IDEAL FERTILIZERS 35 



must be drawn, but they are easy to follow and there 

 is no excuse for the buyer to be in doubt as to whether 

 he is getting a "square deal." Florida is the only State 

 giving her citizens this protection which is equally valu- 

 able to manufacturers and consumers. 



Who pays for this inspection? The manufacturer pri- 

 marily,, as he buys the stamps and affixes them, but 

 eventually the consumer, as in everything else. The cost 

 is very slight per ton, only twenty-five cents, but 

 since 183,437.84 tons of commercial fertilizer were used 

 in the State in 1011 the aggregate of stamp sales for fer- 

 tilizer was the tidy sum of $45,859.46. 



In Captain Rose's Eeport for 1909, he shows that under 

 this law which was first enforced in 1901, the goods put 

 upon the market increased in actual value more than 

 ten per cent., many unreliable brands being driven from 

 the State. In the year 1909 this ten per cent, of the 

 selling price of fertilizer together with feeds, which are 

 protected in the same way, amounted to $657,840. That 

 is, the consumers of fertilizers and feeds in Florida were 

 given $657,840 more for their money than they would 

 have received had the law not been enacted. The stamps 

 for this year cost the consumers $56,792, leaving over 

 $600,000 clear gain in a single year. 



The sale of inspection stamps for fertilizer and feed 

 in 1912 amounted to $82,820.55 and the inspection cost 

 the State $15,257.41, leaving a credit to the General 

 Revenue Fund of $67,563.14. 



