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Show " ' By DK. JOHN A. WIDTSOfc. imr'8 difficulties he-smelters he-smelters and farmery of Salt LmliUer ve mods It very ovl-'Stt ovl-'Stt tn natur0 ftr,d acUon f th Bircoke IfisnJnP from lhe srnQlt-eri srnQlt-eri are very poorly under-L under-L jtlter smoke contains two fcrfrubstances that may be moro L lcjurlou to animals or plantB claf includes the solid par-U, par-U, flue dust), n hli h are mainly L irifitwl porUons of the ores Lef introduced Into the furnaces t gutter. A large part of this Mi cor.?lst9 of the Innocuous ox-Iwjnm ox-Iwjnm arul silicon, but there are MgOi in smaller quantities pol-Lpounds pol-Lpounds of copper, lead and L To the second class belong the i-jtBtari"8 found In the omolter Lor.g which the only one that Liperlal notice because of Its ln-Lrtlon ln-Lrtlon Is sulphur dioxide, or sul-Ltomblnatlon sul-Ltomblnatlon with oxygen. It E, Botlcei that all these eub-Lt eub-Lt In a highly oxidized form fet the ordinary smoke cons im-Ebi'pend im-Ebi'pend for their action upon Edition of carbonaceous partl-Enotet partl-Enotet All bo used In eontrolllog Cjitin? tho mr.elter smoke. I Effects on Plants. tso great classes of substances III the smelter smoke act quite elly cn plants The solid partl-Een partl-Een lettlo upon leaves and other KrU are Injurious only If they ite In considerable quantities. U little reason to believe that, t b speciaJ cases, the due dust Mi In lucerne hay or other crops ljcrJr the influence of the smelt-jb smelt-jb has any appreciable polson-Kjo-uon animals to which su h IW7 b-; fed. It is true that in L eues when, owing to tpecial Hie eotiitlors. such as tho blow-tftfct blow-tftfct wlr.d on a certain field for It length of time, the hay may ika.lly rharsed with tho poison ous fine dust that animal eating the hay may be severely Injured thereby. Such raws form, however, exceptions to the rule. Neither docs the flue dust appear to affect In the least the composition com-position of wheat, or oats, or augar-beela. augar-beela. or fruit grown within the area subjected to tho action of tho Bmelter smoke. Plant parts that have been exposed ex-posed to tho direct action of the flue dust fall to reveal traces of arsenic, copper, leud or other poisonous element, ele-ment, except ns these elements mav bo found adhering to the ouslde of the crops. This must not be understood as a vi-i onmi.'ndatlon in favor of hay or other plant products partially charged with the Hue dust. Even a email admixture ad-mixture v. ill, to a slight degree, affect the quality of the hay. If for no other reason, because of the mechanical irritation irri-tation produced by its presence. The gnseous constituent, tho sulphur dioxide. behaes, however, quite differently. differ-ently. In itself it is not poisonous, but it has the power of checking and retarding re-tarding plant growth whenever It is brought Into contact with tho vital parts of plants. Therefore, when nlr charged with sulphur dioxide beats n up. in the lucerne held, and the sulphur dioxide Is allowed to enter the cells of tho leaves, All life operations immediately cease and the leaves wither and die in the course of a short time. "U'hen the wind shift the plants soon revive, throw out new shoots, new h aves, and the only real damage done Is found in a diminished yield per acre, and the presence of a certain portion of dry and dead leaves, killed by tho Ulpnur dioxide. Since the gas can affect af-fect plants adversely only when it Is dlEsohed In water, the Injurious action of the sulphur dioxide is greatest when the plants are wet. as Immediately after a rain or irrigation, when tho plants and the surrounding air are moist. It frequently appears in tho districts most unfavorably located with reference refer-ence to the smelter smoke, that early in the spring, especially If the eeason I c Wet, the leaves may be stripped entirely en-tirely from the trees of an orchard In the courye of one or two days. Soon after such an event the trees send out new leaves at the expense, of course, of tho fclored-up material within the tree.- If this process be repeated sev ens! times throughout the season, it endangers en-dangers eerlously tho life of the tree, for the chief organs of assimilation are the leaves, and if they are not allowed to do their work properly the tree does not receive the nourishment width It demands for Its well-being. Thus, pev-eral pev-eral orchards situated in the line of the prevailing i w Inda have been parti par-ti illy or completely killed by the complete com-plete stripping or hilling of the I . J t'era! times during the season for two or three years. Various plants, however, hav dlflerent powers of resistance re-sistance aqalnst the action of the sulphur sul-phur dioxide. Shade trees, such as populars and tho native willows, ere much more eisliy affected than most other trees. Among the fiult freer, pears appear to be most euH.