1C 09. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
4D0 
THE TARIFF ON SULPHATE OF AMMONIA. 
I have* rear} with interest your article on page 401, 
advocating the removal of the tariff on plant food. Your 
position seems to me entirely correct, with one exception. 
There should be no tariff on potash salts, or any other 
plant food for which the American farmer must send 
abroad, but this is not true as regards sulphate of am¬ 
monia. This article is the one exception to your state¬ 
ment that “There is no American industry that could 
possibly be helped or protected by a tariff on plant food.” 
The by-product coke oven industry is protected in its 
endeavor to recover sulphate of ammonia from bituminous 
coal by the present tariff rate on sulphate of athmonia, 
and it is essential to the best interests of the farmer 
that this protection should be continued. We have vast 
resources of sulphate of ammonia in this country stored 
away in our bituminous coal. Last year 500,000 tons of 
this valuable fertilizer were wasted because of the crude 
methods by which most of the coke produced in this coun¬ 
try is made. The by-product coke oven is the principal 
means of recovering ammonia from coal, and is the only 
industry that holds out any promise of producing sulphate 
of ammonia in large quantifies. The investment required 
in these plants is very large, and capital cannot be found 
to build them unless a stable market for sulphate of am¬ 
monia can be found. Although the industry is well estab¬ 
lished here, it has not yet been extended to treat more 
than one-eighth of the coal annually made into coke. To 
hasten this extension, in default of which every year 
thousands of tons of fertility are wasted, the present 
Dingley tariff on sulphate of ammonia should be retained. 
The protection asked is very small, amounting to but 10 
per cent ad valorem. 
Under the present tariff, we import more sulphate of 
ammonia from England than we produce. If we reduce 
lhe tariff, we encourage the English maker and discourage 
I he American manufacturer. At present, the duty charge 
on sulphate of ammonia is practically paid by the foreign 
producer, as is clear when we consider that the English 
price is about $57 per ton, to which must be added $6 
duty and §7 freight, brokerage and insurance, yet the 
American price averaged last year a little less than $60. 
The English manufacturer elands this loss in order to 
maintain his price in the other countries of the world to 
which he ships. The removal of the duty would, in a 
very few years, place the United States in the position 
of depending upon foreign, manufacturers of sulphate of 
ammonia, as we are now dependent on Chilean nitrate of 
soda, German potash salts and Peruvian guano. The 
retention of the duty will build up the home industry 
and increase the wealth of the nation. The tax in doing 
this is so slight as to be practically negligible. Sulphate 
of ammonia is but little used as yet, and almost entirely 
by a few mixed fertilizer makers. Even in the high-grade 
goods, made by these few firms, averaging $36 per ton, 
it is questionable whether more than 30 cents a ton would 
be saved by removing the duty, and out of this must 
come the saving to the fertilizer man, by whom the re¬ 
quest for the removal of the duty is really being made. 
In spite of the competition which sulphate of ammonia 
encounters from other forms of soluble nitrogen, it has 
been the cheapest per unit of nitrogen for years past, as 
is shown by the experiment station valuations, and it is 
impossible for its price to be kept at a higher level than 
that of Chilean nitrate of soda, which is imported duty 
free. It seems to me that this plain statement of facts 
is sufficient to convince the American farmer that it is 
to his interest that no change in the duty on sulphate of 
ammonia should be made. 
THE UNITED COKE AND GAS COMPANY. 
DR. F. SCHNIEWIND. 
A Telegram for Free Plant Food. 
Who gets the benefit of the tariff on fertilizers? It is 
urged that the foreign maker absorbs the tariff, that the 
consumer does not pay it, because sulphate of ammonia 
is sold on a parity with nitrate of soda, which cantos in 
duty free. Occasionally that is so, but that should not 
interfere with our maintaining the broad principle, which 
we adopted years ago, of admitting all fertility duty free. 
Hut if the consumer does not pay it. then surely the 
home producers of sulphate of ammonia do not get the 
benefit of the tariff, because they have not to sell sulphate 
of ammonia on a parity with nitrate of soda and by¬ 
product nitrogen. Thus, if neither side is affected, the 
only loser by admitting it duty free is the United States 
Government, and it only loses about $200,000 a year in 
revenue, which it can well afford to lose for the following 
reason, if for no oilier: 
This country is shipping to Europe in the shape of 
cereals, meat, products and mineral phosphates fully 
$150,000,000 worth annually of plant food. All I hat we 
can get back in the shape of fertility (nitrogen and 
potash) will he returned directly to the soil. What comes 
back in the shape of money is disbursed in various ways, 
hut what comes back in plant food has got to go into 
the soil, for it cannot be used in any other way. The 
broad, economic principle of admitting plant food duty 
free, should be fought out now, as it Involves both 
economic and ethical problems. We boast of our agricul¬ 
tural prosperity but in reality it is the prosperity of a 
stupendous mining operation, the mining of fertility, the 
leaving of the soil poorer than we found it. 
_ w. II. BOIVKEK. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The National Corn Exposition 
officers in Omaha were notified by Col. E. J. Bell, of Lara¬ 
mie, Wyo., April 22, that he had made a wager with 
Western Canadian farmers that his Wyoming farm would 
produce more oats per acre than any land in Western 
Canada. The wager is for $10,000 cash and the National 
Corn Exposition officials will judge the crops. Col. Bell 
has for years made a specialty of oats. At the head of 
the Canadians, who are backing Alberta, is Prof. W. LI. 
Fairchild, of Lethbridge, Alberta. Col. Bell planted the 
fields on which lie pins his faith the third week in April, 
while the Albertan fields would not lie planted till two 
weeks later. The contest, according to Col. Bell’s offer, is 
open to the entire world, and is not limited to Canada 
alone. 
April 22 Gov. Hughes signed Senator Hamilton’s bill, 
appropriating $10,000 for investigation of Hie grape pro¬ 
duction in Chautauqua county, including methods of 
culture and ravages of insect pests and fungus. 
Large expenditures for quarantines established by the 
New York State Agricultural Department against rabies 
at many points through the S*ate and against foot and 
mouth disease in certain of the western counties, includ¬ 
ing Erie county, are likely to return to embarrass the 
Agricultural Department, which has been advised by the 
Attorney-General that such quarantines are probably 
county and not State charges. Costs of the quarantine 
established during tile closing months of last year in Erie 
county against the spread of the foot and mouth disease 
aggregating about $7,000 are now in dispute. The quaran¬ 
tine was established by the Sheriff, who put guards aud 
cleaners at work. Ex-Attorney-General Jackson, when 
asked for an opinion as to who would pay the costs, an¬ 
nounced that the charge would bo upon the county. Erie 
county officers have refused to pay the bills on the' ground 
that they are properly a Sfate charge and the claimants 
took the matter before Supreme Court Justice White, who 
refused to grant a mandamus requiring their payment 
for a like reason. 
James S. Whipple, N. Y. Forest, Fish and Game Com¬ 
missioner, has not only planted more trees in this State 
than have been planted in any other State or even by the 
national Government, but this year he has made another 
great advance in the reforesting movement. The commis¬ 
sion has sold to private landowners at cost 1,034,050 pine 
and spruce trees for reforesting land within the State. 
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OTTUMWA, IOWA 
The Most Perfect 
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BELLOWS FALLS, VERMONT 
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Boston Salesroom, 77 Oliver Street 
