Fertilizer Use in the United States

Abstract

FERTITTTZER practice in the United States is highly variable. The most intensive use is found on the narrow belt of sandy land which follows the Atlantic coast line from Massachusetts south to the Florida Peninsula. Truck crops, small fruits, early potatoes, sweet potatoes, and many other crops are here grown in an intensive way, quite generally with the aid of chemical rather than of animal fertilizers. Inland, we find very heavy use of fertilizers in the Atlantic cotton states, but a much smaller use in the cotton states lying farther west. Fertilizer use in the Corn Belt is increasing, in general its extension being coincident with the development of winter wheat production. West of the Mississippi, however, there is as yet too small a fertilizer use to be significant. Data are presented in the following table. For convenience, the total amount of fertilizer used is estimated