New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 103 



Society of Long Island, which has for years successfully followed 

 the plan of cooperation. This year its members bought, in the 

 form of a mixed fertilizer made according to contract, nitrogen 

 for 11.7 cents a pound, available phosphoric acid for 3.6 cents a 

 pound and potash as muriate for 3.75 cents a pound. It will be 

 noticed that these prices are a little more than one-half those paid 

 for plant-food by the average farmer purchasing mixed fertilizers 

 in the ordinary way. The members of this club paid $24.45 for 

 each ton of fertilizer, which would have cost farmers, buying at 

 the average prices paid for plant-food, $44.67. 



(4) It is a matter of interest to notice that farmers who pur- 

 chase mixtures containing only phosphoric acid and potash are 

 compelled to pay even higher prices for each pound of plant-food 

 than in complete fertilizers. Thus, each pound of available phos- 

 phoric acid costs 7.3 cents and each pound of potash 6.9 cents. 

 These goods are often put on the market under fanciful names and 

 sold at prices varying from $16 to $30 a ton and averaging nearly 

 $21. 



(5) Manufacturers of fertilizers, whose goods are sold in New 

 York State, put out, at least on paper, 1900 different brands. 

 Many of these are not on sale in this State, but the number of 

 different brands actually in the market of the State is very large. 

 These are mixtures made mostly from a few materials, most of 

 which are in open market and accessible to- farmers. The needs 

 of all our different crops could be quite adequately met by less 

 than a dozen different mixtures and yet there are in the market 

 more than a hundred times this number. In other words, the 

 thousand or two brands of commercial fertilizers could be reduced 

 to a dozen or less and the needs of the farmers more effectually 

 supplied. This absurd multiplicity of brands is in itself a strong- 

 reason why the farmer should bestow some independent study 

 upon the plant-food requirements of crops and should exercise 

 intelligence in purchasing his supplies of plant-food. 



