438 



STATE. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



FERTILIZER STATISTICS. 



The following table shows the amiount of fertilizer used in the State 

 for three years 1913, 1917 and 1919, as determined from the sales reported 

 by the manufacturers. It will be noted that in the seven years, from 

 1913 to 1919 inclusive, there was an increase of 107 per cent. The great- 

 est increase took place in 1917 and prior thereto, as in the past two 

 years the increase has been a little less than 13 per cent. 



HIGH GRADE FERTILIZERS MOST ECONOMICAL. 



Since the outbreak of the gi'eat war there has been a vQi'y great change 

 in the character of the fertilizers offered for sale in the State. Previous 

 to that time brands containing 2 per cent ammonia, 8 per cent available 

 phosphoric acid and 5 to 10 per cent potash w'ere very common. How- 

 ever with the beginning of hostilities importation of potash salts ceased 

 and in order to conserve the supply then on hand the percentage sup- 

 plied in fertilizers was reduced to 3 per cent as the maximum and in 

 many brands it was eliminated entirely. During this time the cost of 

 the potaish advanced from |1.00 per unit to $8.00 or more as the upper 

 limit. This began to stimulate local production of potash and the price 

 has gradually receded to |3.00 per unit. At the same time the demand 

 for nitrate of soda for the manufacture of war munitions and sulfate of 

 ammonia for refrigeration purposes caused the price of ammoniates to 

 advance to a point more than double the former price. 



This scarcity of ammoniates and potash and the desire of the manu- 

 facturers to meet the popular demand for lower-priced fertilizers has 

 been responsible for the appearance of several brands containing only 

 one-half per cent of ammonia and potash respectively with varying 

 amounts of phosphoric acid. 



All this time the cost of manufacturing fertilizers has been steadily 

 increasing owing to increased wages, freight rates, cost of bags, etc. 

 Consequently, by cheapening the quality of tlie fertilizers with a corre- 

 sponding loAvering of the price per ton, the actual cost of the plant-food 

 has been increased. 



For example, suppose a farmer were planning to use 4 tons of a ^2-8-% 

 fertilizer on oats in the spring. The manufacturer's price of this brand 

 is 130.25 to which should be added about |2..50 per ton as tlie dealers 

 profit. The total cost of the 4 tons would tlierefore be |131.00. The 

 same amount of plant-food could be obtained in one ton of a 2-12-2 fer- 

 tilizer and one ton of 20% acid pliosphate which would cost |47.00 and 



