756 ANNTTAL RKPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



bciiij;- included bceaiiso insoluble in water evcMi iiftor lonp; boiling. 

 (4) Xid'o^cn — Hiis element is detertnined by a method which simply 

 accounts for all present, without distin<;uishin<; between the quanti- 

 ties present in the several forms of ammonium salts, nitrates or or- 

 ganic matter, (5) Chlorin; this detcM-mination is made to afford a 

 basis for estimating the proportion of the ])otash that is present as 

 chlorid or muriate, the cheaper source. The computation is made 

 on the assumption that the chlorin present, unless in excess, has 

 been introduced in the form of muriate of potash; but doutbless 

 there are occasional exceptions to this rule. One ])art of chloi'in com- 

 bines with l.'.V2() parts of potash to form the pure muriate; know- 

 ing the chlorin, it is, therefore, easy to compute the potash ecpiiva- 

 lent thereto. (7) In the case of ground t)one, the state of sub-divi- 

 sion 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 largely on the fineness of its i^articles, 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 filed by 

 the manufacturer in the oitice of the Secretary of Agriculture, in 

 such connection w-ith the analytical results that the two may be 

 compared. An unfortunate practice has grown up among manu- 

 facturers of so w'ording 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; X:hus, "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 guaran- 

 ties filed by the maker of the goods with the Secretary of Agricul- 

 ture, the lowest figure given for any constituent being considered 

 to be the amount guaranteed. For compactness and because no es- 

 sentially important fact is suppressed thereby, the guaranties for 

 soluble and reverted phosphoric acid have not been given sepa- 

 rately, but are combined into a single guaranty for available phos- 

 phoric acid; in cases where the maker's guaranty does not s])ecific- 

 ally mention available phosphoric acid, the sum of the lowest figures 

 given by him for soluble and reverted phosphoric acid is used. The 

 law of 1879 allowed the maker to express his guaranty for nitro- 

 gen 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])lied by 1.214 will give 

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

 monia multiplied by 0.824 will give the corresponding amount of 

 nitrogen. In these tables, the expression is in terms of nitrogen. 



The law of 1901 abolishes this alternative and/requires that the 

 guaranty shall be given in terms of nitrogen. Many manufacturers 

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

 in their guaranties, often with the result of misleading or confusing 

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



