42 
W. C. EBAUGH 
All three of these sources are capable of great expansion, but 
cannot be viewed as main sources of potash. The last two men- 
tioned contain nitrogen as well as potash, and are therefore 
doubly valuable as fertilizers. 
d. Wood ashes. Until 1860 wood ashes constituted the most 
important source of potash, the supply coming chiefly from 
Canada and Russia. The introduction of Stasfurt salts in 1861 
killed the industry. Normally not even the dust from inciner- 
ators at lumbering camps can be worked up profitably. During 
1917, however, 425 tons of potash from this source were pre- 
pared in this country. 
e. Kelp. The collection of kelp (seaweed) on the coasts of 
Scotland and France has been carried out for more than a century. 
The crop was then burned and used as a fertilizer. Like the 
wood ash industry it was snuffed out by Stasfurt potash in 1861, 
except in so far as it afforded a source of iodine. 
During late years both governmental funds and private capital 
have been spent lavishly in investigating the possibilities of the 
Giant Kelps along the Pacific coast. These fields extend from 
Lower California to Alaska, and it was hoped that they would 
afford limitless supplies of potash. Most of the reduction plants 
have been erected in the neighborhood of San Diego, California. 
Two general processes have been tried, incineration and fermen- 
tation. In 1917 the production of potash from kelp amounted 
to 3575 tons, and in 1918 it did not exceed 9000 tons. The kelp 
is cut by seagoing dredges, acting like huge mowing machines, 
transported to land and dumped. It is said that it costs $1.10 
to harvest and dump a ton of seaweed averaging only 1.5 per cent 
potash, or $85 per ton of potash brought to land. Under these 
conditions not much hope can be entertained for the permanent 
success of an industry that aims to yield potash as a main 
product by the incineration method. 
But much more favorable is the outlook for plants like that 
of the Hercules Powder Company. That company needed ace- 
tone and other organic solvents, and worked out processes for 
getting them from the fermentation of seaweed. The outlay 
for apparatus was enormous, and the scale of operations is 
