NO INCREASE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 39, 11 January 1944, Page 3

NO INCREASE

ROCK PHOSPHATE QUANTITY

USE OF SERPENTINE-SUPER

The apprehension of farmers concerning the fertility of their farms is not likely to be relieved by the latest statistics of the use of superphosphates and chemical fertilisers. In the. two years l'rom 19-10-41 to 1941-42 the quantity of rock phosphate used in the production of fertilisers. declined from 360,576 tons to 177,198 tons, that of sulphur from 70,892 tons to 34.716 tons, and. of nitrates and potash from 6729 tons to 1(532 tons. As against these accumulated declines there is a credit of 41,465 tons of serpentine rock.

Iven including the serpentine rock

figures the total materials used in the period have- dropped from 438.-

197 tons to 255.,'(511 tons. Uuv cost of the materials declined in the two

years from £1,(520.700 to £890,(>."58. lit is in the manufactured products that the extent of the decline can be more readily assessed, by larm-

ers. Superphosphates other than serpentine fell in the two years from 501,03(5 tons to 15(i,03G tons, or by more than two-thirds. The serpentine superphosphate figures

improve the appearance of this comparison by adding another 112,05)1 tons, but few farmers will agree that tiie. effect of the use of this quanlity will equal that of a corresponding weight of the old, tried lime and super mixture, which has been so successful for many years.

According to one of its officers, the Department of Agriculture "hail extensive (serpenti<ne-super) trials laid down, but they had not been sufficiently advanced to allow any positive assertions." This officer, continued his statement to the Primary Production Council, said that "however, progress returns indicated that the fertiliser was fairly good." This surely is very faint praise, and it is .surprising that the mixture has been imposed on North Island farmers o the extent of £r>3;>,803 in its first, year of operation without their being consul text and against hostile opinions expressed at farmers' gatherings. The mixture is now being strongly recommended to South Island farmers. This certainly has the virtue, that farmers can test the preparation out for themselves, but there is an uneasy feeling that the urging may go the step further, as it did in the North Island. A Serious Matter

The scarcity of phosphatic materials is a matter of very serious concern to the country as a whole, and to farmers in particular, but remedial action is not to be secured by the .substitution of some improved material. The most that has been urged in support of the new preparation, apart from the departmental approval, is that a ''committee set up by the Council of Primary Production has returned a favourable report/' The committee, as a matter of fact, comprised three non-technical members of the council itself. It would be much better for all concerned —-the Government, the Department of Agriculture, and tlie farmers who are being asked to use the mixture—if some of the detailed', results ol the extensive trials" were published for the information of farmers, together with the opinions of soil chemists as to the. efficacy of the mixture and to its comparative value with the old lime-superphosphate mixture used in the past.