180 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
pound of soluble phosphoric acid would be about 124 cents in the 
13% article, almost 13 cents in that of 16%, and nearly 14 cents in 
that of 187. It will be well, however, for the American importer of 
superphosphate to remember that the articles of high grade are more 
trustworthy than those of low price, and that the liability of the low- 
grade superphosphates to deteriorate by keeping is a serious objec- 
tion to the importation of such material. Neither the seller nor the 
buyer could be perfectly sure as to the state in which a low-grade 
superphosphate might arrive in this country. It would be hard to 
estimate how much of the original soluble phosphoric acid would be 
left in any given sample at the end of a long voyage. High-grade 
superphosphates, on the contrary, carefully made from pure materials, — 
may be kept without detriment for any length of time. 
‘It appears from the foregoing that soluble phosphoric acid can be 
brought hither both from England and from Germany at a much 
lower price than it can usually be bought for in Boston. In other 
words, it may be regarded as proved that any society or combination 
of farmers could procure trustworthy superphosphates from abroad 
at decidedly lower rates than those customarily paid in this mar- 
ket for fertilizers of indifferent and uncertain quality. Much good 
could undoubtedly be done by any agricultural society that would 
undertake the importation of warranted high-grade superphosphate, 
not with a view of profiting by the sale of the material, and even 
at the risk of a considerable money loss, solely for the purpose of 
establishing in this community a definite standard of excellence in 
that particular, and of enabling our farmers to try for once what effect 
would be produced upon their land by a real superphosphate. 
The difficulty in organizing such action as has just been proposed 
is not a material one, but there are certain moral considerations 
which greatly embarrass the project. Were it not for a certain feel- 
ing or sentiment which prevails in this community, that the pure 
fertilizers so much desired could and should be made here, steps 
would undoubtedly have been taken ere this to procure them from 
abroad ; but the moment it is shown, by an exhibition of the prices 
at which superphosphates are sold in Europe, that the cost of manu- 
facturing these products must be, comparatively speaking, small, almost 
every one is overpowered by a conviction that the fertilizers could 
