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Show I $D0KING GEORGE S. BENSON I H7f President-Harding eotttgi M ; .1 Scarry, Arkansas The Story Of Nitrogen Fifty-six years ago Sir William Wil-liam Crookes, noted chemical scie-ntest, scie-ntest, foresaw the possibility of the end of life on earth. He wasant forecasting for-ecasting a plague, another great Deluge, the development of the H-bomb H-bomb or bacteriological warfare. He was merely calling attention to the dwindling supply of usable nitrogen in the earth's farmlands. Unless a way could be found to replenish re-plenish the nitrogen being drawn from the soil by crops, the soil gradually would become unproductive unproduc-tive and wholesale starvition would face the human race. on earth than any other element. The air we breathe is 80 per cent nitrogen, and thus in the air column col-umn over each acre of land on earth there are approximately 70, 000,000 pounds of nitrogen. But before the soil, or man, or animals can use this air-nitrogen, it must be extracted and made into a different dif-ferent kind of chemical called "fixed" nitrogen. Job For America The chemists found that a bolt of lightning converted the air nitrogen nit-rogen into "fixed" nitrogen, and rain brought it down into the ground, and it renewed the soil's productivity. This occurrence was not widespread enough to be of any consequence, but it gave them a clue. The job was far too big, however, for test tube chemistry. In time small chemical plants of Europe developed a cumbersome process for "fixing" nitrogen so that it could, be put into the soil and used by the plants. It is doubtful that the Euro- pean production ever would have J been of any substantial commercial 1 value. It took the genius of Amer- ican industry to get the big job n done. In 1924 some of our bigger i chemical industries began ex- I perimenting with "fixing" nitro- H gen. DuPont and others acquired European formulae and then plowed vast resources in men and money into developing mass production prod-uction of "synthetic" nitrogen fertilizer. By 1940 the fertilizer business had been revolutionized, and Sir William Crookes' spectre of a starving civilization was erased. Replenishing The Earth One of the big new nitrogen plants was built at El Dorado, Arkansas, by Lion Oil Company. j It reaches up into the atmosphere and pulls in the air we breath; it reaches down into the South Arkansas Ark-ansas earthen reservoirs and pulls in petroleum gas. Then, this monstrous mon-strous and intricate plant, covering cover-ing 600 acres, pressurizes, mixes, and heats the gases, and out of it comes vast quanities of "fixed" nitrogen for converting into fertilizer. fert-ilizer. Lion is building a second big The pitifully small earth deposit of usable nitrogen in Chile's nitrate mines wouldn't fill a hollow tooth in the earth's hunger for this chemical chem-ical element which sustains all plant and animal life. Chemical science was being challenged. And echoing in this challenge was God's own admonition to Adam and Eve: "Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish re-plenish the earth, and subdue it." Mankind had multiplied all right; and had scattered, in the millions, over the globe. But mankind had not replenished the earth, as they took from it. Must Be "Fixed" When Crookes made' his important import-ant observation, the world's population pop-ulation was swiftly growing, as it is now; while the productivity of the land, on the whole, was diminishing. dim-inishing. These two related facts were what concerned the chemical scientists. They forecast not a land of plenty, but a land of growing food scaricty. j Long before Crookes lived, pure i scientests had discovered the place ' of nitrogen in the scheme of life. I And, strangely enough, they had found that there was more nitrogen plant. Other big plants are going I up through-out the South through- I out America. E Meanwhile, American "farmers 1 I have learned how to use the life- I giving, stimulating nitrogen in B every agricultural production job. B It is performing amazing feats in increased production of crops and livestock. Man gets his nitrogen from the meat, vegetables and grains he eats, and it keeps him alive. Thus, American industry, with its powerful incentive inherent inher-ent in our competive, profit system, and with its great capacity for research, re-search, is helping mankind to be "fruitful and multiply, and replen- H ish the earth, and subdue it." Next a week: The Insect Hordes. g. |