IG KEPORT— 1898. 



the future. The growing exports of nitrate from Chili at present amount 

 to about 1,200,000 tons. 



The present acreage devoted to the world's growth of wheat is about 

 103,000,000 acres. At the average of 12*7 bushels per acre this gives 

 2,070,000,000 bushels. But thirty years hence the demand will be 

 3,260,000,000 bushels, and there will be difficulty in finding the necessary 

 acreage on which to grow the additional amount required. By increasing 

 the present yield per acre from 12-7 to 20 bushels we should with our 

 present acreage secure a crop of the requisite amount. Now from 12"7 to 

 20 bushels per acre is a moderate increase of productiveness, and there is no 

 doubt that a dressing with nitrate of soda will give this increase and more. 



The action of nitrate of soda in improving the yield of wheat has been 

 studied practically by Sir John Lawes and Sir Henry Gilbert on their 

 experimental field at Rothamstead, This field was sown with wheat for 

 thirteen consecutive years without manure, and yielded an average of 11 '9 

 bushels to the acre. For the next thirteen years it was sown with wheat, 

 and dressed with 5 cwt. of nitrate of soda per acre, other mineral consti- 

 tuents also being present. The average yield for these years was 364 

 bushels per acre — an increase of 24-5 bushels. In other words, 22-SG lbs. 

 of nitrate of soda produce an increase of one bushel of wheat. 



At this rate, to increase the world's crop of wheat by 7 3 bushels, about 

 li cwt. of nitrate of soda must annually be applied to each acre. The 

 amount required to raise the world's crop on 163,000,000 acres from the 

 present supply of 2,070,000,000 bushels to the required 3,260,000,000 

 bushels will be 12 million tons distributed in varying amounts over the 

 wheat-gi'owing countries of the world. The countries which produce more 

 than the average of 12'7 bushels will require less, and those below the 

 average will require more ; but, broadly speaking, about 12,000,000 tons 

 annually of nitrate of soda will be required, in addition to the 1^ million 

 tons already absorbed by the world. 



It is difficult to get trustworthy estimates of the amount of nitrate 

 surviving in the nitre beds. Common rumour declares the supply to be 

 inexhaustible, but cautious local authorities state that at the present rate 

 of export, of over one million tons per annum, the raw material ' caliche,* 

 containing from 25 to 50 per cent, nitrate, will be exhausted in from 

 twenty to thirty years. 



Dr. Newton, who has spent years on the nitrate fields, tells me there 

 is a lower class material, containing a small proportion of nitrate, which 

 cannot at present be used, but which may ultimately be manufactured at 

 a profit. Apart from a few of the more scientific manufacturers, no one 

 is sanguine enough to think this debatable material will ever be worth 

 working. If we assume a liberal estimate for nitrate obtained from the 

 lower grade deposit, and say that it will equal in quantity that from the 

 richer quality, the supply may last, possibly, fifty years, at the rate of a 

 million tons a year ■ but at the rate required to augment the world's 



