No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 403 



found transport diffienlt and freight high. The prices of refined 

 pyrites liave advanced onesixth; and of crude, nearly one-half. 

 Hence 60 degrees sulphuric acid which was quoted last August at 

 f.SO to 11.00 in bulk, now commands .f2.00 to |2.50 and even to $4.50. 

 America wastes from lier smelters, furnaces and coke ovens vastly 

 more sulplmr than slie converts into useful products. Slowly we are 

 devising means to reduce this waste. In 1915, one-fifth of our sul- 

 phuric acid Avas recovered from smelter fumes. The 25% increase 

 in production from this source has been too small to meet increased 

 current demands. Basic slag phosphate came wholly from Europe. 

 None is now imported. 



As to nitrogen, we have depended chiefly on our own organic sup- 

 plies, with additions of Chilean nitrate of soda, English sulphate of 

 ammonia and a little American cyanamid. Most of our own nitrate 

 imports went, before the war, into chemicals and explosives; about 

 one-third into fertilizers. The war at first paralyzed, later stimu- 

 lated the nitrate mining. Chilean prices rose. Then the Panama 

 Canal was blocked, stocks accumulated in Chile and prices fell one- 

 fifth, but ocean freight rose from |14. to |17. a ton, owing to the long 

 carriage by way of the Straits. These several price factors led to 

 the fluctuations in nitrate of soda wholesale prices in our markets. 

 Jan.— May 1914, |2.22 cwt; June— Jan. 1915, |2.18-|1.90: Feb.— 

 Aug., 1915, 12.05-12.45; Sept. 1915, to date $2.50-|3.75. 



The sulphate of ammonia is largely of English origin. Domestic 

 resources are little utilized, and the domestic output is too small 

 to determine the price situation. From a wholesale rate of |2.85- 

 13.00, the price has advanced to |4.00. 



Our cyanamid manufacture is assuming respectable proportions, 

 but the supplies are still to small, considerably, to affect the nitro- 

 gen situation. 



Finally, as the natural result of conditions in other nitrogen sta- 

 ples, the demand for our organic ammoniates has risen relative to 

 the supply, with a consequent rise in market price. High grade blood 

 which sold, wholesale, at |2.75 a unit of ammonia in Jan. 1913; at 

 f3.30 in Jan. 1914; fell to |2.95 in January of last yea'r; and to $2.75 

 in early July ; but has now risen above its old level, to $3.40. Con- 

 centrated tankage prices, have followed the dried blood variations, 

 with price per unit differences of 15 to 20 cents for nitrogen and with 

 a steady allowance of 10 cents a unit for bone phosphate of lime. 



Our fertilizer makers have bought their stocks under these mar- 

 ket conditions. It is stated, however, that Southern stocks have not 

 been wholly completed, owing to the uncertainty as to the 1916 cotton 

 acreage. If the acreage should be much decreased, present cotton 

 stocks will suffice. If not, prices of ammoniates are expected to ad- 

 vance rapidly within the next few weeks. 



The scarcity and high price of potash has forced difficult decisions 

 upon the fertilizer maker. He has decided to conserve his stocks, to 

 divide them among his customers at comparatively small advance over 

 their original cost price, and to maintain as fully as possible his main 

 lines of complete fertilizer. This means continued provision for 

 crops relatively little in need of potash, but inadequately supply for 

 those crops most in need. Still, many brands have had their potash 

 content greatly reduced. In the Fall of 1914 official fertilizer samples, 



