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Show Let's Face Facts Nitrogen From Canada Sold in U. S. Below TV A and Army Price By BARROW LYONS WNU Staff Corntpondont ' (This Is one of a scries of exclusive exclu-sive articles on the current fertilizer situation.) There has been much criticism of the price at which the army ordnance ord-nance plants and Tennessee Valley authority are disposing of ammonium ammoni-um nitrate for fertilizer $50 per ton f.o.b. plant. Nitrogen produced by the Canadian Canadi-an Department of Munitions and Supply is being fjr" ' ' ' transported, some I.' s''' of it more than -i,., .' t 3' miles from i '::--J; Calgary, Alberta, V4W' and is delivered in MWA the United States at from $46.29 to 4 'i u3f ' i $50 a ton- The Ca" M&& nadians say they irv rvl are not selhns be p-if'4j lowcost-subsidiz-LyrT4: 1 ifni ing the American . farmer but the Barrow Lyons , ... , freight from Calgary Cal-gary to the southern seaboard on fertilizer fer-tilizer ammonium nitrate is between $16 and $20 a ton. The army ordnance plants began delivery in quantity In November, 19-13. For the first three months they sold directly to TV A who contracted con-tracted with Associated Cooperatives, Coopera-tives, Inc., set up by a group of farmers' cooperatives, to sell the nitrogen to fertilizer manufacturers manufactur-ers at $49 a ton. As of February 1, this year, the army ceased to sell directly to TVA but now sells to the Commodity Credit corporation, which, In turn, sells to the cooperative. coopera-tive. The price has been raised to $50 a ton to allow a dollas for freight equalization. Clue to Cost The Tennessee Valley authority I has given one clue as to the cost of the fertilizer. On November 7, 1943. at hearings before a subcommittee of the house committee on appropriations, appropri-ations, a table was submitted which showed that the cost of limed ammonium am-monium nitrate manufactured in TVA plants was $37.82, exclusive of administrative and depreciation charges. In another table TVA showed that it expected to show net cash income before depreciation of $246,000 in fiscal fis-cal 1944 on the production of fertilizer fer-tilizer and war chemicals despite in-1 elusion of an expense of $900,000 for research work. Apparently the entire en-tire cost of research is being charged for budget purposes as a current expense on all chemical operations. op-erations. In 1943 a loss of $612,000 was shown, and a loss of $336,000 for 1945 is estimated. There has been much difficulty in dealing with the army, which is not set up to do ordinary commercial business. It prefers to sell to a government gov-ernment corporation rather than directly di-rectly to commercial concerns. Its ordnance plants were built in the emergency to assure ample nitrogen production for explosives, but the operating capacity was found to be far greater than needed hence nitrogen ni-trogen has become available for fertilizer. fer-tilizer. The construction of army ordnance ord-nance plants has created a problem in disposal of the plants after the war. Some in the fertilizer industry believe that the nitrogen producing capacity of the country after the war will be far in excess of requirements for peacetime industrial purposes and agriculture, and advocate scrapping scrap-ping some of the army nitrogen plants after the war. In fact, the newest plant the cactus cac-tus ordnance plant near Etten, Texasalready Tex-asalready has been Converted to production of other products, and the nitrogen equipment dismantled. Efforts Ef-forts are now being made to sell this nitrogen producing equipment to Egyptian interests. It is pointed out that in 1939 Industry Indus-try consumed 230,000 tons of nitrogen, nitro-gen, while agriculture used 400,000 tons a total of 630,000 tons. 700,000-Ton Capacity The present capacity of government govern-ment Is 700,000 tons of nitrogen a year, and the capacity of private plants amounts to 500,000 tons a total to-tal of 1,200.000 tons a year almost twice as much as was used before the war. But this year some 675,000 tons of nitrogen will be used In agriculture alone, and fertilizer use is increasing. increas-ing. Purdue university agronomists recently calculated that if the state of Indiana alone were to use as much nitrogen In fertilizer as it should, 178,000 tons would be consumed, con-sumed, against the 6,523 tons consumed con-sumed In 1941. This may seem fantastic, fan-tastic, but it indicates that there is a considerable future for the fertilizer fertiliz-er industry; and that the 1.200,000 tons of plant capacity In the United States may not be too great, if farmers farm-ers wake up to the possibilities of the most efficient use of fertilizer. Agronomists also point out that when the proper use of fertilizer becomes be-comes more general, farmers who live near the large markets will pro-duce pro-duce more abundantly; and that this may tend to take part of the market from those who are further from the centers of greatest consumption. Also, as the good land is cultivated cultivat-ed more intensively, the cost of farming marginal land will become Increasingly less profitable. This may mean a more rapid conversion of marginal lands into pastures and wood lots, with possible shifting of population in some areas. |