MANURE RATIONING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 June 1941, Page 7

MANURE RATIONING

ALL PHOSPHATIC FERTILISERS INCLUDED MISAPPREHENSION CORRECTED STATEMENT OF POSITION. "It would appear that some farmers are not perfectly clear as to what manures are affected by the Fertiliser Rationing regulations, and may be prejudicing their applications as a consequence,” states Mr N. Lamont, chairman of the Fertiliser Committee, Masterton. "ft is clearly stated in the Gazette notice that the rationing will apply to all 'phosphatic fertilisers' and this means 'superphosphate, reverted superphosphate, basic superphosphate, basic slag, compounded slag, Heskett slag, Seychelles guano. Walpole guano, Kotkur. K-phos, Nauru phosphate and any other phosphatic guanos or rock phosphates but does not include bonedust. blood and bone or fertiliser derived from fish offal.’

“Some farmers apparently believe that the rationing applied to superphosphate only anti that if their super allowance was cut down, they could make up the deficiency with a slag or a guano. It should be clearly understood- that this is not so and all the phosphatic manures listed above are placed on the same footing in the Gazette notice. If a farmer's topdressing allowance is ten tons of phosphate, he will get no more than ten tons, no matter which of the above phosphatic manures he prefers to use and it will be contrary to the regulations for a firm or other agent to supply more than the amount authorised by the Fertiliser Controller in Wellington. "It will be understood, of course, that the allowance obtainable for mixed manures will depend upon the amount of ‘phosphatic' manure or manures scheduled above that are contained in the mixture. That is to say, if a farmer is allotted a certain amount of a phosphatic fertiliser he may buy it ‘neat’ or buy it mixed with any quantity he prefers of lime, blood and bone or other rationed manure. For example, if he is allowed ten tons of phosphate, he may, if he wishes, buy twenty tons of an equal mixture of phosphate and limo. “Another small point that should be poled when farmers arc declaring what proportion of their past usage; has been applied as topdressing, is the Gazette's definition of 'topdressing’ which is stated to mean 'topdressing of all pastures, hay and silage paddocks, grass and clover seed crops, and lucerne stands of over one year of age.’ Provision is made for new grass and new lucerne stands in the cropping schedule and applications for manure for these purposes can be made to any distributor at any time with no more notice than can reasonably be expected in normal times.