20 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



in a ton of the fertilizer. The 200 pounds of nitrogen 

 would cost, to buy in the same market, 200 times 18|, and so 

 in a ton of the fertilizer there is $37 worth of nitrogen. Of 

 the 4 per cent, of phosphoric acid which is worth, say about 

 five cents a pound, 80 pounds will be worth $4-, that is beside 

 the $37 of nitrogen in the fertilizer. 



By means of such an analysis and valuation you have 

 the means of knowing whether the price asked is a fair one 

 or not, and no man who buys any quantity of fertilizers 

 and purposes to make money on them should neglect to 

 have their value determined in this way and should hold 

 the manufacturer to account for selling goods to him at a 

 fair price. Of course very few farmers in the country can 

 afford to pay for chemical analyses, and so to meet this 

 point experiment stations have been founded in several of 

 our states. In several states this was the primary object of 

 the stations to give farmers a place for analyses of this kind. 

 It is fortunate that in Wisconsin we were not called upon 

 to do this work too exclusively. At the same time we de- 

 sire to do this work so far as time will permit, and if any of 

 you are intending to buy fertilizers do not fail to determine 

 its value by such means. We can determine the amount of 

 valuable ingredients in the fertilizer and can tell you with 

 a fair degree of approximation whether the price is a fair 

 one. We cannot tell exactly but we can tell within five 

 dollars a ton probably, whether the price is a fair one or not. 

 Then, just a few words in regard to the best method of buy- 

 ing this material. I have been talking about this in a gen- 

 eral way, but not in a particular manner. In the first place, 

 buy goods of this sort of large manufacturers, This kind 

 of business requires honest, straightforward dealing, be- 

 cause the business is done on a very small margin. There 

 is such a competition and such a strict oversight kept upon 

 the business that there is very little liability to being cheated 

 by dealing with respectable places of business. In the 

 second place do not trust the manufacturer too much. Be 

 sure that his fertilizers are as good as represented to be. 

 Every reputable manufacturer will guarantee that his fer- 

 tilizer contains so much of one or all of these valuable ele- 



