No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 79a 



Nitrogen — this elemeut is determined by a method which simply ac- 

 connts for all present, withont distinguishinj^ between the (inantities 

 present in the several forms of animouinm salts, nitrates or organic 

 matter. (5) Chlorin; this determination is made to alford a basis for 

 estimating the proportion of the potash that is present as chlorid or 

 muriate, the cheaper source. The computation is made on the as- 

 sumption that the clilorin present, unless in excess, has been intro- 

 duced in the form of muriate of potash; but doubtless there are occa- 

 sional exceptions to this rule. One part of chlorin combines with 

 1.326 parts of potasli to form the pure muriate; liuowing the chlorin, 

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

 In the case of ground bone, the state of sub-division is determined by 

 sifting through accurately made sieves; the cost of preparation and 

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

 larg-ely on the fineness of its particles, the finer being much more 

 (juickly 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 

 guarantees stamped upon the fertilizer sacks. It has, therefore, 

 been deemed desirable in this report to enter the guaranty filed by 

 the manufacturer in the office of the Secretary of Agriculture, in such 

 connection with the analytical results that the two may be compared. 

 An unfortunate 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 cer- 

 tain minimum to a much higher maximum; thus, "Potash, 2 to 4 per 

 cent." is a guaranty not infrequently given. In reality, the sole 

 guaranty is for 2 per cent. The guaranteed amounts given for each 

 brand in the following tables, are copied from the guaranties filed 

 by the maker of the goods with the Secretary of Agriculture, the 

 lowest figure given for any constituent being considered to be the 

 amount guaranteed. For compactness and because no essentially 

 important fact is suppressed thereby, the guaranties for soluble and 

 reverted phosphoric acid have not been given separately, but are 

 combined into a single guaranty for available phosphoric acid; in 

 ca'ses where the maker's guaranty does not specifically mention avail- 

 able phosphoric acid, the sum of the lowest figures given by him for 

 soluble and reverted phosphoric acid is used. The law of 1879 al- 

 lowed 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 the amount of one, 

 when the amount of the other is given; the amount of nitrogen multi- 



