EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 



439 



$31.25 respectively i)lus |2.50 per ton as the dealers profit, or a total of 

 183.25. The saving, therefore, in using the two tons of high grade fer- 

 tilizers would be |47,75. In addition there would be the saving in the 

 cost -of handling only two tons of fertilizer instead of 4 tons. This 

 alone, would pay for the cost of mixing the 2-12-2 fertilizer with the 

 acid phosphate. 



This saving is effected principally by a reduction in the overhead ex- 

 pense for it costs just as muCh to mix one ton of the I/2-8-V2 fertilizer 

 as one ton of the 2-12-2 fertilizer. A tremendous saving could, there- 

 fore, be effected if the farmers would purchase their plant-food in the 

 higher analysis fertilizers. It has already been stated that 103,264 tons 

 of fertilizer were used in Michigan during 1919. This amount could, 

 unquestionably^, be reduced by 25,000 tons without reducing the amount 

 of actual plant-food if the farmers would buy only high-grade fertilizers. 

 This would mean a sa^dng of more than .^450,000. During the past two 

 years there has been considerable agitation from various sources, toward 

 the use of higher grade fertilizers, but very little ^111 be accomplished 

 along this line until the farmers tliemselves demand such fertilizers. 



In the following table is shown a list of fertilizer formulas varying 

 from very low to higli-grade with the manufacturers price and the per- 

 centage of this required to cover the overhead expense. 



It will be noted tliat with the low grade (%-8-i/2) formula, the over- 

 head expense constitutes G2 per cent of the wholesale price while with 

 the high-grade (2-8-5) the overhead constitutes only 36 per cent of the 

 purchase price. As the actual value of the fertilizer increases the lower 

 becomes the overhead percentage. In other words, with the low grade 

 fertilizers the overhead or manufacturing cost is more than the plant- 

 food itself is worth while with the higher grades the value of the plant- 

 food is considerably more tlian the overhead expense. In purchasing 

 fertilizers, tlierefore, it should be the aim of the buyer to secure just 

 as much of the desired forms of plant-food per ton of fertilizer as possi- 

 ble and reduce the per acre application to comply with previous prac- 

 tice. For example, it would be much more economical to use 100 lbs. 

 of 20% acid phosphate or 125 lbs. of 16% acid phosphate per acre than 

 200 lbs. of 10% acid phosphate, as the following figures will show: 



