76 FERTILIZERS. 



or by improved machinery, improved processes of manu- 

 factures ; or, finally, by selling more than his fellow-dealers, 

 and so being able to afford a smaller profit on each ton. The 

 difference in the selling-price of fertilizers turns, then, on 

 how much of nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid enter 

 into their composition, modified by the above-named cir- 

 cumstances. 



The analyses published by the able chemists at the 

 head of the various agricultural colleges are the great 

 check on frauds, and, in general, a very safe guide to the 

 farmer as to the richness of the various fertilizers in the 

 market, though they do not pretend to be able to tell 

 whether any particular one is cheaper for him to use than 

 barn manure, is best adapted to his soil, or to produce 

 profitably any particular crop : this is a matter that the 

 farmer must determine for himself. The fertilizer laws of 

 the different States have driven most of the " cheap and 

 cheat" class from the market. If any one is interested 

 in knowing what these laws have accomplished for the far- 

 mer, let him read the last chapter of Bruckner's work on 

 " American Manures," where he will find analyses of 

 eleven fertilizers that were advertised in 1870 for an aver- 

 age price of $50 per ton, the average of whose real value, 

 aside from the insoluble phosphoric acid in their composi- 

 tion, proved to be but $13.75 per ton. It is good advice 

 to buy no fertilizer of which you have seen no analysis 

 published in the bulletins or annual reports of some of our 

 agricultural colleges. There is one just now being sold in 

 Eastern Massachusetts by a new firm which is little or 

 nothing more than a mixture of ashes, lime, and salt. 



With the best of helps, we take as much risk in our pur- 

 chases as wise men should take ; for the chemist does not 

 tell us always whether our phosphoric acid was derived 

 from bones or the mineral rock, or our nitrogen from fish 

 or flesh, or the practically worthless leather scraps. 



