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W. C. EBAUGH 
shipped in a crude state. The commercial product must con- 
tain 14 per cent of potash, but it is not difficult to maintain its 
content around 25 to 35 per cent. This industry has grown 
until a dozen or more plants are pumping brine from lakes over 
an area of 230 square miles. The major part of potash pro- 
duced in this country during the first two years of the war came 
from the Nebraska lakes. 
In the eastern part of California and neighboring portions of 
Nevada is an immense arid area that held promise for the potash 
prospector. Death Valley and Panamint, names associated in 
the popular mind with desert, desolation and starvation, repre- 
sent typical districts where deposits were looked for; men seemed 
to feel that potash would be found as surface deposits, not real- 
izing that those at Stasfurt were revealed only by deep borings. 
At Searles Lake, California, is found the residue of an inland 
sea. Salt is firm and solid for about 15 to 25 feet and then brine 
or loose crystals form a layer 65 to 75 feet deep. Potassium 
chloride occurs to the extent of 4 per cent, and the total amount 
of this constituent is estimated at 24,000, OQO tons. A plant was 
installed consisting of pumps, storage tanks and triple effect 
evaporators capable of handling 200,000 to 250,000 gallons brine 
and 100,000 gallons mother liquor per day. In September, 
1918, production was at the rate of 1800 tons of crude potassium 
salts per day, and it was expected to raise the production to 
4500 tons of salts, containing 75 to 80 per cent potassium chlo- 
ride, early in 1919. In other words, it was estimated that this 
one source would be supplying about one-eighth of the pre-war 
consumption of potash. 
At Salduro, on the Nevada-Utah border, and at Great Salt 
Lake, Utah, plants have been erected for the extraction of po- 
tassium salts by processes similar to those mentioned above, and 
much crude potash has been shipped to fertilizer factories and 
chemical plants. One company has operated for years at Great 
Salt Lake, making common salt and sluicing the mother liquors, 
rich in potash and magnesia, back into the lake. Its capacity 
was 100,000 tons of salt per year; the enhanced value of its prod- 
ucts now that potash brings such prices, is self-evident. 
