60 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 



discussed by different members of the Board and indi- 

 cated the interest then being taken in the subject of 

 commercial fertilizers in this state. In 1872 Andrew 

 H. Ward l read a paper before the State Board on 

 'Manures and Fertilizers,' which caused consider- 

 able discussion by Col. William S. Clark and others, 

 and emphasized the uncertainty of our knowledge con- 

 cerning the value of commercial fertilizers in Massa- 

 chusetts markets, and the great need of a systematic 

 inspection. 



Professor Goessmann, in the Tenth Report of the 

 Massachusetts Agricultural College (1872), presented 

 a very comprehensive unofficial report on commercial 

 fertilizers, in which he summarized the knowledge on 

 plant-nutrition and the use of fertilizers then prevailing 

 in Europe, called attention to the imperative need of 

 a law governing the sale of fertilizers in Massachusetts, 

 and outlined the salient requirements of such a law. 

 He further presented a number of his own analyses of 

 the fertilizers found in the local markets, and discussed 

 their relative commercial values and selling prices. In 

 part II of this report he gave an excellent exposition 

 of the formation, composition, and value of the re- 

 cently discovered potash salts of Germany. 



The first f ertilizer law 2 in the United States requir- 

 ing an official inspection of fertilizers was passed by the 



1 Agriculture of Massachusetts, Twentieth Report, p. 165. 



8 On February 5, 1873, it was voted by the State Board of Agriculture 

 'that Col. W. S. Clark, Professor Goessmann, and Secretary C. L. Flint 

 constitute a committee to appear before the legislature in behalf of a law 

 controlling the sale of fertilizers.' The records of the State Board fail to 

 give further information; one may conclude, however, that the law was the 

 result of the combined efforts of the above committee. 



