Manures and Fertilizers 119 



muriate of potash contains four times as much potash 

 in a ton as kainit and often costs less for the one ton than 

 for four tons of the less concentrated material, making 

 the potash cost less a pound, in addition to the saving 

 in labor of hauling and applying. The cost a pound of 

 nitrogen in high-grade dried blood, nitrate of soda and 

 sulphate of ammonia at $50 to $70 a ton, may be less than 

 in the cheaper grades of tankage and the like, besides 

 being of far better quality. 



There is less variation in the price a ton of acid phos- 

 phates because the best sold in America seldom exceeds 

 16 per cent. The relative cheapness of plant-food in 

 mixed fertilizers depends largely on the analysis. 



Mixtures of acid phosphate and potash are compara- 

 tively low priced and at the same time are of high grade 

 and cheap for the amount of plant-food which they con- 

 tain. Nitrogen is so expensive that a small percentage 

 runs the price up rapidly. Usually the higher grades of 

 so-called " complete fertilizers," costing $30 a ton or more, 

 are relatively cheaper than lower grades selling around 

 $20 a ton. It is usual for the makers of the higher-priced 

 complete fertilizers to claim that the nitrogen in them is 

 in a variety of forms of varying quickness of solubility, 

 thereby becoming gradually available to the crop through 

 the growing season. This is something which should be 

 considered by farmers in making up their orders for 

 material for home mixing. 



NITROGEN 



Nitrogen helps rapidly to increase vegetative growth. 

 When nitrogenous fertilizers are extensively used, the 

 foliage grows large and rank and has a dark green 



