Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1919-02-22
CRISIS IN THE AMERICAN
 POTASH INDUSTRY

The present is a critical time flo
 the potash industry recently estab
 lished in the United States, accord
 ing to H S. Gale, of the Unite
 States Geological Survey, depart
 ment of the Interior. Prior to tn
 war this country used more than
 million tons (gross weight) of potasl
 salts each year, and it has beel
 supposed that the cutting off of ;
 large part of this supply was keel
 deprivation, particularly to the farm
 CT, by whom it was used for fer
 tilizer. This foreign supply has no
 been available during the war, ant
 with much energy and enthusiasm {;
 domestic production equivalent tt
 about one-fourth the former impor
 tation has been built up. Now
 however, it is unexpectedly dis.
 closed that there is little or nc
 market for potash either at the higf
 prices that have prevailed or even al
 considerably lower price. No sat,
 isfactory explanation of this situa.
 tion seems to be offered.
 Approximately 100000 tons (gross
 weight) of potash salts, produced in
 Nebraska in 1918, are reported as lying in storage warehouses, dis tributed throughout the southeast ern States, which is the region where potash is principally consumed. This is of the same quality that was used in 1917 and is immediately avail able to the fertilizer manufacturer or the farmer. Potash of other sorts from various sources is also reported unsold, though in smaller quantities. As this surplus represents approxi- mately half the relatively small do- mestic production and as potash from foreign sources has not been avail able during the year, it is difficult to explain this apparent lack of in terest in the present small domestic supply.
 There is good deal of discussion about present sources and produc- tion of potash and apparently some confusion in the use of the terms by which this production is expressed. The following is therefore a brief summary of the situation based on the latest available data. The sta tistics for the year 1918 are not yet complete.
 Potash is term commonly used in referring to the miscellaneous ma terials carrying potassium which are used or valued chiefly for the potas- sium contained in them. In 1913, the last year before the war, there was imported into the United States 1,092,5SS short tons (gross weight) of the miscellaneous potash-bearing materials, equivalent to 270,720 short tons of "pure" or "actual" potash. This includes the figures for the fol- owing salts, Kainite, manure salts, chloride (muriate), sulphate, bicar- bonate, bitartrate {argoD, bitartrate (cream of tartar), carbonate (crude, crude black salts, and refined), caus- tic, chlorate, 'chromate, bichromate, ferrocyanide (yellow prussiate) fer ricyanide Cred prussiate) iodide, ni- trate (saltpeter, crude and refined), permanganate, and Rochelle salts.
 Since 1913 the imports of these substances have greatly decreased, until during 1916 and 1917 the total gross weight of potash salts import ed was only about 25,000 short tons, about 5000 tons of actual potash. By far the greater part of potash formerly imported came from but some of the substances named in the list have come from other places and were received even luring tho war.
 During the war period the United States has gradually built up an independent production of potash. |. According to the latest complete sum- mary of the state of this industry, ! the principal sources and present 1 rate of production in the United States are as follows:
 1. Nebraska: Brine, obtained from alkali lakes in the western part of Nebraska has thus far yielded the argest production of potash made in my single district. These deposits appear to be small and they have not been regarded as holding very arge reserves for the future, but late reports indicate that larger 'tores of potash-rich primes exist be- ow the surface than has heretofore ,een assumed.
 lnese deposits are now reported o be producing at the rate of 600 ons (gross weight) of potash salts day, which is 219,00O tons a year, equivalent to approximately 5O,OO0 ons of actual" potash. This dis rict produced 43,219 tons (gross reight) of potash salts, equivalent to 0,232 tons of "actual" potash, in the irst six months of 1918, these being he latest statistics of production ow available.
 ?. Searles Lake, California: Searles .ake, in California, is a large de- iosit of mixed salts containing a omewhat complex brine that is un- sually rich in potash. Estimates of he amount of recoverable potash in his deposit indicate that it contains nough to supply the entire needs of he country for at least 80 years. his deposit is now yielding a sub tantial part of the countrv's sunn1y