714 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



1.326 parts of potash to form the pure muriate; knowing the chlorin, 

 it is, therefore, easy to compute the potash equivalent thereto. (7) 

 In the case of ground bone, the state of subdivision is determined by 

 sifting through accurately made sieves; the co«t of preparation and 

 especially the promptness of action of bone in the soil depends very 

 largely on the fineness of its particles, the finer being much more 

 quickly useful to the plant. 



The law having required the manufacturer to guarantee the amount 

 of certain valuable ingredients present in any brand he may put upon 

 the market, chemical analysis is employed to verify the guaranties 

 stamped upon the fertilizer sacks. It has, therefore, been deemed 

 desirable in this report to enter the guaranty tiled by the manufac- 

 turer in the office of the Secretary of Agriculture, in such connection 

 with the analytical results that the tw^o may be compared. An un- 

 fortunate practice has grown up among manufacturers of so wording 

 the guaranty that it seems to declare the presence in the goods of an 

 amount of a valuable constituent ranging from a certain minimum to 

 a much higher maximum; thus, 'Totash, 2 to 4 per cent." is a guar- 

 anty not infrequently given. In reality, the sole guaranty is for 2 

 per cent. The guaranteed amounts given for each brand in the fol- 

 lowing tables, are copied from the guaranties filed by the maker of 

 the goods with the Secretary of Agriculture, the low'est figure given 

 for any constituent being considered to be the amount guaranteed. 

 For compactness and because no essentially important fact is sup- 

 pressed thereby, the guaranties for soluble and reverted phosphoric 

 acid have not been given separately, but are combiued into a single 

 guaranty for available phosphoric acid; in cases where the maker's 

 guaranty does not specifically mention available phosphoric acid, the 

 sum of the lowest figures given by him for soluble and reverted phos- 

 phoric acid is used. The law of 1879 allows the maker to express his 

 guaranty for nitrogen either in terms of that element or in terms of 

 the ammonia equivalent thereto; since ammonia is composed of three 

 parts of hydrogen and fourteen parts of nitrogen, it is a very simple 

 matter to calculate th-^ amount of one, when the amount of the other 

 is given; the amount of nitrogen multiplied by 1.214 will give the 

 corresponding amount of ammonia, and the amount of ammonia mul- 

 tiplied by 0.824 will give the corresponding amount of nitrogen. In 

 these tables, the expression is in terms of nitrogen. Many manufac- 

 turers after complying with the terms of the law, insert additional 

 items in their guaranties, often with the result of misleading or con- 

 fusing the buyer; the latter will do well to give heed to those items 

 only that are given as the law requires and that are presented in 

 these tables. 



A summary of the analyses made this season may be presented as 

 follows, excepting the miscellaneous class: 



