ADDRE.SS. 17 



supply of wheat to the point denianded thirty years hence it will not last 

 more than four years. 



I have passed in review all the wheat-growing countries of the world, 

 with the exception of those whose united supplies are so small as to make 

 little appreciable difference to the argument. The situation may be 

 summed up briefly thus : — The world's demand for wheat — the leading 

 bread-stuff — inci'eases in a crescendo ratio year by year. Gradually all 

 the wheat-bearing land on the globe is appropriated to wheat-growing, 

 until we are within measurable distance of using the last available acre. 

 We must then rely on nitrogenous manures to increase the fertility of the 

 land under wheat, so as to raise the yield from the world's low average — 

 12'7 bushels per acre — to a higher average. To do this efficiently and 

 feed the bread-eaters for a few years will exhaust all the available store 

 of nitrate of soda. For years past we have been spending tixed nitrogen 

 at a culpably extravagant rate, heedless of the fact that it is fixed with 

 extreme slowness and difficulty, while its liberation in the free state takes 

 place always Avith rapidity and sometimes with explosive violence. 



Some years ago Mr. Stanley Jevons uttered a note of warning as to 

 the near exhaustion of our British coalfields. But the exhaustion of the 

 world's stock of fixed nitrogen is a matter of far greater importance. It 

 means not only a catastrophe little short of starvation for the wheat- 

 eaters, but indirectly, scarcity for those who exist on inferior grains, 

 together with a lower standard of living for meat-eaters, scarcity of 

 mutton and beef, and even the extinction of gunpowder ! 



There is a gleam of light amid this darkness of despondency. In its 

 free state nitrogen is one of the most abundant and pervading bodies on 

 the face of the earth. Every square yard of the earth's surface has 

 nitrogen gas pressing down on it to the extent of about seven tons — but 

 this is in the free state, and wheat demands it Jixed. To convey this idea 

 in an object-lesson, I may tell you that, previous to its destruction by fire, 

 Colston Hall, measuring 146 feet by 80 feet by 70 feet, contained 27 tons 

 weight of nitrogen in its atmosphere ; it also contained one-third of a ton 

 of argon. In the free gaseous state this nitrogen is worthless ; combined 

 in the form of nitrate of soda it would be worth about 2,000?, 



For years past attempts have been made to effect the fixation of 

 atmospheric nitrogen, and some of the processes have met with sufficient 

 partial success to warrant experimentalists in pushing their trials still 

 further ; but I think I am right in saying that no process has yet been 

 brought to the notice of scientific or commercial men which can be con- 

 sidered successful either as regards cost or yield of product. It is possible, 

 by several methods, to fix a certain amount of atmospheric nitrogen ; but 

 to the best of my knowledge no process has hitherto converted more than 

 a small amount, and this at a cost largely in excess of the present market 

 value of fixed nitrogen. 



The fixation of atmospheric nitrogen therefore is one of the great 



1898. c 