-cptlblc to Die actlun of the sulphur dioxide, and plums appear to be most resistant Fruit grown on saich orchards Is usually white-spotted, due to the solution of the sulphur gas In the drops of water or dew that may cling to the fruit. Ail the small fruita are strongly affected by the sulphur dioxide. Gooseberrl. s alone appear to possess any powers of resistance. Of the ordinary' vegetables, potatoes suffer most, but all other garden gar-den truck Is seerely injured when touched by the smelter smoke. Sugar-beets Sugar-beets reolst the action of the sulphur gases especially well. Field corn llke-w llke-w Lse thrives e en under the Influence of frequent attacks by tho smelter smoke. The small grains, such as oats and Wheat, are easily and strongly affected. As a usual thing perennial plants are more seriously Injured than annual plants, because perennial plants are (subjected season after season to the action of the gases, while wheat or oats or similar plants that live only one year wland much better chances of escaping es-caping serious damage. Effects on Animals. As observed above, crops grown under the Influence of smelter wnoko cannot lustly be paid to exert a very serious adverse Influence upon the animals to which they are fed. The relatively large damage occurring among animals in the neighborhood of smeltera Is due to other causes. For instance, when tho conditions of the wind are such that th- flue dust Is blown upon a certain field for a considerable length of time, resulting re-sulting In a large accumulation of Hue duvt, particularly In the low places, and when this material ia disintegrated by atmospheric influences, and perhaps concentrated by accident in a pool in a low-lying place, cases of poisoning are likely to result. Moreover, it has been repeatedly observed that various farm nrdmals appear to like the flue dust, and they may be seen licking It from the ground, fences and other places. It has further been observed that animals ani-mals that are kept on pasture have a much greater opportunity of gathering flue dust in large quantities than those which are fed hay in barns. The gaseous ingredients of the smelter smoke such as sulphur dioxide, exert an injurious Influence upon an animal only when the atmosphere la persistently charged with them. In neighborhoods where the smelter smoke appears only once in a great wh'le. no serious damage to animals can result from the sulphur gases, but in othT canes where the wind blows with considerable con-siderable regularity from tho smelter chimneys and the air is almost always charged with small quantities of sulphur sul-phur gns. the action on animals cannot bo anything but unfavorable. Effect on Soils. In the public press statements have been made that soils are very seriously Injured by the action of the smelter smoke. This is generally an erroneous idea. The flue dust deposited upon an acre of land Is In nil but very few nnd Bmall localities so small In quantity that no adverse effect would result from It even In a long period of years The sulphur dioxide found In the smelter smoke cannot possibly have an injurious action upon the soil. It would tend, rather, to liberate the plant foods in the soil and make the land more fertile. The apparent Injury to the soil from tho fact that plants fall to grow and mature on them is not that soils are infertile, in-fertile, but that the atmosphere la too heavily charged with the smelter smoke to allow of perfect plant growth. Tho Relation of Winds to Damage. Another prevailing Idea la that all the district surrounding the smelters s equally injured by the smelter smoke This Is far from being correct. The amount of injurious Ingredients issuing from the smelter smoke if uniformly distributed dis-tributed In the air over Salt Lake valley val-ley would in all probability cause no injuries to vegetation. It probably 1 could not be detet ted by the most refined re-fined means ut the disposal of tho scientist. scien-tist. It is only when the smelter Emoke, ns it comes from the chimneys, is driven by tho wind toward a certain place without the opportunity of being diluted by the atmosphere, that perlouB damages dam-ages result. In fact, tho only looalltles where damage of any consequence has resulted from the smelter smoke Is where tho wind passing-over the smelter chimneys has been fHt for considerable consider-able periods of time In short, the paths of the prevailing winds determine tho districts of greatest Injury, and it may frequently happen that a district which is perlously injured one year may not be touched the next year, or for many following years. However, the winds are beyond our mennn of control. They shift from moment to moment, and It Is this uncertainty whkh Is the greatest great-est danger In the relation of agriculture agricul-ture to smelter smoke. Undoubtedly, as more smelters are built In Salt Lake valley and as their capacities are Increased, this danger will become greater and greater In different years different localities will be Injured until, as a result of the pre-corlousness pre-corlousness of agriculture In the region affected, there will be a general depreciation depre-ciation of farm values and the general prosperity of the people. The smelter smoke question is no longer one of how much damage is done or the locality of the damage; it Is now simply a question ques-tion of the preentlon of the damage. Can Smolters Prevent the DamageP To any one who has studied carefully tho situation it is very