28 AMERICAN MANURES. 



manufacturers varies considerably in different 

 seasons. If a good manure is made one year, it 

 establishes a reputation that enables the manu- 

 facturer to palm off an inferior article the next 

 season. The farmer has no means of judging 

 the quality of the article by its appearance, and 

 has to rely on the honesty of the manufacturer ; 

 and this confidence, on his part, is too often 

 abused. He finds, too late, that instead of being 

 benefited as he expected, that the amount paid for 

 the manure has been a direct tax on his scanty 

 produce, involving a serious loss of time, labor 

 and capital. 



Our agricultural bureau at Washington has 

 failed to give this momentous national question 

 that attention the subject deserves and requires r 

 as any one who reads the agricultural reports 

 must admit. An office or bureau of inspection 

 for these manures is imperatively demanded. 

 Every concentrated manure, fertilizer, or super- 

 phosphate of lime should be analyzed by corn- 

 petent and honest chemists, and their processes 

 made known, and the grade of the article fixed ; 

 and there should be a law requiring a guaranteed 

 analysis to be attached to each bag or barrel of 

 the manure, and the manufacturers to be liable 

 to prosecution if their manures fall short of the 

 guaranteed standard. 



This is a matter of vital importance, not only 



