234 AGEICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



The market value of low-priced materials used for ma- 

 nurial purposes, as salt, wood ashes, various kinds of lime, 

 barn-yard manure, factory refuse, and waste materials of 

 difierent description, quite frequently does not stand in a 

 close relation to the market value of the amount of essential 

 articles of plant food they contain. Their cost varies in 

 different localities. Local facilities for cheap transportation, 

 and more or less advantageous mechanical condition for a 

 speedy action, exert, as a rule, a decided influence on their 

 selling price. 



The mechanical condition of any fertilizing material, 

 simple or compound, deserves the most serious consideration 

 of farmers, when articles of a similar character are offered 

 for their choice. The degree of pulverization controls, 

 almost without exception, under similar conditions, the rate 

 of solubility and the more or less rapid diff'usion of the 

 different articles of plant food throughout the soil. The 

 state of moisture exerts a no less important influence on 

 the pecuniary value, in case of one and the same kind 

 of substance. Two samples of fish fertilizers, although 

 equally pure, may differ from fifty to one hundred per 

 cent, in commercial value, on account of mere difference 

 in moisture. 



Crude stock for the manufacture of fertilizers, and refuse 

 materials of various descriptions, have to be valued with 

 reference to the market price of their principal constituents, 

 taking into consideration, at the same time, their general 

 fitness for speedy action. 



Trade Values of Fertilizing Ingredients in Raw Materials and 

 Chemicals. {1889.) 



Cents per Pound. 



Nitrogen in ammoniates, 19 



Nitrogen in nitrates, 17 



Organic nitrogen in dry and fine-ground fish, meat and blood, . 19 



Organic nitrogen in cotton-seed meal and castor iDomace, . . 15 



Organic nitrogen in fine-ground bone and tankage, . . . 16| 



Organic nitrogen in fine-ground medium bone and tankage, . 13 



Organic nitrogen in medimn bone and tankage, .... 10\ 



Organic nitrogen in coarser bono and tankage, .... 8J 



Organic nitrogen in liair, horn shavings and coarse fish scraps, . 8 



Phosphoric acid soluble in water, 8 



Phosphoric acid soluble in anmionium citrate, .... 7^ 



