376 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



make up the cost of oil of vitriol are, all of them, dearer than ten 

 or twelve years ago, it also follows that the expense of converting 

 insoluble into soluble phosphate is greater than it was then. 



The commercial value of soluble phosphoric acid in 1857-8 was 

 estimated by Prof. S. W. Johnson at twelve and a half cents per 

 pound. So far as I am aware this is the lowest price which has 

 ever been affixed by any scientific authority. It is the same as 

 that arrived at by Dr. Voelcker of England and by Dr. Stockhardt 

 of Germany about the same time. Prof. Johnson seems to have 

 adopted their conclusions as correct, on theoretical grounds, and 

 added nothing for the higher price of oil of vitriol in the United 

 States above what it commands in England and on the continent. 

 In 1856, Prof. Way, chemist to the Royal Agricultural Society of 

 England, adopted sixteen cents as its just commercial value. In 

 1860, Dr. Anderson, chemist to the Highland and Agricultural 

 Society of Scotland, after careful investigation decided upon four- 

 teen and a half cents per pound, as the price at which to estimate 

 it in commercial manures. 



Now if we take the average of these three appraisals, and add a 

 third for difference between gold and currency, we have upwards 

 of nineteen cents, currency, and if to this we add a proper amount 

 for the greater cost* of oil of vitriol here above its cost abroad, 

 we, bring it up to, if not beyond, twenty-five cents per pound. At 

 present prices of materials, labor and incidental outlays, and with 

 gold bearing twenty to thirty per cent, premium, a valuation of 

 soluble phosphoric acid at twenty-five cents per pound is probably 

 as near a fair one to be paid by the consumer to the dealer (includ- 

 ing a small profit to the latter) as is likely to be reached. The 

 manufacturer will not reap a profit beyond, if ^ large as, what is 

 usually obtained on manufactured goods, while the purchaser will 

 get it cheaper than it could be made on a small scale. 



We come next to ammonia, to decide the value of which in a 

 satisfactory manner is more difficult than either soluble or insolu- 

 ble phosplioric acid. This is owing in part to the variable char- 

 acter of the substances we buj"^ it in, and their fiuctuating and on 

 the whole rapidly increasing prices during ten years past. It is 



*lIow much higher it is, I atn not ablo to state with precision; probably fiftj per cent., 

 perha))3 more. 



•J. Lawrcuce Smith, in his recent report as United States Commissioner to the late Paris 

 Exposition, comparing its price in this country with that in France and England, says 

 that owing to ill advised legislation, it is " much hiyher and fluctuating ." 



