1900.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 109 



Two hundred and ninety-one distinct brands of fertilizer, 

 including chemicals, have been licensed in the State during 

 the year. 



Three hundred and eighty-four samples of fertilizers have 

 thus far been collected in the general markets by experienced 

 assistants in the station. 



Three hundred and sixty-two samples were analyzed at the 

 close of November, 1899, representing 289 distinct brands 

 of fertilizer. These analyses were published in three bulle- 

 tins of the Hatch Experiment Station of the Massachusetts 

 Agricultural College: No. 59, March; No. 62, July; and 

 No. 63, November, 1899. 



The samples not already analyzed, together with others 

 that may be collected before the first of May, 1900, will be 

 examined with a view of being published in our spring 

 bulletin. 



During the season the inspector has caused samples to be 

 taken in the towns and villages distributed throughout the 

 State, and representing each county within the Common- 

 wealth. Wherever more than one sample of a given brand 

 has been collected in different parts of the State, a composite 

 sample has been made up of equal weights of the several 

 samples, and an analysis made of the homogeneous mixt- 

 ure. It is believed that an analysis of this nature more 

 fairly represents the composition of the fertilizer than the 

 analysis of any one sample. 



It has not always been possible to secure a complete list 

 of the samples licensed in the State ; but as thorough a can- 

 vass as possible is annually made, varying more or less the 

 towns to be visited from year to year, as seems advisable to 

 the inspector. The methods of sampling are those laid down 

 by our State laws for the regulation of the trade in com- 

 mercial fertilizers. 



For the readers' benefit the following abstract of the re- 

 sults of our analyses are here inserted : — 



