652 Report on Inspection Woek of the 



I. COMPOSITION OF FERTILIZERS AND COST OF 

 PLANT-FOOD CONSTITUENTS. 



For the purpose of the study presented in the following pages, we 

 have made an arbitrary division of complete fertilizers into four sepa- 

 rate classes, based upon their commercial valuation, that is, the price 

 at which the separate unmixed materials could be purchased for cash 

 at retail at the seaboard. Our classification is as follows: 



Class 1 . Low-grade fertilizers, those having a commercial valuation 

 of less than $16 a ton. 



Class 2. Medium-grade fertilizers, those having a commercial valu- 

 ation greater than $16 and less than $20 a ton. 



Class 3. Medium high-grade fertilizers, those having a commercial 

 valuation greater than $20 and less than $25 a ton. 



Class 4. High-grade fertilizers, those having a commercial valua- 

 tion greater than $25 a ton. 



We will now make a comparative study of these four classes of 

 complete fertilizers from the following points of view : 



1. Distribution of fertilizers among the different classes. 



2. Composition of fertilizers in different classes. 



3. Relation of selling price to commercial valuation in different 

 classes. 



4. Cost of one pound of plant-food in different classes. 



DISTRIBUTION OF FERTILIZERS AMONG DIFFERENT CLASSES. 



Taking the 614 complete fertilizers whose analyses are given in 

 Bulletin No. 390, we find they are distributed among the four different 

 classes as follows : 



Class 1, low-grade 126, or 20 . 5 per ct. of all. 



Class 2, medium-grade 172, or 28 per ct. of all. 



Class 3, medium high-grade 156, or 25.4 per ct. of all. 



Class 4, high-grade 160, or 26 . 1 per ct. of all. 



On the basis of these data, nearly 50 per ct. of the brands of com- 

 plete fertilizers sold in this State during 1914 were medium or low-grade 

 in character. Since, however, much larger quantities of these grades 

 of fertilizers are sold than of the higher grades, the figures given above 

 would be considerably changed if we knew the amounts of each class 

 purchased by farmers. Comparing these figures with some obtained 

 in 1902, it is noticeable that the proportion of medium high-grade 



