218 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



and to adopt a common plau for their chemical examination. 

 This meeting took place in the library-room of the National 

 Department of Agriculture, which had been kindly offered 

 by Gen. Le Due for that purpose. Some twenty delegates — 

 representing the States of Georgia, South Carolina, North 

 Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New York, New 

 Jersey, Connecticut, Mame, and Massachusetts — attended 

 the convention. After some discussion of the best current 

 chemical methods of ascertaining the quantity and the quality 

 of the essential constituents of fertilizers, as potassa, nitrogen, 

 and phosphoric acid, it was decided to adopt provisionally, 

 with the exception of a few additional suggestions, the modes 

 recommended for that purpose by Fresenius, Neubauer, and 

 Lucke, and indorsed by a convention of the chemists of 

 the German agricultural experiment stations, as binding for 

 all present. The transactions of the meeting have been 

 printed by the courtesy of Commissioner J. T. Henderson 

 of Atlanta, Ga., and have been extensively circulated. Copies 

 may be obtained by application to him. A subsequent 

 largely attended meeting of agricultural chemists in Boston 

 (Aug. 27, 1880) has since indorsed the plan adopted, and 

 measures have been taken to perpetuate an organized home 

 effort of agricultural chemists for the promotion of scientific 

 agriculture in general. 



The fluctuations in the wholesale prices of crude stock ai-e 

 reported to have been more serious during the past year 

 than in the previous one. Nitrogen and potassa compounds 

 in particular have commanded a higher price during the 

 second half of the past year. The retail prices of our stand- 

 ard fertilizers have been, however, but little affected, as the 

 main bulk, sold in the spring of the year, had been manufac- 

 tured previous to the change in the market-price of the 

 crude stock. The following prices have been adopted as a 

 fair valuation of the essential constituents of fertilizers 

 during the past year : only specified forms of guaranteed 

 composition of the fertilizer have been differently valued. 



Cents. 



Nitrogen in form of nitric acid 24 



Nitrogen in form of ammonia 24 



Nitrogen in form of animal matter 20 



Soluble phosphoric acid . ... ^ • ... 12 



