26 REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE } 
It is worthy of note, that while such laws have axintadl in certain 
States for a quarter of a century, there is, so far as I know, not a 
single State which has ever abandoned the plan for the protection 
of the farmers, who in the purchase of these products, unlike 
other products sold in quantity, are wholly without the means of 
knowing anything as to their composition or value, and are not 
infrequently, even under the most careful supervision which is 
found practicable, subject to the most bare-faced frauds. This is 
evidenced in our own State where a fertilizer actually worth one 
dollar and fifty-two cents was sold at thirty dollars per ton; also, 
in Pennsylvania, according to a,recent report from its station four 
fertilizers, worth respectively one dollar and twelve cents, eighty- 
seven cents, seventy-one cents, and six dollars and ninety-cents 
per ton, were sold at twenty dollars, eighteen dollars, twenty-one 
dollars and twenty dollars, respectively; so also in New Jersey, 
where two fertilizers for sale in that State had an actual value of _ 
only two dollars and eighty-nine cents, and two dollars and forty-— 
two cents per ton, and sold at forty-five dollars and forty dollars 
per ton respectively. 
Such illustrations could be multiplied, but it is unnecessary to 
give further evidence that our farmers who have need of /such 
fertilizers to increase the products of their fields, are at present 
simply at the mercy of any dealer or manufacturer unscrupulous 
enough to thus defraud them. Nor is the protection which the 
supervision of the neighboring States extends sufficient for the 
protection of our people, since it is obvious that the .above 
instances, of fraud detected in Pennsylvania and New Jetsey, to 
which attention has already been directed, while preventing the 
sale of these products in those States, by no means prevents these 
same comparatively worthless brands being offered for sale under 
_ other names here in New York. 
But, while the importance of guarding the people from eral 
against which they are necessarily unable to protect themselves, 
pede no further argument than the briefest statement of the case, 
it is probably true that the greatest benefit which would result 
from the work of such chemical control would be the increase of 
intelligence in relation to the use of these costly fertilizers, through 
the constant discussions conéerning the presence and value of the 
leading constituents, nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, which 
they are supposed to furnish as food to the growing crops. 
