far no
deposits in commercial quantities
have been found. The government is
always willing to investigate any pros
pect of nitrate deposit. Only a