The Fertilizer Position

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 13239, 15 January 1941, Page 1

The Fertilizer Position

What a catastrophe the damage done by the German raiders at Nauru Island may prove to be can be gauged from the fact that before it. occurred, there was already a shortage in New Zealand of .30,000 tons of superphosphate. The farmers of New Zealand have been called on for increased production and have responded nobly as the following production figures will show:

1928/9 264,000 tons 1932/3 294,000 tons 1938/9 4 09,000 tons 1939/40 417,000 tons With the advent of war, supplies of soft phosphates from Tunis were cut off with the fall of France, and of course basic slag has ceased to arrive from Belgium, but the New Zealand Government had made arrangements < with the Pacific Phosphate Commission for an increased supply of rock phosphate from Nauru. It can easily be imagined that there is now a greater likelihood of reduced rather than increased supplies from this direction and this may prove a very serious blow to production in this country.

During eight months of 1939,

EFFECT OF ANY LOSS OF NAURU SUPPLIES

310,519 tons of rock phosphate were delivered and during the same period of 1940 308,381 tons were imported. During the season 1938/9 4.010,944 acres were topdressed, an increase of 14 2,955 acres on the figure for the previous season. The proportion of pasture land top-dressed to total pasture land, works out at 22.7 per cent, in 1938/9, so that it is evident that the demands for phosphate are by no means satisfied.

An effort is being made to use Serpentine Rock which is found in North Auckland and also in the Nelson province, to mix with superphosphate. This rock contains a small percentage of silicate and magnesium. These minerals act in some soils as a releasing agent. But it is not yet known where the application of this Serpentine Rock will be of any benefit and a period of trial and error is ahead of the farming community in respect to the new combination.

However with the shortage of 30,000 tons which was estimated to exist at the end of 1940 it is difficult to see how, taking into account the damage'at Nauru, the present level of production can be maintained.