282 
Commercial Value of Artificial Manures. 
where tlie cost of carriage of tlie diluents in ordinary manures 
amounts to mucli more than the extra expenses of the process of 
preparing the effective constituents in a highly concentrated form. 
Since, then, in peculiar cases such a concentrated manure has a 
higher relative value for the consumer than an ordinary sample 
containing 18 to 22 per cent, and is prepared at greater cost by 
the manufacturer, it certainly would not be right to estimate the 
money value of the soluble phosphate in both at the same 
rate. 
Another reason which deters me from attempting to fix a 
price for soluble phosphate — or, indeed, for any manuring con- 
stituent — is, that the price of the same substance in the same 
form varies continually from a variety of causes. 
The commercial price of the raw materials employed in the 
manufacture of manures, like that of everything else, is de- 
pendent upon demand and supply, and regulates itself accord- 
ingly. The consumer, in my opinion, has a far better guarantee 
for a supply of cheap fertilisers in the competition of respectable 
firms than in the publication of any fallible, because constantly 
changing, price-list. There exists, moreover, the danger that the 
price-lists fixed by chemists of standing are frequently applied by 
others whenever it suits their purpose long after they have become 
obsolete. In the interest of the farmer 1 feel, therefore, bound not 
to publish an amended price-list of fertilising matters. 
My attention has been directed to a remarkable change which 
has of late come over the minds of some manufacturers with 
regard to analyses and money-valuations : many of those who 
were once much opposed to such proceedings are now most 
anxious to have recourse to them for certain manures. The 
reason for this anxiety is obvious ; for if scientific men whose 
names are well known to the public at large gravely state that 
manures which are actually sold at 11. 10s., according to the 
usual mode of computing their value, are worth Wl. IO5., it is 
but natural that manufacturers should desire to secure so favour- 
able though unreasonable a testimony. For years I have re- 
frained from putting a money-value upon manures sent to me 
by manufacturers ; for it strikes me very forcibly that if a maker 
has not sufficient chemical and commercial knowledge to deter- 
mine correctly the money-value of his own productions, he has 
mistaken his proper calling. 
Although the trade in manures is getting more and more into 
the hands of a limited number of intelligent and large manufac- 
turers, there are still to be found, here and there, small and 
ignorant makers, and farmers who make a few hundred tons of 
artificial manures for their own use and that of their neighbours. 
Generally speaking, a manufacture carried out on such a limited 
