August 7,, i914] 



SCIENCE 



193 



consumer at considerably cheaper rates, if 

 it were not for antiquated municipal speci- 

 fications, which keep on prescribing pho- 

 tometric tests instead of insisting on stand- 

 ards of fuel value, which makes the cost of 

 production unnecessarily high, and dis- 

 regards the fact that for lighting, the Wels- 

 baeh mantle has rendered obsolete the use 

 of highly carbureted gas as a bare flame. 

 But for those unfortunate specifications, 

 cheap fuel-gas might be produced at some 

 advantageous central point, where very 

 cheap coal is available; such heating gas 

 could be distributed to every house and 

 every factory, where it could be used 

 cleanly and advantageously, like natural 

 gas, doing away at once with the black coal 

 smoke nuisance, which now practically 

 compels a city like New York to use nothing 

 but the more expensive grades of anthracite 

 coal. It would eliminate, at the same time, 

 all the bother and expense caused through 

 the clumsy and expensive methods of trans- 

 portation and handling of coal and ashes; 

 it would relieve us from many unnecessary 

 middlemen which now exist between coal 

 and its final consumer. 



The newer large-sized internal combus- 

 tion engines are introducing increasing 

 opportunities for new centers of power 

 production where waste gas of blast-fur- 

 naces or coke-ovens, or where deposits of 

 inferior coal or peat, are available. 



If such centers are situated near tide- 

 water, this may render them still more 

 advantageous for some electrochemical 

 industries, which, until now, were com- 

 pelled to locate near some inland water- 

 powers. 



Nor should we overlook the fact that the 

 newer methods for the production of cheap 

 fuel-gas offer excellent opportunities for 

 an increased production of valuable tar 

 by-products, and more particularly of am- 

 monium salts; the latter would help to a 



not inconsiderable extent in furnishing 

 more nitrogen fertilizer. 



It is somewhat remarkable that a greater 

 effort has already been made to start the 

 industrial synthesis of nitrogen products 

 than to economize all these hitherto wasted 

 sources of ammonia. 



In fact, science indicates stiU other ways, 

 somewhat of a more radical nature, for 

 correcting the nitrogen deficiencies in rela- 

 tion to our food supply. 



Indeed, if we will look at this matter from 

 a much broader standpoint, we may find 

 that, after all, the shortage of nitrogen in 

 the world is attributable to a large extent to 

 our rather one-sided system of agriculture. 

 We do not sufficiently take advantage of 

 the fact that certain plants, for instance 

 those of the group of Legiiminosfe, have 

 the valuable property of easily assimilating 

 nitrogen from the air, without the necessity 

 of nitrogen fertilizers. In this way, the 

 culture of certain Leguminosas can insure 

 enough nitrogen for the soil, so that, in 

 rotation with nitrogen consuming crops, 

 like wheat, we could dispense with the 

 necessity of supplying any artificial nitro- 

 gen fertilizers. 



The present nitrogen deficiency is influ- 

 enced further by two other causes : 



The first cause is our unnecessary exag- 

 gerated meat diet, in which we try to find 

 our proteid requirements, and which com- 

 pels us to raise so many cattle, while the 

 amount of land which feeds one head of 

 cattle could furnish, if properly cultivated, 

 abundant vegetable food for a family of 

 five. 



The second cause is our insufficient 

 knowledge of the way to grow and prepare 

 for human food just those vegetables which 

 are richest in proteids. Unfortunately, it 

 so happens that exactly such plants as, for 

 instance, the soy-bean are not by any means 

 easily rendered palatable and digestible; 



