I IS MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I9OO. 



claim was made by the manufacturer as to the composition of 

 the goods in question. To see if this was at all common, the 

 inspector was instructed to take an exact copy of all guaranteed 



analyses found on the packages sampled. As a result it was 

 found that 70 different brands carried, in the case of at least one 



of the ingredients, a different statement on the bag from the 

 certified statement filed with the Station. Some of these cases- 

 may be explained by the goods being last year's goods. We 

 analyzed no fertilizers that the manufacturers' agents said were 

 last year's goods. In about one-third of the cases the figures on 

 the packages are lower ( but only slightly lower; than the certi- 

 fied guarantees. In a few instances the manufacturers make no 

 claim on the package for phosphoric acid called for by their certi- 

 ficate. The tankage of the Portland Rendering Company car- 

 ried no guaranteed analysis on the package. In the other cases 

 the guarantee on the package is larger and frequently much 

 larger than the certified copy. 



The tables on pages 128-13 1 gives the minimum certified guar- 

 anteed analysis ; the minimum guarantee on the package and the 

 percentages found in the sample collected by the Station. The 

 figures under the head of "found" are those showing the actual 

 composition of the samples. 



The Results of the Analyses. 



The tables on pages 120 to 127 contain the results of the analy- 

 ses of the samples collected by the inspector from goods in the 

 open market. The figures which were given as the percentages 

 of valuable ingredients guaranteed by the manufacturers are the 

 minimum percentages of the certified guarantee. If. for in- 

 stance, the guarantee is 2 to 3 per cent, of nitrogen, it is evident 

 that the dealer cannot be held to have agreed to furnish more 

 than 2 per cent., and so this percentage is taken as actual guar- 

 antee. The figures under the head of "found" are those show- 

 ing the actual composition of the samples. Whenever the sam- 

 ple examined contains less than the guaranteed percentage of 

 any ingredient the deficiency is indicated in the table bv a f. 



A comparison of the results of the analyses of the samples 

 collected by the Station with the percentages guaranteed by the 

 manufacturers shows, that manv of the manufacturers do not 



