New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 915 
muck, marls, minerals or mineral waters, adulterated foods, sus- 
pected cases of poisoning and so forth, except so far as such 
analyses may partake of a public nature. 
The Commercial Valuation of Fertilizers. 
The Station is frequently in receipt of letters asking for a 
money valuation upon a certain fertilizer, the analysis of which 
is properly guaranteed and upon inspection found to contain 1be 
amount of each constituent as guaranteed. 
The fertilizer law of this State, as will be geen, neither requires 
such valuation to be made nor does it forbid such valuation, aud 
we have published from time to time the scale of prices per 
pound for each of the constituents in the various forms in which 
these constituents are found for sale in the leading markets of 
the country, so that the analysis of any fertilizer being given, it is 
only necessary to multiply the per cent. of each constituent found 
present by twenty to learn the number of pounds of such con- 
stituent present in a ton (2,000 pounds) of the fertilizer, and then 
_ to multiply by the prices per pound and add ihe results together 
_ to obtain what may be called the net valuation per ton of such 
fertilizer; but to this net valuation should be added a sum snf- 
ficient to defray cost of manufacture, of bags or barrels, of freight 
to consumer, and a reasonable profit, in order to determine what 
would be a fair price for such fertilizer when delivered to the 
purchaser and consumer. 

















The above appears to be a very simple matter, but in practice 
is very difficult to accomplish in a way to do equal justice to 
msnufacturers and consumers and for the following reasons: 
q The costs of manufacture and for freight differ greatly, although 
there appears no good reason why the farmer should pay for the 
differences which may arise in these ways between the cost of 
two brands of fertilizers equal in other respects. The main trouble 
_ arises from ignorance generally as to the exact form in which 
the several constituents are present in a certain fertilizer, e. g., 
. _whether the nitrogen present is in the form of nitrates, ammonia 
¥ salts, fish, pomace, horn, leather, hair, or in any other of the 
, 5 many forms in which this element is found in combination. 
