al value.

The mixed fertilizer of the manufacturer has its content of plant-food
known by analysis. Its number of pounds of the various constituents in
a ton is known, and the retail price per pound of these substances has
been fixed. The commercial value per ton can then be determined,
provided proper allowance is made for cost of mixing and bagging. The
individual must pay in addition the freight, and usually a considerable
sum for unnecessarily costly methods of distribution and collection.

A Bit of Arithmetic.--This paragraph is intended to serve the man who
is willing to be reasonably near right if he cannot be wholly so: A ton
is 2000 pounds, and one per cent is 20 pounds. In dealing with
fertilizers it is the practice to call 20 pounds, or one per cent of a
ton, a unit, and to base the price of the nitrogen, and phosphoric
acid, and potash, on the unit. This is done for convenience. If five
cents is a fair price for a pound of available phosphoric acid in one's
locality, as it would be if a ton of 14 per cent acid phosphate cost
$14, a unit of 20 pounds is worth $1. Each one per cent guaranteed is
thus worth a dollar, and the phosphoric acid in the fertilizer is
easily valued. If a pound of potash in a ton of muriate is worth five
cents in one's locality, as it would be if a ton of muriate cost $50,
the muriate being one half actual potash, a unit of 20 pounds of potash
is worth $1. Each one per cent of guaranteed potash is thus worth one
dollar, and the entire content of potash is easily valued. If a pound
of nitrogen in nitrate of soda is worth seventeen and one half cents a
pound in one's locality, as it would be if a ton of nitrate of soda
cost $54, a unit, or one per cent, is worth $3.50, and the content of
nitrogen is easily valued.

The prices named would seem high to good cash buyers near the seaboard,
and they are too low for some other regions where freights are very
high. They are only illustrative. The consumer can get his own basis
for an estimate by obtaining the best possible cash quotations from
city dealers. Some interested critic may point out that nitrate of soda
should not be the sole source of nitrogen in a fertilizer on account of
its immediate availability. Manufacturers use some sulphate of ammonia,
and a pound of nitrogen in it has had practically the same market price
as that in nitrate of soda. Tankage may be used in part, and in it the
nitrogen costs very little more per pound.