422 ANNUAL REPORT. 



Mr. Gray. Yes; it would cost all of that. 



Mr. Woolsey. What guarantee can we have that patent fertil- 

 izers are worth anything? 



Mr. Braslan. You have the guarantee of a man that has had 

 half a century's experience in the business. You have the guar- 

 antee from farmers in Xew York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, all over 

 the South, and from Xew England, and that they could not run 

 their farms without fertilizers, especially those farmers that 

 have land that is worth from six hundred dollars to eight hun- 

 dred dollars an acre. I know from experience in several cases 

 where manure has been used on one piece of ground and a fertil- 

 izer has been used on another, and where the fertilizer has been 

 used it has produced larger crops and potatoes that were free 

 from scab, which is always present on potatoes that are raised on 

 land where manure is used. It makes an improvement in the 

 looks of vegetables, and gives earlier and more abundant croi)S. 



Mr. Woolsey. We have nothing in our State to protect us 

 from fraud, but in some of the Eastern states there are provisions 

 made for analyzing these fertilizers to see if they are good. But 

 it is sent here, and we have no assurance that it is not a hum- 

 bug. If the manufacturers would guarantee that what they sell 

 is worth the money they represent it to be, it might be of some 

 use to try it. I have seen it used, and know that it is a good 

 thing, but until we have some guarantee that these fertilizers are 

 genuine we had better let them alone. There are tens of thou- 

 sands of loads of manure going to wavSte. 



Mr. Braslan. Makers of fertilizers will give a written guarantee 

 that the goods are what they are represented to be. 



Mr. Gray. Manure brought out of the city contains all kinds 

 of rubbish and we have no use for that kind. If the people of 

 this city took the same care of their manure that they do in 

 some of the Eastern cities and in Europe it would be another 

 thing. It will then not only be worth drawing but will be worth 

 paying something for. As between the manure picked up in 

 the alleys of Minneapolis and the commercial fertilizers I think 

 the fertilizers are certainly to be preferred. 



Mr. Pearce. When you take from the ground more than you 

 put back you rob the soil. There are persons who make a life 

 study of these ingredients of the soil which are necessary to 

 plant life, and have produced fertilizers which embrace all 

 the properties that are needed in the various vegetables. In- 

 stead of returning to the soil in wagon loads what is taken 



