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Show Is very little more than they were paying at a time when the country was just emerging from its most disastrous depression. Even when the increase in plant food content is ignored, the average price per ton of commercial fertilizer has increased far less than the prices of other commodities and services used in farm production. One reason for the relatively small increase in fertilizer prices has been the tremendous expansion expan-sion In the use of fertilizer. Nearly five times as much plant food was used by American farmers in 1953 as in 1935, and total tonnage of fertilizer was nearly quadrupled. Plant Food Cost, Content Higher Cost Increase Less Than Other Products While the cost of all goods and services used in farm production has increased by 132 per cent since 1935, the average cost of plant food in the form of commercial fertilizer has gone up only about 12 per cent over the same span of years. Official reports of the U. S. Department De-partment of Agriculture show that the cost per ton of commercial fertilizer increased by 51 per cent from 1935 to 1953. In the same period, however, the average plant food content of a ton of fertilizer Florida, world's biggest phosphate phos-phate producer, contains enough phosphate to last 500 years five billion tons. With a boom-line as high as a two 'story building, build-ing, this massive dredge digs out phosphate that will be dumped into the path of high powered hydraulic guns, pumped into flotation plants, heated, pulverized and shipped. Biggest users are the citrus industry and tobacco growers. also has been increased by nearly 35 per cent. Tims the increase in the average content of active ingredients in-gredients has largely offset the higher cost. Farmers today are able to buy plant food in the form of commercial commer-cial fertilizer at a price which , |