from which explosives are derived that chiefly
interests Germany. Almost any kind of fruit stone contains
glycerine. That is why notices have been put on all trains which
run through fruit districts, such as Werder, near Berlin, and
Baden, advising the people to save their fruit stones and bring
them to special depots for collection.

Five pounds of fat treated with caustic soda can be made to yield
one pound of glycerine. This is one reason, in addition to the
British blockade, which causes the great fat shortage among the
civil population.

Glycerine united with ammonium nitrate is used in the manufacture
of explosives. Deprived of nitrogenous material from South
America, Germany has greatly developed the process for the
manufacture of artificial nitrates. She spent 25,000,000 pounds
after the outbreak of war to enable her chemists and engineers to
turn out a sufficient amount of nitric acid.

Toluol, a very important ingredient of explosives, is obtained from
coal-tar, which Germany is naturally able to manufacture at present
better than any other country in the world, since she bad
practically a monopoly in coal-tar products before hostilities
commenced.

Evidently, however, substitutes to reinforce goods smuggled through
the blockade have not sufficed to meet the chemical demands of the
German Government, for great flaming placards were posted up all
over the Empire announcing the commandeering of such commodities as
sulphur, sulphuric acid, toluol, saltpetre, and the like.

Germany long ago claimed to have perfected woodpulp as a substitute
for cotton in propulsive ammunition. She made this claim very
early, however, for the purpose of hoodwinking British blockade
advocates. Her great need eventually led her to take steps to
induce the United States to insist on the Entente Powers raising
the blockade on cotton. She went to great trouble and expense to
send samples by special means to her agents in America.

The cotton shortage began to be seriously felt early in 1916 in the
manufacturing districts of Saxony, where so many operatives were
suddenly thrown out of work that the Government had to set aside a
special fund for their temporary relief, until they could be
transferred to other war industries.

The success which Germany claimed for a cotton-cloth substitute has
been greatly exaggerated. When the Germans realised that Great
Britain really meant business on the question of cotton they
cul