202 HATCH EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



Part II. 



EEPORT ON THE WORK IN THE CHEMICAL 

 LABORATORY. 



Charles A. Goessmann. 



1. On Official Inspection of Commeecial Fertilizers 

 AND Agricultural Chemicals in 1896. 



During the past year tifty-seven manufacturers and dealers 

 in commercial fertilizers and agricultural chemicals have ap- 

 plied for and secured licenses for the sale of their goods in 

 the State. Thirty-three of these parties have offices for gen- 

 eral distribution within our State, nine in the State of New 

 York, six in Connecticut, three in Vermont, three in Rhode 

 Island, two in Pennsylvania and one in Illinois. 



The number of distinct brands licensed, including agricult- 

 ural chemicals, amounted to two hundred and sixty-five. 



The sampling and collecting of the material for official 

 analyses were in charge of Mr. H. D. Haskins, a graduate of 

 the Massachusetts Agricultural College of the year 1890, and 

 an efficient assistant in the chemical laboratory of the division 

 of chemistry of the Experiment Station, who for several years 

 in the past has attended to that part of the inspection in a 

 very satisfactory manner. 



Three hundred and twenty-eight samples were collected 

 during the year, of which three hundred, representing two 

 hundred and fifteen distinct brands, have been analyzed, and 

 the results published in three bulletins, March, July and 

 October, Numbers 38, 40 and 42 of the Hatch Experiment 

 Station of the Massachusetts Agricultural College. 



The modes of analyses adopted in this work were in all 

 essential points those recommended by the Association of 

 Official Chemists. 



