Germam Artificial Manures Industry. 237 



of Agriculture in February of the same year. This action of 

 the Central Department may be regarded as the first 

 attempt to establish a system of seed control in the United 

 States. 



In none of the above-named countries, with the exception 

 of the United States, is there any special legislation 

 requiring seedsmen to guarantee the purity or germination 

 of the seeds sold by them. But the agreements signed by 

 firms under the " control " of a seed-testing station are 

 sometimes of such a character as to bring the voluntary 

 guarantee furnished in accordance with such agreements 

 within the jurisdiction of the civil courts, though an appeal 

 to such tribunals is seldom necessary. In the United States 

 one example, at least, is forthcoming of a seeds law, viz., in 

 the State of Maine, where an Act to regulate the sale of 

 seeds has been in force since September, 1897. 



^Committee on Agricultural Seeds, Cd. 493.] 



Artificial Manures Industry in Germany. 



A report on chemical instruction in Germany, and the 

 growth and present condition of the German chemical 

 industries, by Dr. F. Rose, H.M. Consul at Stuttgart, contains, 

 some interesting information as to the development of the 

 industry and the employment of artificial manures in that 

 country. 



Dr. Rose states that in the year 1840 Justus von Liebig, in 

 his classical investigations upon the application of chemistry 

 to agriculture and physiology, maintained that, if soils 

 are not to become impoverished, those salts of which 

 they are deprived by agriculture must be restored to them 

 in the form of manure. He demonstrated, for instance, that 

 an acre of potatoes required about 90 lbs., and an acre of 

 beetroot about 150 lbs. of potassium salts, and that further, 

 the usual manures, wood-ash, beet, and wool refuse were 

 themselves derived from the soil. These considerations were 

 instrumental in leading to the discovery and working of the 



