584 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



The science of fertilizing achieved the amazing result that Germany's 

 soil, although cultivated for almost two thousand years, is to-day more 

 productive than the virgin soil of the United States and Canada. De- 

 serted farms like those of the New England States and the state of 

 New York are unknown in the Empire. Chemistry is not only educat- 

 ing the farmer in scientific fertilizing but producing the requisite arti- 

 ficial fertilizers, and here again German militarism in its farsightedness 

 has brought about most astonishing revolutions. 



Of greatest importance in agriculture are nitrogenous fertilizers, 

 that is, artificial manure which introduces nitrogen into the soil. The 

 chief material for this purpose is nitrate of soda, which, as saltpeter, is 

 imported in large quantities from South America. Unfortunately, this 

 substance is also the sole raw material for the manufacture of nitric 

 acid, and nitric acid is the chief material for the manufacture of all 

 kinds of explosives. The French and English employ picric acid, which 

 is trinitrophenol (lyddite, melinit) and is made by the action of nitric 

 acid on carbolic acid. The Germans are using as their chief explosive 

 trinitrotoluol (tritolyl), which is produced from toluol, a coaltar hydro- 

 carbon, and nitric acid. 



German militarism realized that two great dangers might arise from 

 these applications of saltpeter. In time of war the importation of salt- 

 peter might be stopped by the navy of a foreign nation, and it might 

 therefore become impossible to manufacture nitric acid and explosives. 

 The feeding of the nation might be interfered with, inasmuch as the 

 soil could not be properly fertilized, and hence could not produce suffi- 

 cient food-stuff's. Therefore, it became imperative that the nation must 

 become independent of the importation of saltpeter. 



The problem was solved by the utilization of nitrogen from the air, 

 and in this way nitric acid was produced without saltpeter as a starting 

 material. Unfortunately, however, the available processes can be car- 

 ried out economically only in localities where cheap power is available, 

 which to-day means countries where water power is abundant. Since 

 Germany has hardly any waterfalls, and therefore is very poor in power 

 created in this manner, the plants for the manufacture of nitric acid 

 by utilizing the nitrogen from air were mostly established in Norway — a 

 foreign country. The problem was therefore only half solved. But 

 soon by the direct union of nitrogen and hydrogen, as accomplished by 

 the ingenious synthesis of Haber, an absolutely independent source for 

 nitrogenous fertilizers and nitric acid was created within the German 

 Empire. The raw materials for the Haber synthesis — nitrogen from 

 the atmospheric air and hydrogen from water gas — are obtainable in 

 unlimited quantities in the country. In the Haber synthesis ammonia 

 is first produced which, in the form of the sulphate of ammonium, is as 

 efficient a fertilizing material as saltpeter. This method, however, has 



