1887.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. D7 



VALUATION OF FERTILIZERS, AND 

 FERTILIZER ANALYSES. 



The valuation of a fertilizer is based on the average trade 

 value of the fertilizing elements specified by analysis. The 

 money value of the higher grades of agricultural chemicals and 

 of the higher-priced compound fertilizers, depends in the major- 

 ity of cases on the amount and the particular form of two or 

 three essential articles of plant food — i. e., phosphoric acid, 

 nitrogen and potash — which they contain. The valuation which 

 usually accompanies the analyses of these goods informs the 

 consumer, as far as practicable, regarding the cash retail price 

 at which the several specified essential elements of plant food, 

 in an efficient form, have of late been offered in our lar"-e 

 markets. 



The market value of low-priced materials used for manurial 

 purposes, as salt, ashes, various kinds of lime, barnyard 

 manure, factory refuse and waste materials of different descrip- 

 tions, quite frequently does not stand in close relation to their 

 chemical composition. Their cost varies in different localities. 

 Local facilities for cheap transportation and more or less advan- 

 tageous mechanical condition for a speedy action, exert, as a 

 rule, a decided influence on their selling price. 



The wholesale market price of manurial substances is liable 

 to serious fluctuations ; for supply and demand exert here, as 

 well as in other branches of commercial industry, a controllino- 

 influence on their temporary money value. As farmers have 

 only in exceptional instances a desirable chance to inform 

 themselves regarding the conditions which control the market 

 price, the assistance rendered in this direction by agricultural 

 chemists charged with the examination of commercial fertilizers 



