Abstract
FOR some time after the war had opened, and! in particular when the unrestricted submarine campaign began to assume important dimensions, the United States found that its supplies of the three most important fertilisers were seriously compromised: instead of being, as many had imagined, wholly k a producing country, it was found to be dependent on other countries for these vital raw materials. Chile supplied nitrate of soda, the most potent nitrogenous fertiliser; Spain sent the pyrites necessary for the manufacture of sulphuric acid, which in turn forms the basis of the superphosphate and sulphate of ammonia industries; while Germany sent potassium salts, without which many mixed fertilisers are incomplete. With characteristic promptitude the situation was carefully reviewed, and a statement has been issued by the Smithsonian Institution showing in as much detail as is judicious how the United States now stands in the matter.
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References
"The Mineral Industries of the United States." By J. E. Pogue Smithsonian Institution Bulletin No. 102, 1917.
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RUSSELL, E. The Fertiliser Situation in the United States. Nature 100, 406–407 (1918). https://doi.org/10.1038/100406a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/100406a0
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