BREAD FROM AIR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2811, 26 August 1908, Page 79

BREAD FROM AIR.

"'A PRODIGAL WORLD TAKING ~ i|-A prodigal world, is beginning- to dis- " rer that it cannot -indefinitely- continue the stores of Nature, without : ring thought for the morrow," ■ writes }'- r£L. G. Money, M.P., in the 1 glyv News-: -"Porest, mine,- and prairie ; re been rayagedi. until in- respect of < aryldifferenfc* commodities world' ecaiv jjr -.has- made itself felt otr a very early riod in,the.,age of machinery. Fifty ars ofv -wanton waete are beginning to 1; 50 .years more,. would mean, world nine. * i*-iU--. ;-;•* £Of the problems, of reparation -which, ye arisen, none is more important than 9 nitrogen pioblein. Without nitrogen &b. cainot be formed; without nitron. _ma». is, impossible. With the preEvation' and rapid multiplication of men c call ..for nitrogenous ' foods has led to i rapid exhaustion of soils and' manure ds. The soils, of_ the old worlds deiind payment in nitrogen,' before they Id a -crop. America 1 has got-mLiof the aUable nitrogen in lgxeat tracts.. of her ely virgin soil. The world's guano ds ax© practically exhausted. The irate deposits will be in the same con--tion within, .the lifetime of many now ing. 'This while the world's mouths to >fed t are .always' increasing' in number. \ : '' Hi f£Scikjfce' : ty(> the Rescue.— tV^oftn^a|b§y fH^i>r r science is ovrp,^ equarfo 1 the occaision. The daily r 'j end&igerai, by the arts of business, % fe v/ r preserve&' for us by the arts of "'- rt Several "Scientific processes claim our bention. in this connection. First let us to tb'at- ''Professor Ostwald and T)r •aver, -two of -the brilliant cliemists 10m Germany produces so prolifically, ye mailer it possible to produce nitric idu from the ammoniacal liquor of gas d. coke -works. It is impossible here : a detail the technical process, but t Deists essentially in the decomposition , ammonia vapour by platinum. It is a autiful method, which depends upon c exposure of the ammonia to the plati[in _ foe one-five-hundredth part of a Bond of time. • If the exposure were iger than this unfixed nitrogen would created, and, of course, lost. The imonia vapour has to pass like a gale .wind, so. that decomposition goes far pug-h to produce nitric acid and not *~ nitrogen. The area of the decomefer used' is but that of a teacup, but 2001b of nitric acid in a day. tfe production of nitric acid from ainmia has" been" known as a classroom perimsnt for 60 years 5 but the Ostwald•aja&r process is economical, .and gives cap -nitric; acid. - ? J lfot thus alone 7 is the scientist provg himself master of the situation. Even >re. "figjcnia-tuLg are the methods i«mayed for,,. utilising the nitrogen of the : . — Nitrogen From the Air.— " Air is a mechanical mixture of oxyh and nitrogen, 231b of the former aoid lb of the latter making 1001b of air. Ie have, then, but to manure the soil th air and the thing is done. The pmer-'-can do it quite easily — after the entist has shown him the way. Be- :© the scientist finds out- th© way, how©r, your ' practical man ' will make cerin caustic . references to 'dreamers,' iddistS)' and . 'cranks', if you talk of bnlng air into quartern loaves. *'}n Norway, at this moment, with the | of French and German capital, the jwer of great waterfalls is being used [ produce nitrogenous manure from air I prices low "enough fox commerce. \ — The Electric Furnace. — 54The toooess -used in- Norway is that isirk!gad an£ Eyde, which employs the j&jbr^o. furnace, The air is led into the r^aoe ftiyl- submitted to an ejectric disc one with & diamet-er of about 7Q&Egeping 1 tale terptfte flame on both sides, £ 9ir v$ njomentarily heated to a point ?zMch. the flit-ro^n i§ oxidised. Imme-

liately the gas coming from the furnace is- cooled, downr to^avoid loss of nitrogen, " Mid-. led over limestone sprinkled ■ with water, with" the result that '-calcium nitrate, or -lime saltpetre, is obtained. It is a scientific triumph which looks prosaic enough when the stuff leaves the Eactory in wooden, barrels. " — TTnrn.py.STng the Microbe. — "In another direction also science is operating in order to- utilise the boundless stores of atmospheric nitrogen, 75,000,000 tons of which are suspended over every acre of land. ",About 20 years ago Hellreigel showed ttiat . . leguminous plants (known from ancient times- to fertilise the soil in which they- grow, afid always^ therefore grown in rotation before corn) obtain their nitrogen from the air, and that bacteria, living in. nodules or tubercles on the roots of the plants, are the media by which the nitrogen is obtained. "This line of investigation was continued until a culture of the root organism was obtained by Beyerinck, and named the Bacillus Radideola. Professor Nobbe, of Germany, failed in an endeavour to prepare the infective culture on a laxg-e eoale, foa"fc il^i 1^ JL9OI ***©_ Crat-ed Sta-tes Department of 'Agriculture took 'up the work,- and by 1903-J904 the 'State Department was sending out' tens of thousands of packages of prepared at first dried " on cotton wool, but now ksued in liquid form. In 19&5 "the reports showed that 74 per cent, of the trials were successful. — Professor Bofctomley's Work. — "In the same year our own Board of Agriculture took up the matter. They got samples from America and Germany, distributed them, and as a result reported that the' matter w^e still in an 'experimental staged AniA^ there, unfortunately, they dropped it'/ 1 "Fortunately, Professor Bottomley, the botanical professor of King's London, has oon- j tinned the work which our -Board of Agri.cultnre did so badly and laid down- so quickly. During 1906 and 1907 a thou- '■ sand pack-ages were distributed here for testing purposes, and co far most of the results have been successful. "It should be clearly understood that the bacterial culture is not a manure. What it does is to add to the soil organisms which breed and multiply- on the roots, of a leguminous cro.p and enable it to grow in a soil which, contains little or no jnitrogen. After the leguminous crop, of course, the su-coeedipg crops benefit". After. th& v doctored clover the wheat flourishes. The poorer the soil the more marked the effect. With the aid of the culture peas have been grown luxuriantly even in cinders. of the Soil. — "The scientist appeals to the Government to take up the tools oi science. The United States Agricultural Department is diaiributinig bacterial culture free, and cannot cope with the demands for it. Our .own .department, after tinkering with a rfew imported and, , in some oases, dead cultures, is, doing nothing. It is little money that is needed, but poverty is the excuse pleaded, I understand, --by the departmesnt. Professor Bottomley tells us I that waste land can be reclaimed and made fertile for 6d an acre, and, as he puts it, 'can we afford to neglect such possibilities of national wealth?' "