EXPERIMENT STATION ANALYSES. 89 



manufacturer. Often the percentages reach and 

 even exceed the higher figures of the analysis. 



2. Based on the higher figures: 



Nitrogen 2 pounds @ 181, - - - - 37 



Phosphoric acid, available 8 pounds % 8 cents, - 64 



" " insoluble 3 pounds @ 2 cents, - 6 



Potash 4 pounds @, 4^ cents, - - - - 18 



Total, , $1,25 



or per ton 20x$1.22, equal to $25.00. Thus we find 

 that its value is somewhat between $15.90 and $26.00, 

 probably near $20.00. Such a fertilizer usually 

 sells for thirty to thirty-two dollars, although it 

 may be dear at twenty- five dollars. It certainly is 

 not a "high-grade" manure, nor even a well-balanced 

 one, and while perhaps suitable for soils which are 

 more in need of phosphoric acid than of the other 

 two substances of plant food, is hardly safe for gen- 

 eral crops on soils lacking all three substances. 



Of course, we desire still safer guarantees than 



the mere printed analyses on the bags and barrels 



of fertilizers, and such guarantees and 



Experiment f uH information generally, are at the 

 Analyses. farmer's disposal without money and 

 without price, merely for the asking. 

 The various state experiment stations forward free 

 to applicants in their own state their bulletins con- 

 taining, besides other valuable information, the 

 fertilizer analyses as they are made from time to 

 time for the very purpose of letting farmers know 

 the doings of fertilizer manufacturers. These analy- 

 ses, by the way, are also a most wholesome method 

 of supervision and to enforce honesty in compound- 

 ing the manures. Every open fraud is soon detected 

 and shown up. The percentages of the substances 

 of plant food in many, perhaps the majority of all 



