Annual Report fo7' 1914 of the Cons^dting Chemist. 273 



in Spain. In parts of India the soil, especially that around the 

 sites of old villages, is found to be impregnated with potash 

 salts, chiefly the nitrate (nitre), and the natives show great 

 ingenuity in extracting the salt by simple means of lixiviation 

 with water and subsequent crystallisation, and in separating 

 the nitre from the impurities that occur with it. The nitre so 

 extracted is mainly used for the manufacture of gunpowder, 

 and is, speaking generally, too costly to use as a manure in 

 comparison with other salts of potash. No doubt, however, a 

 certain amount will be set free in this way, though at enhanced 

 prices. In the manufacture of beet-sugar also a certain amount 

 of potash salts is obtained, as mentioned in last year's Report. 

 Further, there occur in different parts of the globe minerals 

 such as felspar, phonolit, alunit, &c., in which potash occurs in 

 the form of double salts, mainly silicates, and in very insoluble 

 form, but from which it might be possible to extract the 

 potash by chemical means. In Canada, for example, occur 

 considerable supplies of such minerals which may contain 

 from 8 to 10 per cent, of potash. So long as the potash mines 

 in North Germany were available, it did not pay to extract 

 the potash from these refractory minerals, but now that the 

 Stassfurt supplies have ceased for the time, doubtless attention 

 will be turned to these and other possible sources. In this 

 connection it might be well to say that experiments with 

 phonolit and ground felspar, both of them very finely ground, 

 were made a few years ago at the Woburn Pot-culture Station, 

 but failed entirely to show that the direct use of these minerals 

 was productive of any good, owing, no doubt, to the very 

 insolulile form in which the potash occurs. In the meantime 

 the only really available materials by which potash may be 

 supplied in sufficiency for the needs of a crop will be found in 

 farmyard manure and in Peruvian guano. The latter frequently 

 contains quite considerable amounts of potash salts ranging, 

 saj', from 2 to about 4 per cent, of pure potash (KjO). 



It is natural to ask what other supplies, either of feeding 

 stuffs or fertilisers, will be similarly affected by the war. So 

 far as I have been able to ascertain, there is not likely to be in 

 other directions any immediate shortage. Feeding stuffs 

 generally have risen in price, though, as yet, this increase has 

 not been above 10s. a ton, and so long as the trade routes remain 

 open there would appear to be no difficulty in their being still 

 obtained. At the same time one'maji expect that offals will be 

 used more freely. 



As regards fertilisers, manufacturers of artificial manures 

 appear to have considerable stores of the raw phosphatic 

 materials, and no great interference with their continued supply 

 need be looked for. Of basic slag, however, there is likely to 



