30 R. A. F. PENROSE, JR. 



gence is due to the premises on which the different estimates have 

 been based. Many of those who predict a short life for the nitrate 

 fields do not allow anything for future new discoveries of nitrates 

 in northern Chile, whereas the probability of this is very great. 

 The Chilean government owns all the nitrate deposits on the public 

 domain and sells them only at auction. This policy has tended 

 somewhat to retard individual effort at exploration, and hence vast 

 regions in the Tamarugal Desert and the Desert of Atacama, which 

 may contain nitrate, have not yet even been explored for it. 



The nitrate that is being worked today, moreover, is very waste- 

 fully treated, and a large percentage of it is left in the refuse material 

 accumulating around the oficinas; while the costra, or capping of 

 the nitrate deposits proper, which is now only occasionally used as a 

 source of nitrate, as it usually contains too low a percentage to sat- 

 isfy the present operators, is collecting in vast quantities in the places 

 where it has been mined and piled up to get at the purer material 

 (caliche) below. Thus low-grade nitrate materials are gradually 

 accumulating in immense amounts, and may be used in the future 

 when more economical methods are introduced. These materials, 

 together with the possible new discoveries of nitrate, render the 

 future of the industry in Chile much more hopeful than some of the 

 pessimistic prophets would lead us to believe; and for very many 

 years to come Chile will doubtless be capable of supplying nitrate to 

 the world. 



As already stated the Chilean government owns all the nitrate 

 lands on the public domain, and sells them at public auction from 

 time to time, as occasion demands. The government also levies an 

 export tax assessed in Chilean pesos. As the rate of exchange for 

 the peso varies greatly from time to time, the amount of the tax as 

 expressed in American money also varies greatly. A recent state- 

 ment makes the tax equal to about 56 cents American money per 

 quintel of loi .4126 pounds.' The combined revenues from the 

 sales of nitrate lands and from taxes are so great that they pay a 

 large part of the government expenses. 



Uses of nitrate. — The nitrate of Chile is used for a number of 



1 These figures were kindly furnished the writer by Mr. Francisco J. Yanes, secre- 

 tary of the International Bureau of American Republics, Washington, October, 1909. 



