MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



1C September, 1919.] 



MR. R. J. THOMPSON, O.B.E. 



[Continued. 



portion of the actual cost? That is a question I have 

 not worked out. 



9342. Mr. Xicholls : Can you explain the great 

 difficulty there is in obtaining these things thait you 

 have been referring to as regards feeding stuffs, such 

 as bran and pollards and middlings, and those sort 

 of things? In the case of middlings or milling offals, 

 tho difficulty is that the importation of offals from 

 abroad is not now so great as it was before the war, 

 and the quantity of wheat being ground in this 

 country is also somewhat less at the present moment. 



9343. The only point in my mind is that recent 

 experience has shown that it is more difficult to get 

 them now than it was even during the war during 

 these last two months?- That is so. 



9344. I wonder whether you have any idea of the 

 cause, whether it is due to the freight or to somebody 

 holding it up, or what the real difficulty is? The 

 reason is, that the proportion of wheat which is Being 

 imported hy the Ministry of Food or the Wheat Com- 

 mission at the present time is rather lower than it 

 was some time ago, or last year, but it is anticipated 

 that very shortly the proportion of wheat will rise 

 again, and that the supply of milling offals will become 

 more plentiful. 



9345. It is a very great concern to a lot of the 

 smaller men as well as the larger farmers? I think 

 I may say that is recognised by the Wheat Commis- 

 sion, and as soon as they are able to do so they will 

 arrange to import more wheat so as to provide more 

 offals. Perhaps I might mention that the importation 

 of maize is likely to be very much higher, and that will 

 to some extent relieve the demand for offals. . 



9346. When you go and tell people the control price 

 is so and so, they say, " All right, but it is no good 

 telling me what the price is when you cannot get it of 

 any kind." I have been in touch only last week with 

 numbers of small men who breed pigs, and they can- 

 not get hold of any? Yes, but the quantity that is 

 being produced is really considerable; it is produced 

 at the rate of over one million tons per annum. 



9347. You think that within a short time there is a 

 hopeful sign of larger supplies? I expect that the 

 supplies will become more plentiful shortly after 

 Christmas: 1 am very doubtful if much change is 

 probable this side of Christmas. 



9343. Mr. Bobbins : You have made no reference to 

 flue dust potash in your statement. Do you regard 

 that as any longer of commercial value?--! think now 

 that potash is likely to be much more freely available 

 the demand for flue dust will fall off. Potash will still 

 continue to be extracted from the high-grade flue 

 ilust, but the lower qualities will only be used by 

 farmers in the neighbourhood of the works where it is 

 produced, who are able to send a cart in and take 

 away what they want. 



9349. Do the Government still hold shares in the 

 British Potash Company perhaps I had better not 

 ask you that? You do not make any reference to 

 organic manures in your precis? No. 



9350. Do you regard the supply of organic manures 

 as being a negligible quantity? No, not at all, but 

 the real difficulty is to get any statistics on the sub- 

 ject. The price of organic manures, such as bones 

 and blood, and so forth, were very high during the 

 war, and they are still high. 



9351. If tho figures relating to organic manures 

 were included, your figures in Tables I and II would 

 have to undergo considerable modification, would they 

 not? Yes, I think they wtfulrl undoubtedly make a 

 difference. 



.'. Do you know if the Government did anything 

 to increase the supply of organic fertilisers during the 

 war? I think I am safe in saying that they did not. 

 !:i.V{. Yon told us that they gave a subsidy to manu- 

 facturer* of superphosphate and sulphate of ammonia? 

 Yes. 



:. Hut there was absolutely nothing for the 

 manufacturers of organic manures? No. 



5. Did they do anything to retain the supplies 

 of organic manure* that there were in this country? 



25831 



The export of bones and all other fertilisers was pro- 

 hibited during the war. 



9356. Is it not the fact that during a period of 

 great scarcity licences were given for the exportation 

 <;f high-grade meat, meals, blood, bones and other 

 highly valuable organic manures? Only to a very 

 limited extent. 



9357. It was not done to help their sulphate of 

 ammonia scheme, was ife? No ; it was done because 

 it was necessary to send some small quantity to 

 France. I believe France was the only country that 

 took any blood and meat meal. Tho price in this 

 country was so very high that the holders complained 

 that there was no market here, and if a small export 

 was not allowed they would be ruined; that was the 

 reason given. 



9358. Did you believe them? I am not expressing 

 an opinion. 



9359. I suppose you did, because you allowed the 

 export? Yes, to a certain extent. 



9360. The ratio of increase in price was very much 

 greater in the case of organic manure than it was in 

 the case of inorganic manure? That is so. 



9361. You get bone meal rising from 6 to 20, and 

 other organic manures in the same ratio? Of course, 

 as you know, we controlled the price of compound 

 fertilisers. 



9362. That had the effect of eliminating the organic 

 manures? Yes, it was not profitable to put organic 

 manures into the compound fertilisers under the 

 terms of the Order. 



9363. Therefore you lowered the standard of com- 

 pound manures ? There was an ample supply of these 

 artificial fertilisers. 



9364. From mineral sources? Yes. 



9365. Is the exportation of organic manures per- 

 mitted to-day ? Yes. 



9366. Notwithstanding the very high prices ? I 

 think the prohibition has been removed in the case of 

 most of the fertilisers. 



9367*. Do you still consider it more in the national 

 interest that hoofs, horns and bones should be used 

 for manufacturing ornamental waistcoat buttons and 

 combs, and such things, as was done during the war, 

 instead of being used as fertilisers? I suggest they 

 were not the same bones that were used for those pur- 

 poses. It is a very different class of bone which ia 

 used for waistcoat buttons, and so forth, from the 

 class of bone that is ground up and used as fertilisers. 



9368. I know of a firm that lost a contract for hoofs 

 and horns because a firm of manufacturers outdid 

 them? I am aware that during the war, owing to the 

 necessity of increasing the supply of fertilisers, these 

 high-class bones had to be used. 



9369. Mr. Smith : You state in paragraph 2 that 

 during the w'ar potash was only available in com- 

 paratively insignificant quantities. Has anything 

 been done to increase the output of potash? The 

 home production? 



9370. Yes? Yes, a factory was put up at Oldbury 

 for the purpose of extracting the potash from flue 

 dust ; that was assisted by the Government to a large 

 extent, and is still in operation. 



9371. Is it not true that there has been a great deal 

 of potash wasted as a by-product in the case of some 

 industries blast furnaces, gas-producing works, and 

 in the iron trade? No doubt, but I presume it was 

 not commercially possible to recover it at the time. 



9372. Is it not true that some of the waste in the 

 cleansing of gas has given a residue of which 70 per 

 rent, is pure potash? Yes, I believe so. 



9373. And that it has been thrown away? Yes; but 

 I understand those gas-cleaning plants are a compara- 

 tively modern invention. The attention of the blast 

 furnace owners has been drawn to them, and many of 

 them are putting them in. 



9374. May we take it that this waste is being dealt 

 with and that this potash will be available? Yes, if 

 it is a commercial proposition. 



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