New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 677 



the former law. Under the present law there is a total of 34 cases of 

 violation, while under the former law there would be 105, or 71 more 

 than at present. It is desirable to know why the difference is so large 

 and also whether the new law always works in favor of proper protec- 

 tion of purchasers of fertilizers. 



amounts of deficiency exempt. 



Under the former law, specific amounts were permitted in the way 

 of deficiency below guaranty (0.33 per ct. of nitrogen, and 0.50 per ct. 

 each of phosphoric acid and potash) ; under the present law a sliding 

 scale is permitted, resulting in an absolute exemption of deficiencies 

 amounting in all cases to 10 per ct. of the amount guaranteed. To 

 show more fully just what this means the following arrangement 

 furnishes data: 



Table XXV. — Showing Amounts of Deficiencies of Constituents Exempt 



Under Present Law. 



Applying the data in this table to our discussion, it is obvious that 

 in the case of nitrogen, for example, the present law absolutely ex- 

 empts smaller amounts than did the former law until we reach the 

 guaranty of 3.30 per ct., at which particular figure the former and 

 present exemptions are identical. In all cases where the nitrogen guar- 

 anty is above 3.30 per ct., then the 10 per ct. deficiency exemption exceeds 

 0.33 per ct., that is, the amount of absolute exemption is more by the present 

 than by the former law. For example, in a fertilizer guaranteed to 

 contain 5 per ct. of nitrogen, the present law permits an absolute ex- 

 emption of a deficiency of 0.50 per ct. as against 0.33 per ct. under the 



