1907.] MOST ECONOMICAL SOURCES OF NITROGEN, I55 



I do not suspect that the farmers of Connecticut would be 

 seriously startled if the President of the British Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society in his annual address should state that within 

 one hundred years the world would face starvation because 

 the nitrogen supply would be exhausted. The Connecticut 

 farmer is, however, concerned with the immediate cost of 

 nitrogen, and those who have kept track of the fertilizer 

 market during the present season will have discovered that 

 nitrogen this year will cost very much more than last. Last 

 year it was possible to secure nitrogen for 15 cents per pound. 

 During the present season the lowest quotations which I have 

 Deen able to secure have put the price of nitrogen up to nearly 

 or quite 20 cents, an increase of 33 1-3 per cent, within twelve 

 months is at least startling. It will lead many who have 

 formerly paid their fertilizer bills, possibly not without ques- 

 tion and more or less murmuring, to study the question more 

 carefully than they have done heretofore to learn if possibly 

 there are not some other sources of nitrogen available at less 

 than 20 cents per pound. The present high price of nitrogen, 

 however, is probably not the limit. The visible supply of 

 nitrogen is limited and is growing less every year. The nitrate 

 of soda beds of South America are not unlimited in their 

 supply and it would not be at all strange if next year the price 

 of nitrogen should go as high as 25 cents per pound. 



This subject of nitrogen supply is all the more interesting 

 when we realize that the larger part of the atmosphere is 

 composed of nitrogen ; that this valuable element is all about 

 us ; that the plants are growing in a sea of nitrogen, and yet 

 for the most part are entirely unable to make use of it. With- 

 out doubt the time is not far distant when means will have to 

 be taken by which this nitrogen of the air may be subdued 

 or tamed or made to do our mission. Even at the present 

 time the nitrogen of the air is being manufactured into nitrates, 

 but the expense of this operation is so great as to preclude the 

 use of nitrogen from this source as a commercial plant food. 

 It is but little consolation for us to know that possibly in ten, 

 twenty or more years a way will have been found by which 

 this unlimited supply of nitrogen all around us will be drawn 

 up as plant food. It may be a grain of comfort to us to know 

 that the human race will be prevented from starving, but it 

 does not help us to pay our fertilizer bills this year. 



