USE OF SERPENTINE SUPER

Southland Times, Issue 24860, 28 September 1942, Page 2

USE OF SERPENTINE SUPER

Controller’s Explanation As was to be expected, the Government’s deckion that straight superphosphate should be withdrawn from the North Island market and replaced with serpentine super has not been received with universal favour, says a statement issued by the Primary Industries Controller, Mr A. H. Cockayne. This has been due in the main to non-recognition of essential facts, and probably also in certain quarters that such action by the would not be beneficial from the individual business aspect. What every thinking farmer must be asking himself is, “What is the real objective behind the Government's decision?” This can be answered in quite a few words. The objective is to enable primary production to be increased, it being viewed, and I believe correctly, that increased primary production is intimately concerned with the whole success of our war effort. Increased primary production depends very largely on adequate labour on the farm and on adequate supplies of fertilizer. As all producers know, our supplies of fertilizers, particularly phosphatic ones, have been reduced to a point that makes even the maintenance of production precarious. In the North Island this year the manufacture of superphosphate will not much exceed 150,000 tons, barely one third of the amount used in each of the two years before rationing. Anything that can be done to increase the effectiveness of this tonnage is therefore of national importance. WHAT STATISTICS SHOW The work of the department has shown over the past three years that 751 b of superphosphate converted into 1001 b of serpentine super will do the work of 1001 b of straight superphosphate. There have been so few exceptions to this generalization that they can be viewed as negligible, and in no case has it been shown that 1001 b of serpentine super is inferior to 751 b of super. In many cases 1001 b of serpentine super has been demonstrated as being distinctly superior to 1001 b of straight super. In other words, the use of serpentine super instead of super increases the effective fertilizer ration of the farmer by 33 per cent. The use of serpentine super instead of straight super in the North Island alone places in the hands of farmers an equivalent of 50,000 additional tons of super.. No wonder the Government, conscious of increased primary production being essential, and on the advice of the department and of the Primary Production Council, made the decision that all super manufactured in the North Island had to be converted into serpentine super. It is hoped to be able to go further in the future and follow the same practice in the South Island, but unfortunately this cannot take place immediately as adequate supplies of ground serpentine are not yet available in ' the south. The case for serpentine super against straight super is clear and definite, and even the opponents of its universal use would not be prepared to say that such action does not very appreciably increase the efficiency of our available supplies of superphosphate.