Evening star., 1924-03-31
SOURCE OF NITRATES
AND NEED ARE TOLD
Every Plant Takes This Mineral
From Soil, Study Has
Developed
CHILE CONTROLS
SUPPLY
United States Forced to Look Out
side for Stocks

Nitrates, given prominent place in
a recent report by the Department
OF Commerce listing the most i'm
portant raw materials for which
America now must look to the out
side world, make up one of the
groups Of non-precious minerals
with which nature has been most
stingy. Again. nitrates have been in
'he public eye in connection with the
Muscle Shoals dam. where the gov
eminent planned during the world
war TO produce them artificially
Where nitrateS come from and why
they arc of extreme Importance in
modern civilization are told in bull
1etin from the Washington headquar
tors Of the National Geographic So
ciaty
For ages man did not realize how
Roenly he needed nitrateS." says the
bulletin. The plants he grew de-
T2and6d nitrogen, as they do today.
and their roots foraged for ii as best
they could. Early farmers and gar
dcners were not chemists, but they
We're good observers. and they found
that manure added TO the soil helped
their crops. So. quite. without know
ing it, they fed nitrogen to them
Population Growth Causes Demand.
Manure met the needs of the early
farmers. but in recent generations the
pressure of population became so
great in some countries, such as Ger
many. that there was grave danger OF
famine. or at least the necessity for
importing food, even though the land
was kept continually busy. Scientists
looked into the situation and found
"a
certain minerals out of the soil. and
that in amounts removed nitrogen
leads all the rest. \ ton of wheat
for example. removes from the soil
fUrty-Sevcn pounds of nitrogen. eight
cen pounds OF phosphoric acid, and
twelve pounds of potash, as we'll as
smaller quantities of perhaps dozen
+, other minerals. 1t became apparent
that manure alone could hardly fur
nish enough nitrogen to land on
which crops were grown continu-
ally and from which greater and
greater production must he had. The
realization opened up the funda-
mental demand for nitrogen fertiii-
zcr-and that put nitrates on the eco
nomic man.
NO deposits of soluble nitrogen
materials of any Importance had been
found in Europe. where the greatest
pressure was felt. nor IN ASIA nor
North America. But beds of sodium
nitrate had come to light in the mar
row strip Of desert in northern Chile,
hctWcen the Andes and the Pacific
ocean. First opened UP in 1850. when
The region was under Peruvian and
T rlivIau ownership. the mining opera
tipnS did not reach a great magnitude
until after Chile annexed the ter
ritory in 1850. Since then the worlds
demand for nitrates has grown 50
great that by 1913 Chile was export
ing between two and three million
tons. The world war Increased the
demand. for nitrate is the chief raw
material for explosives as well as Tor
wheat and cotton; and Chile's desert
deposits kept the guns Of the allies
S0nming.
Captured From Air.
NO nitrate mines to compete with
those of Chile have ever been dis
covered in the ground of any country.
But strangely enough ChileS Suprem-
aCy has been threatened from the air.
Nitrogen is one of the most elusive
OF the elements. The air all about
is nitrogen and only about one fifth
oxygen. But although our lungs
utilize the oxygen, we can do nothing
with the nitrogen. We breathe IN 1t,
and 1t is expelled unaltered' ~ natneS
metals and minerals and most or
ganisms continually without combin-
ing with them.
Science. however. has gotten its
fingers on this elusive nitrogen of the
mir in the last quarter century. and
is able to imprison some of it in
forms that make it about as con-
venient for use in agriculture, in
duStry and war as Chlles product.
As in many other recent scientific
accomplishments, electricity has been
the agent, and some of the most sue
cessful 'fixation plants-factories for
fixing or binding nitrogen to other
substances-have been set up near
large water-power developments.
America tried nitrogen fixation at
Niagara Falls about a decade before
the world Mar. but NaS not wholly