280 Bureau of Farmers' Institutes. 



Mr. Dawley. — If you don't feel like using the '* rock/' use plas- 

 ter or some absorbent by all moans, the loss of liquid manure is 

 one of the greatest leaks on our farms. 



What is the value of a fertilizer, 14 per cent, acid, but only 12 per cent. 

 Boluble? 



Mr. Cook. — I don't know. I told you what it costs, whether you 

 can get your money out of it, is a question. But, no doubt, the 

 ideal way to use it is in the stable as an absorbent. The phos- 

 phoric acid is an element in which, as a rule, barn manure is lack- 

 ing. Twelve per cent, is worth a little less than the 14 per cent, 

 fertilizer. 



Where can South-Carolina rock be procured? What is the price? In 

 what shape does it come, in bulk or in sacks? 



Mr. Cook. — I have been told that the fertilizer men, or most of 

 them, have formed a trust and refuse to sell chemicals to outside 

 parties. Prof. Jordan of the Geneva Experiment Station, is look- 

 ing up the names of these commercial fertilizer men who refuse 

 to sell chemicals to farmers, and will publish their names in a 

 bulletin. The price of South-Carolina rock has advanced some- 

 what recently. I think it is not far from $14 per ton. 



Is there any difference in the phosphoric acid in ground bone, boneblack 

 or South-Carolina rock? 



Mr. Cook. — No; phosphoric acid is the same wherever found, 

 but it may not be just as available in some forms as in others. 

 The men who sell bone phosphate ask higher prices for it than 

 do the dealers in the rock, because there is a little nitrogen in it, 

 but the difference in the price of the two is too much. So, then, 

 buy the rock. 



Are not the fertilizer men refusing to sell chemicals to farmers for home 

 mixing? If so, where is one going to obtain them? 



Prof. Van Deman. — The German Kali Works do not sell fer- 

 tilizers but potash salts and will sell to any one who wants pot- 

 ash, whether he be farmer or fertilizer manufacturer. 



The professor mentioned other dealers who sell only chemicals 

 or ingredients to any one ordering them. 



