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N EW YorK AGRICULTURAL ExpERIMENT STATION. F117 
rather than from South Carolina or other mineral phosphates, 
| as is evidenced by the very common practice of fertilizer manu- 
'  facturers to calculate the phosphoric acid in their product as 
equivalent to so much bone-phosphate, often in cases where 
all of it is obtained from other phosphates than bone. 
_ The objection often, and perhaps always, made to the sugges- 
P tion that the source of the several constituents should be stated 
by the manufacturers of fertilizers, is, that unscrupulous persons 
would not hesitate to state that the best raw materials were used 
in their products, and such objection is perhaps likely for a time to 
prove true, but there can be little doubt that in the end the 
honest manufacturers will find, as is ever the case, that estab- 
lished reputation for integrity and fair dealing is quite as valuable 
in their business as in any other, and besides it would prove a 
comparatively easy matter to trace to their destination suspected 
material, and to devise speedy methods by which its character 
could be detected in the manufactured products, even if such > 
means are not already in the hands of the analytical chemist. At 
least it seems that less injustice would result from the plan sug- 
gested than now, when as will be seen by looking over the pub- 
lished analyses, two fertilizers have the same guaranteed and 
found analyses, and are presumptively therefore, of equal value, 
when if the character of the several compounds from which they 
are made was known, great differences in their commercial and 
crop-producing values might clearly appear. | 
Commercial Fertilizers Sold in New York State. 
While it is well known that the aggregate consumption of 
commercial fertilizers in the State reaches large proportions, no 
serious effort to determine, even approximately, the extent of 
the sales has been made until last year, the results having been 
given in the tenth annual report. While the excellence of barn- 
yard manure is everywhere admitted, chemical manure is found — 
to supplement it most completely, and where there is a choice 
of purchasing between the two, there are many who buy the latter 
as being the cheapest. It is believed to be of public interest to 
_ determine the amount of those sales not only, but so far as possi- 
28 
