When I moved the adjournment of the debate on Thursday evening, I was speaking about lime. Under Section 4 the Minister is reserving the right "to prohibit the sale or manufacture for sale of any specified fertiliser, feeding stuff, compound feeding stuff or mineral mixture or of any specified class of fertilisers, feeding stuffs, compound feeding stuffs or mineral mixtures".
In the case of ground limestone, there is still a great difference of opinion as regards which type is the most suitable, whether it is the really fine lime or the coarse lime. If we have a really fine limestone produced, there is the danger of loss from bleaching and also because it is airholed. One need only go through the country when lime is being spread by one of the ordinary spinner spreaders to see clouds of lime all over the place like a fog. There is a very considerable quantity of very fine lime lost in that way. In the other case, where fine lime is spread on old pastures. much of it is carried away with surface waters, and, even in cases where drainage works have been carried out recently under land reclamation, there has been a considerable quantity of lime washed out in the drainage.
As I have said, there is a difference of opinion as regards what standard of fineness we should have. In my opinion, the Minister should consult with lime producers and with the agricultural advisers in the different counties because, as we know, you have various types of land not only in different counties but even within a county. The Minister should also consult with farmers' representatives as regards what standard should be maintained. It might be possible for the Minister to make regulations under which he would allow producers to produce a standard lime if they wish or if it suited a district better to have a coarser lime produced. He should also, I suggest, issue advertisements giving the fineness and in that way let the farmer purchase whatever lime he thought was best for his land, on the advice, of course, of the agricultural adviser.
We have had in the past various types of mills producing lime, the ball mill and the hammer mill. As a rule the mill will depend on the type of limestone that is in a district. In one particular district people may be producing the finer class of lime so that in that area there may be no coarse lime available. That is a matter that should get consideration and I suggest that there should be no hard and fast rule made with regard to standards.
As regards fertilisers. I mentioned the other evening that in many cases, particularly of compounds, there is a very ambiguous way of presenting the analysis. You have special potato manures, swede manures and oat manures. All these have been in existence for many years. The analysis given in some cases of nitrogen content of a particular manure, and of the potassic content is of very little value to the farmer because in the mixture the nitrogen varies according to the quantity of the manures that are put into the mixture. For instance, in the case of a special potato manure, what is recommended is about 6 cwt. per statute acre; 1 cwt. of sulphate of ammonia, 2 cwt. of potash and 3 cwt. of super. In that way a certain figure is arrived at. If it is an oat manure the content has a higher nitrogenous percentage than the other, and the total quantity per acre may be 8 cwt.
I have one example here of a special potato manure. According to the percentage given on the bag, the farmer believes that he has 1 cwt. of sulphate of ammonia, 20 per cent. nitrogen, 4 cwt. of super, 35 per cent., and 1 cwt. of muriate of potash, 48 per cent., whereas what he has really got in that case is 3? per cent. nitrogen, 23? of soluble phosphate and 8 per cent. potash. He may be misled and possibly would be misled when he sees in the analysis 20 per cent. nitrogen of sulphate of ammonia, and 35 per cent. super. I think that, in order to make it perfectly clear to the farmer who is buying manures, he should be given an analysis of the nitrogen, the phosphates and the potash. The analysis should be distinctly set out on the sack.