290 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



Sec. 7. The State Board of Afrricultiire bj' 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 certifi- 

 cate aflixcd to the package on sale. 



Sec. S. 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. 



OBJECT OF INSPECTION OF COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 



The law does not prescribe any standard for the composition of a commercial 

 fertilizer, the mamifacturer being free to make his own standard, the law simply 

 requiring that the fertilizers ofl'ered for sale shall be up to the standard set up by 

 the manufacturer. The license to sell does 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 nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid is claimed, and that 

 samples of such fertilizers have been deposited Avith the secretary of the college with 

 affidavit regarding the composition. Analysis is then made of each of these fer- 

 tilizers, gathered in the open market as far as possible, and the results of such 

 analysis published in bulletin. The claimed composition and found composi- 

 tion 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 the 

 claims made for it. The materials to be determined in such analysis are "nitrogen 

 in available form, potash soluble in water, phosphoric acid in available form, and 

 the insoluble phosphoric acid." The chemists of Europe and America have selected 

 these same materials as determining the chief value of commercial fertilizers, and in 

 every state of our union where the law prescribes chemical analysis of commercial 

 manures as one condition of sale, these are the materials to be determined as the 

 basis of value. 



These are not the only materials concerned in raising crops, hut they are the only 

 materials for which the farmer can afford to pay more than ten dollars a ton. 



LEADING KINDS OF FERTILIZERS. 



The leading kinds of fertilizers may be classified as follows: 



1. Complete Manure, which contains nitrogen in some combination, such as a salt 

 of ammonia, nitrate of soda, or organic nitrogen : potash, as muriate or sulphate 



(German Stassfurth salts) or wood ashes; and phosphoric acid as a phosphate of 

 lime. It is called a complete manure because it contains all of the three materials 

 most essential for plant growth, and most likely to be deficient in a field after long 

 cropping. 



2. Plain Phosphate, which may be in the form of superphosphate, soluble in water 

 or solution of citrate of ammonia, these being called available, because they are 

 readily taken up by the roots of plants; and ground phosphate rock, an insoluble form. 

 The bone phosphate and rock phosphate are changed into superphosphate by the action 

 of sulphuric acid, removing a part of the lime, as sulphate. 



The soluble phosphate is especially beneficial to plants in the early state of their 

 groAvth, giving them a good start. In later stages of growth when the plant by its 

 roots can forage for food in the soil, the insoluble phosphate may have nearly as 

 beneficial an effect. 



Phosphates promote the formation of flower and fruit and secure earlier ripening. 

 They may wisely be used on vines and succulent fruits that are liable to be cut by 

 early frosts in autumn, securing early crops with better prices and avoiding the loss 

 of the entire crop by untimely frosts before the most of the crop had ripened. Fruit 

 trees sometimes blossom year after year without producing fruit. This is often 

 caused by storms at the period of flowering, but it may be caused by constitutional 

 weakness, in consequence of which pollen of vital power is not formed. In such cases 

 the use of active phosphates is worthy of trial. 



3. Bove Meal contains phosphate of lime and animal matter rich in nitrogen, and 

 hence is very valuable for manure where we desire a prolonged influence. It is well 



