1892.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 251 



noticed in case of Chili saltpetre, nitrate of sodium, with a 

 slight advance for corresponding months. 



The duties assigned to the director of the station, to act 

 as inspector of commercial fertilizers, render it necessary to 

 discriminate in official publications of the results of analyses 

 of commercial fertilizers and of manurial substances in 

 general made at the station, between analyses of samples 

 collected by a duly qualified delegate of the experiment station, 

 in conformity with the rules prescribed by the new laws, and 

 those analyses which are made of samples sent on for that 

 purpose by outside parties. In regard to the former alone 

 can the director assume the responsibility of a carefully pre- 

 pared sample, and of the identity of the article in question. 



The official report of analyses of compound fertilizers and 

 of all such materials as are to be used for manurial purposes, 

 which are sold in this State under a certificate of compliance 

 with the present laws for the regulation of the trade in these 

 articles, has been restricted by our State laws to a statement 

 of chemical composition and to such additional information 

 as relates to the latter. 



The practice of affixing to each analysis of this class of 

 fertilizers an approximate commercial valuation per ton of 

 their principal constituents has, therefore, been discontinued. 

 This change, it is expected, will tend to direct the attention 

 of the consumers of fertilizers more forcibly towards a con- 

 sideration of the particular composition of the different brands 

 of fertilizers offered for their patronage, a circumstance not 

 unfrequently overlooked. 



The approximate market value of the different brands of 

 fertilizers obtained by the current mode of valuation does 

 not express their respective agricultural value, i. e., their 

 crop-producing value ; for the higher or lower market price 

 of different brands of fertilizers does not necessarily stand in 

 a direct relation to their particular fitness, without any 

 reference to the particular condition of the soil to be treated 

 and the special wants of the crops to be raised hy their 

 assistance. 



To select judiciously from among the various brands of 

 fertilizers offered for patronage requires, in the main, two 

 kinds of information ; namely, we ought to feel confident 



