No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 887 



just SO long will he, iu tuiu, be oblii^ed to pay more for it on the 

 wholesale market. Now, iu some states, the volume of rock ijhos- 

 ijhoric acid used is relatively small and the need for its separate 

 valuation not apparent; iu other states it predominates to the al- 

 most entire .exclusion of bone phosphoric acid, so that no distinct 

 valuation for the latter is required; but in Pennsylvania both occupy 

 important positions upon the'market and each requires its own set 

 of values. 



Despite the advance in the market quotations for phosphate rock, 

 brimstone and pyrites, prices of sulfuric acid, though fluctuating 

 less than during 1901, were on the average lower than iu that 

 season, and the Nev/ York quotations for acid phosphate remain un- 

 changed.* The fact that the two great fertilizer combinations mine 

 a large fraction of their own phosphates, relieves their products 

 from much of the speculative element of variation in value. 

 . In view of this condition and of the close concordance of com- 

 puted valuations of dissolved rock and the ascertained average sell- 

 ing price during the fall of 1902, the schedule of values used in 1902 

 for rock phosphoric acid have been adopted for 1903. 



For similar reasons, nitrogen and phosphoric acid iu ground bone 

 are valued at lower rates in Pennsylvania than in New England. 

 Owing to the slight changes in wholesale prices for rough bone and 

 the fairly concordant agreement between the computed valuation 

 for ground bone on the retail market last fall, and the ascertained 

 average selling price, the schedule of valuations for bone constitu- 

 ents used in 1902 have also been adopted for 1903. 



The schedule for 1903 as a whole is as follows: 



