THE FERTILIZER MINERALS
We have above touched on four great groups of minerals—the fuel minerals, the steel and ferro-alloy minerals, the major non-ferrous minerals, and the non-metallic minerals. Next comes a group by itself—the fertilizer minerals or elementary substances, chief among which are phosphate rock, potash, nitrates, and sulphur and sulphuric acid. All of these appear essential to the re-invigorating of the soil as successive crops are removed, and so to securing a permanency of its original productivity.
Phosphate Rock.
—Phosphate rock is a natural substance which is used mainly as an ingredient of fertilizers, being finely ground and used directly. Large quantities are also used for making phosphoric acid and phosphorus, the latter being used in matches, etc. Phosphate rock is a bedded or sedimentary deposit containing phosphate of lime; phosphate of lime also occurs as nodules in stream beds. Another type of deposit commonly classed as phosphate rock is the porous coral or limestone of tropical islands, permeated with phosphate leached from guano. The phosphate rock deposits of present commercial importance are located in the United States, Algeria, Tunis, and Egypt, the United States possessing by far the largest reserves. The United States has also the largest industry of production. Politically the principal deposits are controlled by the United States, France (Tunis and Algeria) and Great Britain (Egypt). The commercial control of the deposits of the United States is mainly in the hands of Americans, although German and French interests own some of the hard-rock deposits. The deposits of Algeria and Tunis are controlled by two companies, one British and the other Italian. Germany will be without a source of supply under her own control now that her colonies have been forfeited.
From the above it will be seen that there is no probability of a world control or monopoly of phosphates. The United States is in a position to command the market unless nationalistic legislation in the various countries is enacted to protect and advance their own industries.
Potash.
—Potash is a most important fertilizer, over 90 per cent. of all potash used being so employed, the remainder going into the manufacture of explosives and glass, and into the chemical industry.
Up to 1914 practically all the world’s supply of potash came from the great natural rock-salt deposits of Stassfurt, Germany. Next in importance come the deposits of Alsace, containing sufficient to supply the world’s present demands for 300 years. Large undeveloped deposits exist in northeastern Spain. Germany made active practical use of her natural potash wealth in erecting a government monopoly, which supplied the world. This advantage was made much of in her plans for further political and commercial conquest, and in the writings of the vainglorious Teutons. In potash, they openly boasted, they had an all-powerful commercial weapon which would oblige other nations to supply in exchange raw materials such as Germany needed, as cotton and copper from the United States. With her political collapse, however, her commercial potash monopoly has also gone. The vast deposits of Alsatian potash have gone to France, and while German potash may still perhaps be produced and sold more cheaply, the Alsatian deposits will act as a check. A commercial combination between the two, and including the Spanish deposits, is, however, not at all out of the question. Potash is one of the commonest elements in the earth, and in the United States there is an abundant supply but it is largely in the form of silicates, and so more difficult and expensive to extract than from the soluble natural salts of Germany.
Nitrates.
—Nitrates are essential in an extraordinary degree, in various ways: as fertilizer, and so essential to food and life; as the source of ammonia, and therefore necessary to the modern system of food refrigeration; as an essential ingredient in explosives, and thus indispensable for the national defense. Just as potash is one of the commonest elements of the earth, so nitrogen is one of the commonest elements of the air, of which it constitutes four-fifths. It should not, therefore, be hard to get; but to isolate it and catch it in usable form—in technical terms, to “fix” it—is difficult, slow and expensive. Nature has not done much toward “fixing” nitrogen in her mineral supplies; and although it is constantly being “fixed” in animal and vegetable organisms, it is largely soon returned to the atmosphere as ammonia or in other forms, or, being in the form of soluble salts, is leached from the soil and carried away, either to be transformed again to the atmosphere, or, rarely, to be accumulated under arid conditions by evaporation into mineral deposits. For some hitherto unexplained reason, only in Chili have mineral deposits of importance thus been formed; and the Chilean deposits have till lately supplied the world, giving Chile even a far more exclusive position as regards nitrates than was held by Germany as regards potash; but there has never been any monopolistic control of the Chilean nitrate supply. Besides this mineral source, and the obtaining of nitrogen from the air by fixation, important sources of fertilizer nitrogen are contained in organic matter—refuse vegetable or animal remains, or animal excreta—and also from coal, as a by-product of coke manufacture.