FERTILIZERS. 79 



repairing machinery. They have the expense of work- 

 men, clerks, costly rents, travelling-agents, to meet (one 

 has eleven), and allow a profit to the retail dealer. 

 While those engaged in many occupations turn their capi- 

 tal several times a year, making more or less of profit every 

 time, the sales of the manufacturer of fertilizers are lim- 

 ited to a few months in the year ; and these are made on 

 long time ; so that, from the date they invest money in 

 crude materials, to the time they receive pay for the same, 

 is nearer two years than one. In the table from our ex- 

 perimental stations, comparing the value of the various 

 fertilizers with the market price of the materials that 

 enter into their composition, we rarely see credit given 

 for the bags in which they are packed. These must cost 

 not far from a dollar and a half for each ton of fertilizers, 

 while many rot, and have to be replaced before they leave 

 the establishments. From considerations such as these, it 

 appears but fair to concede to the manufacturer, as his just 

 due, an advance on the cost of the materials he handles 

 sufficient to cover the interest on his plant, the cost of 

 production and of selling, with a fair profit added. 



Professor Dabney gives good testimony to the honesty 

 of manufacturers when he says, that, of the six hundred 

 samples of fertilizers analyzed in North Carolina, but one 

 was found in which there was an attempt to defraud in 

 the element ammonia ; and that, if I remember correctly, 

 was in an imported English superphosphate. 



LEATHER-WASTE. 



This consists of the scraps of the shoe-manufactories, 

 the waste from the uppers and soles. In many of the 

 establishments it is burnt as fuel, to which there is the 

 objection that the creosote formed from it destroys the mor- 



