The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1921-02-10

|
do better than to purchase some front
age on the ocean, which Is Of no pres
ent value for wharfage or anything
like that, but will give control of q
considerable area of the sea, writes
Frederic J. Haskin in Chicago News
For the sea is rapidly becoming val
liable. A careful scientific look of q
thousand years or so into the future
such as H. G. Wells is addicted to-
would undoubtedly show men depend
ing upon the sea as much as upon the
land, If not more, for the materials by
which they live. Indeed 1t will be i'm.
possible to support the enormous pop.
ulation of the future without drawing
heavily upon the ocean, which is now
a wilderness of great wealth that men
have just begun to explore.
Fish, Of course, are the most obvious
and readily available product Of the
sea, and the only one that we use to
any considerable extent. And we use
only a fraction of what we might.
There are whole families Of fishes that
are never caught, vast levels of the
ocean swarming with life that fisher
men have never reached.
But the interesting new develop
ments are not i'll obtaining food from
the sea, but the raw materials Of in
dustry, and fertilizers for agriculture.
Y. S. Develops Plant
The Department of Agriculture, for
example, has an experimental kelp.
potash plant at Summerfield, Cal,
which is said already to have proved
self-supporting. Not only the inval.
liable fertilizing element, potash, is
obtained, but also a number of by.
products, including iodine, common
salt, ammonia and bleaching carbon.
This bleaching carbon was formerly
imported from Europe and sold for
20 cents pound, but has been pro-,
duced at this plant at Is cents
pound, and Is said to pay for its own
production and that Of the potash.
Some nitrogen, most precious ferti.
lizer Of all, is also recovered In the.
form of ammonia, and kind Of tar,
kelp oil and creosote are minor by.
products. -.
Here is what promises to be con-
siderable industry, with variety Of
products, founded on single class Of
sea plants. And 1t has enormous re-
sources to draw upon, for the giant
.kelp grows in great groves all through
the Pacific waters, and is far richer
in potash than the Atlantic kelps,
which have been reduced by burning
IN small quantities for some time.
A Norwegian scientist has made an
elaborate study Of the sea water as
source of raw material for NOrwe-
gian industry, and he is said to have
shown that it is practicable to ex-
tract metallic magnesium from the sea
water on a commercial scale, as well
as gypsum, common salt and other
minerals.
All Minerals In Solution.
You must remember in this connec-
ton that the sea water contains all
minerals in solution as an inevitable
result Of the way the oceans were
formed. The earth, according to the
scientists, was originally hot mean
descent mass of vapor containing all
the elements Of which earth, sea and
atmosphere are now composed. AS 1t
cooled, the earth formed in molten
mass, water formed and fell upon this
in boiling torrents, making the seas,
which therefore had all of the ele-
ments in solution in them. Three
fourths of these salts are common salt
or sodium chloride All of the Eu-
ropean continent that lifts above the
sea level Is only one-third in bulk
what the common salt in the sea alone
would be If it were taken out. There
is mass, therefore, nearly as large
as Europe, Of other salts, including
those Of all the minerals.
There are, for example, only 40 or
80 milligrams of gold to the ton Of sea
water, but it has been estimated that
If all Of the gold in the sea could be
extracted there would be about $4,000
pounds of it for each inhabitant Of
the earth.
The sea. in word, is vast mass
of raw materials of all kinds-organic
and inorganic. 1t contains forests and
and vast quantities of life.
The sea produces meat as well as
fish, for the whales and porpolses, not
to mention the great family of seals
and sea lions which spend practically
their whole lives in the, water, are
warm Hooded animals.
AS far as we can learn, none Of the
vegetable products Of the sea is used
for food, but there must be edible sea
and, if this is so, man could
sustain himself entirely on diet de-
rived from the sea. He could also OBJ
tain from it almost all of the inorganic
and many Of the organic materials for
his industry.
It Supplies Power, Too.
Furthermore, it will supply him with |
the power needed to manufacture