FRAUDS IN FERTILIZERS. 195 



so that the resulting excrement will fully maintain its fertility, 

 and if two or three thousand dollars' worth of products can be 

 sold, then farming is a fair business. But it is not invariably 

 true, gentlemen, that what one has accomplished, all others will 

 or can accomplish, for there are certain hinderances and dis- 

 turbing influences which do come in and modify experiments 

 and labors, undertaken under apparently similar conditions and 

 circumstances. But I am certain tliat when the untoward or 

 modifying influences are clearly understood and intelligently 

 combated, the variation in the results of different experimenters 

 will be practically of little account. 



The hinderances to success in the use of special fertilizing 

 agents upon the farm are not numerous, but they are of a 

 nature peculiarly provoking, and perhaps in some degree dis- 

 couraging. The greatest of these are connected with the 

 sources of supply, and it is in this direction that we must bend 

 all our energies to bring about a salutary reform. I am free to 

 say that in the farm experiments undertaken, an advantage has 

 resulted from being able to secure and employ only such agents 

 as were of absolute integrity, and also my professional pursuits 

 naturally tend to afford a facility and accuracy of manipulation, 

 which can hardly be expected of most of those in the pursuits 

 of husbandry. Still, the great obstacle to success in the use of 

 special fertilizers lies in their sophistication and general worth- 

 lessness. It is not alone in the so-called " superphosphate " 

 that frauds are practised, but deceptions, attenuations and ad- 

 mixtures are practised in connection with almost all agents 

 which science and experience have pointed out as sources of plant 

 nutriment. A certain class of substances which have hitherto 

 passed almost unsuspected and unchallenged through the 

 channels of trade, can manifestly no longer remain al)ove sus- 

 picion. Unleached wood ashes, when pure, are of the highest 

 service to farmers and gardeners, and they are diligently sought 

 for by almost every one who has lands to till. Specimens of 

 dry ashes, sold as those of wood, have recently been brought to 

 me, which upon chemical examination were found to be com- 

 posed of more than fifty per cent, of coal ashes. A schooner 

 load of ashes brought from an eastern port, and purcliased by 

 a friend at twenty-five cents a bushel, proved to have only an 

 actual value of five cents a bushel. Analysis of a specimen of 



