232 AGRICULTUKAL EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



I. Communication on Commercial Fertilizers. 



1. General introduction. 



2. Laws for the regulation of the trade in commercial fertilizers. 



3. List of licensed manufacturers for May 1, 1889, to May 1, 



1890. 



4. Analyses of licensed fertilizers. 



5. Analyses of commercial fertilizers and manurial substances 



sent on for examination. 



6. Miscellaneous analyses. 



1. General Introduction. 



The new duties assigned to the director of the station 

 render it necessary to discriminate, in the future, in official 

 publications of the results of analyses of commercial fertili- 

 zers and of manurial substances in general, 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 analy^ses which are made of 

 samples sent on for that purpose by outside parties. In 

 regard to the former alone can the director assume the 

 responsibilit}^ of a carefully prepared 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, there- 

 fore, to be discontinued. This change, it is expected, will 

 tend to direct the attention of the consumers of fertilizers 

 more forcibly towards a consideration of the particular com- 

 position of the different brands of fertilizers offered for 

 their patronage, — a circumstance not unfrequently over- 

 looked. 



The approximate market value of the diff'erent brands of 

 fertilizers, obtained by the current mode of valuation, does 

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



