FERTILIZER FACTS FOR FARMERS.* 



F. H. HALL. 



Possible Fertilizer users in New York State might save 



economies thousands of dollars by wiser selection in their 



in buying purchases of such materials. First, they might 



fertilizers, easily gain by buying fertilizer ingredients and 



mixing them at home; since nitrogen, phosphoric 



acid and potash sell at much lower rates in unmixed materials than 



in " complete " fertilizers of any grade, as both are quoted in ordinary 



retail trade. Second, there are quite wide differences in the prices of 



nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash in the various unmixed 



materials which furnish these elements; and careful study of the 



materials on the market would lead to considerable saving through 



choice of the cheaper instead of the more expensive sources of the 



elements of plant food in separate form. Third, and probably 



most applicable in the great majority of fertilizer purchases, the 



selection of high-grade instead of low-grade " complete " fertilizers 



would secure the plant food elements more economically. 



These facts, with others of interest, are shown by a study of the 

 composition and prices of different brands of fertilizers and fer- 

 tilizer materials on the market in New York State. The analyses 

 of more than 1000 brands of such goods are shown in Bulletin 390 

 of this Station. The selling prices were secured by the collecting 

 agents of the State Department of Agriculture and furnished the 

 Station by the Commissioner, these being the ordinary retail prices 

 of dealers who sell to farmers in comparatively small lots. Associa- 

 tions of farmers, buying in large quantities for cash, secure their 

 plant food at lower prices than prevail in the usual retail trade. 

 r , , The average price of nitrogen in 600 brands of " com- 



eapest plete " fertilizers of all grades, of which samples were 

 source or ana ly Ze d, was 27.0 cents a pound; but in unmixed 

 elements. ma terials of whatever kind, except commercial dried 

 sheep manure, it was from 2| to 9 cents a pound lower. Even in 

 the highest grade of mixed goods the average cost of the nitrogen was 

 24.2 cents a pound, while in meat and bone tankage it was only 22 

 cents, in dried blood only 21.6 cents and in nitrate of soda, the 

 cheapest source of nitrogen, only 17.8 cents. By far the most 

 expensive nitrogen furnisher, however, was the sheep manure, recently 

 so widely and extravagantly advertised, in which the element cost 



*A reprint of Popular Edition of Bulletin No. 392; for Bulletin see p. 649. 



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