OFFICIAL INSPECTIONS 42. I33 



If the manufacturer makes his brands so uniform that analyses 

 ^f different lots of a given brand will agree as to the sources 

 of nitrogen as they now do to the amount of nitrogen no fur- 

 ther legislation would seem necessary. 



The Weight of FertiIvIzers. 



The law requires that packages of fertilizers carry, among 

 other things, a plainly printed statement giving the net weight 

 of the contents. Fertilizers contain materials which are subject 

 to change in weight because of the difference of atmospheric 

 conditions. In dry air they will dry out and lose in weight and 

 in wet they will be likely to absorb moisture and gain in weight. 

 Consequently it is not expected that fertilizers will weigh as 

 close as would packages of grain to the weight claimed for 

 them. During the spring the inspectors examined large numbers 

 of packages from different manufacturers and with the excep- 

 tion of the Atlantic Fertilizer, which is discussed by itself, there 

 were no shortages found that seemed to be unreasonable. 



The Atlantic Fertilizer Company. • 



After the regular fertilizer inspection was finished a complaint 

 was received from Limestone, Maine, that a lot of the Atlantic 

 Fertilizer Company's Rawson & Hodges Peerless Brand Fertil- 

 izer was short weight and in very poor mechanical condition. 



An inspector sent to investigate this complaint found that the 

 goods in question were all in barrels which had been shipped 

 as 250 pounds each. Over 200 weighings of unopened barrels 

 and empties were obtained and the average net weight of the 

 packages was found to be about 236 lbs., a shortage of be- 

 tween five and six per cent. Three samples of this brand were 

 obtained from unopened packages and the results of analysis 

 are here given. 



Rawson & HoDCEs Peerless Brand Fertilizer. 



Nitrogen guaranteed 3.70 per cent, found 3.4, 3.6, 3.6 per 

 cent. Available phosphoric acid guaranteed 7 per cent, found 

 7.1, 7.9, 7.3 per cent. Total phosphoric acid guaranteed 8 per 

 cent, found 8.1, 8.4, 8.0 per cent. Potash guaranteed lo per 

 cent, found 10.9, 9.0, 10.4 per cent. The moisture on these 

 three samples was 10.6, 9.9, 10.9 per cent. 



