2Q8 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



against fraud ? that I may be allowed to offer a few hints. The 

 popular demand, if judged by the echoes of the agricultural press, 

 is for "a rigid system of inspection," under a law to be enacted 

 for the purpose. The fatal objection to this is, that insuperable 

 practical difficulties lie in the way of its execution. It would be 

 a very different matter to inspect concentrated manures from in- 

 specting beef and pork, or fish and flour. For these and the like, 

 a careful examination by trained senses would suffice ; but neither 

 sight, touch, taste or smell afford any criterion of the value of a 

 manure. If these are to be the tests, it is easy to make the worst 

 appear as well as the best. 



In the case of manures, analysis is indispensable ; and this 

 requires days of time, and some outlay for chemicals and apparatus 

 for every sample. Unless the inspector stood by during the whole 

 process of manufacturing and packing, every package must be 

 inspected separately, and the cost would exceed that of the manure 

 itself. And then how could grades enough be fixed to distin- 

 guish between the various shades of quality, from the woi'st to 

 the best ? 



Even analysis itself, valuable and indispensable as it is, does not 

 supply all the information desirable. At leagt no ordinary analysis, 

 requiring not more than a week of time, or costing not more than 

 twenty-five dollars, can furnish fill data for an estimate of value ; 

 and between different manures must sometimes fail to give cor- 

 rectly comparative values. 



This may be best shown by illustration. Suppose a chemist 

 should take the superphosphate made by the Cumberland Bone 

 Company, near Portland, (and I mention this because it is the only 

 commercial fertilizer, so far as I know, which is made as that is) 

 he could readily determine the amount and proportion which it 

 contains of soluble and of insoluble phosphoric acid, and of am- 

 monia, and also whether the latter be ready formed or is yet to be 

 formed in the soil by changes to take place in nitrogenous matter 

 contained in it, but he cannot so readily determine the source from 

 whence that portion of phosphoric acid which he calls insoluble is 

 derived, nor can he readily determine the degree of ease with which 

 plants could appropriate it to their use. The chemist terms a por- 

 tion insohihle because it does not dissolve at once in pure water, 

 which is the solvent he employs for this purpose ; yet if its pres- 

 ence is due to pure, finely ground, raw bone, used in its maunfao- 

 ture, as it is in the article I have named, it is wholly available to 



