368 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



been found by experience abroad to be more effective in prevent- 

 ing fraud than any other. 



2d. To a limited, but perhaps to a suflScient extent, it prescribes 

 one method of stating the results of analysis, thereby rendering it 

 much easier for farmers to understand the statements, and to com- 

 pare them one with another. 



3d. It fixes a definite rate at which an injured buyer can claim 

 redress. 



To obtain its benefits, all which is necessary is to enforce it. 

 In the first place, let every farmer see to it, if he is offered any 

 packages without the prescribed label affixed, that the vender suf- 

 fers the penalty. It is not enough that a label be aflSxed, but ^-ach 

 an one as the law prescribes. It will not answer the law to have 

 one stating that Prof. Such-an-one "guaranties the standard," or 

 that a professor, or anybody else "will know" that it contains such 

 or such proportions. It must be the statement of the vender that 

 it does contain what he alleges, and a statement for the truth of 

 which he is responsible. 



In the next place, when the farmer purchases with the label 

 aflSxed, let him take from each barrel or bag a sample to be care- 

 fully labelled and retained for examination, if need arise. A pound 

 or two will be an ample quantity; and if he buys several pack- 

 ages, let a sample consist of a little from each one. After due trial 

 in the field, i" ]■- be dissatisfied with the results, and has not 

 reason to believe that the failure is due to some peculiarities of 

 the season, nor of the soil, nor of injudicious mode of application, 

 but that it is probably owing to want of value in the manure, — to 

 its not being what it was represented to be, he will do well to 

 have the sample, retained for the pui-posc, analyzed by one of the 

 State Assayers, or some other competent chemist. There is this 

 advantage in submitting it to a State Assayer, that by virtue of 

 his commission his testimony is admitted in a court of justice as 

 that of an acknowledged expert ; and no pains need be taken to 

 show that he is competent to perform the analysis. If the analysis 

 shows that the manure was deficient in the stated content of val- 

 uable constituents, the alleged presence of which was the consid- 

 eration for which he paid the price, let him recover damages. 



It is assumed, as a matter of course, that the buyer will be 

 careful that the label represents the presence of a satisfactory 

 amount of the more valuable constituents. 



To show how easy is the calculation, let me say that, it is only 



