simple science

Nitrogen and its Relation to Plants:
Plants need other foods besides nitrogen, and they exhaust the soil not only of nitrogen, but also of phosphorus and potash, since large quantities of these are necessary for plant life. There are many other substances absorbed from the soil by the plant, namely, iron, sodium, calcium, magnesium, but these are used in smaller quantities and the supply in the soil does not readily become exhausted.

Commercial fertilizers generally contain nitrogen, phosphorus, and potash in amounts varying with the requirements of the soil. Wheat requires a large amount of phosphorus and quickly exhausts the ground of that food stuff; a field which has supported a crop of wheat is particularly poor in phosphorus, and a satisfactory fertilizer for that land would necessarily contain a large percentage of phosphorus. The fertilizer to be used in a soil depends upon the character of the soil and upon the crops previously grown on it.

The quantity of fertilizer needed by the farmers of the world is enormous, and the problem of securing the necessary substances in quantities sufficient to satisfy the demand bids fair to be serious. But modern chemistry is at work on the problem, and already it is possible to make some nitrogen compounds on a commercial scale. When nitrogen gas is in contact with heated calcium carbide, a reaction takes place which results in the formation of calcium nitride, a compound suitable for enriching the soil. There are other commercial methods for obtaining nitrogen compounds which are suitable for absorption by plant roots.

Phosphorus is obtained from bone ash and from phosphate rock which is widely distributed over the surface of the earth. Bone ash and thousands of tons of phosphate rock are treated with sulphuric acid to form a phosphorus compound which is soluble in soil water and which, when added to soil, will be usable by the plants growing there.

The other important ingredient of most fertilizers is potash. Wood ashes are rich in potash and are a valuable addition to the soil. But the amount of potash thus obtained is far too limited to supply the needs of agriculture; and to-day the main sources of potash are the vast deposits of potassium salts found in Prussia.

Although Germany now furnishes the American farmer with the bulk of his potash, she may not do so much longer. In 1911 an indirect potash tax was levied by Germany on her best customer, the United States, to whom 15 million dollars' worth of potash had been sold the preceding year. This led Americans to inquire whether potash could not be obtained at home.

Geologists say that long ages ago Germany was submerged, that the waters slowly evaporated and that the various substances in the sea water were deposited in thick layers. The deposits thus left by the evaporation of the sea water gradually became hidden by sediment and soil, and lost to sight. From such deposits, potash is obtained. Geologists tell us that our own Western States were once submerged, and that the waters evaporated and disappeared from our land very much as they did from Germany. The Great Salt Lake of Utah is a relic of a great body of water. If it be true that waters once covered our Western States, there may be buried deposits of potash there, and to-day the search for the hidden treasure is going on with the energy and enthusiasm characteristic of America.

Another probable source of potash is seaweed. The sea is a vast reservoir of potash, and seaweed, especially the giant kelp, absorbs large quantities of this potash. A ton of dried kelp (dried by sun and wind) contains about 500 pounds of pure potash. The kelps are abundant, covering thousands of square miles in the Pacific Ocean, from Mexico to the Arctic Ocean.