GERMAN AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 105 



CONTROL WORK OF THE EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



The fertilizer control. — At the beginning of trade in commercial fer- 

 tilizers the fertilizer control consisted of a so-called warehouse control. 

 The dealer in artificial fertilizers stored his supply in a warehouse and 

 sold front this warehouse to the farmers in his vicinity. The experi- 

 ment station in that locality entered into an agreement with the dealer, 

 by which the station representative was allowed to enter the warehouse 

 at anytime and take samples for analysis and the station received ;i 

 lump sum for this control. Furthermore, each purchaser of commercial 

 fertilizers from this dealer was entitled to an analysis at the station 

 free of charge, and it was this that gave the farmer safety in buying 

 fertilizers. lint the fact that the experiinenl stations constantly con- 

 trolled the stock of the dealers gave tin 1 , farmers a certain feeling of 

 confidence, so that in most eases they soon omitted having the control 

 analyses made. This naturally opened the way to dishonest dealers 

 and defeated the purpose of the control. The result was that the con- 

 trol was disregarded, and farmers selected dealers who had the best 

 reputation for honesty. Latterly the warehouse control has been given 

 up. This had ceased to be of importance, as the dealers now rarely 

 warehouse their goods. But the stations did not withdraw entirely 

 from control contracts with fertilizer manufacturers and fertilizer deal- 

 ers. These contracts retained the light of the farmer who bought 

 goods of the respective dealers and manufacturers to have analyses of 

 the fertilizers made free, and the dealers agreed to accept as binding 

 the analysis of the agricultural experiment station. The dealers pay 

 a stipulated tariff for the analyses to the station or the agricultural 

 board which established the station. This tariff is sufficient to cover 

 only the cost of making the analysis. Hence the experiment stations 

 receive no subsidy from the fertilizer manufacturers or dealers, and are 

 consequently entirely independent. Such a control might be held to 

 be superfluous, as without it the farmer could have the goods he buys 

 analyzed at any experiment station, if he wished. If, however, the 

 farmer is entitled to an analysis free of charge, he will avail himself of 

 it more frequently, and the control will therefore protect the small 

 farmers. The expense of analysis would be too great for the small 

 farmers, who buy only small amounts of fertilizer. 



It is due to the efforts of the experiment stations that the trade in 

 commercial fertilizers has been placed on a comparatively solid basis, 

 by which fertilizers are everywhere sold on their content of valuable 

 constituents. In selling fertilizers in Germany a guaranty is given of 

 the percentage of water-soluble, citrate-soluble, and total phosphoric 

 acid; of nitrogen in the forms of nitrate or ammonia, and of potash, 

 lime, or other constituents. Special mixed fertilizers, under the gen- 

 eral name of wheat fertilizer, beet fertilizer, grass fertilizer, etc., which 

 were formerly common, are now unknown in Germany. Under the 

 guidance of the experiment stations the German farmer lias reached 



