Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1917-04-20
THE NITRATE QUESTION.
Action by Government to Lower the
Cost of This Fertilizer.

Action by Government to Lower the
Cost of This Fertilizer.
The present shortage of farm labor
attributed by many to the high wage
attraction of the munition factories
emphasizes the fact that labor costs on
American farms are on the upgrade.
Reports have been made of hundreds
of acres of sugar beets being plowed
up because workers could not be Sc
cured to harvest them, and similar con-
ditions have prevailed with respect to
fruit and grain crops.
1t is becoming evident that to make a
profit bigger yields must be obtained
from every acre, so that the same
amount of work given to the care of
the crops as at present will bring in a
bigger production to overcome the in
creased expenditure for labor When
we realize that the wheat average of
Europe, for example, is thirty-tw bush
els per acre, while ours is but fifteen
bushels, it can be seen that we can
make this increase.
According to DIR. L. II. Baekeland,
one of the foremost scientists in the
country, past president of several of
the leading scientific societies and
member of both the naval consulting
board and the nitrate plant committee
of the American Academy of Sciences,
this can be accomplished through
cheap fertilizer. At present, he pointed
out in talk before the committee on
agriculture of the United States senate,
the American farmer cannot use fer
tiliZer to the extent in which it is used
i'll Germany, Belgium and other cOun-
tries of big crop yields per acre, be-
cause the difference in the cost is such
that the extra gain in crops is out
weighed by the cost of the additional
fertilizer. When the air nitrate plant
authorized by congress at it's last ses-
sion at the request of the National
Grange and the Farmers union is es-
tablished 1t will produce large guam
tity of high grade heterogeneous fertilizer
at cost estimated to be so per cent
below that of present fertilizers, put
ting American farmers on the same
basis as those of other countries. This
plant, according to the provisions of
IhC dNIy W UC w" lCu anu OpCIdIeu
exclusively by the government. so that
there will be no danger of private
monopoly. 1t is intended that in case
of war the nitrates will be used in am
munition, in which nitric acid is a
prime essential and for which the coun-
try is now dependent upon the nitrates
of Chile.
DR.. Baekeland's statement discuss
ing conditions in Belgium and Ger
many included the following: THE
yield per acre for many crops is al
most propOrtionate within certain lin
its to the amount of nitrogen fertilizer
consumed; in fact, these limits do not
seem to have been reached, from the
fact that fertilizer costs money. and
naturally there arrives a point where
it does not pay the farmer to use
more. AS soon as you cheaper the
cost you give the farmer a chance to
realize upon his labor by increasing his
yields per acre. If this is important in
countries like Belgium and Germany,
where farm labor is incOmparably
cheaper than it is in the United States.
1t Is almost self evident that it be-
comes much more important in coun-
try where labor is scarce and expen
Sivo -