INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1876. clxxxiii 



FERTILIZERS AND FERTILIZER CONTROL SYSTEMS. 



Experiment Stations and the Trade in Commercial Fertilizers. It 

 is just about twenty-five years since in Germany, as here, the trade 

 in superphosphates, guano, and similar commercial fertilizers, be- 

 gan. The same stupendous frauds by adulteration and dilution 

 of good things were practiced there as they have been, and w^e have 

 great reason to fear still are, carried on here. But the experiment 

 station has perfectly cured and rooted out these evils in all the dis- 

 tricts where it has been established and appreciated. The experiment 

 station there is prepared to furnisli the farmers at small cost w^ith an 

 analysis of any fertilizer he proposes to buy. The farmers avail them- 

 selves of this aid. They will buy no fertilizer without an exact state- 

 ment of its composition, and they buy with the understanding that 

 any deficiencies in the stipulated amount of fertilizing mr.lters shall 

 be made good or deducted from the payment. Under such circum- 

 stances manufacturers can sell nothing that is not substantially what 

 it claims to be, A further result of this system is that low-grade 

 fertilizers are little sought, and those makers who can supply the 

 l)est article, of uniform quality and at the lowest rates, have the 

 business. With large sales the dealers prosper, while the consumers 

 are satisfied with their purchases ; and, instead of trying to see how 

 they can get along with small use of purchased fertilizers, they are 

 studying how to use the greatest quantities to advantage. The fer- 

 tilizer market in Saxony and Prussia, where the exi^eriment station 

 has the universal sanction and confidence of the farmers, is just as 

 settled and satisfactory as any branch of trade, and the farmers 

 there buy superphosphate, guano, potash salts, etc, with as much 

 security of fair dealing as we can feel in the purchase of sugar or 

 nails. Professor S. W. Johnson^ hi Tenth Annual Report of the Shef- 

 field Scientific School of Tale College. 



The German Fertilizer Control System. The plans adopted by the 

 German experiment stations for supervising the trade in fertilizers, 

 though somewdiat various in their details, have one fundamental char- 

 acteristic in common, namely, an arrangement made between the sta- 

 tions and dealers, wiiereby the latter guarantee their goods to contain 

 certain percentages of valuable ingredients, the verification of the 

 guarantee being left to the analysis made at the stations. Provi- 

 sions are at the same time made whereby purchasers can have sam- 

 ples of the articles they buy analyzed at small cost or for nothing, 

 and thus assure themselves that their purchases are as represented. 

 In many cases the chemists of the station select samjDles for analysis 

 from stocks under their supervision. The farmers have thus the 

 fullest security that they will get the worth of their money in the 

 fertilizers they buy. 



