156 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



YALUATIOK OF FERTILIZERS, AKD 

 FERTILIZER ANALYSES. 



To assist the farmers, not yet familiar with the current 

 mode of cleterminino; the commercial value of manurial sub- 

 stances offered for sale in our markets, some of the essen- 

 tial considerations, which serve as a basis for our valua- 

 tion, are once more stated within a few subsequent pages. 



The valuation of a fertilizer is based on the average trade 

 value of 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 majority of cases, on the amount and the particular form 

 of two or three essential articles of plant food ; i. e., phos- 

 phoric acid, nitrogen and potash, which they contain. The 

 valuation which usually accompanies the analyses of these 

 goods shall inform the consumer, as far as practicable, re- 

 garding the cash retail price at which the several specified 

 essential elements of plant food, in an efficient form, have 

 been ofi'ered of late for sale, in our large markets. 



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

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

 barnyard manure, factory refuse and waste materials of dif- 

 ferent descriptions, does not, quite frequently, stand in a 

 close relation to their chemical composition. Their cost 

 varies in difierent localities. Local facilities for cheap trans- 

 portation, and more or less advantageous mechanical condi- 

 tion for "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 

 controlling influence on their temporary money value. As 

 farmers have only in exceptional instances a desirable chance 

 to inform themselves resrarding conditions which control the 

 market price, the assistance rendered in this connection by 



