STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 113 



fair game for their plucking ; and if any are disposed to excuse 

 the dealers generally from intention to defraud, the matter 

 becomes pretty plain when certain of them who have never 

 denied the accuracy of the analytical results — thus virtually 

 admitting their justness — covertly try to intimidate agricul- 

 tural editors from copying them. I will, however, tread no 

 nearer this dangerous ground. I will not attempt to specify 

 what are the current frauds which have their root in rank 

 dishonesty. It is vastly pleasanter to suppose that frauds 

 are mistakes rather than wilful attempts to cheat; but it is 

 of the utmost importance to know whether we are liable to 

 be intentionally as well as accidentally imposed upon, and 

 when we have satisfied ourselves on this point, we may drop 

 the subject of malicious fraud, as our business is not to 

 retaliate for the past, but to protect ourselves in the future. 



Now, were the only frauds liable to be inflicted on us those 

 coming from evilly disposed persons, we should have a remedy 

 by finding out who are the honest dealers, and giving them 

 our exclusive patronage. But we are cheated by honest men! 

 We have no security in any man's reputation or conscience. 

 What the villain leaves, is stripped from us by ignorance or 

 blundering carelessness. There is such a looseness and 

 wretched want of thrift in some points of the trade in fertili- 

 zers, that we are hardly sure of the genuineness of any thing 

 except Peruvian guano, and after that we must henceforth 

 look more sharply than hitherto. Indeed so many false ideas 

 are afloat in the community, and there is such a lack of pre- 

 cise and grounded information relative to manures, that it 

 is really difficult to draw the line between ignorant and dis- 

 honest frauds, and great caution must be employed in charg- 

 ing any one with villainy or deceit. In case of such a fertili- 

 zer as superphosphate of lime it is even difficult to establish 

 a just standard of quality, for the name has had such license, 

 has been applied by manufacturers to such various mixtures, 

 that we never know what we are buying, except by analysis. 

 Of all the superphosphates I analyzed last year, not one came 



