No. 5. 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



455 



or in terms of the ammouia 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 multiplied by 

 1.214 will give the corresponding amount of ammonia, and the amount 

 of ammonia multiplied by 0.824 will give the corresponding amount 

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

 The laws of 1901 and 1909 abolished the alternative and required 

 that the quantity shall be given in terms of nitrogen. 



Many manufacturers, after complying with the terms of the law, 

 insert additional items in tlieir guaranties, often with the result of 

 misleading or confusing the buyer; the latter will do well to give 

 heed to those items only that are given as the law requires and that 

 are presented in these tables: 



A summary of the analyses made this season may be presented as 

 follows : 



Summary of Analyses Made this Season. 



■a 



3 

 O 



Number of analyses, 



Moisture, per cent 



Phosphoric acid: 



Total, percent 



Available, per cent., .. 



Tnsoluble, per cent. , . . 



Potash, per cent 



Nitrogen, per cent 



Mechanical analyses of bone: 



Fine 



Coarse 



Conimerciai valuation,* 



Average selling price,* 



23 

 5.19 



23.37 



55.00 



45.00 



$33 45 



32 20 



♦Dollars per ton. 



The European war brought fertilizer manufacturers face to face 

 with a serious difficulty just before the time had arrived for the 

 fllling of the fall trade orders, namely, the cutting off of the supply 

 of German potash salts, the sole commercial source of fertilizer 

 potash for the northern United States. The manufacturing trade 

 made a re-adjustment to eke out their potash stocks by reducing tie 

 guaranties for certain brands rich in potash, by withdrawing almost 

 entirely their offers of potash salts for home-mixing, and by greatly 

 increasii^g the prices of these salts when sold for that purpose. Where 

 sufficient supplies of a brand were already mixed, no changes of 

 guaranty were made. Those brands with changed potash guaranty 

 that are represented in this season's analyses are indicated by the 

 printing of the y)otash guaranty in italics, in the analytical tables 

 following. 



No change has been made in the potash values used in calculating 

 the "commercial valuations." 



