BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 183 
Charleston, much less be bought and transported to our Northern 
cities, for the sum mentioned; but it is to be observed that Mr. 
Lawes is not writing in the interest of the New England manu- 
facturer. His words point most distinctly to a manufactory in the 
immediate vicinity of the phosphate-beds, perhaps even worked by 
the proprietor of a phosphate-bed. His views are evidently those of 
a large English manufacturer, familiar with extensive operations rest- 
ing on firm bases. It was maintained, moreover, that the cost of 
making sulphuric acid in this country must be very much larger than 
the cost of that manufacture as stated by Mr. Lawes, because oil of 
vitriol * could not be bought in our markets except at a much higher 
price ; but Mr. Lawes is speaking of the cost of making acid for use, 
not for sale, and, moreover, he says nothing of oil of vitriol. 
From the printed price-list of the Lawes Chemical Manure Company, 
obtained by Mr. Appleton, it would appear that the sale-price of sul- 
phuric acid is not very much lower in England than in this country. 
In September, 1873, the Lawes Company advertised sulphuric acid 
of 1.7 sp. gr. at # of a penny per pound, or 17% cents of our money, 
estimating the pound sterling at $4.90, and the premium on gold at 
13% ; but during the summer of 1873 oil of vitriol could be bought 
by the large quantity in Boston for 12 cents per pound. I was in- 
formed at that time by one large consumer of this material in Boston, 
that he had been supplied for some months at the rate of 13 cents 
per pound, though it was generally supposed that the manufacturer 
gained no direct profit by selling at that price. 
Morfit, in his work entitled “ A Practical Treatise on Pure Fertil- 
izers” (New York, 1872), page 503, when describing the manufacture 
din England) of a very high-grade superphosphate, specifies, among 
other things needed, a number of tons of sulphuric acid of 1.7 sp. gr., 
at 70s. per ton; that is to say, he estimates the cost of such acid to 
the superphosphate-maker at something less than 1 cent per pound. 
But the acid of 1.6 sp. gr. mentioned in Mr. Lawes’s letter is a weaker 
and a cheaper article than this. Even if it should appear that Mr. 
Lawes’s estimate of the cost of making sulphuric acid in this country 
is very far from the truth, his statement would still be valuable as 
* Through a misunderstanding, Mr. Lawes’s statement of the strength of the sul- 
phuriec acid referred to in his estimate was left out when the letter was first printed. 
His original manuscript reads, “‘ Sulphuric acid, sp. gr. 1.6,” as printed above. 
