181)4.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 265 



The deficiency in one or two essential constituents was in 

 the majority of instances compensated for by an excess in 

 the others. 



The variations in the market price of prominent fertilizer 

 constituents have been, on the whole, during the past year 

 within the usual limits. Phosphoric acid in all forms has 

 been offered at a somewhat lower figure than last year, while 

 nitrogen in its leading forms has been somewhat higher. 



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

 as inspector of commercial fertilizers, render it necessary to 

 discri7?iinate, in official publications of the results of analyses 

 of commercial fertilizers and of manurial substances in gen- 

 eral made at the station, between analyses of samj)les col- 

 lected by a duly qualified delegate of the experiment station, 

 in conformity tuith the tmles prescribed by the new laws, and 

 those analyses lohich are made of samples sent on for that 

 purpose by outside parties. In regard to the former alone 

 can the director assume the responsibility of a carefully 

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

 tion. 



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, 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 tJte particular composition of the different brands 

 of fertilizers offered for their patronage, a circumstance not 

 infrequently overlooked. 



The approximate market value of the different brands of 

 fertilizers obtained by the current mode of valuation does 

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

 crop-producing value ; for the higher or lower market price 



