Nb. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 7 



COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 



This Department lias received fretiuent inquiries relating to for- 

 muke for compounding fertilizers at a cost of from |5.00 to |8.00 

 a ton, that have been represented by parties desiring to sell the 

 principal ingredients they shall contain or the formulae for com- 

 pounding them, as being equally as good as other fertilizers found 

 on the market that cost from ^pio.UU to $25.00 a ton. Such formulae 

 and ingredients are reported to have been offered through advertise- 

 ments in rural papers that exercise no supervision over their adver- 

 tising columns, or by traveling agents or the genteel peddlers so 

 often met in our rural districts. In some instances the confiding 

 farmer who purchased such formuhB, submitted them to this Depart- 

 ment for examination, and in almost every case they turned out to 

 be attempts at the old scheme of "trying to make something out of 

 nothing." 



After the passage of the Act of 1S77, establishing a State Board 

 of Agriculture, one of the first questions presenting itself to the 

 Board v^^as the importance of some legislation regulating the manu- 

 facture and sale of commercial fertilizers. Fertilizers were being 

 sold under various names and many of them at prices that seemed 

 unreasonably high, and it was apparent that unless some restrictive 

 measures were adopted there was great danger that farmers would 

 be imposed upon. This led to the passage of what is known as the 

 Commercial Fertilizer l^aw, requiring manufacturers to place upon 

 each package of their goods a statement of the per cent, of the most 

 important elements of plant food they contain, with other informa- 

 tion necessary to the indentification of the manufacturer in case 

 the goods should, upon examine) tion, be found defective. The value 

 of this law to the agriculture of the State is incalculable. It has 

 saved the farmers of tlie State millions of dollars and at the same 

 time has so increased their confidence in the fertilizers placed upon 

 the market as to bring them into general use. 



This Department is always ready to give to farmers every assist- 

 ance possible to aid them in securing, at fair cost, fertilizers suited 

 to the crops they wish to grow. The only certain way, however, open 

 to the individual farmer to determine what quality of fertilizers are 

 the best suited to his soil and the particular crops he may wish to 

 grow, is experimentation. It is not infrequently the case that differ- 

 ent parts of the same farm require the application of different ele- 

 ments of plant food for the production of the same crop. 



The semi-annual Fertilizer Bulletin issued by this Department is 

 a very great help to farmers in making their selections of fertilizers, 

 as they afford an opportunity for comparing the prices at which the 

 various grades of goods are sold, and at the same time show which of 

 the many brands ujjon the market come up to the manufacturer's 

 guarantee in the amount of plant food they contain. 



It is gratifying to be able to state that, as a general rule, the ferti- 

 lizers sold in the State show, by analysis, that they are honestly pre- 

 pared, and that, with very few exceptions, the manufacturers of the 

 same are careful and upright business men. To this general rule 

 we regret to say that there are a few exceptions. We have been 

 under the necessity, in several instances, of using the authority 

 vested in the Department to compel settlement with injured parties 



