AiTangements are made as in previous years to attend to the ex- 

 amination of olijects of general interest to the farming community, 

 to the full extent of existing resources. Requests for analyses of 

 substances — as fodder articles, fertilizers, etc., — coming through 

 officers of agricultural societies and farmers' clubs within the state, 

 will receive hereafter, as in the past, first attention, and in the order 

 that the applications arrive at the office of the Station. The results 

 will be returned without a charge for the services rendered. Appli" 

 cation of private parties for analyses of substances, free of charge, 

 will receive a careful consideration, whenever the results promise to 

 be of a more general interest. For obvious reasons no work can be 

 carried on at the Station, of which the results are not at the disposal 

 of the managers for publication, if deemed advisable in the interest 

 of the citizens of the state. 



All parcels and communications sent on to " The State Experi- 

 ment Station " must have express and postal charges prepaid, to re- 

 ceive attention. 



To assist farmers, not yet familiar with the current mode of deter- 

 mining the commercial value of mauurial substances offered for sale 

 in our markets, — some of the essential considerations,— which serve 

 agricultural chemists as a basis for a commercial valuation, are once 

 more stated, within a few subsequent pages. 



The customary valuation of manurial substances is based on the 

 average trade value of the fertilizing elements specified by analysis. 

 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 jmrticulM' form of two or three essential 

 articles of 2^^(^'>^t food, i.e., phosporic acid, nitrogen and potash, 

 whicii they contain. The valuation which usually accompanies the 

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

 cable, regarding the cash-retail price at which the several specified es- 

 sential elements of p)lant food, in an efficient form, have been offiered of 

 late for sale, in our large markets. 



The market value of low priced materials used for manurial pur- 

 poses, as salt, wood ashes, various kinds of lime, barnyard manure, 

 factory refuse and waste materials of different description, does, 

 quite frequently, 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 different localities. Local facilities for cheap trans- 

 portation and more or less advantageous mechanical condition for a 



