Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1914-06-13
INCREASING USE
Of Fertilizers
Home Production on the In.
crease as Well as
Importations.

CIcdS0 DIS well DIS
Importations.
Washington, June 12.-That Ameri-
can farmers are using constantly in
creasing quantities of fertilizers is
evident both from the rapidly growing
production of soil foods in the United
States and from the marked increase
in importations of that class.
A steady increase in the available
supply of fertilizers is indicated by
the latest statistics of the government.
The domestic manufacture of fertiliz-
ers, for example, as reported by the
bureau of the census, in 1909, amount
ed to 104 million dollars, or nearly
double the total reported for 1904. Of
phosphate rock the domestic produc-
ton has doubled since 1902, the total
for 1912, according to the United
States geological survey, being about
million tons, of which 1 million tons
were exported. OF cottonseed oil cake,
about one-fourth of the total consump-
ton of " million tons is used for
fertilizer purposes, recent estimates
placing the value of the oil cake thus
employed without first feeding il to
animals at from to million dollars
per annum. The domestic production
of sulphur, which yields sulphuric
acid, an important material in the
manufacture of fertilizers, has increas-
ed enormously in recent years. from
3,157 long tons in 1900 to 303.47c tons
in 1912, exclusive of about 100000
tons of pyrites, also a source of sui
phuric acid About 80 per cent of all
the sulphuric acid made in this coun-
try is used in the preparation of SUI
perphosphates and other artificial fer
tilizers.
Imports Of fertilizer materials have
also increased, data compiled by the
bureau of foreign and domestic COM
merce, for the period ended with April
1914, indicating greatly enlarged ar
rivals Of nitrates, potash salts, and
other similar materials. The import
ant exceptions relate to those articles,
the domestic production of which has
SO increased as to obviate the neces-
sity Of large importations, as in the
case of phosphates, and to those, the
supply of which has diminished, as in
luO N000 VI Su0AO, 1OA MO4 ~ dOuuOduJ
in South America, South Africa, and
certain Pacific islands, but yearly be-
coming more scarce as an. article of
commerce.
Nitrate of soda ranks first in value
Of imports of fertilizer materials, the
total imports thereof in the last fiscal
year having exceeded a half million
tons, valued at over 20 million dollars.
About Is per cent of this is used for
fertilizer. OF sulphate of ammonia,
the imports increased from Is thou
sand tons in 1908 to So thousand tons,
valued at nearly million dollars in
1913, and in the July-April period of
the current year have already reached
II thousand tons. We also imported
Is thousand tons of calcium cyanamid,
popularity known as "air-nitrogen
compound"
price, was imported last year to the
extent of 466 thousand tons, valued
at two million dollars; sulphate of
potash, thousand tons, valued at
nearly two million dollars: and other
fertilizer salts, 172 thousand tons, val
ued at two million dollars. About
80 per cent of the imported potash, is
used for fertilizers, and only about 10
per cent in the manufacture of glass,
soap-making, and other chemical in
dustries. The imports Of both the nj
trates and the potash salts have more
than doubled in the last ten years.
Other important fertilizers imported
last year included 33 thousand tons of
bone dust. or animal charcoal; Is
thousand tons of Thomas meal, deriv-
ed from basic Stag, phosphorus
bearing by-product of the Thomas-Gil-
christ process of making steel; and
lis thousand tons of miscellaneous
substances used only for manure. Our
imports of guano, which amounted to
1913 tons in 1903, amounted to only
Il, 462 tons in 1913; and those of crude
phosphate have fallen from 153,096
tons in 1903 to 23,478 tons in 1918,
decrease of IS per cent in the decade.
The United States obtains practical
~ all its potash salts from Germany;
it's nitrate Of soda, from Chile; it's
bone dust. chiefly from Europe. Cana
da, and india: and is miscellaneous
fertilizers. mostly from Canada, Ger
many, Belgium and the United King