;)70 Journal op the Department of Agriculture. 



price of a iniit of each constituent, this imit consistiuj? of 1 per cent, 

 (or one-hundredth) of a ton, i.e. 20 lb. This unit value of a con- 

 stituent may therefore be obtained by dividino; the total of this con- 

 stituent present in a ton of the fertilizer by the percentage amount of 

 the constituent. For example, supposing the price of nitrate of soda 

 (containing- 15.5 per cent, of nitrogen) is £25 per ton, then the unit 

 value of the nitrogen in it is £25, divided by 15.5, or 32s. 3d. 



The unit values given below are the averages calculated from 

 the retail lists of the chief dealers in the Union at the commencement 

 of the present season. They are therefore based on the cash or short- 

 credit prices Cjuoted f.o.r. at the place of storage or manufacture, 

 which is in almost all cases either Durban, Capetown, Tohannesburg, 

 or their immediate neighbourhoods. The more remote ihe farmer's 

 lilace from the manuic luaiket the greater will he the cost of i]\r 

 Fertilizer to him on account of tbe added cost of carriage and handling. 

 [n such cases the scales of uiiii \alues drawn uj) For tlie tliree main 

 centres of the Union need not I)e altered, but after calculating the 

 value of the fertilizer, f.o.r. Durban, say, by means of the lists given 

 below, the cost of carriage and handling from the consignor's railway 

 station to the district in (juestion must be added in order to fix its 

 cost to the farmer at its final destination. 



The wholesale cost of the raw materials or the landed cost of the 

 imi)orted fertilizers would vary appreciably throughout the Union, so 

 it would be manifestly unfair to fix a single scale of unit values to 

 apply throughout the whole Union. For instance, the freight on 

 imported fertilizers and raw materials would be greater from Eurojjc 

 or America to Durban than to Capetown; also, n manufacturer oi- 

 merchant in Johannesburg would have to pay railage in addition to 

 the freight charges to one of the coast ports. For this reason three 

 scales of unit values have been drawn up. The first gives the averages 

 of the prices quoted by the dealers in Durban and the Province of 

 Xatal, the second applies to Capetown and the Cape Province 

 generally, while the third gives the average for fertilizers manuifac- 

 tured in Johannesburg and in the whole of the Transvaal. So far as 

 the writer is aware there have been no brands of fertilizers registered 

 by manufacturers or importers in the Orange Free State. 



LU-ts of T^nil Values. 



When compiling such a list it is onlv the sim])le fertilizers that 

 are taken into consideration, for in the case of a mixed fertilizer there 

 is the additional charge, of varying amount, to cover the cost of 

 mixing, handling, rel)agging. etc. By taking the average of the 

 values ])er unit in the case of each fei tilizing constituent in all brands 

 of simple fertilizers of the same nature placed on the market this year, 

 the following lists of unit values were obtained. In most instances 

 the number of simple fertilizers of any particular class offered for 

 sale is so small that no true average is possible. There is no brand 

 of nitrate of soda, for instance, quoted in Xatal at the present time: 

 only one brand of sulphate of ammonia, one blood meal, five quota- 

 tions for superphosphates, two for dissolved bones, and none for i)otash 

 compounds. In the Cape and Transvaal Provinces the numlDer of 

 ((uotations for the above-mentioned single fertilizers is even less. 

 Again, owing to the unstable state of the market at present, the 



