78 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



publication of the cash value of the materials used in com- 

 mercial fertilizers. I differ there. I believe it is a great 

 help to farmers to have a column alongside the selling price 

 for which these different In'ands are sold giving the com- 

 mercial value of these materials. It is true, as he has said, 

 that the farmers have the tables of the commercial value of 

 all these ingredients, they have the proportions in mixed 

 fertilizers, and, sitting down with slate and pencil, they 

 can figure it out themselves. But they do not. In look- 

 ing over a table published hi a Rhode Island experiment 

 station bulletin, I found one column that contained the 

 figures of the cost of the material and another of the 

 value ; and one special brand that sold for fifty dollars 

 contained ingredients to the value of eleven dollars only. 

 Are you farmers willing to pay forty dollars profit to the 

 fertilizer manufacturer? It sounds big. A commercial 

 fertilizer sold for fift}^ dollars a ton. That must be the 

 thing I want ; I want the very l)est there is, I will take 

 tliat ; and the farmers do it without going into detail, and 

 figuring up for themselves and ascertaining the great difier- 

 ence l)etween the value and the cost. Let the law protect 

 the farmers to the full extent, and have a column of the 

 cost of the ingredients. If not a necessity, it certainly is a 

 great help. It has been eliminated in our method. The 

 fertilizer manufacturers requested that it be eliminated. I 

 wish it might be reinstated. 



Mr. Edmund Hersey (of Hingham). This subject is 

 really one of the most important which can engage our 

 attention. It is a subject to which we have not given sufli- 

 cient attention, and one which grows more and more im- 

 portant every year. I listened to this very able paper with 

 great pleasure and profit. I think we need a good deal of 

 stirring up in regard to this matter of commercial fer- 

 tilizers. I was glad to have the speaker bring out so 

 plainly the absurdity of the manufacturers telling the farm- 

 ers what their soil needs to enable it to produce the best 

 crops. One man will purchase a potato fertilizer which 

 contains certain proportions of the three elements of plant 

 food, and after trial give his testimony telling how much 



