Il6 FERTILITY AND FERTILIZER HINTS 



the sale of fertilizers. The enforcement of these laws is general- 

 ly controlled by the Experiment Stations or the State Boards of 

 Agriculture, through a staff of chemists and inspectors. The 

 inspectors, who may or may not be chemists, draw samples of 

 the various fertilizers, forward them to the laboratory, and the 

 chemist analyzes them to find out if they are as represented. 

 The results of the chemists' findings .are published in bulletins 

 or reports which are sent to the consumers, manufacturers, deal- 

 ers, and other interested parties.* 



The Meaning of the Guarantee.— It has been said that the manu- 

 facturer, dealer, or jobber must have printed on the bags or tags 

 attached to the bags, his name and address, the weight of the 

 package, the name, brand or trade mark, and the chemical com- 

 position of the fertilizer. This guarantee does not mean that 

 each particular shipment, or lot, or bag, that the consumer may 

 purchase has been analyzed by the state chemist and that he 

 found the stipulated amounts of nitrogen, soluble phosphoric 

 acid, reverted phosphoric acid and potash, as the case may be, 

 that are printed as the guaranteed chemical analysis on the bags 

 or tags. It does mean that the manufacturer says he has fur- 

 nished at least those amounts of plant food as stated. 



The Interpretation of the Guarantee. — Some manufacturers do 

 not make a simple statement of the guaranteed chemical com- 

 position of their brands of fertilizers, but use other terms which 

 are equivalent, to be sure, but are misleading to the ordinary 

 person not familiar with fertilizer parlance. A few examples 

 may serve to illustrate this point. 



Guaranteed Chemical Analysis, No. i. 



Per cent. 



Nitrogen i.oo 



Ammonia 1.22 



Equal to nitrate of soda 6.06 



Total phosphoric acid 1 2.00 



Equivalent to bone phosphate 26.00 



Available phosphoric acid 10.00 



To simplify this guarantee we would state it as : 



