At the direction of the president, the chemicals division of the war industries board in December, 1918, turned over to the department of the interior the problem of increasing the potash production of the United States. This action was taken in order that an established branch of the government may permanently set itself to the task of emancipating the American farmer from the grip of Germany's monopoly on the world's supply of fertilizer material.

Before the signing of the armistice the war industries board had already attacked the problem. Chairman Baruch himself had appeared before a congressional committee in behalf of an amendment to the revenue bill which would give encouragement to private industries which would undertake the risk of establishing potash production in this country. The chemicals division, on the other hand, in co-operation with other departments of the government, had turned its attention to the specific task of extracting potash from waste products. A committee of experts, representing the steel and iron industry of the country and certain scientific departments of the government, was in process of formation, under the auspices of the chemicals division, at the time hostilities ceased. Its purpose was to determine as quickly as possible the feasibility, from a commercial standpoint, of extracting potash from the fumes of blast furnaces.

Prior to the outbreak of the war, Germany, by reason of her monopoly of the potash supply, had gradually extended her arm around the food crops of the world. It was to Germany that the farmers of this and other countries had to look for the principal ingredients of their fertilizers. Nowhere else were to be found the vast potash deposits, contained in rock salt, which insured to the German potash exporters a natural supply sufficient to meet the demands of the world for several thousands of years to come.

When the outbreak of the European war suddenly cut off this supply the situation of the American farmer was for a time desperate. Under the stimulus of necessity, efforts were launched by private industries to meet the situation, and in consequence there has been a considerable development in the amount of potash produced in this country. By no means, however, has this development approached the requirements of the country. Before the war the American imports of pure potash from Germany for the year ending July, 1914, amounted approximately to 250,000 tons. In 1917 there were produced in the United States 32,000 tons, and in 1918 it was estimated that the output would amount to about 60,000 tons.

The war industries board undertook to approach the problem in a larger way, and it is proposed by arrangement between the chemicals division and the department of the interior for the program to be carried forward by the latter department.

The suggestion of extracting potash from blast furnace fumes is based on the fact that potash in varying quantities is found not only in the iron ores but in the coke and lime used in reducing the ores. In Alabama the ores are particularly rich in potash. At present this potash is allowed to escape during the processes of the blast furnaces. Divided into microscopic particles of dust it is volatilized and carried off with the waste fumes.

Several methods of saving this potash have been suggested by scientists. Of these the most feasible appears to be the electric precipitation process devised by Dr. Fred D. Cottrell of the bureau of mines. This involves cooling the gases as they emerge from the blast furnaces and passing them through a series of sheet-steel tubes eight to twelve

inches in diameter. Through the center of these tubes is run a wire, or chain, carrying a high-voltage charge of static electricity. This electric charge tends to electrify the fine particles of potash dust, causing them to consolidate or "colonize" and drop down the sides of the tubes. A fair-sized installation for this process requires as many as 400 of these tubes through which to pass the gases. It is this process which the Bethlehem Steel company has experimented with on a small scale.

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Another method tried out involves the spraying of the gas fumes with water and passing them through moist bags, which retain the potash. This method has been tried out in extracting potash from the fumes given off in the manufacture of cement. Its first practical application took place when a ment plant located near Redlands, Cal., undertook, in response to neighborhood protests, to cut down the volume of fumes emitted from its chimneys. Other cement plants have tried it out, and in the east the Security Cement and Lime company at Hagerstown, Md., has been foremost in the recovery of potash from cement dust. Cement mixture contains potash in proportions varying from 1 per cent to 14 per cent. When calcining cement clinkers the addition of salt to the coal that is burned in the kiln renders the potash soluble in water. At a conference of experts held in the office of C. H. MacDowell, director of the chemicals division of the war industries board, the opinion prevailed that it would be entirely feasible to develop commercially a method of extracting the potash from blast furnace fumes, particularly in regions where the blast furnaces are located near ores in which potash occurs in quantities sufficient to insure substantial recoveries. The problem presents many technical difficulties, since care must be taken in developing a by-product process not to interfere with the primary output.

The potash deposits in Germany resulted from the crystallization of sea water. In all of the 202 mines in that country, the potash is found in water-soluble form and for certain purposes can be used just as it comes from the mines without further refining. At Searles Lake, Cal., potash in this watersoluble form has been found in small quantities, and two factories have been established there to extract it. In Nebraska it has been possible to recover potash in fair quantities from certain alkali lakes located in that state. In Utah Mr. MacDowell himself established a plant at which pure potash is recov. ered from alunite.

Elsewhere experiments have been made in recovering potash from certain by-products such as beet-root molasses and wool scourings. Other sources of supply being studied are the potash shales of Alabama and Georgia, the green sands of New Jersey and the leucite deposits of Wyoming. There is, in fact, a considerable development now under way in the production of potash from leucite: and production likewise has been undertaken in Utah from certain brines contained in salt deposits west of Salt Lake City.

Unquestionably it is going to cost much more to produce potash in Germany and Alsace. War taxes, high food costs and other fundamentals will bring this about so that it will be a long time before European potash is brought to this country at the low cost prevailing before 1914.

SHORTAGE IN WORLD'S SUPPLY OF FATS.

In support of its policy to keep farmers of the United States fully informed of world food conditions and probable needs for certain commodities the United States food administration in December, 1918, eompleted a summary of