No. 4.] commp:rcial plant food. 81 



he meant by it. Some of us feel that agricultural chemists 

 ought to know everything. 



Professor Jordan. The agricultural chemist is one man 

 who is willing to confess that he does not know everything. 

 He has come to the point where he is ol)liged to make this 

 confession. What I referred to is this. There is a vast 

 amount of the very best nitrogenous material in the market 

 for use by farmers, but it is sad to relate that through the 

 efforts of designing men there has come upon the market 

 a certain amount of material which is not high grade. You 

 know leather contains nitrogen, you know wool contains 

 nitrogen, you know hair contains nitrogen. But there is a 

 vast difference in the usefulness of these nitrogens. What 

 the chemist ought to be able to do is to pick out of these 

 mixtures that come into his hands the nitrogen that is 

 good, that which is indifferent and that which is worthless. 

 While the chemist can get at some indications of the value 

 of organic nitrogen, that is practically all that he can do. 

 He can determine the amount of nitrogen without saying 

 what form it is in. That is a |)retty bad plight. I think 

 Dr. Goessmann will agree with me. We wish we were in 

 better condition to serve the farmer. I am as frank to con- 

 fess the shortcomings on our side as I am on the fertilizer 

 manufacturer's side. It is not long ago that an enterpris- 

 ing young man in Connecticut found out what seems to be 

 a fairly reliable way to determine whether insoluble phos- 

 })horic acid comes from bone or rock. The results pub- 

 lished seem to indicate that. I hope there is ingenuity 

 enough in the chemists of this country to find out a fairly 

 approximate way to tell whether nitrogen comes from 

 leather or from blood. Now, we cannot do it. 



Mr. C. B. Lyjviax (of Southampton). How can we know 

 the value of the different potashes, sulphate and muriate, 

 except l3y analysis, and how can we tell what foreign sub- 

 stances are in them any better than in mixed goods? Is 

 there any better safeguard in buying raw materials than in 

 buying manufactured goods ? 



Professor Jordan. I do not think there is any safeguard 

 in buying raw materials, except the guarantee under which 

 they are sold and a subsequent analysis. If you are wise, 



