1896.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 147 



Part II. 



liEPOET ON THE WOEK IN THE CHEMICAL 

 LABORATOEY. 



CHARLES A. GOESSMANN. 



1. On Official Inspection of Commeecial Fertilizers 



IN 1895. 



During the past year fifty-five manufacturers and dealers 

 in commercial fertilizers and agricultural chemicals have ap- 

 plied for and secured licenses for the sale of their goods in 

 the State ; twenty-seven of them being residents of Massa- 

 chusetts, and the remainder belonging to Vermont, Ehode 

 Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, 

 Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio and Canada. 



The number of different brands collected in the g-eneral 

 market amounted to two hundred and ninety. The sampling 

 and collecting of the material for analysis were in charge of 

 Mr. H, D. Haskins, an eflicient assistant in the chemical lab- 

 oratory of the division of chemistry of the station, who for 

 several years past has attended to that part of the inspection 

 in a very satisfactory manner. Two hundred and seventy 

 samples of the various brands collected by him were care- 

 fully analyzed, and the results obtained in that direction 

 have been published and distributed in five special bulletins, 

 i. e., No. 57 old series and Nos. 30, 31, 32 and 34 of the 

 Hatch station series. 



The results of the inspection have been on the whole quite 

 satisfactory, as far as the compliance of the dealers with the 

 provision of our State laws for the regulation of the trade 

 in commercial fertilizers is concerned. The variations here 

 and there noticed between the guaranteed composition of the 

 dealer and the results of our analyses could be traced with 



