INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
1470
fetching up somewhere with his undertakings, were taxed as they had never been taxed before. Space will not permit a recitation of all of t'he details of this development. It is sufficient to say that he solved the problem of regular and commercial production of calcium cyanide direct from cyanamide. This is a case, like
VOL. 28, NO. 12
many others in the chemical industry, where somebody discovered a chemical or physical fact, but it' took a genius of another kind to reduce it to practice. A commercial plant was promptly established at Niagara Falls where it' now produces a large proportion of the cyanide used throughout the world.
Concentrated Fertilizers W. S. LANDIS American Cyanamid Company, New York, N. Y .
T
KE history of the beginnings of agriculture,
particularly of that division devoted t o the growing of crops, agronomy, is somewhat speculative in regard t o the earliest periods because no written records are available. Primitive man was a meat eater and lived entirely upon his success as a hunter. H e roamed across country in packs, the male and female sharing alike in the pursuit and its results. The cares of maternity from time t o time forced the female to drop out of the hunting party for short periods, later rejoining the same or another pack. During these periods food supply was undoubtedly a problem t o the mother. As time passed and more attention was paid to the rearing of the offspring, these intervals of absence from the chase became longer and the food problem more intense. With the establishment of a more fixed abode, the procurement of food was left largely to the male. His hunting activities carried him farther and farther from the settlement, and the vicissitudes of the chase frequently kept him out for long intervals. The female was often forced on short rations and
undoubtedly r a s the f i s t t o experiment with nuts, berries, fruits, and seeds as a supplementary diet. It is believed that the female adopted such vegetarian diet long before the male and by necessity rather than choice. But do not assume that this is the full explanation of the stag beefsteak and the sorority salad. Such light as folklore and a study of the customs of primitive people can throw on this subject leads to the conclusion that formal burial of the dead, particularly of the male, was an early practice, and the decoration of the graves with fruit, florers, and the like, a common custom of the female. She noticed that seeds dropped on the upturned earth of the new grave sprouted and grew more luxuriously than those falling on the hard worn path. And so began our f i s t planned agronomy. Thus the beginnings of agriculture may be traced to the female. Among the more primitive peoples, even in more modern Europe, we are impressed by the large part women played in agriculture. Examine closely any comprehensive treatise on mythology and you will find goddesses of agricul-
DECEMBER, 1936
INDUSTRIAL .4ND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
ture in plenty, few, or no gods. Attend any garden club meeting today and look for the male. The observation respecting vegetation on the nem grave was put to early practical application. It was long the custom to bury a corpse in the corner of the garden or grain field at planting time. At first that of an enemy sufficed, but if none was conveniently a t hand a human sacrifice, sometimes of a chosen member of the tribe, furnished the necessary subject. Later the carcass of an animal seemed to satisfy, and even today in primitive regions, a t seeding time a festival is held a t which an animal is killed and the remains ceremoniously interred in the corner of the field. Although we recognize certain plant food values in organic residues, it is hardly likely that such spotty distribution assured noticeable crop increment.
