228 AGRICULTURAL 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 trade in commercial fertilizers has been quite active 

 in our State during the past year. Fifty-one manufact- 

 urers and dealers in manurial substances have applied for 

 and received certificates for their compliance with our State 

 laws for the regulation of the trade in commercial fertil- 

 izers ; twenty-nine of these are residing in the State, while 

 twenty-two are residents of other States. 



One hundred and fifty-eight samples of licensed articles 

 of various description have been collected in all parts of the 

 State by a duly authorized agent of the station. They 

 were analyzed at the chemical laboratory of the latter, with 

 the following results : fifty-four samples contained one single 

 essential constituent below the lowest guaranty ; ten samples 

 contained two essential constituents below the lowest guar- 

 anty ; three samples contained all three essential constit- 

 uents below the lowest guaranty ; fifty-six samples contained 

 one essential constituent above the highest guaranty ; thir- 

 teen samples contained two essential constituents above the 

 highest guaranty ; four samples contained all three essen- 

 tial constituents above the highest guarant}^. The deficiency 

 in regard to one or two essential constittients was in the 

 majority of cases commercially compensated by the excess 

 of another one. 



The fluctuation in the market price of most standard 

 articles used in the manufacture of compovmd fertilizers 

 has been within the usual limits diu"ing the past season. 

 Tankage, nitrate of soda, blood, azotin and sulphate of 



