EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN'S. 513 



FERTILIZER ANALYSES 



Regular Bulletin No. 291 



BY ANDREW J. PATTEN, O. B. "WINTER, M. L. GRETTENBERGER AND P. O'MEARA— 



CHEMICAL SECTION 



This bulletin contains the results of the inspection of commercial fer- 

 tilizers for the year 1920 and the spring season of 1921. The analyses and 

 discussion of the results are given separately for the two years. 



The fertilizer inspection has been conducted by the Experiment Station 

 since 1885 when the first law, regulating the sale and distribution of com- 

 mercial fertilizers in Michigan, was passed. The first inspection bulletin 

 was pubhshed in 1886 by the late Dr. R. C. Kedzie. That bulletin contained 

 the analyses of only 15 samples. Since then an inspection bulletin has 

 been published annually with the exception of two years, making a total 

 of 34 bulletins including the current issue. The number of samples analyzed 

 during the year has increased to over 1000. 



During the time that the fertilizer inspection has been conducted by the 

 Experiment Station only one case has been prosecuted and that was against 

 a local dealer who sold a carload of ground limestone representing it to be 

 a mixture of rock phosphate and ground limestone. The details of this 

 case are given in Bulletin No. 283. It has been our experience that the 

 publicity given the results through the distribution of the annual fertilizer 

 bulletin is a far greater and more potent force in the prevention of fraud 

 than any amount of fines that might be imposed by the courts. 



In 1914 we first published results showing the quahty of the nitrogen 

 used in mixed fertilizers. This has been continued since that time and, 

 as a result, there has been a gradual and steady improvement in the quality 

 of the nitrogen. One may now be reasonably sure of getting nitrogen of 

 good quality in practically all of the higher grade fertilizers. This is not 

 so true of the low grade mixtures, which fact constitutes one of the chief 

 arguments against buying such fertilizers. In this connection it is gratify- 

 ing to note that the National FertiHzer Association, at their recent meeting, 

 unanimously went on record as favoring high analysis fertilizers. 



The actual consumption of commercial fertilizers during the earlier years 

 is not known, but was, of course, very small. During the year 1906, when 

 the first attempt was made to determine the fertilizer consumption it was 

 estimated at 20,000 tons. This has steadily increased until last year, 1920, 

 when, based upon reports received from the manufacturers, it reached the 

 high point of 112,616 tons. The distribution of this amount throughout 

 the State is shown in the following table : 

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