Fertilizers. 



A great number of letters of inquiry have been received at this office 

 regarding the value and application of farm and commercial manures; 

 as to their application for special purposes and also for some informa- 

 tion regarding their profitable use on the various soils for the ordi- 

 nary field crops. These letters not only show the interest the farmers 

 of this State take in the questions of fertility and the appreciation of 

 the importance of supplying plant food in some form but also a desire 

 to become better informed as to the economical and profitable applica- 

 tion of the plant food contained in the various farm manures or that 

 purchased in the form of commercial fertilizers. An effort to explain 

 some of the questions most frequently asked and to save the task of 

 answering so many personal letters is the object of this short article. 



Before we can make satisfactory comparisons of fertilizers, even 

 though we have correct chemical analyses, it is necessary to adopt some 

 uniform price for the various fertilizing constituents found in fann and 

 commercial manures. The prices generally adopted for these purposes 

 are those decided upon annually by experiment station chemists of cer- 

 tain New England and Middle States. The average prices that these 

 ingredients were sold for at retail in our larger cities for the previous 

 six months determine the prices adopted for the year. The following 

 is a list of prices for 1892. These will not differ materially from the 

 prices for 1893: 



Fertilizers — Trade Value for 1892. 



Nitrogen in ammoniates $ ,175 



Nitrogen in nitrates 15 



Organic nitrogen in dry and fine ground fish, meat and blood. . .16 



Organic nitrogen in cottonseed meal and castor pomace 15 



Organic nitrogen in fine ground bone and tankage 15 



Organic nitrogen in fine ground medium bone and tankage 12 



Organic nitrogen in medium bone and tankage 095 



Organic nitrogen in coarser bone and tankage 076 



Organic nitrogen in hair, horn, shavings and coarse fish scrape. . .07 



Phosphoric acid soluble in water 075 



Phosphoric acid soluble in ammonia citrate (reverted) 07 



Phosphoric acid in dry ground fish, fine bone and tankage 07 



