14 NON Re Te EH 
5) Hse OR RE 
BREEZE 
Tells Story of Great Fertilizer Corporation 
Purposes, Organization and Properties of International 
Concern Set forth for Information of Public 
Purposes, Organization and Properties of 
International Concern Set Forth 
for Information of Public 
Unusual, almost unique, in the current 
history of corporations is a pamphlet just 
issued by the International Agricultural 
Corporation, setting forth the purposes 
and organization of the company and 
describing its plants and properties. The 
aim of the publication is not to exploit 
the Corporation’s products, but to tell 
what it is, why and how it was organized, 
and what it is doing. Following are 
some quotations from the booklet: 
Profit — money making—is the obvious 
reason for the organization of every 
commercial undertaking. But this belief 
in, and desire to develop the opportunity 
for profit in a given business must—if the 
belief is sound and the desire is honest— 
be founded on the service it is proposed 
to render in exchange for the expected 
gains of the enterprise. 
Any new development in an old indus- 
try must, in order to be successful, do 
something different, do something better, 
supply some actual need. 
The International Agricultural Corpo- 
ration, organized in July, 1909, was 
founded on the belief— 
That the chemical fertilizer industry in 
the United States, upon somewhat re- 
vised lines, afforded the greatest of com- 
mercial opportunities. 
That the fertilizer business to be con- 
tinuously successful must be based upon 
ownership of the sources of the crude 
materials required. 
That the present was the time to un- 
dertake such a work, because the vast 
increase in the consumption of commer- 
cial fertilizers, year by year, clearly 
demonstrated that the farming commu- 
nity was awakening to the necessity of 
its increased use, renewing the fertility 
of depleted soils and doubling the yields 
of lands yet fertile. 
That the company which gave the 
customer better condition of the goods 
furnished, better shipment of goods, 
better freight rates on goods shipped, 
would not be long in securing recogni- 
tion. 
With these definite purposes in mind, 
the International Agricultural Corpora- 
tion has invested $18,000,000 of its au- 
thorized capital of $36,000,000, and for 
every dollar of stock issued (both com- 
mon and preferred) has obtained tangibie 
assets in the form of plants and proper- 
ties, necessary in carrying out its plaa 
to realize for its stockholders and the 
consuming public the benefits of an 
organization equipped with ample _ re. 
sources of raw materials and adequate 
manufacturing facilities so placed over 
the country as to secure the most eco- 
nomical distribution of its products. 
No bonus of either common or pre- 
ferred stocks was issued for brands, 
trade-marks, patents or good-will. There 
is, therefore, no ‘‘water’’ in the Corpora- 
tion’s capital. 
Gathering the Raw Materials 
The organizers of the International 
Agricultural Corporation fully realized 
that they must secure adequate sources 
of crude material supply, namely — 
Phosphate Rock, Sulphuric Acid, Potash, 
and Ammoniates—in order to produce 
at lowest cost complete fertilizer, con- 
taining in well balanced proportions the 
nitrogen (ammonia), phosphoric acid and 
potash necessary to plant life. 
Carrying out its plan of operation, the 
International Agricultural Corporation 
purchased 42,000 acres of phosphate 
lands in Florida, and also secured the 
largest portion of the brown rock de-- 
posits of Tennessee. 
The present yearly output of the mines 
owned by the Corporation is fully one- 
half of the total of land pebble product 
from all the mines in the state of 
Florida. Electrical energy for pumps, 
washers and transportation, oil burning 
dryers, concrete construction for dry 
bins, thirty-six miles of railway, conserva- 
tion of water supply and ‘‘scientific 
management’’ in every detail of its op- 
erations are among the factors that en- 
able the International Agricultural Cor- 
poration’s properties to produce land 
pebble phosphate of all grades econom- 
ically. 
All known phosphate deposits of im- 
portance have passed from private owners 
into the hands of mining companies and 
their present valuation is far below their 
ultimate value. 
Sulphuric Acid Supply 
Instead of manufacturing its sulphuric 
acid from pyrites, as is customary, the 
International secured a ten-year con- 
tract with the Tennessee Copper Co., of 
Copperhill, Tennessee, and with the Duck- 
town Sulphur, Copper & Iron Co., Ltd., 
of Ducktown, Tennessee, for their total 
output of sulphuric acid, which it has 
been stated by the producers will exceed 
260,000 tons of 60 degrees acid annually. 