evident that the damage due to smelter smoko may be entirely eliminated without the removal of tho smelters Uy simple physical means the solid paitlclc-s carried by the smelter smoko can be prevented from Issuing Into the atmosphere, and Bhould this be done, practically all of the cases of cattle poisoning would bo eliminated Likewise, by the application applica-tion of perhaps nny one of a great number num-ber of chemical processes, the tu!phur dioxide In the smelter smoke might be so mu"h rr dined or altogether eliminated elimi-nated that the plants would not be affected af-fected In their growth, even though the smelter smoke should play upon them for a considerable length of time. Tho problem Is simply tho devising of apparatus ap-paratus v. li. r. v. l-ejtab)thed laws of physics und chemistry may be applied ap-plied upon s huge scale to the conditions condi-tions prevailing In smelter districts. That the difficulty cannot be overcome without removing the smeltera Is a nonsensical non-sensical idea Tho application of scientific scien-tific laws Is Just as able to control the composition of smelter smoke as it has been to enable the miners to cxtraot the copper or other useful metuls from the ores In which they occur in nature. For that matter, few things ore impossible in our age if proper methods of experimentation experi-mentation are applied to any problem There is little profit In looking back; yet It may not be entirely inappro-prlate inappro-prlate to say that If the smelter had fully realized the coming danger and hud spent a Brnall fraction of the money paid out In damages to farmers for the inauguration and continuation of experiments ex-periments having the control of the injurious in-jurious Ingredients of smelter smoke In view, there certainly would have been devised by this time a number of systems sys-tems whereby the solid particles and the Injurious gases could be largely eliminated from the smelter smoke It roust not be forgotten, however, that any system which has in view the purification of smelter smoke will ln-a ln-a considerable'expendlture, reaching reach-ing perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars, for the construction of the plant for the proposed purification; at the same time, there will be a continual expense for operating the plant. The unavoidable running exp.-naes would, of course, reduce the net profits of the smelters. In other words, in the case of copper smelters with a given kind of ore, it would Increase the cost of producing pro-ducing on" pound of copper. It is not wholly ln;po.sibi that th- smelters located lo-cated In farm districts may, after the new smoke-consumers are devised and Installed, find it unprofitable to handle tire lower grades of ore: sometimes even a slight lncreaso In the cost of smelting smelt-ing makes certain classes of ores quite unprofitable. This, however," is mere . I wm speculation. It is not entirely improbable improb-able that as tho raatteT Is studied and I new methods are worked out systems may be devised which will control the composition of the smelter smoke with a very small expense to the smelter people. peo-ple. However, it needs to be remembered remem-bered that the smelters have a tremen- dously big problem on their hands; It la one thing to devise means for the control of the smelter srnoke, it is quite another to rnako tho devices satlsfao tory from th economic point of view. Tho BeJatlon of Smelting1 to Parmlnf Now, it need not perhaps be said that the people of Utah do not desire tha smelters to leave this State. They fur- ! Tilnh employment to numerous people; 1 they furnish splendid markets to thou-Bands thou-Bands of farmers; thdr beneficial effects are felt everywhere. It Is only to be regretted that there should ever be conflicts con-flicts between the present two grea industries in-dustries of this State, agriculture and mining. Without agriculture, this State cannot claim Its position as a great j commonwealth; without mining, it must let go its position as a great wealth producer. True lovers of the State desire de-sire to see all its industries developed. We have not enough industries In the State. "We certainly want no well-established industry to be permanently 1 handicapped because of any temporary , difficulty that may arise. Certainly the difficulty at the present time existing between the farmers and smelters at Salt Lake valley is temporary in its nature. As certainly. It is a serious question; but, as repeatedly observed Ln the preceding paragraphs, it is within tho power of man to remedy tho dlffl- j cultles so completely that they may be forgotten ln the course of a few yoara Newspaper reports Indicate that the amelters are taking active and direct steps to meet the difficulty, by Immediate Imme-diate and continued work along experimental ex-perimental linen, having ln view meth-, ods whereby the com;.'oslflon of the. smelter smoke may be controlled. It1 is to be hoped that the farmers will give their hearty Bupport to this work. There can be no doubt that ln tha course of a few years, at tho most, tha smelter srnoke Incident ln Salt Lake valley val-ley Will be a thing of the past, to ba remembered only by musty historians. |
