'S96 STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE BULLETINS. 



For the information of the parties concerned, the fertilizers that have 

 been licensed for 1893 are contained in the list of this bulletin; also 

 those that have not been licensed and whose sale is illegal in this state 

 will be marked with a star. 



The primary object of this law is to give information in regard to the 

 composition of commercial fertilizers, and to protect farmers from impo- 

 sition and loss. The question of their agricultural value, and relation to 

 crops and different kinds of soils is not touched. These subjects require 

 a separate examination for determining the relative value of any given 

 • fertilizer with reference to different soils and crops. The farmer can 

 settle for himself such questions by trials of the fertilizer on a small por- 

 tion of a field by comparing the results with other parts of the same field 

 and crop on which no fertilizer has been applied. The conditions of crop, 

 soil, and climate are thus brought home to him more completely than any 

 investigation in other places and conditions can furnish. 



How the state may place before the farmers the agricultural value of 

 the various fertilizers offered for sale is a very different subject from that 

 contemplated by this law for the inspection of such fertilizers. The law 

 of inspection offers no advice whether the farmer shall buy such fertili- 

 zers, or depend upon the home supply. In case he determines to buy, it 

 affords him some basis for calculating the commercial value of the differ- 

 ent brands offered for sale, and to select honest goods which are found to 

 be the same in the market as are claimed by the seller. He may also be 

 on his guard not to buy the goods which are not licensed for sale as not 

 worthy of confidence. 



With this brief statement of the objects sought by inspection, and the 

 results of analysis of goods selected in the open market as compared with 

 the claims of the manufacturer, this Bulletin is submitted to the public. 



K. C KEDZIE, 

 Agricultural College, ) Chemisi of Experimeni Station. 



July 12, 1893. \ 



