TRADE VALUES OF FERTILIZING INGREDIENTS 3 



There is none harder to answer. As a rule, these questions are 

 asked by the farmer, and refer to the money value of the fertil- 

 izers put on his fields. In such cases the cost of transportation is 

 an important factor in the answer. The farther the farmer is re- 

 moved from the place of fertilizer manufacture the greater, as a 

 rule, will be the cost. Whether the transportation is over land or 

 by water also plays an important part in the final cost. The dis- 

 covery of new stores of fertilizing materials has also much to do 

 with the price. This fact is especially noticeable in this country, 

 where the price of crude phosphates at the mines has fallen in a 

 few years from nearly six dollars to three dollars per ton. 1 



This decrease has been largely due to discoveries of vast beds 

 of phosphatic deposits in Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee and 

 Wyoming. The state of trade, magnitude of crops and the vigor 

 of commerce also affect, in a marked degree, the cost of the raw 

 materials of commercial fertilizers. 



Since 1904 there has been some improvement in prices, as is 

 seen by the data on the following page. 



5. Trade Values of Fertilizing Ingredients in Raw Materials and 

 Chemicals. As has already been mentioned, the task of fixing a 

 money value for fertilizer ingredients is difficult. In fact, it is a 

 very general opinion that such values should be left to the usual 

 mandates of trade and the function of the analyst should cease 

 when he has disclosed the character and amount of each in- 

 gredient of commercial value. The market price is then regulated 

 by the ordinary conditions of demand, supply and transportation. 

 In some cases the laws of the State require the construction of a 

 table showing the money value of each of the component parts. 

 In such a case the analyst is guided by trade conditions and fur- 

 ther by the character or origin of the material in question. Thus 

 soluble phosphoric acid is far more valuable than the insoluble 

 variety, and nitrogen in the form of blood or saltpeter than nitro- 

 gen in horns, hoofs or hair. 



The values proposed for 1907 by the Massachusetts experiment 

 htation are given below. - 



1 The American Fertilizer, 1905, 22 : 17. 



8 Massachusetts Experiment Station, 1907, Bulletin 119 : 16. 



