By G.H. Leonard
Division of Industrial Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina
The farmers of North Carolina, who yearly fertilize their cotton, corn, wheat, and tobacco fields, have very little idea of the magnitude of the industry in the state which furnishes them their crop foods. Do they know what a tremendous amount of money is invested in fertilizer manufacture and what sums of money the industry represents in the state?
The entire fertilizer manufacturing industry of North Carolina entails an investment of approximately $79,750,000; an estimated plant valuation of $39,700,000; and a yearly production value of $31,850,000. Eighteen hundred and fifty men obtain employment in this industry on an annual payroll of $1,900,000.
The fertilizer industry in North Carolina was started by the Navasso Guano Company at Wilmington and Selma in 1869; the next operations started at new Bern in 1899 when two more fertilizer plants were erected. Then started an expansion and extension of the industry throughout the state as follows: in 1900 there were 15 plants; in 1910, 19; in 1918, 27; wile an increase to 57 resulted by the end of 1922.
The largest single corporation in the fertilizer business in North Carolina is the Virginia-Carolina Chemical Company, which in 1893 established nine plants with a capital of $48 million. These plants are located at Charlotte, Durham, New Bern, Raleigh, Salisbury, Wadesboro, Wilmington, Washington, and Winston-Salem.
The fertilizer manufacturing industry is divided into superphosphate, fish scrap, and mixed fertilizer production. There are 14 superphosphate plants scattered throughout the state making acid phosphate by mixing proper proportions of sulfuric acid with ground “Tennessee rock” or “Florida pebble” phosphate rock. Because of the handling of gases, acids, and chemicals, the control and operation of such plants is placed in the hands of men trained especially in the fundamentals and applications of chemistry and engineering. The fish scrap industry centers around Beaufort and Wilmington, there being 10 such factories. This type of fertilizer is produced by drying the wet fish pulp from which the fish oil has been cooked and expressed, or, if the season does not permit, the wet scrap is treated with sulfuric acid for the production of acid scrap. The mixed fertilizer plants produce fertilizer according to definitely described formulas for the trade, using cottonseed meal, linters, guano, superphosphate, and other fertilizer foods purchased on the market.
From The University of North Carolina News Letter, Chapel Hill, N.C., July 11, 1923
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