A SURVEY OF THE FERTILIZER INDUSTRY. 3 



quantity of other materials which it was not possible to classify. 

 It is probable that the figures for filler are not complete, as the sched- 

 ule did not specifically ask for it, and many of the firms doubtless 

 neglected to report the quantities used, and the same is likely to 

 be true of the agricultural salt and possibly of the lime. In con- 

 nection with the reported quantity of filler, it should be kept in 

 mind that the filler used in the preparation of mixed fertilizer is 

 only a small part of the inert matter in the product. In the manu- 

 facture of mixed fertilizer, filler is used largely for the purpose of 

 obtaining the desired grade or composition in the mixed goods. 

 A concrete example may help to make this proposition clear. If it 

 is desired to make a mixture containing 2 per cent of ammonia, 8 

 per cent of phosphoric acid and 2 per cent of potash (the well-known 

 grade, 2-8-2) and the materials at hand are cottonseed meal, con- 

 taining 7 per cent of ammonia, acid phosphate, containing 16 per 

 cent of phosphoric acid, and Nebraska potash, containing 28 per 

 cent of potash, the method of making up the mixture will be as fol- 

 lows: 2 per cent of a 2,000-pound ton is 40 pounds; in order to 

 obtain 40 pounds of ammonia from 7 per cent cottonseed meal it 

 will be necessary to use 571 pounds of cottonseed meal. The amount 

 of phosphoric acid desired is 8 per cent of a ton or, in fertilizer par- 

 lance, 8 units, or 160 pounds. To obtain 160 pounds from a 16 per 

 cent acid phosphate will require 1,000 pounds of acid phosphate. 

 The amount of potash called for is 40 pounds and to obtain that 

 from a 28 per cent material, 143 pounds will be required. The total 

 amount of materials used, therefore, will be 571 plus 1,000 plus 143, 

 or 1,714 pounds. To this are added 286 pounds of filler in order to 

 make up the ton. 



It will be seen from the foregoing statement that filler has not 

 only a legitimate but a necessary use in the preparation of mixed 

 fertiliz;er under the existing methods of manufacture. While it is 

 likely that in the 5 million tons of fertilizer produced during 1918 

 more than 217,000 tons of fiUer were used, the filler constituted only 

 a small proportion of the inert matter in the mixture. Thus, in the 

 example given, the 2,000-pound ton contained 286 pounds of filler, 

 while the total of inert matter was as follows: Of the 571 pounds of 

 cottonseed meal, 531 pounds were inert; of the 1,000 pounds of acid 

 phosphate, 840 pounds were inert; and of the 143 pounds of Nebraska 

 potash, 103 pounds were inert; so that the total inert matter in the 

 plant food bearing materials was 1,474 pounds; and the ton of ferti- 

 lizer consisted of 240 pounds of plant food, 1,474 pounds of inert 

 matter in the plant food bearing materials, and 286 pounds of filler. 



The fact that from three-fourths to seven-eighths of the mixed 

 fertilizer sold to farmers consists of inert matter which does not 

 contribute to the fertihty of the soil, but on which freight must be 



