The nitrogen from these organic sources does not appear on the market as such. Instead, the products enter in bulk into the make-up of fertilizer. They are of miscellaneous character, and only part of what is contributed collects to pass through industrial channels where its flow may be measured. The industrial flow goes on record and the records are available, but even here the nitrogen content has never been systematically computed, so the record is inadequate. For the rest, the portion that does not reach the channels of industry, there is nothing whatever in the way of data to go by. Taken all in all, then, the significance of the organic nitrogen resources is largely conjectural. This is unfortunate. Approximate figures covering the use of organic nitrogen would be of value in various connections, as in the interests of intelligent allocation in times of nitrogen shortage, as helping to determine the extent to which the growing demands of agriculture incident to the growth of population may be discounted from the consequent expansion of scavenging opportunity, or as affording a basis for estimating the very considerable influence of motorization toward increasing the demand for chemically prepared fertilizers.

As things stand, all such questions of relationship lead only to profitless speculation. Even the relative importance of the organic sources as a whole in the economics of nitrogen supply is uncertain. What they have to offer of undeveloped reserves, now taking the form of wasteful sanitation procedure, will be taken up later. Under existing conditions, it is probably fair to assume that 40 to 50 per cent. of the nitrogen normally put to use in the United States is organically associated.

Carboniferous Deposits.

—Nitrogen in its organic relationships is bound up with carbon, of which organic matter is largely composed, and the bond between the two is entirely disestablished only as the carbon itself loses its substantial form through oxidation. In consequence of this enduring alliance, nitrogen is characteristically present in carboniferous deposits, a form of occurrence giving rise to still another, a fourth type of nitrogen resource. Coal and oil-shale loom up as the outstanding representatives of this class. In each, the nitrogen content is variable, but amounts to 1 per cent. or over. With so low a percentage of nitrogen, it goes without saying that neither of these is to be regarded as a possible source of direct supply. The cost would be prohibitive, even under the stress of the most extreme emergency. The nitrogen in a coal bed or an oil-shale formation is as worthless as the iron in any ordinary rock. But coal has other uses, and so has oil shale, or at least will shortly. The nitrogen does not have to be extracted; it gets released incidentally, and when its release is effected under conditions that prevent its escape, the result is a productive nitrogen resource. The nitrogen from this type of resource is in the form of ammonia, the relative importance of which is shown in [Figures 16] to [18] and [Table 66].

GENERAL ASPECTS OF CONTROL

Such is the nature of the nitrogen resources. The resource situation as a whole is represented graphically in [Figure 15]. None other can compare with it for inclusiveness. Its sources are animal, vegetable, mineral, and atmospheric, which is to say, universal; and out of this unparalleled diversity has grown an industrial development as complex as it is diversified, and, incidentally, in view of its bearing on food and munitions supply, as important as it is complex. The situation at best can be but imperfectly grasped, for it has been but inadequately studied. In transgressing all set rules of resource occurrence, it transgresses the limits set for organized investigation. Geologists have studied one phase of the situation, electrochemists another, sanitation experts another, and so on; and the various commercial interests involved have seen to the giving of publicity where publicity would do the most good.

Table 66.—Statistics of Nitrogen Production

YearOrganic nitrogenChemical nitrogen
Dried blood; tankage; guano; fish scrap; cotton seed cake and meal; etc.Sodium nitrateFixation compoundsBy-product ammonium sulphate
World’s
production,
tons		Domestic
production,
tons		Imports,
tons		World’s productionDomestic
production,
tons		Imports,
tons		World’s
production,
tons		Domestic
production,
tons		Imports,
tons
Ammon.
sulph.
(Haber),
tons		Calcium
nitrate
(Arc),
tons		Cyanamid,
tons
1900Data for organic nitrogen indefinite,but probably about equal to the total for chemical nitrogen.........................  540,000   27,600    8,411
19011,328,664...  203,960...............  580,000   29,279   14,486
19021,349,300...  205,245...............  600,000   36,124   18,146
19031,485,279...  272,947...............  640,000   41,873   16,777
19041,559,091...  228,012...............  650,000   54,664   16,667
19051,754,605...  321,231...............  694,575   65,296   15,288
19061,800,500...  372,222......      386......  778,365   75,000    9,182
19071,846,036...  364,610......    1,874......  906,255   99,300   30,114
19081,970,974...  310,713......    2,767......  970,200   83,400   38,238
19092,110,961...  428,429...   45,450   12,734......  987,840  106,500   42,914
19102,465,415...  529,172......   22,596...      7641,104,705  116,000   92,342
19112,521,023...  544,878......   59,479...    5,6171,206,135  127,000   94,633
19122,585,850...  486,352......  115,688...    7,1341,356,075  165,000   59,542
19132,772,254...  625,862   20,000  181,800  173,026...   14,6561,532,475  195,000   65,775
19142,463,356...  541,715   60,000...  208,070...   29,5361,320,000  183,000   75,010
19151,755,291...  772,190  150,000...  845,388...   20,5641,690,000  249,000   36,370
19162,912,893...1,218,423  300,000...1,053,439...   38,0232,000,000  285,000   12,962
19172,950,000...1,555,839  500,000  300,000  954,765...   44,146...  325,000
19182,900,000...1,845,192............   43,070

Fig. 15.—Nitrogen sources and their cycles of utilization.