650 Report on Inspection Work of the 



materials as sodium nitrate, potassium sulphate, kainit, basic slag 

 phosphate, rock-phosphate (floats), and mixtures of bone and potash, 

 the number of samples below guaranty is within reasonable limits 

 and amounts. (6) In materials such as acid phosphate, potassium 

 chloride (muriate), bone, tankage, sheep manure, mixtures of acid 

 phosphate and potash, wood-ashes and compounds containing cal- 

 cium, a larger proportion of samples is below guaranty than is desir- 

 able and in some cases the amount of plant-food below guaranty is 

 serious. 



III. SOME DEFECTS IN THE PRESENT FERTILIZER LAW. 



(i) Under the present fertilizer law, 27 samples of complete fer- 

 tilizers and 7 samples of fertilizing material are violations among the 

 samples analyzed in 1914, about one-third the number of violations 

 there would be under the provisions of the law in force previous to 

 1910. (2) The present law permits absolute exemption of deficien- 

 cies of plant-food amounting in some cases to a value of $5 or more 

 per ton. (3) In the case of high-grade fertilizers and especially of 

 fertilizing materials, the present law offers an opportunity for cheating 

 farmers with impunity. (4) The present law needs amendment in 

 order to limit more carefully the amounts of deficiencies that are 

 absolutely exempt. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The farmers of New York State expend for plant-foods in the form 

 of commercial fertilizers about five million dollars a year. While 

 many dairy farmers depend largely or wholly upon farm-produced 

 manures as the source of plant-food, all who most profitably and 

 continuously raise cereals, hay and forage crops, potatoes, fruits, 

 flowers, ornamental plants, nursery stock, garden crops, root crops, 

 hops, tobacco, crops under glass, etc., are compelled to use liberal 

 quantities of commercial fertilizers. The rates of application vary 

 with the character of the agriculture carried on in different sections of 

 the State, the largest amounts being used in the growth of market- 

 garden crops. 



In view of the large expenditures, it becomes a matter of economic 

 importance to the many farmers who use commercial plant-food ma- 

 terials to exercise the best business judgment possible in the purchase 

 of their plant-foods. It is a prominent fact that a very large propor- 

 tion of the commercial fertilizers used in New York State is in the 



