The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1895-09-11
The Fertilizer Situation,

The Savannah fertilizer men who at
tended the recent meeting of the Fer
tilizcr Association at Ashevillc have
returned home and have had no hcsita
ton in telling to the reporters what
was done, as has been stated in The
News and Courier heretofore.
The meeting was held for the pur.
pose of organizing an association of
the Southern fertilizer manufacturers,
in which object it was successful. The
new association is an entirely different
organization from the Southern Fcrti-
lizcr Company, which is corporation,
controlling Savannah and Atlanta pro-
pcrtics, except that the company
named is member of the association.
The association itself is not corpora.
ton, being merely an organization of
manufacturers to advance their inter
csts by acting in harmony. Mr.. ":
a. Clark, of Columbia. was elected
president; Mr. Joseph Hull, of Savan
nah, vice president, and Mr. II. NJ.
Tucker, Jr, of Charleston, secretary
and treasurer. The association in
cludes practically all the fertilizer
manufacturers of the South, including
the factories of Virginia, North Caro-
lima, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida,
Alabama. Mississippi, Louisiana and
Tennessee.
The prime object of the association
is to regulate the production of fcrtili-
zcrs to meet the consumption; in other
words to see that the production does
not exceed the demand, which has
been the case during the last two sea
sons. Steps were taken looking to a
decrease in the output for the coming
season, and an agreement was entered
into between the manufacturers to ac-
complish this by limiting the product
of each mill. A representative of the
Savannah Morning News was Informed
of this fact by one of the gentlemen
who attended the Convention. He
was asked if it was the object Of the
association to bring about an increase
in prices by decreasing the output,
and replied that such was not the
case.
''It is not the idea of the associa-
tion to advance priccs,' he said. con
tine other hand, every means of reduc-
ing the cost Of fertilizers will be stud
led by the association. We could not
afford to attempt to increase prices by
/ limiting the product for the simple
reason that this plan would bring the
Northern manufacturers into the field
to compete with us. Neither is our
idea based on less demand for fer
tilizers during the coming season, but
rather on an increased demand. The
simple fact is that there were more
goods manufactured during the dcprcs-
sion than were needed, and that
brought about the present movement.
If all the mills were to produce to their
fullest capacity the market would be
greatly ovcrstockcd.
There are forty to fifty manufac-
turers in the association, and the COM
bincd capital of all the mills interested
is up in the millions. On account of
the low price Of cotton last year, and
the small amount of fertilizers used in
making the present crop, many OF the
manufacturers had already decided to
reduce their output for the coming
season. a prominent manufacturer
Informed a Morning News 0rcportcr
some time ago, before the meeting OF
the association was announced, that
his company would dec ease its pro-
duction considerably, and that he un-
dcrstood that others would do likewise.