56 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The Commercial Value of Fertilizers. 



At a. Farmers' Institute held in Hampden, I made the following 

 remarks : 



"At present there is in the State of Maine an admirable chance 

 for farmers to get cheated when buying commercial manures. 



No one can tell the value of superphosphate by its color or odor. 

 Not even bj- appl3'ing it to the soil can its commercial value be told, 

 only its value to the man who uses it. It ma}' do no good in one 

 case and much good in another, but neither test can determine what 

 it is worth in the markets. That is determined b}' the demand and 

 supply. The value of an}' particular fertilizer depends upon its 

 composition, and that the chemist must discover. We need in 

 Maine a station where the fertilizers offered in our markets can be 

 analyzed. Such a plan would save thousands of dollars to the farm- 

 ers of the State. In Connecticut, such a station has effected a great 

 change in the fertilizer business, so that farmers there now bu}- their 

 fertilizers at twenty-five per cent, cheaper than before the station was 

 established. $500,000 are probably expended aunuall}' in Maine 

 for commercial manures. A saving of ten per cent, of their value 

 would result in a total saving of $50,000. I believe a greater sav- 

 ing than that could be made. One-tenth of that sum would pa}- the 

 expenses of the station that would be able to look after our fertil- 

 izers and do much more other valuable work for agriculture. Such 

 a su})ervision would give farmers more confidence in the fertilizers 

 offered them." 



In order to substantiate the above statements, I insert the follow- 

 ing, taken from the First Annual Report of the Connecticut Experi- 

 ment Station, (1876).* 



"Among the commercial fertilizers analyzed during the past year 

 were some 35 samples of articles sold outside of the supervision of 

 the Station, mostl}' in 1875, before its establishment, and some 77 

 samples sold in 1876, under its supervision. The number of these 

 articles seems ample, and the range in quality is certainly wide 

 enough to aflbrd a fair exhibit of the effect of the supervision exer- 

 cised b}- the Station. Basing the comparison upon the cost of the 

 valuable ingredients, as determined from composition and selling 

 prices, it stands as follows : 



*Bj Prof. W. 0. Atwater. 



