IMPROVEMENT IX FERTILIZERS. 407 



were sold in these earlier days, less than ten years ago, as fertilizers, 

 material not worth, in foct, the barrels iu which the stuff was packed 

 for market ; as, for example, the " What is It," as it was called, which 

 in reality was only the powdered gangue rock of an abandoned gold 

 mine. In another case, harbor mud was put up and sold as a valuable 

 fertilizer. 



But, at the present time, owing to the careful supervision which this 

 matter receives, it is somewhat rare to meet with such cases of fraud; 

 although, within a year, my attention was directed to one of my own 

 analyses of one of these almost worthless products, where the results 

 of the analysis had been increased one hundred fold by carefully re- 

 moving the decimal points, in my report of the analysis, two places 

 to the right, so that the one-tenth of one per cent of potash present 

 was made to appear as ten per cent, and so throughout the entire 

 analysis. 



Our country has not been alone in this experience, though we have 

 passed througli it much sooner than did England and Germany. In 

 1855, Professor Voelcker declared *' that, if ever there was a time 

 when the agriculturist had need to exercise special caution in the pur- 

 chase of artificial manures, that time is the present, for the practice of 

 adulterating standard fertilizers, such as guanos, superphosphates, and 

 so forth, has reached an alarming extent." One of our foremost agri- 

 culturists has recently declared that, " I have come to the conclusion 

 that there is no way in which the Department of Agriculture can aid 

 the farmers of this country more than by a careful analysis of the com- 

 mercial fertilizers sold on the market. The use of these fertilizers has 

 become a necessity in all the older states^a necessity which is to in- 

 crease from year to year. There is not one farmer able to tell their 

 value except by actual trial, and that must be made after his money 

 is gone." 



In concluding this paper, we would say that, from the data pre- 

 sented, it appears to be established that, during the past twenty years, 

 the productiveness of our soil has sensibly decreased ; and in those 

 sections where the fertility has been fully maintained, it hks been 

 largely due to the fact that our farmers have resorted to the same 

 means which, in Great Britain and upon the continent, have abun- 

 dantly proved sufficient to maintain, and greatly increase, the acreage 

 yield of crops. 



We have also called attention to another method by which further 

 deterioration of our lands will not ouly cease, but they may again in 

 time be restored to their original productiveness. 



So long as a foreign demand for our agricultural products exists, and 



