236 CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS 



in the country may produce 200 Ibs. per acre per annum. 

 A poor pasture may therefore be said to be such that 100 

 acres will provide the food for 2 or 3 persons, whereas in a 

 rich pasture the 100 acres will provide food for 30 or 40 

 persons. On the other hand, 100 acres growing an average 

 crop of wheat will provide food for about 230 persons for a 

 year, assuming that the wheat was milled to about 80 % 

 standard, and that the tailings and damaged grain were used 

 for cattle feeding. Similar estimates for barley and oats 

 allow food for about 160-180 persons per annum per 100 

 acres. Potatoes, on the average of the country, feed about 

 400 persons per 100 acres of land, whilst, adopting the allot- 

 ment standard of 12 tons of potatoes per acre, about 800 

 persons could be fed on 100 acres of allotments. The amount 

 of fertilizers needed to produce this result in the case of pota- 

 toes is much greater than the amount of fertilizers used for 

 wheat, and wheat demands more fertilizers than pasture. 

 Middleton, by averaging up the rotations practised in the 

 United Kingdom before the war, estimates that the produce 

 of the ploughed land of the country maintained about 84 

 persons per 100 acres. Although shipping tonnage is not so 

 short as it was, it is still necessary to practise economy. The 

 utilization of a larger quantity of fertilizers, with the produc- 

 tion of more foodstuffs, will result in a reduction of the needed 

 amount of shipping. Previous to the war, farmers depended 

 far too much upon imported feeding stuffs for maintaining 

 or fattening their stock. The farmer had the idea that the 

 feeding stuffs, having served their purpose as foods, enriched 

 the manure which he needed for his land, but such a method 

 of obtaining manure was very expensive. Far better 

 results can be obtained by the direct application of fertilizers 

 to the land, resulting in increased supplies of home-grown food 

 suitable for feeding the stock and improving the manure. 

 The use of a large quantity of phosphatic fertilizers on pastures 

 will keep them in good condition later on in the season, and 

 will diminish the risk of a glut of meat at the end of the grass 

 season, with a corresponding shortage in the spring. The 

 future of fertilizers in Great Britain depends on the measures 



