EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 351 



expenses connected with the inspection. Any money from the inspection fees, in 

 excess of these expenses, does not go to any officer or into the College treasnry, but is 

 placed in the Experiment Fund, and is used to obtain additional information for the 

 public. It is thus seen that the manufacturer pays the bills and the consumer gets 

 the benefit. 



SOME OBJECT TO PAYIXG THE FEE AND TAKING OUT THE LICENSE. 



It is manifest to every thinking person that the only just and proper way for the 

 College is to enforce the law equally upon all who are liable to its claims. To allow 

 some parties to escape the requirements of the law and to enforce them upon others is 

 unfair and unjust. If the law is wrong let it be repealed, and "the best way to 

 repeal an unjust law is to enforce it." 



Parties seek to evade the law in various ways, a few of which will be noticed : 



1. "I will ])av the fee and take out a license when I have established a profitable 

 trade in your State, but until then I want to sell my fertilizer without a license." 

 If this privilege is conceded to one it should be to all, and practically there would be 

 uo inspection in this State. 



2. "T do not sell enou"-h of my fertilizer to pay the cost of the license." Then he 

 "had better keen out of the business in Michi£ran. 



3. One dealer received a quantitv of fertilizer w-hich had been Hcenspd. and then 

 proceeded to sell th'S iinder several different names, such as "Onion Fertilizer." "Cab- 

 ba^e Fertilizer." "Potato Fertilizer." etc.. etc., all out of the same barrel, leading 

 his crs+omers to sunfose tliev were buy^"g fertilizers of diP"prent oual't'es and 

 ■esneciallv fitted for these different crons. The law requires "a license fee of twenty 

 dollars for each and every brand of fertilizer he offers for sale in this State." The 

 <»xplicif wordinEr of the law soon disposed of this cunnin-T cheat. 



4. "What T sell is not a fertilizer but a chemical — Xitrate of Soda — and is sold 

 as a chemical in the drusr stores, and is not liable to the license fee as a fertilizer." 

 The superphosphate is also a chemical: so too are sulphate of potash and sulphate 

 of ammonia. When they are sold and us^d as fertilizers they all belong to the same 

 class and must pay tlie fee and take out the license: otherwise the fruit-irrowcr would 

 have no assurance of the purity of these materials and their value when used as 

 fertilizers. In other states they are classed and treated as fertilizers. 



OBJECT OF INSPECTION OF COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 



The law does not prescr'be anv standnrd for the composition of a commercial ferti- 

 lizer, the manufacturer bein? free to make his own standard, the law simply requiring 

 that the fertilizers oflFered for sale shall be up to the standard set up by the manu- 

 facturer. The lirerse to sell do'^s not certify to the value of the fertilizer, but simply 

 states that the manufacturer or dealer offers for sale a fertilizer for which a certain 

 content of nitrosren, potash and phosphoric ac'd is claimed, and that samples of such 

 fertilizers haA'e been deposited with the secretary of the Colleore with affidavit regarding 

 the composition. Analysis is then made of each of these fertilizers, orathered in the 

 open market as far as possible, and the results of such analvsis published in bulletin. 

 The claimed composition and found composition are arranged in parallel lines so that 

 the real composition can be compared at a glance with the composition claimed for it 

 by the manufacturer. In this way the buyer can see at once by this bulletin whether 

 the fertilizer is as good as it claims. 



To find the market value, calculations can be made on the basis that availnhic 

 nitrogen is worth fourteen cents a pound, soluble or available phosphoric acid four 

 and a half cents, insoluble phosphoric acid two cents, and potash from four and 

 one-half to six cents, according as it is in the form of chloride or sulphate. These 

 prices are detorjnined each year by the prices of substances from which these materials 

 are derived in the great commercial centers, e. g.. New York and Baltimore. 



The composition is given in parts in one hundred. To obtain the nund)er of pounds 

 in a ton multiply the per cent by twenty'. If we multiply the number of pounds in a 

 ton by the price of each material the sum will give the value of a ton of fertilizer. 



In the preparation of this bulletin most of the chemical analyses have been made 

 by L. H. Van Wornier, B. S., the assistant in chemistry in the experi'uent station. 



R. C. KFDZTE, 

 Chemist of Experiment Station. 

 Agricultural College, Mien., 

 June 30, 1900. 



