NEW MINERAL FERTIEIZER. 3 



a trace of total phosphoric acid and a trace of potash. When 

 the appHcation for the license was received, the c[uestiion 

 naturally came up as to whether such a material could be li- 

 censed under the fertilizer law of the State. The law applies to 

 "any material used for a fertilizing purpose, the price of which 

 exceeds ten dollars a ton." As this was quoted at $15.00 a ton 

 in carload lots and $17.00 per ton in less than carload lots, it 

 seemed to come within the definition of the law. It will be 

 noted that the goods make no claim for the presence of plant 

 food as obtains in ordinary fertilizing materials, and as is con- 

 templated by the law. 



They have apparently issued a good deal of descriptive liter- 

 ature. In these publications considerable reference is made to 

 the work of the "Professor of Polaric Nutrition at the Divine 

 Science University," although he is not given his official title, 

 so far as noted, in the publications of the New England Mineral 

 Fertilizer Company. 



There are probably no claims made for the composition of 

 these goods that are not borne out by fact. They do, however, 

 make claims for the performance of this so-called fertilizer 

 many of which are contrary to exact experiments that have been 

 obtained with this class of materials. It is not a new thing to 

 attempt to fertilize land with ground rock. Feldspar which con- 

 tains a large amount of potash has been used repeatedly in sci- 

 entific experiments with no substantial results. It is impossible 

 to quote at any length from the absurd literature which is used 

 in advertising these goods. One claim — "No fear of burning 

 the plants with this fertilizer" — is probably correct. 



The writer has no knowledge of the sales that w^ere made in 

 Maine in 1910 of these goods with the single exception of a 

 lot which was sold to Mr. A. J. Orf of North Bradford. When 

 Mr. Orf received the goods he wrote to the Experiment Station 

 about having them analyzed. He was informed that no doubt 

 the goods would carry what they claimed to — that is, not any 

 of the ordinary plant food materials, but would contain an 

 abundance of the constituents . of rocks quite similar to those 

 present in his field. On receipt of the letter from the Experi- 

 ment Station Mr. Orf was naturally indignant with the company 

 and wrote them a strong letter. They, however, persuaded him 

 to make a trial of the Mineral Fertilizer and he wrote them 



