REDUCED USE OF FERTILISERS

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25660, 24 November 1948, Page 6

REDUCED USE OF FERTILISERS

SUPERPHOSPHATE AND LIME

“ GRAVE THREAT TO FARM PRODUCTION ”

It was incredible that farmers, faced with the call for increased production, were decreasing their use of lime and superphosphate, said Mr A. H. Cockayne, a former Director-Gen-eral of Agriculture and president of the New Zealand Grasslands' Association. in an interview yesterday. Mr Cockayne was asked to comment on statements by lime and fertiliser manufacturing interests about the big drop in the demand for their products. The chairman of the North Canterbury Lime Group, Mr F. G. Foley, told “The Press” that all lime works in North Canterbury were having a very lean time. There was an amazing lack of orders. All the works had caught up with their orders and, today, because of the absence of demand. some were closing down for general overhaul. Six months ago. he added, there was a general hue and cry for greater production. In an endeavour to secure this, Federated Farmers and the Canterbury Progress League set up special committees of ways and means. To-day. the lime was on hand at the works, but the demand was well below production. Mr Foley said that there were fair average bookings for lime for autumn, but between now and then there were few inquiries for delivery. The position was very discouraging to those companies which, in response to the cry for more lime, had been considering enlarging their plants. Unless the demand picked up, all ideas along these lines would be abandoned. Big Drop in Orders Reports from merchants about the appreciable slackening off in the demand for superphosphate, which is at present in oversupply at the works, were confirmed by Mr S. P. Cameron, manager of Fertilisers, Ltd. To-day. he said, there was a definite lack of orders at the Hornby works. This led him to the belief that there would be a tremendous lot of topdressing done next autumn. If such proved to be the case, and the orders were not spread in the meantime, it would be impossible to meet the demand when it did set in. Farmers who refrained from taking delivery now would only have themselves to blame if they went without a few months hence. Mr Cameron added that the slowing down in demand was all the more difficult to understand, because Nauru and Ocean Island phosphate was again on hand, thus making a pre-war grade product available. . Mr J. W. Earl. chairman of the executive of North Canterbury Federated Farmers, in commenting on the “grave threat to production” involved by any decrease in ‘the use of lime and superphosphate, said that the present high prices of both products were undoubtedly a big factor in the situation. The new scale of subsidies on lime, for instance, was not working out in practice as would appear on paper.

It would really appear, said Mr Cockayne, if there were a falling-off in the quantities of lime and superphosphate used by producers, that farmers were not desirous of increasing production. “One is sure,” he added, “that this cannot be the reason What is the definite cause? Never has it been so apparent that increased production of grasslands products is absolutely essential to maintain our national prosperity. And this can only come about by the development of grasslands farming, in which lime and phosphates are two essentials.”