6.—Measures to Prevent Exhaustion of the Soil.

So we see that, even under present-day conditions, a thorough transformation in the methods of procuring food is taking place. But the utilization of all these discoveries is extremely slow, because powerful classes—the agrarians and their social and political supporters—are profoundly interested in suppressing them. Although in spring weekly prayers are offered up in all churches for a good crop, individual members of the congregations may feel like that pious man who implored his patron saint: “St. Florian, protect my house, set others on fire!” For if the crops turn out well in all countries the prices are lowered, and this possibility is dreaded by agrarians. What is advantageous to others is harmful to him, and therefore he is a silent opponent of every discovery or invention that benefits others besides himself. Our society dwells in constant discord with itself.

In order to maintain the soil in a fertile condition and to improve it, sufficient manure is essential. To obtain same will be an important task for the new society also.[245] Manure is to the fields what food is to man, and just as not every kind of food is equally nourishing to man, so not every kind of manure is of equal value to the soil. The ground must be given exactly the same chemical substances that have been withdrawn from it by the reaping of a crop, and such chemical substances, as are required for the cultivation of a certain kind of plant, must be introduced in large quantities. Therefore the study of chemistry and its practical application will develop to an extent unknown to-day.

Now animal and human excrements contain the very chemical substances that are suited to the cultivation of human food. Therefore it is important to obtain and properly distribute them. Little is done in this respect at present. Especially the cities and industrial centers, which receive large quantities of food, return very little of the valuable offal to the soil. As a result the farms that are situated far from the cities and industrial centers and that annually ship the greater part of their products into these, suffer from want of manure. Often the offal obtainable on the farms does not suffice, because the human beings and animals from which it is obtained have consumed only a small portion of the crops. So an exhaustion of the soil would be sure to take place, unless the want of natural manure were made up for by artificial manure. All countries that export agricultural products and receive no manure in return, will sooner or later be ruined by the impoverishment of their soil. This is the case with Hungary, Russia, the Danubian principalities, etc.

In the middle of the last century, Liebig solved his theory of the reproduction of substance for arable soil, which led to the use of concentrated manure. Schultze-Lupitz proved that certain plants, although not given manure containing nitrogen, still added nitrogen to the soil, a phenomenon that was explained later by Hellriegel. He showed that the millions of bacilli, acting on certain leguminous plants, obtain the nitrogen for the nourishment of the plant directly from the air.[246] Chemistry constitutes one phase of modern, scientific agriculture, and bacteriology constitutes the other. In its deposits of potash, Thomas-slag, hypophosphate and phosphoric acid, Germany possesses a number of inexhaustible sources of mineral manure. A proper application of these, combined with an appropriate tilling of the soil, makes possible a production of enormous quantities of food.

An idea of the importance of the various kinds of artificial manure may be gained from the following figures: During 1906 Germany consumed about 300 million marks’ worth of artificial manure. Among these were sulphate of ammonia for 58.3 millions; nitrate of soda for 120, and the rest was expended for Thomas-slag, hypophosphate, potash, guano, etc. The most important of these fertilizers are the ones containing nitrogen. The great importance of this substance may be seen from the following: Investigations made by Wagner showed that crops of oats from a field in Hessia diminished by 17 per cent. when there was a dearth of phosphoric acid; by 19 per cent. when there was a dearth of potash, and by 89 per cent. when there was a dearth of nitrogen. The net profits for one year per hectare were: When the fertilizer contained all the needful ingredients, 96 marks; when the potash was omitted, 62 marks; when phosphoric acid was omitted, 48 marks; when nitrogen was omitted, 5 marks. It has been calculated that if Germany would double its nitrogen-manure, it could produce not only sufficient grain and potatoes to supply the demands of its own population, but could also export considerable quantities. And the chief sources of this valuable manure, the deposits of nitrate soda in Chili, like the deposits of guano, are rapidly being used up, while the demand for nitrogen preparations constantly increases in Germany, France, England, and, during the last ten years, in the United States of America also. As early as 1899 the English chemist, William Crookes, propounded this question and designated it as one of greater importance than the possibility of proximate exhaustion of the British coal mines. He therefore regarded it to be one of the most important tasks of chemistry to manufacture nitrogen fertilizers from the tremendous nitrogen reservoir of the atmosphere. It must be remembered that the quantity of air covering one square centimeter of ground, weighs approximately 1 kilogram, and that four-fifths of it are nitrogen. From this may be calculated that the nitrogen contained in the atmosphere of the earth, amounts, in round figures, to 4000 million tons. The present annual consumption of nitrate of soda is, in round figures, 300,000 tons. So even if the nitrogen in the atmosphere were not replaced, it would suffice to supply the demand of the entire earth during 14,000 million years. This problem has been practically solved. In 1899, A. Frank and N. Caro produced cyanide of potassium that contains from 14 to 22 per cent. of nitrogen. The new fertilizer has been introduced upon the market under the name of calcareous nitrogen. But Frank’s and Caro’s method is not the only one. In 1903 the Norwegians, C. Birkeland and S. Eyde, succeeded in transforming the atmospheric nitrogen into nitric acid by combustion, by means of electricity. This second method furnishes a product that is equal to Chili nitrate of soda in every respect and even superior to it for certain kinds of soil. In 1905 Otto Schoenherr succeeded in finding a method still superior to that of Birkeland and Eyde. For, besides the electric power, only the cheapest materials are required, i. e., water and limestone. So agriculture has been given a new fertilizer that can be obtained by a purely technical industrial process, and has an unlimited supply at its disposal.[247]

According to A. Mueller, a healthy adult secretes annually on an average of 48.5 kilograms of solid and 43.8 kilograms of liquid matter. Estimated by the present prices of manure, these materials represent a value of about 5.15 marks. The great difficulty in fully utilizing this material lies in the establishment of large and appropriate contrivances for collecting same and in the high cost of transportation. A great portion of the excrements from the cities is conducted into our rivers and streams and pollutes them. In the same way, the offal and refuse from kitchens and industrial establishments that might also be used for manure, are usually carelessly wasted.

The new society will find ways and means to prevent this waste. It will solve the problem more easily, because the large cities will gradually cease to exist owing to the decentralization of the population.