Early History of Fertilizers A s man later passed into the pastoral era, observation again noted the more luxuriant vegetation following the droppings of the feeding animals. The use of stable manure goes back beyond written history. The beneficial effects of lime and of wood ashes are dwelt upon in Roman literature, and the use probably long antedates even Romulus. If a thorough search were made of all literature relating t o agriculture, probably a t some time every known substance would have been recommended to the agronomist as a fertilizer material. I have only a partial list picked up from accidental reading and without system, yet it looks like an abridged chemical dictionary. I t is still growing. Prior to about 1800 such applications supposed to influence crop production favorably were based upon observation, good and bad, upon whim and prejudice, upon anything but exact scientific foundation. Custom and practice passed an art from generation to generation. Much was effective, most quite harmless. It was just about the beginning of the nineteenth century that the serious chemists of the day began a systematic study of plant constitution and evolved a theory of nutrition. Let me recall such names as Sassure, Davy, Lawes, Liebig, Gilbert, Boussingault, Only a century later their successors numbered thousands. Handicapped by lack of facilities for precise analytical work in a most difficult field, these pioneers accomplished wonders. Their service to agriculture is immeasurable. They determined that the three principal plant constituents derived from the soil were nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash. Lime had long been recognized as a valuable aid, but its truly great importance to agriculture has been emphasized only recently by the scientist. This comparatively recent chemical research (about one hundred years old) forms the basis of the great American fertilizer industry. By far the larger output of this industry is commonly called “the complete mixture,’’ a ready-formulated combination of the three most essential plant foods as determined by the work of the pioneers mentioned. The industry itself began in a small way with the production of superphosphate and is about eighty years old. Today it ranks as one of the major branches of chemical industry with a turnover of several hundred million dollars a year. Yet in spite of the fact that it has grown so rapidly and to such great size, European observers have difficulty in understanding the comparatively small consumption of fertilizer in this country. It seems difficult to reconcile their intensive system of agriculture as practiced on their limited areas of arable land with our extensive system where yields per unit of area are frequently secondary to other factors. A most striking example of this occurred a few years ago when a scientific organization of a foreign country came to America to learn how one man on the American farm could keep two a t work in the factory and commerce, while the reverse relation existed in the foreign countries. At any rate, America
1471
uses but a fraction of the plant food per unit of area that is standard for the densely populated and highly cultivated sections of Europe; consequently our fertilizer industry is not proportionately developed. It seems large merely bem i s e of the enormous area under cultivation.
Materials i n Early Fertilizers
I first came into intimate contact with this industry in 1912. At that time the average mixed fertilizer carried less than 2 per cent nitrogen, about 8 per cent phosphoric an-
hydride (commonly called “phosphoric acid” in the trade), and about 2 per cent of potassium oxide (called potash although incorporated in the form of chloride or Pulfate). At that time nitrogen was listed as ammonia and represented a miscellaneous lot of organic and mineral nitrogen, all expressed in percentage of equivalent ammonia. It was years later that we returned to the term “nitrogen” to designate again the valuable constituent of this class of plant food. The fertilizer industry was and still is divided into two distinct groups-those that perform some chemical manufacturing operation and those which merely assemble and mechanically formulate the finished product. Originally the first class was predominant. Today the second class or SOcalled dry mixer has a goodly share of the business. Of the three principal classes of raw material, the potash calts were imported almost entirely from Germany and included several grades-the kainites of lowest potash content, the intermediate grades, manure and double manure salts, and the high-grade chloride and sulfate; these latter carried 50 per cent potassium oxide. These potash salts were bought on the open market a t prices fixed by the producing syndicate and reached the farmer without further chemical transformation. Phosphates were derived from the acidulation of phosphate rock or from the treatment of bone. Most of the phosphate was in the form of a simple superphospate carrying 16 per cent soluble PzOs. The more concentrated triple and double phosphates, precipitated bone, and bone meal played a very small part in the industry a t that time. The larger fertilizer companies produced their own requirements of superphosphate plus that purchased by the dry mixers. Competition for customers was severe, and rarely did this phosphate branch of the business show any material profit. Thus superphosphate and chamber acid production was by far the most important of the chemical operations carried on by the fertilizer companies. From some points of view the nitrogen supply was complex. As far as possible cheap organic waste materials were used. The assembly of such materials characterized the industry as “a scavenger industry.’’ Simple treatment processes were practiced to render more available some of the organics, such as feathers, wool waste, leather scrap. Inedible meals were favored, since they added bulk to the mixture. The meat packers were important factors and used this outlet for certain waste products. This was a transient period, for these organics were rising rapidly in price from the competition of the feeding market and in the near future were destined to play a less important part in fertilizer formulation. Their place was being taken by the inorganics, sodium nitrate and ammonium sulfate, particularly the latter, for there was a growing by-product coke production in all the industrial countries. The fixation of atmospheric nitrogen was still in its infancy. I n 1898 Sir William Crookes in his presidential address t o the British Association for the Advancement of Science predicted a wheat shortage in the comparatively near future unless additional sources of cheap nitrogen were made available to agriculture, and the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen was mentioned as the most promising source.
