146 THE BOOK OF WHEAT 



made yearly, and these very largely eliminate fraud and ex- 

 travagant claims. 



Fertilizer Statistics. The annual sales of fertilizers in the 

 United States exceed $50,000,000, and perhaps over 2,000,000 

 tons are consumed. During 1896 over 375,000 tons were im- 

 ported, valued at about $19 a ton, and over 514,000 tons, valued 

 at about $8.50 a ton, were exported. During the first six months 

 of 1905 the importations were valued at nearly $2,000,000. The 

 annual import of nitrate of soda is nearly 200,000 tons, having an 

 average value of about $30 a ton. The first guano sold for 

 about $95 a ton, but later fell to half that amount. A ton of 

 cottonseed meal has a fertilizing value of over $20. A ton of 

 fertilizer, costing $25, is applied to an acre of wheat land in 

 New York. The phosphate mined in the United States in 1899 

 amounted to 541,645 tons. The average cost of phosphates 

 at the quarry was $4.42 per ton in 1893. In Illinois rock phos- 

 phate could be procured at about $8 per ton in 1906, and bone 

 phosphate at $25 per ton. California expended six times as 

 much for fertilizers in 1900 as in 1890. About 1890 the farmers 

 of Ohio were expending a million dollars annually for com- 

 mercial fertilizers used in the production of wheat. 



It is claimed that a trust caused prices of fertilizers to ad- 

 vance from 15 to 25 per cent in 1900. Below is a schedule of 

 prices given for the different fertilizing substances per pound: 1 



Nitrogen ........................................ 16^ cents 



Potash .......................................... 5 cents 



Water-Soluble Phosphoric Acid .................. 6^/2 cents 



Citrate-Soluble Phosphoric Acid .................. 5 cents 



Phosphoric Acid in fine bone ...................... 3 cents 



Phosphoric Acid in medium and coarse bone ........ 2 1 /fc cents 



In Illinois the annual cost of fertilizing an acre of land is 

 about $1.70. Tubercle organisms enable leguminous crops to 

 add from $8 to $10 per acre in nitrogenous fertilizer. In the 

 early nineties over 75 per cent of the fertilizers sold were 

 equal to or above the guaranty under which they were sold. 

 Most of the others were much less than 1 per cent below their 

 guaranty. It has been estimated that with the use of all barn 

 manures and proper cultivation, the soils of the Red river 



1 Miss. Bui. 77 (1902), p. 3, 



