352 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



for agricultural purposes, it remains still a matter of much 

 regret, that the main bulk of our supply during the past year 

 has been agaiii of the lower grades. The subsequent analyti- 

 cal statements illustrate well what kind of articles we have 

 been using. 



The samples which furnished these results were taken from 

 three different lois, which Prof. L. Stockbridge, of the Mas- 

 sachusetts Agricultural College, had bought of a Boston dealer 

 for his experiments with various crops. Sample No. I. was 

 represented to contain 34 per cent, of potassium oxide, No. 

 II. 32 per cent., and No. III. 41 per cent. The bag from 

 which I took the sample for the above analysis of No. III., 

 was accompanied with a statement of Messrs. Merick & Gray, 

 of Boston, testifying to an analysis of a German potash salt 

 made by them, which contained 41.38 per cent, of potassium 

 oxide. Having no chance to identify personally the bag 

 which had furnished the material for our so widely differing re- 

 sults, I left the explanation of this singular case to the parties 

 connected with the business transaction. There was a differ- 

 ence in value of from forty to fifty dollars per ton, between 

 the actual state of the three articles tested and their repre- 

 sented composition. As the sale of every one of these three 

 lots of potash salts had been effected at an early date in the 

 month of May (1874), some months previous to the final pas- 

 sage of the present law for the regulation of the trade in 

 commercial fertilizers, no action was taken, beyond informing 

 at once all parties interested in the sale, of my results. I 

 visited, however, as soon as the new law had become binding 

 upon the dealers, the storehouse whence these potash salts 

 had been procured, in order to learn from personal observa- 



