OUGHT TO HAVE A STATE CHEMIST. 177 



The Chairman. — This is a subject in which every agricul- 

 turist feels an interest, and it is one upon which every one 

 has more or less real knowledge. We are here for the inter- 

 change of opinions, and to give the results of actual experi- 

 ence. Theory is very good, but when we have theory and 

 practice combined, we get the real benefit we are after. I 

 hope you will be free in the discussion of this question, and 

 in the interchange of opinions with regard to the matter. 



President Clark. I was riding with a farmer yesterday, 

 and he said it seemed to him that this was the most important 

 question for the Board of Agriculture to consider, and he was 

 very glad that the topic was to be brought up, and hoped it 

 would be very thoroughly and ably discussed. We heard 

 yesterday from Professor Agassiz that the important point was 

 to knoio ; that mere opinions were only matters to talk about, 

 to quarrel over; and in this age of the world, after such men 

 as Liebig, Ville, Lawes and Gilbert, and many others in diifer- 

 ent countries have been for thirty years experimenting, and 

 have subjected all crops and all manures and all soils to an- 

 alysis, it has come to this : that in almost every country 

 where commercial fertilizers are used, and they are used very 

 largely, nothing can be sold except on the publication of its 

 analysis ; and in Germany there are, as there should be every- 

 where, chemists appointed to analyze and detect fraud in 

 commercial fertilizers, so that if a fertilizer does not come up 

 to the manufiicturer's standard, — does not came up to what he 

 says it will by actual chemical analysis by a disinterested party, 

 — he is liable for the damage he has done, and liable to pun- 

 ishment for the commission of a criminal ojffence. We all see 

 what terrible damage may be inflicted upon the agricultural 

 community by the sale of commercial fertilizers which are not 

 what they profess to be ; for, as has been said by Mr. Ward, 

 a man wastes not only the money which he pays for the man- 

 ure, but he loses his labor and his income for the year. The 

 loss is very hard to calculate. It has seemed to me that the 

 time had come when we should have a law that should make 

 it a criminal oflence to offer anything for sale in the State of 

 Massachusetts as a commercial fertilizer that did not bear 

 upon every package a printed analysis, sworn to, and that 

 there should be a state chemist appointed, under the direction 

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