By means of tank cars (190 are in 
service at the present time) this acid is 
transported to the various works of the 
Corporation, and employed in manutfac- 
ture. 
Could Supply America’s Potash for 350 
Years. 
At the time of the organization of the 
International Agricultural Corporation an 
opportunity was presented to buy on 
favorable terms one of the most valuable 
of the German Potash Mines—the Kali- 
werke Sollstedt Gewerkschaft. This pur- 
chase was affected by the outlay of 
$4,000,000, for which the Corporation 9b- 
tained a property estimated by experts to 
contain about 140,000,000 tons of potash 
salts, of which (making allowance for 
waste, ete.) about 70,000,000 tons—equal 
to 11,000,000 tons of pure potash, K20— 
should be available for mining. On the 
basis of last year’s consumption »f 
200,000 tons (K20O) the entire United 
States market could be supplied from the 
Sollstedt mine for a period of 350 years. 
The mine has a strictly modern plant, 
which alone cost more than $2,500,000. It 
has a present capacity of about one-third 
the annual consumption of the United 
States, and is being enlarged. 
The only advantage of one potash pro- 
ducer over another is to be gained through 
favorable location of the property, quality 
of the deposits, and equipment for eco- 
nomical production on a large scale. 
The Sollstedt mine has all these advan- 
tages, and a larger allotment than most 
of the mines. Sollstedt, in fact, is noted 
for having the lowest cost of production 
on record, which makes the plant excep- 
tional in that it can operate profitably 
under heavy taxation and unfavorable 
restrictions as to output. 
The benefits anticipated from the In- 
ternational’s purchase of Sollstedt were 
to some extent minimized by the action of 
the German government, aimed to deprive 
Sollstedt’s American customers of the 
benefits of increased production and much 
lower prices than the Potash Syndicate 
maintained. But under all circumstances 
the possession of the Sollstedt mine has 
proved to be a most profitable investment. 
The direct and indirect advantages of this 
independent investment in the potash in- 
dustry have been maintained throughout 
the shifting phases of the ‘‘potash 
controversy,’’ in which the International 
has sought to protect the interests of the 
American market as a whole, as well as 
to conserve its own interests., 
By the term ammoniates is meant all 
those materials from which nitrogen is 
derived in the form most available for 
plant food. Many of these materials, 
such as nitrate of soda and sulphate of 
ammonia, are produced abroad and im- 
ported to the United States. Other forms 
are produced in this country—cotton-seed 
meal, dried fish scrap, and the by- 
products of slaughter houses—dried blood, 
animal tankage, ete., ete. The Corpora- 
tion either owns outright or has close 
working arrangements with companies 
producing these materials, so as to be 
positively assured of its supply for future 
years, and by reason of the size of its 
purchases of other ingredients not pro- 
duced by its interests is thus placed in the 
most advantageous position. 
Position as a Manufacturer 
In this regard the position of the In- 
ternational Agricultural Corporation is 
unique. Instead of purchasing the plants 
of competitors, as has been the custom 
of other large corporations in this indus- 
try, the International has caused to be 
built at the most advantageous points 
throughout the South, moderate sized 
factories, with sufficient capacity to serve 
the trade located in that particular terri- 
tory on a minimum freight rate for the 
manufactured product. Securing its sul- 
phurie acid from a _ central producing 
point, it is able to transport to any other 
given point only such amount of sulphuric 
acid as may be required for manufactur- 
ing at that point, while competitors own- 
ing expensive sulphuric acid works must 
run to capacity, frequently much in ex- 
cess of actual need for the sulphuric acid 
so produced. 
Broadly speaking, the most important 
product of the International Agricultural 
Corporation is what is known as acid 
phosphate. This material is produced by 
grinding phosphate rock to a powder and 
adding approximately an equal amount of 
50 degrees sulphuric acid. The resultant 
material, a dry friable slate-colored prod- 
uct. (acid phosphate), is used by all fer- 
tilizer manufacturers, and aside from the 
larger manufacturers, the southern states 
contain hundreds of smaller producers— 
the ‘‘dry mixers.’’ That the plan of the 
International Agricultural Corporation is 
sound is proven by the fact that not only 
are the small manufacturers ready cus- 
Pe 
