30 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 



same or not, provided, as stated, there is not enough in either fer- 

 tilizer to induce a bad mechanical condition. 



THE VALUATION OF FERTILIZERS. 

 The law regulating the sale and analj'sis requires that the aver- 

 age of three analyses of each brand of fertilizer sold in the State, 

 shall be compared with the guaranteed composition of the fer- 

 tilizers examined. 



This Station, in common with all American experiment Stations 

 that stand in an official relation to the fertilizer trade, goes farther 

 than this and applies a schedule of trade values to the goods that it 

 inspects. Bj means of these trade values there is calculated for 

 each brand what has been designated as the "estimated value" or" 

 the "station valuation." As these estimated values are not intend- 

 ed to represent the proper selling price of mixed goods at the point 

 of consumption, and in order to prevent any possible misappre- 

 hension as to their real meaning, the following explanations are 

 offered : 



1. These trade values represent very closely the prices at which 

 a pound of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash, in their various 

 forms, can now be purchased for cash at retail in our large markets. 

 They are based mostly upon the ton prices at which certain classes 

 of goods are offered to actual consumers, and correspond also to 

 "the average wholesale prices for the six months ending March 1st, 

 plus about twenty per cent, in the case of those goods for which we 

 have wholesale quotations." 



2. These trade values do not include the charges for transporta- 

 tion from the market to the consumer, for storage, mixing, 

 selling on long credit, bad debts, etc., etc, 



3. They are the prices of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash, 

 ready for use by the farmer, when these ingredients are purchased 

 under the above-named conditions, singly and not mixed. In ordi- 

 nary superphosphates we find these three ingredients mixed, but 

 this is not a necessary condition of their use. 



An illustration may serve to make clear the above statements. 

 A farmer wishes a ton of fertilizer similar to the well-known brands 

 sold in this State. If he purchases for cash in New York or Bos- 

 ton sixteen hundred (1,600) pounds of dissolved bone black, three 

 hundred (300) pounds of sulphate of ammonia, and one hundred 