INDUSTRIAL A\D E Y( ;I \i EERI \i G CHENISTK1
1472
Chemists and engineers attacked the problem energetically. and the arc and cyanamide processes were already in commercial operation. The synthetic ammonia process was just about t o leave the laboratory. Nevertheless, the dozen fixation plants scattered around the world were not yet really important contributors t o the total nitrogen supply. Our low-analysis mixed fertilizer of American origin T\ a5 being marketed t o the extent of some six million tons annually and had shown a fairly regular increase for years. I t was produced in about a thousand plants and sold under an enormous number of registered brands (probably 20,000). Packaging was required by law or regulation in new, marked bags, each bearing the brand, name of the producer, and a statutory form of analysis. One company had seventy-four brands of 3-8-3 fertilizer officially registered in one state alone. The problem of assembling the miscellaneous raw materials, the formulating of the numerous mixtures, loading them in the prescribed branded bags of which great stocks had to be carried to meet the several state regulations, the registration and tagging, all placed what seemed t o be an excessive burden on agriculture. The cost of the raw materials was frequently less than half the total sales price of the finished goods, much of the difference being due to packing, freight, and handling charges on the low-grade raw materials, and what may be called the general “friction” in the industry; little of this increased the yield of the subject crop, yet the industry was showing only modest profits from its manufacturing operations. When we consider that the average material produced, sold, and applied carried only 12 per cent of actual plant food, there should have been ample margin for savings in the cost of packaging, handling, freight, cartage, and distribution by the simple expedient of increasing the concentration of the active ingredients. I n many cases these costs amounted to as much as half the cost of the fertilizer applied to the crop. It was believed that it offered a possibility of profitable employment of capital and would prove an enormous benefit to agriculture.
Development of Ammo-Phosl The problem was approached from the raw material side. There seemed to be nothing that could be done with potash. I t had a single origin, and no further attention was paid t o that ingredient a t the commencement of the development here discussed. The by-product coke ovens were performing a needed service in a satisfactory manner, and ammonium sulfate 1
RecLtered. U F P a t e n t Office.
x I A G . i R . 4 PLANT,
\-OL. 28, 10.17
itself must be considered as a fairly permanent factor 111 any fertilizer program. The fixation industry, while small, was developing and was demonstrating its po4bility in the several initial installations. The arc procew with its nitrate product seemed to be limited to a few favored localities and appeared most unpromising, particularly in America. The cyanamide process with its ammonia derivative offered a better chance of wide applicalion, and the synthetic ammonia process possessed certain technical possibilities, but little was known in 1912 of its economics. The fixation industry had, even prior to thiq date, scheduled Chile out of the picture. Ammonia seemed to be the major form in which nitrogen was most likely to enter the fertilizer of the future. The phosphate problem was appraised as requiring a real development of major character. The 16 per cent superphosphate was too dilute; that is, too much inert material war handled through to its later field application. Attention rras directed, therefore, to this problem of available phosphatp and a solution which would fit the specification of a generally applicable simple concentrated fertilizer carrying the three plant foods, with as little inert or useless filler as possible. It had t o be compatible with the available high-grade potaih salts, and the nitrogen could be in the ammonia form. A commercial ammonium phosphate that could be made at a low cost and that could be mixed with ammonium sulfate to give outlet to this by-product, and with the commercial high-grade potash salts, was chosen as the most promising