FERTILIZER NOTES FOR 1897 



BY FRED W. MORSE 



Fertilizers, during the year just ended, have been lower in 

 price than ever before, and the indications are that they will be 

 even cheaper during the year to come. The result of the 

 cheapening of the chemical constituents has been to raise the 

 quality of the mixed fertilizers somewhat above the minimum 

 guarantee and consequently there are very few samples show- 

 ing deficits in their composition. Out of ^S separate guaran- 

 tees, only 28 failed to either exceed the requirements or come 

 within the limits of error in sampling and analyzing. These 

 exceptions included five guarantees of nitrogen, seven of total 

 phosphoric acid, 14 of available phosphoric acid and two of 

 potash, and were scattered through 24 distinct brands repre- 

 senting 18 different manufacturers, thus indicating that there 

 was no attempt at fraud, but either slight carelessness or acci- 

 dent in mixing and bagging the materials. In no case would 

 the guaranteed value have been noticeably affected. 



A stud}'^ of the tabulated analyses has shown a few points 

 that are of importance to the user of ready mixed chemical 

 fertilizers. 



One hundred and twelve different brands of mixed fertilizers 

 are included in the tables. Of these, c;6 brands are not guaran- 

 teed to contain more than two per cent, of nitrogen, and 51 

 brands more than two per cent, of potash. Only 15 brands 

 are claimed to contain more than three per cent, of nitrogen 

 and but 17 brands to contain more than six per cent, of potash. 

 On the other hand 73 brands are claimed to contain more than 

 eight per cent, of available phosphoric acid. 



It may thus be easily seen that the average buyer of fertiliz- 

 ers is purchasing regularly about four times as much phos- 



