Consumption of Ammonium Nitrate as Fertilizer in the United States

Abstract

A SMALL tonnage of nearly pure solid ammonium nitrate was introduced for use as a fertilizer in the United States during the last half of 1942. Its use was confined to a few states but became more general in 1943. Although this chemical was known to be satisfactory for such use for many years, its use in agriculture prior to 1942 was only in mixed fertilizers or compounded with other materials, such as imestone or ammonium sulfate. In the fertilizer trade ammonium nitrate was sold under the trade names: Nitrogen Solutions, Cal-Nitro, Nitro-Chalk, and Leunasalpeter. The compounded materials were imported chiefly from Germany and Norway. A relatively small amount came from England via Canada. Today, the more important of such products sold in the fertilizer trade are: conditioned ammonium nitrate; ammonia-water solutions containing varying proportions of ammonium nitrate, which is used almost entirely in the manufacture of mixed fertilizers; and mixtures of ammonium nitrate with ...