INSPECTION OF FERTILIZERS. 241 



The Committee to nominate two members of the Examining 

 Committee of the Agricultural College, submitted the names 

 of Charles S. Sargent and J. N. Bagg. The nomination was 

 confirmed. 



Professor Goessmann then submitted his — 



FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT ON FERTILIZERS. 



To the Stale Board of Agriculture. 



Gentlemen : — An impartial examination into the late his- 

 tory of our home trade in commercial fertilizers cannot foil to 

 show a favorable change in the commercial management of 

 this important branch of industry as compared with previous 

 periods. The expectation that our laws for the regulation 

 of the trade in these articles would ultimately revolutionize 

 the hitherto customary mode of selling fertilizers is already 

 realized to a considerable extent, even at this early stage of 

 operations. To sell all commercial fertilizers with reference 

 to the amount and peculiar condition of the essential elements 

 of plant- food which they contain, receives additional indorse- 

 ments from year to year from those who desire to have the 

 competition of their articles of merchandise carried out on 

 the same conditions which control commercial transactions 

 in the general market. Subsequent detailed descriptions fur- 

 nish ample proofs in that direction. Voluminous business 

 circulars, tilled mainly with a more or less arbitrary selection of 

 accounts of results obtained by the use of the particular 

 fertilizing material recommended, and at the same time con- 

 spicuously deficient in the more important information con- 

 cerning the chemical composition and the character of its 

 proximate constituents, meet deservedly with less favor on 

 the part of intelligent farmers who have of late sought to 

 ascertain rather the amount and the form of each essential 

 element of plant-food present as well as the price charged per 

 pound of phosphoric acid, potassa and nitrogen, than to 

 depend on indorsements, however flattering. The readiness 

 shown by the majority of manufacturers, importers and 

 dealers to comply with the requirements of our fertilizer laws 

 has apparently greatly increased the confidence of the farming 



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