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New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 22 
from butter-granules before salting. The butter-granules should be 
about the size of rice-grains or wheat-kernels and should be washed 
twice with water at a temperature of 35° to 45° C., using an amount 
of water for washing about equal to the buttermilk removed. 
INSPECTION: OF -FERTILIZERS. 
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF FERTILIZER LEGISLATION IN NEW YORK. 
There are five dates, deserving special notice, connected with 
the attempts made by legislative enactment to afford protection 
against fraud to purchasers of commercial fertilizers. These dates 
are 1878, 1890, 1894, 1896 and 1899. 
In 1878 the first law was passed, but as no provision was made 
for its execution, it was a dead letter. After intermittent agitation 
of the subject for ten years, a systematic effort was finally made 
to secure new legislation of a practical character. A new and 
strong interest in the matter was aroused by some work done at 
this Station which brought to light evidence of the existence of 
serious frauds in fertilizers. As an instance, a fertilizer, known as 
“ Mason’s High-grade Potash Fertilizer,’ made at Binghamton and 
sold at $30 a ton, was found to contain 0.2 per ct. of nitrogen, 0.18 
per ct. of available phosphoric acid, and a small trace of potash. 
It was guaranteed to contain 5 per ct. of nitrogen, 3 per ct. of 
available phosphoric acid and 8.1 per ct. of potash. It was sold 
at $30 a ton, but the value of its fertilizing constituents was about 
one dollar. 
Finally, in 1890, a law was passed, the execution of which was 
placed in charge of this Station. Efforts to enforce the provisions 
of this statute revealed exceeding looseness in its language, as well 
as other serious defects. The general principles embraced in the 
act were satisfactory to both consumers and manufacturers of 
fertilizers, and the law was efficient in making public each year the 
composition of the fertilizers sold in the State; but in prosecuting 
violations of the law it was found impossible to secure effective 
convictions against offending parties. The first prosecution be- 
gun under the enactment of 1890 was successful in the lower 
court, but, on appeal to the Supreme Court, the decision of the 
lower court was reversed on account of certain technical defects in 
the statute. An effort was made to remedy these defects by amend- 
ments, which became operative May 9, 1804. Again proceedings 
were instituted against violators of the law, but only to show that 
the statute was still practically useless so far as it enabled the State 
