242 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



community in the quality of the articles presented for their 

 patronage. There are, however, a few noted manufacturers 

 and dealers, mostly outside of this State, who have thus far 

 disregarded their obligation to secure a license for their 

 agents. As ignorance concerning our laws cannot any longer 

 be consistently considered an excuse for their proceedings, it 

 becomes an act of justice towards those who comply with 

 our restrictions that the agents of unlicensed parties should 

 be held and made responsible for their unlawful sales. A 

 publication of the names of those manufacturers and others 

 who have been selling during the past year through agents or 

 resident dealers, without having previously secured a license, 

 would serve as a warning to the latter, reminding them of the 

 responsibility they incur in thus acting. 



The question regarding the pecuniary advantages resulting 

 from a judicious application of the commercial fertilizers in 

 our farm industry has received during the past year an 

 increased attention, and there are fair prospects of an active 

 demand for these articles to test their respective merits more 

 thoroughly under varied circumstances. The preparation of 

 waste products of various branches of industry engaged in the 

 working up of vegetable and animal products has received 

 more care, and they are thus better qualified to be sold by 

 chemical analysis. Extensive bat guano deposits, which have 

 been known for some time to exist in some of the Southern 

 States, have attracted considerable attention during the past 

 year, in consequence of numerous analyses published by Pro- 

 fessor McMurtrie, chemist to the National Department of 

 Agriculture at Washington, D. C. The prices of many com- 

 pound standard fertilizers have been lowered, and their market 

 value has thereby been brought in better harmony with the 

 cost of phosphoric acid, potassa and nitrogen in their main 

 staple resources, for general supply. The indications are 

 that the retail prices, as subsequently stated, of these three 

 chief ingredients have reached a point which in all prob- 

 ability will remain stationary for some time to come. We 

 expect to dispose of all we have at home, and our present 

 prices offer no particular inducements for exportation to 

 foreign countries. 



The following statement of prices is mainly based on the 



