The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-08-17

have been seeking method or meth ods of utilizing the immense stores of nitrogen contained in the air. Vari- ous processes have been worked out, some of which were commercial fail- ures. and some of which methods or processes have. under favorable con ditions, actually produced commercial nitrogen in large quantities in com petition with nitrogen from other sources.
 "As an illustration of the impor- tance to a nation of large quantities of fixed nitrogen it is interesting to rote that Germany has for some years led the world in the production of att mospheric nitrogen. As a consequence of this. lands in Germany which had been cultivated since the days of Julius Caesar were producing when the war broke out, three times the amount of wheat per acre that were produced in the same area on our comparatively fresh American wheat lands. and Ger many, which in area is about the size or the state of Texas, was not only sus- taining a population of over 6O,00O, 900 people. but was sustaining them abun- dantly and was growing richer from decade to decade It is also interesting to note that when Germany was cut off by the blockade from all other sources of nitrogen, she used her at nospheric nitrogen for the nfanufac- ture of explosives and Curing the first three years of the war her troops had more abundant ammunition and better ammunition than the troops of the all lies, who had all the world to draw upon.
 While the production of tmospheric nitrogen has increased by leaps and bounds in Europe for more than gen eration, until recently the only air ni- trate plant on the American continent was a comparatively small plant at Niagara Falls in the Dominion of Can- ada. There was no such plant in the United States until the year 1918, when the United States government at a cost of nearly sS0.O00,0 900, built two ni- trate plants in tle state of Alabama. These plants have a total estimated production capacity of 130,000 tons of 20 per cent nitrogen per annum, and it would be possible by intensive meth ods of operation to produce at these two plants 100000 tons of nitrogen per annum. or nitrogen sufficient to en- able our farmers to place 400 pounds of ordinary 1922 fertilizer per acre on 10, 900, 900 acres of ground per year.
 HIGH COST IN AMERICA {
 owing to the fact that American water power is harnessed at rela- lively high price as compared with the water powers in the mountainous sec tions of Europe, the cost of producing atmospheric nitrogen in the United States is very high The only cost re- auctions which have occurred in the last decade have grown out of improve nlents and economies in the processes used.
 rThe United States 'has built these great plants in Alabama on account of the water power possibilities at Muscle Shoals. It is now engaged in the con- struction of great hydro-electric dam which is designed to furnish the power for the operation of the plants, and has built on the banks of the Tennessee river the largest and probably the most perfect auxiliary steam plant on earth.
 "It is doubtful whether the United States will permanently engage in the business of manufacturing fertilizers and of distributing hydro-electric power. I hope that it will, but I think that it is probable that if Alabama and America are to have the use of the products from these great plants it will be through the leasing of the plants tc private individuals or corporations. A private corporation which under takes to operate these plants will have many difficulties to encounter. The first difficulty will grow out of the | trouble in financing such an immense operation The second difficulty will | grow out of the fact that the Ameri- can fertilizer market is at present con-
 trolled by the steel trust, the packing i trust and the Chilean nitrate trust which great institutions are under stood to have what is known as com | munity of interests. and are alleged t. control the fertilizer mixing bushes