The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-02-04
FERTILIZERS HIGHER
All The Crude Materials Have
Materially Advanced.
President Morgan, of The virginia-Carona
Chemical Company Says The Selling
Price Is Lower Than Cos. of Ma
teriaIS Warrant.
teriaIs Warrant.
Richmnnd W. Eeh 1 1onn

I
ence to the advance in the price of fer
tlllZers, wherein it is stated that the
farmers of Pitt county, North Carolina
propose to organize and fight the advance
| III the prices of fertilizers, and by in
situation our Company is censured as the
| cause of this advance
l. desire to make plain statement
| of facts and conditions as now obtained
an the fertilizer trade, and to show to
the dealers and consumers of fertilizers
| that the advance in the price of manu-
| featured fertilizers is not only just and
| warranted but is absolutely necessary.
and that the manufacturers of fertilizers
| could not afford to sell them at the price
ruling last year unless they did so at a
very heavy loss.
Now to get down to facts and figures;
we will see what has really caused the
price of fertilizers to be advanced this
year over last:
Acid Phosphate being one of the prin-
cipal ingredients in all complete fertilizers,
i desire to show here how much this ar
! ticle costs to make i'll excess of the cost
price for the same thing last year. The
| advance in pyrtes, from which Sulphuric
acid is made, is more than $500 per ton
over last year The advance in Nitrate of
! Soda. which is necessary ingredient in
! the manufacture of Sulphuric acid, is full
| ly $500 per ton more than last year
| Phosphate Rock has advanced a mini
mum of $1.15 per ton at the mines, and in
! some grades of rock the advance is more
| than $500 per ton. These three articles
constitute what is necessary to made
! Acid Phosphate. Put them together in
/ the proper proportion and a ton of Acid
! Phosphate will cost $207 per ton more
! than it did last year.
! Bags are costing us zoe. per ton more
than they did last year so that the crude
material going into q ton Of Acid PhOs-
phate Is costing approximately $2.21
more than it did wear ago.
Every piece of factory supplies and
machinery, coal, and everything neces-
sary to operate a factory, is from % to
100 per cent. higher than 1t was year
ago. This will add certainly an addition
al 10c to the cost of a ton of fertilizer.
making in the most conservative and
reasonable estimate possible a tom Of 13
per cent Acid Phosphate, bagged and
ready for shipment, cost the manufactur-
er S2.37 more than it did twelve months
ago.
Now let us look at complete ammon-
4
commonly known as standard grade of
complete fertilizer. running, say, 213 per
| cent of ammonia s per cent of available
phospohric acid, and l per cent of
potash. As / have above demonstrated.
acid phosphate costs S2.07 more than last
year. This is equivalent to Il little more
than 10c. per 100 pounds. In making
the %, s and l fertilizers, 200 pounds
| of acid phosphate would be necessary. so
at Zoe. additional cost per 100 pounds.
| the additional cost for acid phosphate
would be $1.20.
| If cotton seed meal was used for the
ammonia. it would take approximately
| 700 pounds. and cotton seed meal is now
worth 5000 per ton more than last year.
which is equivalent to 30c. per 100
pounds, and 700 pounds would cost S210
more than it did last year. Now add poe.
| for extra cost for the bags and you
| have $3.50 per ton more for the materials
| than we paid for these same materials
last year.
| If tankage or blood was used for the
source of ammonia instead of cotton
| seed meal. the advanced cost over last
year would be $500 per ton, rs am
monia from tankage or blood is now 60c.
per unit higher than last year. so for 2113
| per cent of ammonia the extra cost over
| last year would be $50.
Sulphate of ammonia is the only other
! source Of ammonia commonly used in the
manufacture of fertilizers Twelve
months ago this article was selling at
| about $4,000 per tom. We paid for it
| this week $1,000 per ton.
Now / assert that the price of fertih-
GERS has not advanced nearly so much
| as the price of raw materials going into
| them Let us see who is TO blame if
any ONE, for the advance of these crude
materials Take Pyrites: We buy from
Spain more than three-fourths of all we
use. Nitrate of Soda: We buy entirely
| from South America. Potash Salts: We
buy entirely from Germany. SO it can
not be said that our company controls or
| is in any wise responsible for the advance
| of these materials. as we have no inter-
est whatever in any of these properties,
either directly or indirectly.
Take phosphate rock: We do mine
| Small proportion of our wants of phos-
| phate rock. but we mine none for sale
and we buy from other mines more than
two-thfrds of what We consume. So no
one will suppose that we We're anxious
to put up the price of phosphate rock
AS for cotton seed meal we have no
| interest either directly or indirectly in
| any cotton seed oil mill, so we are not
responsible for the advance in this article.
Blood and tankage are made by the
large packers in the West, and we have
no interest and no control over these pro-
| duets in any way.
Why. then. should the Virginia-C Caro-
| lima Chemical Company be blamed for
| the advance in the cost of crude mate
rails. and would it be business-like for
| us to want an advance in crude materi-
ais. of which we have to buy almost en-
tirely all of our needs and OF which
we produce absolutely nothing except a
small quantity of phosphate rock?
| 1t is our aim and purpose to manufac-
ture fertilizers as cheaply as possible and
| to sell them at ~, low a price az we can
afford. thereby stimulating large con-
sumption of fertilizers and their general
use for all crOps.
Let MS see how the farmer is situated:
He is getting this year from 21@ to Sc.
| pound fol. his cotton more than last
wear. and we understand that for a
| great deal of the cotton seed the cotton