1893.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 249 



lowest guarantee ; fifty-seven contained one element below 

 the lowest stated guarantee. The deficiency in one or two 

 essential constituents was in the majority of instances com- 

 pensated for by an excess in the others. 



The variations in the market price of the various prominent 

 fertilizer constituents have been, on the whole, during the 

 past year within the usual limits. Phosphoric acid in all 

 forms has been oftered at a somewhat lower cost towards the 

 close of the year, while that of nitrogen in its leading forms 

 has somewhat advanced. 



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

 as inspector of commercial fertilizers, render it necessary to 

 discriminate, in ofiicial publications of the results of analyses 

 of commercial fertilizers and of manurial substances in 

 general made at the station, betiveen analyses of samples col- 

 lected by a duly qualified delegate of the experiment station, 

 in conformity ivith 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 responsil)ility of a carefully 

 prepared sample, and of the identity of the article in ques- 

 tion. 



The oflScial report of analyses of compound fertilizers and 

 of all such materials as are to be used for mancTial 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 tJie different brands 

 of fertilizers offered for their patronage, a circumsta7ice not 

 iifrequently overlooked. 



The approximate marTcet value of the different brands of 

 fertilizers obtained by the current mode of valuation does 



