THE NITRATE PROBLEM 7 



tion. By this and by other methods the chemists 

 have achieved a partial solution for Sir William 

 Crookes's problem. For they have found a method, 

 dependent on income and not on capital, whereby 

 the nitrates required for agriculture can be produced 

 at a cost that enables them to compete successfully 

 with the nitrates prepared from natural deposits. 



The achievement is one of which the chemists may 

 well be proud, but after all it is only a partial solution. 

 We were threatened by Sir William Crookes with a 

 nitrogen famine, but since then men of science have 

 threatened us with an even more serious danger, an 

 energy famine. At present in coal we have an 

 abundant supply of energy available at a low cost, 

 but when this begins to give out the value of water- 

 power must advance by leaps and bounds, and force 

 up with it the cost of the manufactured nitrates to 

 such a point that the farmer will be unable effectively 

 to compete with the other potential users of power. 



We are brought back therefore to a reconsideration 

 of the problem, and it may prove of value briefly and 

 roughly to formulate it in tabular form as follows : 



Demand for 

 Nitrates. Sources of Supply. 



Agriculture . . Nitrate deposits (already showing signs of 

 exhaustion) . 



Explosives . . Chemical means (in all of these the utilization 

 of power on a large scale is essential) . 



Various . . Farmyard manure, sewage, etc. (a decreasing 



source, which in some cases will not pay 

 the cost of collection). 



Bacteria (as in those associated with leguminous 

 plants, and as those cultivated by the new 

 system of treating peat). These are only 

 indirectly a source of nitrates, as they form 

 complex nitrogenous food substances rather 

 than actual nitrates. 



