194 Report oF THE DiIRECTOR OF THE 
in mixed commercial fertilizers at the present time, it is practi- 
eally impossible for the farmers to carry out the intelligent ideas 
attributed to them concerning the kind of fertilizer and the 
forms in which it is offered them. 
. . ° . { e 
Certain manufactures of mixed fertilizers are also dealers in the 
various chemicals used for fertilizing, as nitrate of soda, sulphate 
of ammonia, muriate and sulphate of potash of different grades 
of purity, dried blood, acid phosphate, etc., etc., and they furnish 
. to the would-be purchaser the exact composition of their pro- 
ducts, and the purchaser is thus enabled to buy exactly what he 
wants both as to quality and quantity. Since this branch of the 
business has been conducted now for over a quarter of a century, 
it has been found presumably a profitable matter of trade, but 
it seems strange that these same manufacturers, when offering 
for sale a mixed fertilizer, are unwilling to inform their customers - 
concerning the materials entering into their products, and it 
seems. stranger still that the farmers are willing to continue to 
buy these goods, concerning which they cannot have such knowl-. 
edge as is indispensable to an intelligent use of commercial] 
fertilizers. 
- The reply generally made by the manufacturers to what 
appears a desirable change in the present method is that dis- 
honest dealers would have their products overestimated in value, 
since they would not scruple to assert that their fertilizers were 
made up from the best materials, and while this would doubtless 
be true for a time, still it is obvious that the same objection — 
would lie against any other industry, but our best shop-keepers 
do not hesitate to pronounce goods to be silk, wool or linen, as. 
the case may be, relying upon the fact that their customers will 
learn sooner or later that their statements may be relied upon, 
and such a reputation is not only of great value, but the sure 
reward of those who are just and trustworthy in their dealings. 
_ There is, however, very little danger that the fertilizer manu- 
facturer is likely to suffer materially by any money valuation of 
his products, since, as will be seen, the danger lies in another 
direction, viz., that, while the best are valued at approximately 
their true worth, comparatively inferior products are valued more 
highly than they should be owing mainly to the present partial — 
inability of chemists to determine certain nitrogen containing 