approach to a solution of our problems. This required an exhaustive study of phosphoric acid production. The fuel-fired furnace was first tried, and the results were rather discouraging. Costs appeared rather high. The electric furnace was next examined; it looked more promising, but the results of two trials by others made between 1912 and 1914 put this out of immediate consideration. A by-product of this furnace work, however, was the development of a calcined phosphate, a nonwater-soluble but available product. This was not placed in production becausc the several states and the farm were not yet ready for such an innovation. This form of phosphate is now being revived, but no propaganda yet in effect has prepared the market for it, and its general application appears still in the future, in spite of the lapse of twenty-five years since the first carload Tt-as put to field test. The several studies finally led t o the selection of the acid treatment of phosphate rock as the best solution of the phosphate problem at that time; after a searching examination of the art in the several countries where practiced, a process h a w 1 on small-scale operation. in an American plant ant1
AMERICAXCYlN.4AlID
CoMPaNY
1912
DE(:E:\IHEIl. 19:36
INDUSTRIAL AUD ESGINEEKIUG CHEVISTRY
coupled with our on n pilot-plant experience was chosen. The ammoniation of this crude phosphoric acid was a complex problem, since the maximum of available P:,O5had to be extracted from the rock and carried over into the finished product. The superphosphate producers had solved this problem almost perfectly, and successful competition with this older process permitted no less efficient utilization of the raw material. The iron and alumina content of the rock has d habit of forming insolubles on ammoniation. After two years of experimentation and development, a plant was designed and built at Warners, N. J., with an initial capacity of 25,000 tons a year of a product christened ‘LAmmo-Phos.”l Provision was made originally for readily increasing this capacity, and that plant is now capable of converting over 600 tons of phosphate rock into acid per day. Initially the product was to contain 11 per cent nitrogen and 48 per cent available phosphoric acid. The ratio could be varied between that content and 16 per cent nitrogen-20 per cent phosphoric acid by the admixture of sulfuric acid. The monophosphate was chosen because of its stability and excellent physical condition, a very important factor as we shall later find. Our experience with the diamnionium phosphate was such that it was never produced as a commercial fertilizer since it lacked the desired stability, but some of our later competitors have marketed this material in recent years. The plant was completed toward the early part of 1917, but n i t h the advent of the war the fertilizer program was abandoned; the sulfuric acid unit shipped its output to the munition plant, and the ammonia was converted to aqua with the same destination. Late in 1919 fertilizer production was resumed. This material was designed to revolutionize the domestic pre-war fertilizer practice. Actually during the early years of production the product went almost entirely into world-wide export. S o problem arose then of developing an American market for the new material, for the foreign agriculturist took all that could be produced. The concentrated product TWS fitted to the high post-war freights and the long haul to world markets, and the foreign farmer had no difficulty in applying this pioneer high-analysis product. R e did not have t o bother with the potash admixture. The pressure for production necessitated additional plant capacity a t regular intervals and caused a renewed study of phosphoric acid production. The capability of the electric furnace had not been fully explored, and interest was reawakened by reported results secured in a n e x southern plant. A new furnace of 1500-kw. capacity was built in Florida, and the results of this work demonstrated that, between geographical hindrances and probable costs of power, the sulfuric acid process was the cheaper producer of the fertilizer product. TVA was not then in being, and power rates had to be considered without subsidy from the taxpayers.
