188 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



yaluatio:n' of fertilizers akd fer- 

 tilizer ANALYSES. 



The hitherto customary valuation of manurial substances 

 is based on the average trade value of the fertilizing elements 

 specified by analyses. 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., phosphoric acid, nitrogen and potash, which 

 they contain. The valuation which usuall}'^ accompanies the 

 analyses of these goods shall inform the consumer, as far as 

 practicable, regarding the cash retail price at which the 

 several specified essential elements of plant food, in an effi- 

 cient form, have been ofi*ered of late for sale in our large 

 markets. 



The market value of low-priced materials used for manurial 

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

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

 different descriptions, 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 dif- 

 ferent 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 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 influ- 

 ence on their temporary money value. As farmers in many 

 instances have but little chance to obtain the desired infor- 

 mation, agricultural chemists charged with the inspection of 

 commercial fertilizers assist in the work, by ascertaining as 

 far as practicable the actual market price of the leading 



