112 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I904. 



[Continued from page 101.] 



should appear when one considers that the comparison is made 

 with the manufacturers' minimum guarantees. In the case of 

 the company which puts the largest number of brands on the 

 market, 45 per cent of the samples analyzed were below the 

 guarantee in one or more of the fertilizing ingredients. With 

 another large company putting twenty-two brands on the 

 market, 57 per cent of the samples examined were also below 

 the guarantee in at least one constituent. In the case of still 

 another company, only four of the fourteen samples examined 

 were found below the guarantee, and the differences in these 

 samples were insignificant. The results on the remaining 

 samples were uniformly above the guarantees, showing that the 

 goods were well mixed. The other companies, putting a less 

 number of brands upon the market, for the most part make no 

 better showing, the results of the analyses being variable. 



Most of the companies keep up the practice of giving an 

 elastic guarantee, as for instance, one finds printed on the pack- 

 age : Nitrogen, 3 to 4 per cent. Available phosphoric acid, 

 6 to 8 per cent. Potash, 4 to 5 per cent. One might expect 

 goods with such guarantees to average 3 1-2, 6 1-2 and 4 1-2 

 per cent, but legally the company could be holden for only the 

 minimum figures. An inspection of the tables this year would 

 seem to indicate that the minimum figures are all they are work- 

 ing for and the maximum ones should no longer be printed. 



Such wide variations as are given in some instances indicate 

 one of two things, carelessness in methods of manufacture, or 

 inability to make goods of uniform composition. If the manu- 

 facturer with all his knowledge of the materials used and 

 improved machinery at his command cannot make goods of 

 more uniform composition than some of those here reported 

 upon, then he can do no better at mixing than the farmer with a 

 shovel on the barn floor, and thorough mixing can no longer 

 be urged as an argument for buying mixed goods. 



