15 



Prices are apt to rise and to Jail withont any reference to the agri- 

 cultural value of the article in question. 



Names may remain the same, and in fact do remain in some 

 instances, tvhile the composition of the article suffers serious changes in 

 consequence of changes in the parent industry. 



Sales toithoid due responsibility regarding the particular quality of 

 the goods delivered leaves the pecuniary risk involved in the transaction 

 in an o'bjectionable degree on the side of the buyer. 



Unaccounted-for variations in the composition of feed stuffs must 

 prove a serious obstacle in the desirable introduction of a rational and 

 economical system of stock-feeding . 



For these and other reasons previously pointed out it cannot be 

 claimed that the prevailing mode of selling and buying commercial feed 

 stuffs rests on a just and fairly equitable basis. 



The trade in commercial Jeed stuffs is today in a similar unsatis- 

 factory condition as vms the trade in commercial fertilizers before the 

 introduction of a system of state imspection in regard to those articles. 



The generally conceded success of the introduction of a well regulated 

 system of state inspection in regard to commercial fertilizers seems to 

 suggest the adojotion of a similar course with reference to the trade in 

 commercial feed sttffs. 



The best interests of both manufacturers and farmers, — in fact 

 of everyone who keeps livestock for his accommodation, render such 

 changes desirable in the present mode ot selling and buying feed 

 stuffs, as will impose mutual and equitable responsibility on all 

 parties interested iu the transaction. The limited margins for profit 

 in every branch of animal industry carrried on at our farms necessi- 

 tates a careful attention to all the details of the business. The 

 money interests involved are of an exceptional magnitude. 



A due co)isideration of the present condition of our trade in com- 

 mercial feed stuffs has induced the Board of Control of the Mass. State 

 Agricultural Experiment vStation to request the writer to present the 

 subject once more to the .consideration of all parties interested; and 

 to invite their cooperation in devising suitable means to secure a fair 

 degree of mutual responsibility on the part of all parties interested in 

 the trade and the consumption of commercial feed stuffs. 



C. A. GoEssMANN, Director. 



Amherst, Mass., 



November 21st, 1892. 



