No. 5. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 285 



glance, see what he was buying. No farmer would buy 1 — 7 — 1 fer- 

 tilizer, if he knew that a ton contains only 16| pounds of nitrogen, 

 derived from a very low grade of material, 140 pounds of available 

 phosphoric acid, derived from one-half ton of 14% acid phosphate 

 and 20 pounds of actual potash, derived from low grade kainit. All 

 the plant food contained in such a fertilizer can be bought under 

 ordinary conditions for $8.25 ; and yet with an attractive brand name, 

 hundreds of tons of this fertilizer are being sold throughout Penn- 

 sylvania at prices as high as $25 per ton. Fertilizer manufacturers 

 tell us, that such low grades are put up especially to fill a demand 

 for a cheap fertilizer. The intelligent, prosperous farmer will not 

 buy it, but the fertilizer dealer will sell it to the poor uninformed 

 farmer at prices two or three times as high as he could have bought 

 the same plant food in a high grade fertilizer. 



I would recommend certain changes in our fertilizer law. First, 

 the repeal of Sections 1, 2 and 3 and the enactment of the follow- 

 ing:— 



Section 1. Be it enacted, etc., that every package of commercial 

 fertilizer sold, offered or exposed for sale, for manurial purposes 

 within this Commonwealth, except the dung of domestic animals, 

 lime, marl and wood ashes, shall have plainly stamped thereon the 

 name and address of the manufacturer or importer and his place 

 of business, the net weight of the contents of the package, the actual 

 number of pounds in a ton such fertilizer contains of nitrogen in 

 available form, of soluble and reverted phosphoric acid, of potash 

 soluble in water and the sources from which these ingredients are 

 derived. Provided, that no other figures be stamped on the package 

 except the per cent, of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash in an 

 available form, may be stamped thereon in three figures only. 



Section 2, Every manufacturer or importer of commercial fer- 

 tilizers, as specified in Section 1 of this act, shall, on or before the 

 first day of January of each year, or before offering them for sale 

 within this Commonwealth, secure from the Secretary of Agricul- 

 ture, a license to sell fertilizers within this Commonwealth, for which 

 he or they shall pay the sum of twenty-five dollars (|25). 



Section 3. Every manufacturer or importer of commercial fer- 

 tilizers shall, annually, at the end of each year or before the first 

 day of January of the following year, file with the Secretary of 

 Agriculture an afiSdavit showing the number of tons of fertilizers 

 sold within the Commonwealth during the last preceding year; and 

 he or they shall pay or cause to be paid to the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture, the sum of ten (10) cents for each and every ton sold within 

 the State during the last preceding year. Provided, that all moneys 

 so received and all moneys received for license, as provided in Sec- 

 tion 2, shall be immediately paid by the Secretary of Agriculture 

 into the State Treasuiy, for the use of the Commonwealth. Second, 

 That Section 5 be so altered and amended as to comply with Sec- 

 tions 1, 2 and 3 and that the penalties as now provided in Section 5 

 be increased. 



I would also recommend that special examinations be made of 

 nitrogenous fertilizers, so as to determine the available and the 

 inactive or insoluble nitrogen present in all fertilizers where the 

 manufacturer makes a guarantee for nitrogen, and that a sufficieut 

 appropriation be made to carry on the work. 



