272 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



been, and, we 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 districts where it has been 

 established and appreciated. The experiment station there 

 is prepared to furnish the farmers at small cost with an analy- 

 sis of any fertilizer he proposes to buy. The farmers avail 

 themselves of this aid. They will buy no fertilizer without 

 an exact statement of its composition, and they buy with the 

 understanding that any deficiences in the stipulated amount 

 of fertilizing matters shall be made good or deducted from 

 the payment. Under such circumstances, manufacturers can 

 sell nothing that is not substantially what it claims to be. 

 A further result of this sjstem is, that low-grade fertilizers 

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

 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 pur- 

 chased fertilizers, they are studying how to use the greatest 

 quantities to advantage. The fertilizer market- in Saxony 

 and Prussia, where the experiment 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. 



In the second place, the vast interests represented in the 

 feeding of cattle and other live stock have received an equal 

 share of attention, and although the questions involved are 

 in the highest degree complicated and abstruse, an encourag- 

 ing measure of success in approaching their solution has been 

 attained. 



In our agricultural meetings and publications we iire dis- 

 cussing the same old questions as to the value and economy 

 of the various kinds of cattle food, and the methods of rais- 

 ing them, that have been discussed ever since there have 

 been two ways open to the farmer for keeping his animals. 



