New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 807 



TRADE-VALUES OF PLANT-FOOD ELEMENTS IN RAW MATERIALS AND CHEMICALS. 



1914. 

 Cts. per 

 pound. 



Nitrogen in nitrates and ammonium salts I65 



Organic nitrogen in dry and fine-ground fish, meat and blood 22£ 



" in fine-ground bone and tankage 21^ 



" in coarse bone and tankage 17^ 



" in castor pomace and cottonseed meal 22^ 



" in mixed fertilizers 19| 



Phosphoric acid, water-soluble 4£ 



" citrate-soluble (reverted) 4 



" in fine-ground fish, bone and tankage 4 



" in cottonseed meal and castor pomace 4 



" in coarse fish, bone, tankage and ashes 3^ 



" in mixed fertilizers, insoluble in ammonium citrate or water . 2 



Potash as high-grade sulphate, in forms free from muriates (chlorides), in 



ashes, etc 5 



" in muriate 4 



" in castor pomace and cottonseed meal 5 



VALUATION AND COST OF FERTILIZERS. 



The total cost (to the farmer) of a ton of commercial fertilizer 

 may be regarded as consisting of the following elements: (1) Re- 

 tail cash cost, in the market, of unmixed trade materials; (2) cost 

 of mixing; (3) cost of transportation; (4) storage, commissions to 

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

 the total cost of a fertilizer is made up of several different elements, 

 a commercial valuation includes only the first of the elements enter- 

 ing into the total cost, that is, the retail cash cost in the market of 

 unmixed raw materials. 



VALUATION AND AGRICULTURAL VALUE. 



The agricultural value of a fertilizer depends upon its crop-pro- 

 ducing power. A commercial valuation does not necessarily have 

 any relation to crop-producing value on a given farm. For a par- 

 ticular soil and crop, a fertilizer of comparatively low commercial 

 valuation may have a higher agricultural value; while, for another 

 crop on the same soil, or the same crop on another soil, the reverse 

 might be true. 



Rule for Calculating Approximate Commercial Valuation of Mixed Fer- 

 tilizers on Basis of Trade-Values for 1914. 



Multiply the percentage of nitrogen by 3.9. 



Multiply the percentage of available phosphoric acid by 0.9. 



Multiply the percentage of insoluble phosphoric acid (total minus available) by 0.4. 



Multiply the percentage of potash by 1.0. 