Effect of Changes in Nitrogen Industry d post-war revolution was in the making in the nitrogen industry, which was expected to halve major influence on a n export fertilizer market such as had been developed for Ammo-Phos. Fixation had demonstrated its ability to furnish the necessary requirements of nitrogen to the explosive industry of the central European countries during the latter years of the war. Operating entirely on domestic sources of ram materials, such plants offered an attractive medium of export, a t least so thought the local economists. In fact, the war-time capacity of one country was increased materially after the Armistice with export wholly in mind. Rut every other nation also began to think seriously of national defense, military preparedness, and the mileage t o Chile. Kew plants began to spring up in every quarter. They are still being built in many parts of the world. Direct government owner-
1173
ship, subvention, and subsidy of every kind entered in the establisl-ment of many of them. Today the installed capacity 1‘ nearly four million tons of fixed nitrogen per year; production of the coke ovens and Chile in addition gives a total yield of five million tons, and the world uses about two million tons a year for all purposes. Xitrogen was forced upon a market that was being disturbed daily by new import restriction, quota, and embargo; as each country completed a unit, up went additional bars against imports and new methods were originated to accelerate exports. Prices on ammonia salts dropped to a quarter of the pre-war level, nitrates even to greater degree. For some years past most fixation plants have operated a t 30 to 40 per cent of capacity, on the averageanother case of the chemist performing a n excellent service and that service grossly abused by the politician. The damage was large in the industry itself, particularly if measured on the extravagant capital investment of over two billion dollars, but far greater was the effect on agricultural economics. Our immediate interest lay in the probable loss of the export markets for the new concentrated fertilizer. A greatly enlarged and highly specialized agricultural division >\as organized t o study the application of the product to American agricultural practice. The ammonium phosphate was assumed to show normal nutritional behavior as to its content of nitrogen and of soluble phosphoric acid, and we were not later disappointed in this appraisal. The real problem was the best method of application. The common low-grade mixed fertilizer was not always in perfect mechanical condition. It was sometimes rather damp, frequently showed a tendency to stick together, was often caked and hard. The mixer struggled to put out a free-flowing, stable product but was handicapped by the properties of his several available raw materials. Consequently the farm equipment for distributing the ordinary mixed product was designed not alone to take care of the poor mechanical condition of the fertilizer, but also for the necessarily larger applications per unit of area occasioned by its low analysis. The dry, freeflowing Ammo-Phos would not only run through the average distributor-that is, leak past the mechanism that regulated the rate of feeding, but in addition few machines could be set to the proportionately low application rates of one-quarter to one-sixth that of the former practice. The technicians of the agricultural machinery builders mere inost cooperative. They produced equipment that met all requirements of low rate and uniformity of distribution. A secondary product of this research was the cooperative work of several of the state experiment stations in the study of thcl best location for the actual fertilizer placement in relation to the seed. Here again the implement manufacturers furnished excellent cooperation. As a result, machinery and practice were developed with which, from the technical angle of the most effective application of the concentrated fertilizers, we were quite satisfied. But the farmer was not prepared to duplicate his equipment. His economic situation did not permit it in many cases, particularly in those districts where the great bulk of the fertilizer was sold. This has been a major factor up to the present in the development of the market. More and more has the Ammo-Phos market moved to the districts of most intensive agricultural practice. The better equipped farms, the more intelligent direction, the relatively larger applications all favor the concentrated product. I n those districts nhere the “bag t o the acre” is the guiding rule the concentrated fertilizer has until now made little headway.
Competition That this pioneering adventure was not without basic merit is borne out by the appearance of the competitor.
1474
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEEHlNG CHEMISTRY
1 7 0 ~ . 28, NO. 12
R E C E S T AEROPLANE V I E W OF PRESENT W.4RNERS PLAXT
Renewed interest in the concentrated superphosphates ii indicated by the later construction of two large plants in the United States and one in Canada. These produce a 45-48 per cent available phosphate. Two have also produced ammonium phosphate on a small scale and the third has a large production. One ships phosphoric acid to a distant aininonia plant for conversion to the ammonium salt. A t least four European and eastern countries have produced ammonium phosphate in some considerable quantity, and technical and patent literature today indicate widespread foreign interest. It is interesting t o note that the competitive products which have appeared are for the most part carrying exactly the same analyses as the original Ammo-Phos. This analysis was in part accidental, representing the product of the most efficient manufacturing operation applied to a specific variety of phosphate rock. They happen possibly not to be the most convenient formulas, but to change them involves that type of processing cost that the whole operation was designed to eliminate. The exact copying of the formulas indicates the value of the propagandx work instituted t o the competitor.
