FERTILIZER CONTROL STATION. 265 



to represent the proper selling price of mixed goods at the point of 

 consumption, and in order to prevent any possible raisapprehensioQ 

 as to their real meaning, the following explanations are offered : 



1. These trade values represent very closely the prices at which 

 a pound of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash, in their various 

 forms, can now be purchased for cash at retail in our large markets. 

 They are based mostly upon the ton prices at which certain classes of 

 goods are offered to actual consumers, and correspond also to "the 

 average wholesale prices for the six months ending March 1st, plus 

 about twenty per cent in the case of those goods for which we have 

 wholesale quotations." 



2. These trade values do not include the charges for transportation 

 from the market to the consumer, for storage, mixing, commissions 

 to agents and dealers, selling on long credit, bad debts, etc., etc. 



3. They are the prices of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash, 

 ready for use by the farmer, when these ingredients are purchased 

 under the above-named conditions, singly and not mixed. Id ordi- 

 nary superphosphates we find these three ingredients mixed, but this 

 is not a necessary condition of their use. 



An illustration may serve to make clear the above statements. A 

 farmer wishes a ton of fertilizer similar to the well-known brands 

 sold in this Slate. If he purchases for cash in New York or Boston 

 sixteen hundred (1,600) pounds of dissolved bone black, three 

 hundred (300) pounds of sulphate of ammonia, and one hundred 

 (100) pounds of muriate of potash, and mixes these ingredients 

 together, he will have a complete fertilizer not essentially different 

 from many standard brands of ammoniated superphosphates. The 

 cost of the ton after mixing (if the farmer prefers to mix the 

 ingredients) will be made up as follows : 



a. Cost of the materials in the markets. 



b. Cost of transportation. 



c. Cost of mixing. 



The first element entering into the total cost is the only one 

 included in the "estimated value." If there is added to this one 

 element, not only the charges for transportation and mixing, but 

 also the expenses of selling through agents and dealers, long credits, 

 bad debts, etc., we have the factors involved in the cost of our 

 ordinary superphosphates when delivered at or near the place of 

 consumption. As is to be expected, the Station valuations of 

 superphosphates fall below their selling prices. Last year the aver- 

 age difference in this State was -$9.96 per ton. 



