Forestry advances provide fertilizer outlet
POTASH. IMC will truck potash from its mine (above) in Saskatchewan to the Canadian border town of Northgate, N.D., from where it will move by rail to St. Paul
Esterhazy operations. Also, Duval Corp. and U.S. Borax & Chemical Corp. closed potash mines in Carlsbad. Both companies have Canadian operations. Reaction to IMC's unit-train plan was swift. The Canadian railroads have already made a proposal of undisclosed content, to a meeting of the Canadian potash producers in Ottawa earlier this month. At press time, no decision had yet been made public. A spot check of potash producers yielded remarks of serious concern but no statements of what action might be taken to counteract IMC's move. The Canadian National Railroad tells C&EN that the railroad's policy is to treat all Canadian producers the same way. And CNR would equalize potash rates for the other producers to keep IMC from gaining a competitive advantage. Also, the railroad hopes to retain IMC's business. IMC currently accounts for about half of Canada's potash production. Three fifths of Canada's 2.6 million tons (as KL,0) of potash output was imported into the U.S. last year. A Canadian Pacific Railroad spokesman expects a reaction from the Sante Fe to meet the challenge by the Great Northern. He also predicts that the Canadian railroads will follow the Sante Fe's lead. CPR doesn't think that the savings in freight rate costs could be retained by IMC because potash is sold f.o.b. mine. Thus, U.S. farmers would be the winners with lower potash prices. The final result might be that potash companies would be in the same position as when they
started vis-a-vis profits or the lack of same. And the railroads would be hauling potash at lower rates and hurting their profit margins. The upshot of it all, CPR says, is that the $200 million the Canadian potash producers expect the Canadian railroads to spend on equipment to move potash may not be available. However, all the cards are not yet on the table. For one thing the regional railroad board in the U.S. that must approve the unit-train idea and the rate reduction has not made any decisions. It may be that this trump card will have to be played before anyone takes further action. With all the commotion, one thing is certain. Imports of Canadian potash to the U.S. will continue to grow rapidly. In 1962, IMC opened the first successful potash mine in Canada. At that time, the U.S. imported very little potash. Last vear, the U.S. imported 1,706,000 tons (as KL,0) of potash—41 % of its needs. Canada had 84% (1,525,000 tons) of the import market. In 1965 the U.S. imported one third of its potash consumption; the 1966 figure was 37%. U.S. potash consumption of 4.1 million tons last year is expected to grow at a 7.5% rate for at least the next 10 years. With U.S. mines being closed and production cut back, the U.S. will be importing most of its potash needs by 1970. Canadian production is estimated to grow to more than 8 million tons by 1974, compared with 2.6 million tons last year. All but a small fraction of the imports will be from the U.S.'s northern neighbor.
• FERTILIZER - The troubled fertilizer industry, plagued with overcapacity problems for the near term, may gain a huge new outlet in the next decade. Significant advances in forest fertilization research have been made in the past decade. Evidence indicates that fertilizer will be applied on an ever-expanding scale in the future. This conclusion and prediction was made in a paper by the National Plant Food Institute's vice president of the scientific services division, Dr. W. H. Garman, who anchored a symposium on forest fertilization. The paper is coauthored by Dr. Laurence C. Walker, dean of the school of forestry at Stephen F. Austin State College, Nacogdoches, Tex. The biggest incentive is a projected increased demand for timber in the U.S. Also, the price of land is increasing rapidly, which helps alter the economics of fertilizing forests. The potential stems from the fact that less than half of the U.S.'s 509 million acres of commercial forest is well managed, Dr. Garman points out. The answer to increased wood production is better land management, he says. Of the commercial forest land, 13% is controlled by the forest industry, 22% by the Federal Government, and 6% by state governments. The remaining 59% is in miscellaneous private hands, and most of this land is very poorly managed, Dr. Garman says. Educating private land owners in land management and fertilization practice is a key to more timber production. One example of industry fertilization and land management is Weyerhaeuser Co.'s high-yield program. Last year the company fertilized 1400 acres of Douglas fir in the Northwest with 330 pounds per acre of urea. This year 14,000 acres will receive the same treatment. By 1980, 137,000 acres per year will be fertilized with urea; that's more than 44 million pounds of urea. Weyerhaeuser plans to be fertilizing all of its 2.2 million acres of Douglas fir within 25 years. New stands of trees will be fertilized after 15 years of growth at five-year intervals. The time from planting to harvest will be reduced to 45 to 60 years from the normal 80 to 100 years. Weyerhaeuser's program includes using genetically improved seed and thinning the stands. In the southern U.S., the company is testing potash and nitrogen on southern pine forests and plans to develop a fertilization and land management program there, also. One probSEPT. 23, 1968 C&EN
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Dr. W. H. Garman An ever-expanding scale
lem in developing forest fertilization programs is that 20 or more years are needed to obtain meaningful results. Besides stimulating tree growth, fertilization can render trees more resistant to some insects and diseases, Dr. Garman says. Fertilizer applications should be tied to planting genetically superior seedlings, site preparation, and control of pests and weed trees, he adds. In general, Dr. Garman says, sites having favorable terrain, natural tree species, and soil characteristics hold the greatest economic potential for increased tree growth due to fertilization. However, there are exceptions. For example, he points out, phosphorus-deficient soils in Florida provide 60% more growth for slash pine when phosphorus is added to the soil than do unfertilized plantations. The nutrient recycling ability of trees is fantastic, Dr. Garman says. In fact, in some cases a single application is probably all a poor site requires for a whole rotation, from seeding to harvest. Sites deficient in plant food may require fertilizer treatment when trees are seedlings. In these cases, he says, slowly soluble material can be placed below the planting hole or conventional broadcast applications may be used about the time canopies close. The amount of fertilizer needed varies from a few ounces per tree (at 1000 stems per acre) to perhaps a ton of 10-10-10 per acre (10% of each primary plant nutrient—nitrogen, phosphate, potash), Dr. Garman says. At up to a ton of fertilizer per acre, the millions of acres of forest land must quicken many a fertilizer company executive's heart. Granted, not all forest land needs a ton per acre and much can't be economically fertilized. However, there is still a huge potential market to be tapped.
