FERTILIZERS 43 



turer offers HIGH GRADE fertilizers it is time and 

 money saved to use them. 



WHY THE ANALYSIS DOES NOT ADD TO ONE HUNDRED 

 PER CENT. 



65. The Vermont Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion Bulletin No. 47 says: "The question is often 

 asked why the plant food contained in a fertilizer 

 does not add up to 100. For instance, the average 

 Vermont goods this year contain in a hundred, 2.22 

 pounds nitrogen, 10.93 pounds total phosphoric 

 acid and 3.46 pounds of potash, a total of 16.61 

 pounds. Of what did the other 83.39 pounds con- 

 sist, and is it needed for plant food ? It will be re- 

 membered that nitrogen is a gas, and phosphoric 

 acid and potash respectively strong acid and alkali, 

 and they can only be useful in combined forms. If 

 medium grade materials were used in the manufac- 

 ture of the average fertilizer, as stated above, it 

 might be made up as follows : 



440 pounds of organic matter (blood, tankage, etc. ) 

 850 pounds of ground S.C. rock and sulphuric acid. 

 110 pounds of muriate of potash. 



1400 Ibs. 



This would leave 600 pounds, or 30 per cent of 

 the gross weight in every ton for moisture, dirt and 

 useless material on which freight, mixing and bag- 

 ging expenses, storage, etc., must be paid by the 

 consumer. 



A complete analysis of the above 1400 pounds 

 would probably resemble the following : 



