New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 395 

 Sellinc, Price and Commercial Valuation etc. — {Concluded.) 



Difference between Sellittf^ Price 

 and Commercial Valuation, 



Lowest 



Highest 



Average 



Low-grade. 



3 60 



21.74 



8.58 



Medium- 

 grade. 



1-57 

 12.53 

 915 



Medium 

 high-grade. 



0.62 

 15 20 

 6 15 



High- 

 grade" 



7 25* 

 10.30 



510 



♦Commercial valuation exceeds selling price. 



A Study of this table suggests several points of interest. 



(i) We notice that the selling price varies greatly for any one 

 grade of goods. For example, in the low-grade goods, the lowest 

 selling price was $16 a ton, and the highest $34, a tremendous 

 difference when we consider that there was a difference of not 

 more than $6.50 in their actual plant-food value. In all the 

 grades we find a variation in selling price entirely disproportion- 

 ate to the difference in value of the plant-food contained in them. 

 In the high-grade goods, we find the difference somewhat less 

 marked but still unreasonably great. 



(2) The excess of selling price over commercial valuation is 

 greater in low-grade and medium goods than in high-grade 

 goods; in other words, the high-grade goods sell, on an average, 

 nearer to their actual plant-food value than do low-grade goods. 



(3) While the data contained in the preceding table do not 

 show it. our records show that the same brand of goods is often 

 sold by different agents at prices differing as much as $5 to $8 

 a ton and this, too, under circumstances that do not appear to 

 justify any such difference. In some cases the question of price 

 appears to depend, not upon the value of the goods, but upon 

 the judgment of the seller as to how much he can get. 



cost of one pound of plant-food in different grades. 



The difference in cost of plant-food in high-grade and low- 

 grade fertilizers can best be brought out by showing the cost 

 of one pound of plant-food as purchased by the consumer. In 

 the following table we state the lowest, highest and average cost 

 of one pound of nitrogen, of available phosphoric acid and of 

 potash as actually purchased by consumers in 1902. 