excessive nitrugeii productiun 01 Europe undoubtedly did increase farm crops in the several countries and, in turn, dried up the imports of $merican agricultural products. But it mas an artificial stimulation of production, without regard to fundamental economic balance. A study of the multitude of farm relief measures imposed by the several European governments indicates that they also still possess a farm problem in spite of nitrogen and that America does not possess a monopoly of ignorance in handling agricultural economics. One has only to catalog the farm relief measures undertaken in the recent past years in the several European countries to learn that they did not shift any great proportion of their farm troubles t o the American agriculturist. Present-day politics is too shallor-minded, it is motivated by too many selfish ideas, it is conducted by too many failures refused by industry, to be entrusted with the problems of business and management required t o direct an industry successfully, particularly one closely related to such a fundamental problem as agriculture.
Political Measures
Physical Condition of Fertilizers
A disturbing feature has recently arisen in this country in the renewed political interest affecting one phase of the industry, I have recited briefly the ills that followed the political direction of the nitrogen industry in foreign fields. The full measure of that damage will never be itemized accurately. To our own and neighboring agriculture it has been enormous. Xow we face the potentiality of the same thing happening in our own phosphate industry. Will it also bring the same or even worse disaster to our agriculture, now struggling with about all it can bear? May I here caution against the hasty conclusion that such damage always falls on the other man or nation. One man’s poison is not always another’s meat, in world economics. The
A by-product of the concentrated fertilizer venture has been increased interest in the improvement of the physical condition of fertilizer materials and mixtures. Ammo-Phos is a dry, free-flowing material, somewhat granular in character. It is not hygroscopic and unless actually wetted does not cake or lump. It lends itself to the emphasis placed upon controlled and uniform distribution by our representative experiment stations. The implement manufacturer can more readily adapt his equipment to such a free-flowing product than to the damp soggy mass of reacting ingredients often found in the old mixture. The wider use of inorganic forms of nitrogen has helped greatly in providing a better conditioned product. Wrorld-mide
DECEMBER, 1936
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRk
interest is appearing in an improvement in the physical condition of all present-day fertilizers, and soon the granulated product will be t)he rule rather than the specialty. A number of ingredients are already on the market in granule form, and a small quantity of complete fertilizer has been produced for special application purposes. Soon the modern fertilizer plant will not be complete without a granulating unit. Europe has long produced large quantities of such preformed material.
Summary of Progress I have here reported the background and the progress in a venture that has been under way for more than twenty years. It has called for much large-scale experimentation, largely for purposes of precise orientation, in fields which had not received much attention and yet are fundamental to one of the larger branches of chemical industry in this country. The pioneer work has been followed and capitalized by many competitors. The measurable effect expressed quantitatively is not readily distinguishable. The average grade of the mixed fertilizers sold in this country last year showed from 3 to 4 per cent nitrogen, 8 to 9 per cent phosphoric acid, and 3 to 4 per cent potash. I n the twenty years the nitrogen and the potash had stepped up about one unit each, the phosphate not quite so much. On tjhe other hand there has been a noticeable change in the industry. The absorption of organics by the cattle feeders and the struggle for higher analysis mixtures had led to a higher formulation nf the inorganic forms of nitrogen. The American potash industry has increased the old standard for high-grade salts which stood a t 50 per cent potassium oxide content for decades, up to a new level of 60 per cent potassium oxide. The old 16 per cent acid phosphate is now making way for 18to 20 per cent superphosphate. Last year a new 32 per cent superphosphate in granular form appeared on the market in the northeastern states. The original calcium nitrate of the old arc process has disappeared and a new calciurn nitrate of 16.5 per cent nitrogen, or four units higher, has taken its place. Potassium nitrate has now entered the raw material field as a fertilizer constituent. Indirectly, therefore, there has been progress in the development of higher percentage raw materials, and consequently we may expect higher analysis mixed fertilizers. I n fact, today there is a substantial quantity of 4-8-5 on the market showing this