682 



Report on Inspection Work of the 



amount of each deficient constituent and (3) the monetary value, 

 based on one ton, corresponding to these deficiencies, the prices of 

 plant-food constituents being those given in Table XVIII, which 

 represent the average cost to farmers during 1914. 



An examination of the table shows in general that the range of 

 amounts of deficiencies is very wide and extends to most of the classes 

 of materials examined, whether complete fertilizers, special mixtures or 

 unmixed materials. It is also shown that, in the case of complete 

 fertilizers, the number of cases is small in which more than one con- 

 stituent is low enough to constitute a violation, there being 2 cases in 

 which nitrogen and phosphoric acid were both deficient and 7 cases 

 in which nitrogen and potash were low. These summarized data 

 raise questions as to some further details, especially the efficiency of 

 the present law in protecting the interests of purchasers. For ex- 

 ample, how large a monetary deficiency can occur under the present 

 law and yet not be a violation, and how does this compare with the 

 results of the former law? This question can best be answered by 

 a study of the actual cases before us, and below we present further 

 details arranged so as to throw light on this phase of our discussion. 



Table XXVIII. — Deficiencies Expressed in Monetary Value, Comparing 



Former and Present Laws. 



