44o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



germs. Field experiments have shown the wonderful activity of these 

 bacteria in fixing atmospheric nitrogen and the splendid crops which 

 may be grown upon what would otherwise be almost sterile soil. 



In this one problem of our future supply of available nitrogen for 

 agriculture as well as general manufacturing purposes, we note the 

 aid which technical chemistry draws from the other departments of 

 natural science. The electrical engineer and the biologist have already 

 contributed a great share to its solution. There remains, however, 

 no small amount of work for the technical chemist to perform before 

 the desired end is reached. 



In an address on ' Chemical Problems of To-day,' delivered by 

 Victor Meyer in 1889, the author pointed out that, although the 

 synthesis of starch from carbon dioxide and water was a result not to 

 be expected in the near future, yet, he says, ' we may reasonably hope 

 that chemistry will teach us to make the fiber of wood the source of 

 human food/ While we do not consider that this is a problem of 

 technical chemistry for the present, the possible use of cellulose as a 

 raw material from which to make food renders more acute a problem 

 which is to-day clamoring for solution, namely, the preservation of our 

 forests. The influence which the forests of a country have upon its 

 civilization is a topic which has been much discussed of late. That 

 there is an intimate relation between the woodland of a district and 

 the regularity of its rainfall, the absence of floods and freshets and 

 the general climatic conditions, there seems now to be little doubt. 

 But the consumption of forest products continues to increase far out 

 of proportion to the growth of new timber. The substitution of other 

 raw material in chemical industries which now use wood for this pur- 

 pose becomes therefore an economic problem for the solution of which 

 the chemist is held responsible. 



The production of cellulose from raw materials other than wood 

 is the first important factor in the chemical side of the question. The 

 weight of wood consumed for the production of chemical fiber for the 

 year 1902 was something over two million tons, while one and a half 

 million tons were used for the manufacture of ground wood pulp. 

 While from some points of view our American forests are sufficient to 

 supply the demand for many years to come, it does not excuse us for 

 the terrible waste of cellulose in forms other than wood which we 

 are constantly suffering. 



On our flax fields of the west we are annually burning thousands 

 of tons of flax straw which contains a large percentage of cellulose 

 in a most valuable form. Considerable work has already been done on 

 the utilization of this straw in the production of fiber and some suc- 

 cess has met the efforts of the By-Products Paper Company now located 

 at Niagara Falls. There is, however, still much room for improve- 



