EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS 165 



[Session Laws of 1885, No. 26.] 



AN ACT to provide for the inspection of commercial fertilizers and to regulate the 



sale thereof. 



Section 1. The People of the State of Michigan enact, That any person or persons 

 who shall sell or offer for sale in this State any commercial fertilizer, the retail price 

 of which exceeds ten dollars per ton, shall affix on the outside of every package con- 

 taining such fertilizer a plainly printed certificate, stating the number of net pounds 

 therein; the name or trade mark under which such article is sold; the name of the 

 manufacturer, the place of manufacture, and a chemical analysis, stating the per- 

 centage of nitrogen in an available form; of potash soluble in water, and of phos- 

 phoric acid in available form (soluble or reverted) and the insoluble phosphoric 

 acid. 



Sec. 2. Before any commercial fertilizer is sold or offered for sale, the manufac- 

 turer, importer, or party who causes it to be sold or offered for sale within this State, 

 shall file with the secretary of the State Board of Agriculture a certified copy of the 

 analysis and certificate referred to in section one, and shall also deposit with said 

 secretary a sealed glass jar containing not less than two pounds of such fertilizer, 

 with an affidavit that it is a fair sample of the article thus to be sold or offered for 

 sale. 



Sec. 3. The manufacturer, importer or agent of any commercial fertilizer, the 

 retail price of which exceeds ten dollars per ton as aforesaid, shall pay annually to 

 the secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, on or before the first day of May, a 

 license fee of twenty dollars for each and every brand of fertilizer he offers for sale 

 in this State: Provided, That whenever the manufacturer or importer shall have 

 paid this license fee his agents shall not be required to do so. 



Sec. 4. All such analysis of commercial fertilizers required by this act shall be 

 made under the direction of the State Board of Agriculture and paid for out of the 

 funds arising from the license fees provided for in section three. At least one analy- 

 sis of each fertilizer shall be made annually. 



Sec. 5. The secretary of the State Board of Agriculture shall publish in his annual 

 report a correct statement of all analysis made and certificates filed in his office, 

 together with a statement of all moneys received for license fees, and expended for 

 analysis. Any surplus from license fees remaining on hand at the close of the fiscal 

 year shall be placed to the credit of the experimental fund of said board. 



Sec. 6. Any person or persons who shall sell or offer for sale any commercial fer- 

 tilizer in this State without first complying with the provisions of sections one, two, 

 and three of this act, or who shall attach or cause to be attached to any such pack- 

 age or fertilizer an analysis stating that it contains a larger percentage of any one or 

 more of the constituents or ingredients named in section one of this act than it really 

 does contain shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined not less than one hundred dol- 

 lars for the first offense, and not less than three hundred dollars for every subsequent 

 offense, and the offender shall also be liable for damages sustained by the purchaser 

 of such fertilizer on account of such misrepresentation. 



Sec. 7. The State Board of Agriculture by any duly authorized agent is hereby 

 authorized to select from any package of commercial fertilizer exposed for sale in 

 this State, a quantity, not exceeding two pounds, for a sample, such sample to be used 

 for the purposes of an official analysis and for comparison with the certificate filed 

 with the secretary of the State Board of Agriculture and with the certificate affixed to 

 the package on sale. 



Sec. 8. All suits for the recovery of fines under the provisions of this act shall be 

 brought under the direction of the State Board of Agriculture. 



Approved March 10, 1885. 



For the information of the public the fertilizers that have been inspected 

 and licensed for 1896 are given in the followino' pages. 



The gathering, of specimens of commercial fertilizers in the open market 

 for analysis , and the analytical work have for the most part been per- 

 formed by Thorn Smith, Assistant in the Chemical Department of the 

 Experiment Station, with the assistance of L, H. Van Wormer. 



R. C. KEDZIE, 



Agricultural College, ) Chemist of Experiment Station. 



July, 1896. \ 



