FRAUDS IN FERTILIZERS 299 



of stable manure, and lime and woods earth, and the resulting mixture was 

 claimed to be equal to any fertilizer sold and the cost was to be but $4 per ton. 

 I explained to my correspondent the result of mixing sulphate of ammonia, 

 and stable manure with lime, and published the fraud in one of the State 

 papers. The editor soon got a letter from the "professor" enclosing one of 

 his circulars and saying that I had attacked him and he wanted space for an 

 answer. Since I had simply shown up the article he was selling and knew 

 nothing of the man, the editor did not notice his request, but sent me the 

 circular. In this he states that a certain noted chemist (himself) had made 

 a wonderful discovery, which had astonished the scientific world, and that 

 the process would put millions in the farmers' pockets, when, in fact, the self 

 styled professor had never been heard of. as a chemist, and the scientific worlgl 

 had never been astonished at his mixture. But this fellow doubtless sold hun- 

 dreds of dollars' worth of his recipes to men who could not afford to take a 

 paper, and who did not get the Station bulletins, and did not know that the 

 Stations are always ready to furnish practicable formulas for fertilizers with- 

 out charge. These compost peddlers seem to have found a rich field in the 

 South, for the same thing was tried here several years ago, and the North 

 Carolina Experiment Station at that time issued a bulletin of warning to the 

 farmers. But the men who bought "farm rights" from the last man had not, 

 of course, read that bulletin. 



Some years ago we received a circular from another correspondent, giv- 

 ing an account of another wonderful discovery, which was the natural food 

 of plants. The circular gave the following analysis of this wonderful article. 

 It was evidently gotten up for the purpose of bewildering the farmer, and I 

 wrote to my correspondent that the article was simply pulverized phosphate 

 rock and green sand marl, as was evident from the analysis. 

 It read as follows : 



Per cent. 



Phosphoric acid. Total (P205) 21.60 to 29.49 



Equivalent to bone phosphate of lime 27.20 to 64.38 



Potash, (K20) from glauconite 1.00 to 2.00 



Equivalent to common sulfate of- potash 2.00 to 4.00 



Silicic acid (S102) 5.26 to 8.10 



Carbonic acid (C02) 2.07 to 3.00 



Lime (CaO) 29.16 to 32.00 



Magnesia (MgO) and soda (Na20) 3.21 to 8.05 



Aluminic (A1203) and ferric (Fe203) oxids. . 5.14 to 10.26 