upward tendency. Summed up, the progress may look discouraging to any but an agriculturist. The fact that we cannot point to millions of tons of concentrated fertilizer output in the morld is not so serious when we think that the few hundred thousand tons that appear annually on the market should be multiplied by a rather large factor here in the United States if we wish t o compare it with the average 3-9-3 grade. And there is a reason for this apparently slow adoption of these high-analysis compounds. Everyone k n o m that in any commercial undertaking of a radically revolutionary character one does not proceed far without meeting resistance. Agriculture presents a particularly strong defense against innovation. The farmer representing the oldest industry in the world is conservative by nature, learned through long experience, and the experiment station inherits much of his background. \Te must remember t h a t he produces essentially a single crop of a single product per year and any error in his practice may cost a whole year’s effort. This is unlike the usual manufacturing industry where a product may be turned out in a minute or a day or even a month, the latter representing a long cycle. .4n error in procedure can be corrected immediately and production continued with comparatively little loss. Certainly there are few manufacturing operations whose cycle of a single operation is a year. Then again the farmer has t o struggle against many uncontrollable elements.
a
1475
His production is influenced by temperature, rainfall, length of season between frosts, the perfection of his seed, the advent of pest and disease. It, therefore, is natural that he should be extremely careful in the choice of the controllable elements, of which fertilizer is a good example. Is there any question as to why progress in agriculture should be slow? Fortunately in our case the experiment stations had been converted already to the principle of concentrated fertilizers, to the necessity for improvement in mechanical condition, to the advantages of uniform distribution. We had to spend no great effort to interest them. However, they must require experimental proof of the agricultural value of a new fertilizer product and quite properly refuse to accept any on chemical analysis or by analogy. They also can harvest only one crop per year, and the varying uncontrollable factors require replication so that four or five years are not too long to await the results of the field tests. They have to study many collateral factors, such as soil residues and conditions, not to speak of the great variety of soils and crops that are met in a comprehensive agriculture. An accidental attack of a blight or a pest may destroy the year’s work. The problem of the nutrient value of a simple chemical becomes quite complex. Then again one faces a new factor in the marginal farmer. He has drifted to the marginal lands, usually because he is not the most intelligent and progressive of his class. He has little capital. Yet in the aggregate he is a large consumer of fertilizer since he has to make up his soil deficiencies by chemical additions. It is a long, slow task to convince him that one-quarter of a bag of one material is equal to a full bag of another. He may have no equipment suited to the distribution of the concentrated product and for some years past has been unable to finance such distribution. Therefore, it is not difficult to reconcile the slow progress made in converting him to a new idea, in spite of the patient and devoted service of the station and the county agent. It is truly a matter of time. The established mixed-fertilizer industry occupies a peculiar position in relation t o the development of concentrated fertilizer. It has large investments in trade-marks, brands, and good will. Its manufacturing units are not well suited to the production of this type of material and mould require material alterations. Then again politics are sometimes involved where an association of producers of certain materials in the mixed-fertilizer industry have prevailed upon legislative and regulative bodies to give preferred position t o the particular products of that association. This is purely political and another example of the minority bloc; it is not based upon any scientific background. Therefore, the problems of the mixer are extremely complicated and naturally he has accepted these concentrated materials only to supplement his long-established ingredients. The pressure for higher concentration of fertilizers with economic background set forth has developed an excellent market among the mixers for Ammo-Phos where it is used to offset the low-analysis products in the formulation of the higher percentage grades. This will probably continue to be a growing outlet and, measured in time in agricultural standards, will undoubtedly be an important transition to the era we so hopefully anticipated some twenty-five years ago. It fits well with the development of the dry-mixing branch of this industry, for this latter class now produces more than half the mixed fertilizer of the country.
