No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 29 



who want to improve their surroundings and kill the insect pests that 

 infest and destroy their crops can have imposed on them i)aints that 

 will fade and wash away with the first winter's and spring rains, 

 and poisons that will neither kill nor destroy. 



FERTILIZER CONTROL WORK 



This work was under the special supervision of Mr. Harry E. 

 Klugh from whose report the following extracts are made: 



Fifteen agents of the Department canvassed the entire State during 

 the months of April and May and collected samples for analysis, from 

 the fertilizers exposed for sale for the Spring trade, and again during 

 August and September, collecting samples from fertilizers for the 

 Fall trade. 8,257 samples of mixed fertilizers and fertilizing materials 

 were collected during the year, of which 1,229 were subjected to 

 separate analysis. Where two or more samples of the same brand 

 were reported, equal parts of each sample were united and the com- 

 posite sample was analyzed, full information of which appears in 

 Bulletins Nos. 212 and 218. Where more than three samples of the 

 same brands were sent in it was necessary to discard the same on 

 account of the reduced appropriation made for this work. In making 

 up the composite sample we have followed the practice of former 

 seasons in the selection of individual samples, so as to have, as nearly 

 as possible, three different sections of the State represented. 



Where deficiencies occur in these composited samples, a separate 

 analysis is made of the remaining parts of the individual samples 

 entering into the composite sample, and the deficiency is traced to 

 the particular single sample that was below guarantee. 



The legislation of 1909 has made needful some additional tests. 

 Section 4, of the act of May 1st, 1909, prohibits the sale of pulverized 

 leather, hair, ground hoofs, horns, or wool waste, raw, steamed, 

 roasted, or in any form, as a fertilizer, or as an ingredient of a 

 fertilizer or manure, without an explicit statement of the fact. All 

 nitrogenous fertilizers were therefore submitted to a careful micro- 

 scopic examination, at the time of preparing the sample for analysis, 

 to detect the presence of the tissues characteristic of the several 

 materials above named. The act of April 23, 1909, makes it unlawful 

 to use the word "bone" in connection with, or as part of the name 

 of any fertilizer, or any brand of the same, unless the phosphoric acid 

 contained in such fertilizer shall be the product of pure animal bone. 

 All fertilizers in whose name the word "bone" appears, were there- 

 fore examined by microscopic and chemical methods to determine, so 

 far as possible with present knowledge, the nature of the ingredient 

 or ingredients supplying the phosphoric acid. It is a fact, however, 

 well known to fertilizer manufacturers and which should be equally 

 understood by the consumer, that it is, in certain cases, practically 

 impossible to determine the source of the phosporic acid by an ex- 

 amination of a fertilizer when it is ready for the market. The 

 microscope shows clearly the structure of raw bone, but does not 

 make it possible to discriminate between thoroughly acidulated bone 

 and acidulated rock. The ratio of nitrogen to phosphoric acid in a 

 raw bone — and only such bone as has not been deprived of any con- 

 siderable proportion of its nitrogenous material by some manufactur- 

 ing process can properlj b.e called "pure animal bone" — is about 1 :8 ; 



