The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-05-26

everything all over the earth. but usually in such small quantities and in such combinations that it is not possi- ble to get it out al a profit. Potash is found in the soil and in certain rocks. There is more of it in the crust of the earth than there is water upon the earth. It is found in sea water. The oceans have so much potash that if it could all be taken out and spread over the United States it would cover this whole country with a bed of solid pot ash one hundred feet deep. If you could surround Massachusetts with tight fence si;: or eight miles high and pour that salt in, it would fill that mighty bin aEo leave billions of tons of potash to spare It is potash of that kind which we are trying to save from the kelp farms on the California coast. The seaweed grabs the potash into itself to such an exent that some kinds of dried kelp have 500 pounds of pure potash to the ton.
 There is potash in most kinds of plant life, and especially in hard woods of one kind or another. We get it by burning those woods to ashes. and at the present prices such ashes have be- come exceedingly valuable. They are now worth about 75 cents a bushel and a single coal scuttle will contain salts worth a dime.
 Much of our common granite contains per cent of potash and we have feid- spars which have 10 or 12 per cent, while in the leucite hills of Wyoming there are 10 square miles of volcanic rock which analyses from to II icr cent potash. There is so much of that rock in sight that the experts of our geological survey have estimated 1t to contain nearly a quarter of a billion tons of potash. That would be enough to last this whole country 100 years, al our rate of consumption when war was declared. What we need is some cheap process to get the stuff out.
 Germany has the only big potash mines upon earth. They are situated in Prussia, and the best of them are under town named Stassfurt on the Bode river. a branch of the Elbe, hun dreds of miles from where they are fighting in France The mines were discovered about so years ago The imperial government had a salt prop erty there, and it was making salt from the brine of the springs and wells of that neighborhood. Then borings were sunk to discover rock salt, and great quantities were found about a quarter of aSmile below the surface. Upon the top of the salt were beds of potash and magnesium, which were thought to Le of no value. The mines were first worked for the salt and it was later that the value of the potash was dis covered. Now the potash is the princi- pal product and it is mined not only at Stassfurt but at a number of other places in that part of Germany. There are about 200 mines in operation and the output is millions of tons per year.
 I recently talked with a mining ex- pert who visited the German mines just prior to the war. He tells me that the German government is the head of the syndicate which controls the supply The Kaiser dictates just how much potash may be taken out every year and to what countries the exports may go. He fixes the domestic and foreign prices, and if the dealers do not obey the syn dicate regulations they are fined. The daily output of potash is about 36,00o tons and there are something like 5000 men at work in the mines.
 asked as to the source of this pot ash. The mining expert replied:
 "The deposits were probably made mIl lions of years ago The German sci entists say that part of the country was then a great lake which was connected with the sea by shallow channels through which the water came at the time of storms and high tides. There was no outlet. to the lake and the torrid climate of that age dried the water so rapidly that great quantities of salts were lett. As the water became heavy the rock salt which was least soluble dropped to the bottom and later on the more solu- ble salts began to fall so that we have first layers of rock salt and lime with potash on top of them. After that the earth had another change and bed of impervious clay covered the top of these beds of salts. This kept out the rains and the salts have remained there until now"
 ''The potash is mined just like rock ealt. Shafts are run down into the strata and tunnels off into the beds. The