nin REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE 
Experiment Station under the direction of the board of managers 
of the State Agricultural Experiment Station.” An appropriation, 
therefore, sufficient to carry on this work of the Station, as also 
for the construction of a suitable laboratory, would become an 
immediate necessity if such a bill as is contemplated should be 
enacted by the Legislature. 
Of course, since a careful chemical analysis can alone tell 
whether a given fertilizer is really of any value or not, there was 
in the earlier years of this industry room for the most gigantic 
frauds, and often there were found upon the market so-called 
fertilizers hardly worth the bags in which the stuff was packed. 
But of late years, owing to the chemical control which has been 
exercised over the sale of these products, their quality has steadily 
improved, and at the same time, owing to economy in their manu- 
facture, the price has declined, so that at the present frauds are 
rare and the farmer in most cases is pretty sure of getting the 
worth of his money when he has need to add to the supply 
of fertilizing material which he is able to produce upon the 
farm. 
The following table will show the improvement which has been 
made in commercial fertilizers in twenty years : 
IMPROVEMENT IN FERTILIZERS. 







i 4 : spony 
® a 5 
as a Eas ih Actos 
YEAR. Sa Chemist. ee a - ga 
= eS Did <7) Son 
5% > S Sees 
Zi <{ 4 eee des 
ROOM RN A UM COMES AMEE 16 | Johnson............| $59 47 | $21 36 36 
d ROWAL ive So ALU NOU RMSE AN Th RD PA AU a Oh ad 15 ABPILC RINE Dianecslavincts 50 07 17 60 35 
LOT UGE IN: NO 40 tb rer gees A Le Pee 36 32 64 
ATO UAL CHa a MURR IDE Vae 86.) Colller cei te echt eB iB2 42. 56 67 
Fie RUN STO HRT TEE RURIUSS RUD RE 36.1 Dabnexv uo 37 40 33 26 89 
SOAR SAE AE AUN iL HS es Ca INURE Sait Genthy At, oc. alocen Uceergs 27 96 93 



From the above it will be seen that the average value has 
increased in twenty years thirty-one per cent; and that the 
average cost has decreased during the same period fifty per cent, 
or, in other words, the average saving amounts to 61.48 per cent, 
2. é., the farmer can to-day purchase the same amount of fertilizing 
material for thirty-eight dollars and fifty-seven cents which would 
have cost him $100 twenty years ago, and this great reduction is 
largely due to the careful chemical control which has been 
exercised over this matter. 
