384: STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE BULLETLXS. 



INSPECTION OF COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 



Xo. 97. — Chemical Department. 



Act No. 20, ^es.sion laws of 1885. provides for the inspection of com- 

 mercial fertilizers in this State. The law has been in force for eight 

 years. It was designed primarily for the protection of farmers, and sec- 

 ondarily to protect honorable manufacturers who place reliable goods upon 

 the market from the competition of untrustworthy dealers who seek to 

 place fertilizers of inferior ciuality upon the market and sell worthless 

 stutf for high-priced manures. The strict enforcement of the law has 

 driven some inferior goods out of the market, has improved the quality of 

 many fertilizers by keeping manufacturers up to the quality claimed for 

 their goods, and in these several ways has saved thousands of dollars to 

 our people. Michigan has ceased to be the dumping-ground for fertilizers 

 of so poor quality as to be unsalable in other states. 



OBJECT OF CHEMICAL ANALYSIS. 



In these analyses attention is directed exclusively to nitrogen, potash 

 and phosphoric acid, in form available for the plant. These are not the 

 only materials concerned in raising crops, but they are the only manurial 

 materials for which the farmer can atford to pay more than ten dollars a 

 ton. The common soil materials, lime, magnesia, silica, alumina, oxide of 

 iron, etc., make up the bulk of our soils, which the farmer cannot afPord to 

 buy at twenty to thirty dollars a ton to manure his tields made up of the 

 same materials. These common soil materials, aside from nitrogen, 

 potash and phosphates, do not enter into consideration in making up an 

 estimate of the value of any fertilizer. 



COMPLAINTS OF DEALERS. 



A few dealers complain of the injustice of paying a license fee of twenty 

 dollars, when the profits of the sales for a season may be little more than 

 the license fee, and that they should not be taxed until they had estab- 

 lished a paying business. In some states the license fee is graded by the 

 number of tons of fertilizers sold during the year, but that is not the law 

 in this State. Our law was planned for persons who carry on a com- 

 mercial business and not a huckstering trade. If the business is too 

 small to justify a license it is too small for this climate. It would be mani- 

 ffstly unfair to allow a trade to go forward in hopes of building up a paying 



