BUEEAU OF SOILS. 207 



The desert basins have been rather thoroughly scrutmized. One 

 only has so far shown any promise of commercial development, 

 namely, Searles Lake, San Bernard mo County, Cal. A large amount 

 of money has been spent on the development of processes, and one 

 process for extracting potassium chloride from the brine occun*ing at 

 Searles is now being tested. It appears, however, that the com- 

 mercial future of Searles Lake is more likely to be as a source of soda, 

 with borax and potassium salts as by-products. 



To sum up, so far as the technical problem is concerned, it is quite 

 feasible to produce from American sources more than ample supplies 

 of potassium salts. The serious difficulties now remaining are mainly 

 commercial and psychological ones. 



NITROGEN. 



The continually increasing use of the organic nitrogen carriers as 

 animal feeds has made it the part of prudence to seek other possible 

 sources of supply to meet the increasing demand of the users of ferti- 

 lizers. The gratifying increase in the substitution of by-product 

 coke ovens for the antiquated "bee-hive" oven, by conserving the 

 ammonia produced, meets the problem partly. It is hoped that the 

 problem can be fully met with the synthetic production of nitrogen 

 compounds from atmospheric nitrogen. Nitric acid has been pro- 

 duced in Norway by hydroelectric processes because of ample cheap 

 water power, and some nitric acid has also been made in France and 

 Austria. However important these developments may be for the 

 explosive industry and certain other chemical manufactures, it is a 

 growing conviction among agricultural experts that the real need is 

 for a cheap and ample source of ammonia. Among the possibilities 

 in this direction the most prominent is the fixation of atmospheric 

 nitrogen as a cyanamide produced in the electric furnace, this sub- 

 stance cheaply and easily yielding ammonia when treated with 

 steam. Accordingly an investigation has been made of possible 

 installations of hydroelectric plants of suitable size to furnish the 

 necessary power at a sufficiently low cost to justify the commercial 

 development of nitrogen fixation. In part this work was carried on 

 in cooperation with the authorities of the State of Oregon regarding 

 possible developments at The DaUes and other sites. 



It has been found that the technical difficulties are by no means 

 so serious as the commercial ones. There appear to be very few 

 places where, if it were commercially feasible to install hydroelectric 

 power plants at all, a better price could not be obtained for the power 

 than present nitrogen fixation processes could afford. Consequently 

 a comprehensive laboratory mvestigation has been initiated with a 

 view, among other purposes, to develop a process which can meet 

 the relatively high cost of power now prevailing in the United States 

 and likely to prevail in the future. 



Meanwhile attention has been diverted to a more nearly complete 

 and a more intelligent use of city and industrial wastes, especially of 

 garbage, which by appropriate treatments can be made a useful com- 

 ponent of fertilizers, besides producing other marketable products and 

 giving at the same time a sanitary method of disposal. An important 

 feature of the work is a comprehensive study of the garbage and 

 methods of disposal for the District of Columbia being carried on in 

 cooperation with the District authorities. 