American Fertilizer Practice The question has been raised repeatedly, particularly by the European, as to whether our American fertilizer practice is logical.* The European early adopted the principle that the farm should be treated as an individual unit, its soil studied
14ih
for deficiencies, and its c r o p aiialyzed for requireillenti. Their practice, therefore, was largely in the successive ube of the several efficient plant foods. The cheap labor available permitted the repeated applications. I n this country we have endeavored to produce a series of formulas fitted t o the several types of soil and to the several varieties of c r o p . Probably a dozen such formulas would amply meet the situation, and it has long been recognized that our mixed fertilizer industry set u p a bad practice many years ago in the large number of formulas and brands. There is continuous striving to eliminate this complicated system as rapidly as possible. Eventually the industry will greatly simplify it5 practice in this respect. There is no question, therefore, that materials can be assembled more cheaply for the simplified practice of the future in the large centers and distributed t o the farms in mixed form where machinery and a single application can reduce farm cost enormously. Therefore, the American system appears to be logical and will continue, it will be appreciated abroad, since there is a growing tendency to the production of compound fertilizers in Europe. Of course this innovation suffers the same handicaps abroad as agricultural practice in this country, and such revaluation will be slow when measured by ordinary chemical time. The fact that European competitors have taken up this idea of concentrated fertilizer is a good meawre of future development.
Conclusions The chemist has produced by operative processes products of excellent plant food value but far in advance of the preparedness of the consumer to adopt his methods and materials universally. The old-line fertilizer industry is handicapped in several directions from adopting the revolutionary proposals of the chemist. The experiment station has fostered the basic idea but lacks extensive means of propaganda and education fundamentally required in any marked agriculture change. Consequently, although these products are now produced in many parts of the world, their principal application is only in those regions of intensive agricultural practice and by the most enlightened of the farmer class. The marginal farmer who could profit most by their use is not yet a customer of importance. I cannot close without a word of warning. The politician has upset a n agricultural balance and brought about a farm problem far more serious than nature has ever inflicted. The muddled handling of this problem (I speak from the world’s
hiidpoilit) has actually retarded agricultural progress b3 blocking the road through which all other forms of business have found the way to prosperity; as a consequence, when the customer is injured, the supplying industry suffers likewise. The arerage chemist has had little experience with politici n his business and does not know the pitfalls that can be present. I should recommend to all chemists a schooling 111 politics, using as a tevtbook a history of agricultural rhemistry, for the lessons there learned may be very useful -ince politics are now beginning to spread over the farm to in the industry. I might almost wish t o inscribe a new l ~ w chemical teutbooks, reading; somexhat a. follows: Beware the political uplifter, for a single one can undo the constructive work of a score of the best chemists. Let us hope we can bar him from the remainder of our industries. RECEIYED October 2 , 1936
Corrections In the article on “.Acid Soaps and Middle Soap” by Kluchevich and Averko-dntonovich, which appeared on pages 949 to 952 of the August, 1936, issue, three regrettable errors occurred and should be corrected as follows: Page 949, column 1, line 4, literature citation 10 should be added to the list of numbers in parentheses following the word “co-workers. ” Page 950, column 2, line 14 from the bottom, “. . . individual Eystems of NaP1,HPl (acid sodium palmitate) prepared . . . ” should read I ‘ . . , individual systems of NaPl-HPl prepared . . . ” The explanation in parentheses is incorrect. Page 952, column 1, line 11, Figure 3 should be Figure 7.
In the article on “Wines, Brandies, and Cordials from Citrus Fruits” by yon Loesecke, Mottern, and Pulley [IND.ENQ. CEEM.,28, 1224 (1936)], an obvious but very regrettable printer’s error occurs in line 12 of the synopsis. Instead of 520” to 550” the Centigrade temperature should, of course, be 52” t o 55’ as given later in the article.
