FERTILISERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 June 1942, Page 6

FERTILISERS

RATIONING PLAN CROPS AND TOPDRESSING. ANNOUNCEMENT BY MINISTER. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The basis of fertiliser rationing for the year beginning July 1 was announced by the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Barclay, in an interview yesterday. An important departure from the previous conditions is that organic fertiliser will be included in the total amount of fertiliser available and will be classified as equivalent to superphosphate. “The salient features of the rationing scheme, which will be ratified in a new control notice, are as follows,' said the Minister. “The ration of fertiliser available for topdressing will be 70 per cent of the allocation available to users during the 1941-42 rationing period. The following quantities will be available for crops specified: Wheat, one hundredweight; potatoes, three; vegetables and onions and nursery gardens, 10; hops, four; tobacco, five. Out-of-season potatoes will be eligible for 10 hundredweight. “All other crops as specified in the PhosphatiC Fertiliser Control Notice, 1941, Amendment No. 1, will be eligible for a ration equivalent to 70 per cent of the quantities specified in the amendment. Fertiliser in small quantities for use in home gardens will still be available through the normal retail trade.

PRODUCERS’ RATION.

“Whereas it was possible for producers to obtain supplies of organic fertiliser additional to their specified ration last year, it has been decided that in the coming rationing year organic fertiliser will be included in the total amount available,” continued the Minister. “This means that a producer when ordering his ration may request his merchant to supply a part or whole in the form of organic fertiliser, and if such fertiliser is available it will be permissible for the merchant to supply it. This applies to topdressing and cropping requirements, either straight or as mixtures. However, no guarantee can be given that sufficient organic fertilisers will be available to fill all requests. “It has been recognised that, during the past few years certain primary producers have used organic fertilisers as a topdressing, and that they may be penalised in that they would not have a ration under the new regulations. To meet this position it has been decided where a farmer had used organic fertiliser for topdressing, he may apply to his local district fertiliser committee for special consideration. It will be the producer's responsibility to supply proof of use based on the two years ended May 31, 1941.” The basis of rationing, said the Minister, would be superphosphate, or organic fertiliser as an equivalent ton for ton of superphosphate, but in respect of superphosphate reverted by the use of lime or serpentine rock, the ration per ton of superphosphate will be as specified in circulars issued to manufacturers and merchants during last season. The allocation for Haskett slag per ton of superphosphate would similarly remain as for 1941-42.