l66 MAINE AGRICULTURAIv EJXPERIMENT STATION. I905. 



[Continued from page 153. J 



the time of the inspector and in the number of sampling- jars 

 that he needs to take with him. As far as possible two samples 

 of each brand were taken, an effort being made to obtain the 

 duplicate from a distinct lot of the same brand in a different 

 part of the State. In case the analysis of the :^rst sample of a 

 brand did not conform closely to the guaranteed composition, 

 the duplicate sample of that brand was analyzed. Thus it 

 happens in many instances that two analyses of the same brand 

 are given in the tables. A few brands that were licensed were 

 not actually shipped into the State and in two or three instances 

 the inspector failed to find the brands in the hands of the dealers 

 or agents. Hence it happens that a few brands appear in the 

 tables without an accompanying analysis. 



During the years immediately following 1895 there was a 

 tendency to the multiplication of brands. At present it is only 

 rarely that a company that has been doing business in the State 

 for years offers a new brand. With the growth of the sale of 

 fertilizers in the State, companies that formerly did no business 

 in Maine are now sending their goods to the State. This of 

 course results in an increase in the number of brands. While 

 it is unfortunate that so many farmers buy fertilizers from a 

 name rather than from the amount of plant food contained in 

 the fertilizer, it is gratifying that brands are not being unneces- 

 sarily multiplied. There has been a constant increase from the 

 20 brands licensed in 1885 to the 180 brands of complete 

 manures and 20 single ingredient chemicals licensed in 1905. 



When the manufacturers first put their goods upon the 

 market, recognizing the difficulty of accurate mixing, they 

 placed a somewhat elastic guarantee upon them. For instance, 

 potash might be guaranteed 4 to 5 per cent and for the most part 

 the goods would carry 4.5 per cent of potash. As competition 

 became closer and the process of manufacture became some- 

 what more trustworthy, the manufacturers worked closer and 

 closer to the minimum guarantee so that at present it rarely 

 happens that fertilizers carry much above the minimum per- 

 centages of nitrogen and potash, the more costly constituents 

 of a fertilizer. If this were the whole story there would be 

 nothing to complain of, but there has been an increasing tend- 

 ency to fail to maintain the goods up to their minimum guar- 



