NO UNIFORMITY OF COMPOSITION. 95 



products. Whilst it is desirable that more care and uniformity 

 should be observed, and some modifications adopted in fab- 

 ricating these compounds, the statements made by the house 

 may be regarded as essentially correct. The usual price for 

 the so-called superphosphates is about $60 the ton ; the Upton 

 compounds are sold at $28 and $30 the ton, and from an esti- 

 mate of the value of the plant-food they contain, based upon 

 the analysis, two or three of the varieties are sold at fair market 

 rates. One important point to be kept in mind in regard to 

 commercial fertilizers is, that different parcels are of very 

 unequal value. The chemist is able to give the exact value of 

 a specimen taken from one parcel, but he cannot assure farmers 

 that the article they purchase of the same brand is of equal 

 value. It may be better, or, what is quite as probable, it may be 

 much worse. The purchase of commercial fertilizers is full of 

 risk, under the most favorable conditions, and I cannot point 

 out a way by which it may be obviated. Our State system of 

 inspection and analysis is a kind of legalized quackery, which 

 has fallen so far beneath contempt, in the view of respectable 

 chemists, that it is never alluded to in any estimates of the 

 value of the compounds that are offered for sale. The state- 

 ments of values, put upon packages, if in any sense accurate, 

 are so presented that the purchaser is confused and misled. 

 This device to protect farmers fails to have any practical value. 



But after all, there are inherent difficulties in the business 

 of compounding plant-food, that are worthy of consideration, 

 and which lead to conclusions of an important character. The 

 temptation to enter upon a manufacture, the products of which 

 are of a nature not easily understood, and where, there are 

 opportunities for employing inert or worthless materials, is very 

 great, and no wonder the business of fabricating fertilizers is 

 crowded. 



After much observation and thought upon the subject, I 

 have reached the conclusion that it is difficult, if not impossible, 

 for manufacturers to supply in a large way, through the ordi- 

 nary channels of trade, superphosphates, or any compounded 

 fertilizer, so as to give the farmer a just return for his money. 

 The reasons for this conclusion are, that the elements of plant 

 nutrition, or the three most important agents which should enter 

 into fertilizing compounds, — phosphoric acid, potash and nitro- 



