AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 6 



analyzed. This omission is not due to any new opinions on the 

 part of the writer as to the value or justice of such valuations. 

 Viewed in the proper light, a money valuation of a fertilizer, on 

 the basis of average market conditions, may be very useful and 

 serves as a fairly just commercial standard of comparison, in 

 spite of certain errors which cannot be obviated. While the writer 

 has always appreciated the force of certain objections which man- 

 ufacturers have made to money valuations of fertilizers, he has 

 realized at the same time that manufacturers have not always 

 given due recognition to the farmer's relation to the matter. 



It seems now, however, that, after so many years of experience 

 and education, the interests of the farmer are likely to be better 

 served by asking him to calculate those valuations for himself, 

 thus obliging him to give a closer study to the composition of the 

 goods he is comparing than he generally would do if he were 

 simply to glance at a list of figures which another person had 

 calculated for him. 



A fertilizer containing ten per cent of available phosphoric acid 

 and three per cent, of nitrogen would cost not greatly different 

 from one containing four per cent, of available phosphoric acid 

 and five per cent, of nitrogen and judged by the commercial 

 valuation alone should be equally profitable for use. As a matter 

 of fact these two combinations are greatly unlike in what they 

 would supply to a growing crop and it is certainly to be expected 

 that under certain conditions the one or the other would be the 

 more profitable. This essential difference in composition is not 

 indicated always by the valuations, and is only recognized when 

 the percentage composition is studied. 



The trade values of the fertilizing ingredients in raw materials 

 and chemicals adopted for 1894 by several states, including Con- 

 necticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey, are given below. 



Trade Values of Fertilizing Ingredients in Raw Materials 

 AND Chemicals. 



189-t. 

 Cts. per lb. 



Nitrogen in ammonia salts 19 



" " uitratt'S 14i 



Organic nitrogen in dry and fine ground fish, meat, blood, and in 



high-grade mixed fertilizers ISi 



" " " cotton seed meal, linseed meal and castor 



pomace 15 



" <■<■ '■^ fine ground bone and tankage 16^ 



1,0%^1^ 



