8 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
No. 1.—A Report of Results obtained on examining some Com- 
mercial Fertilizers, by way of Analysis,* by F. H. StoRER, Professor 
of Agricultural Chemistry in Harvard University. 
A set of field experiments undertaken at the Bussey Institution in 
behalf of the trustees of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting 
Agriculture, for the purpose of testing the efficacy of a variety of ma- 
terials procurable in Boston and supposed to possess fertilizing power, 
naturally led to the analysis of a considerable number of commercial 
manures, as set forth in the following pages. 
The analyses in question were incidental to the field work, and 
wholly subordinate to it. They have little interest in themselves, ex- 
cept in so far as they go to confirm the fact already well known to 
chemists and to many farmers, that the fertilizers on sale in this 
vicinity are, as a general rule, of very poor quality, and to enforce 
anew the lesson that measures of reform in the matter of puyang and 
selling manures are imperatively needed. 
As will be seen on inspecting the following list, the substances ex- 
amined were, with few exceptions, by no means worth the prices asked 
for them. 
SUPERPHOSPHATES. 
I. Wilson’s Superphosphate, bought April, 1871, of J. Breck and 
Son, Boston. 
Moisture expelled at 212°. . bt 
Volatile matter (beside moisture) . 23.58 
Ash left on ignition . . . . 65.30 
100.00 
* The manuscript of this article was presented in November, 1872, to the trustees 
of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, as a partial report of 
progress to the society, at whose expense the analyses had been made, and also as 
an appeal to the trustees to take action which might lead to an improvement in the 
quality and trustworthiness of a certain class of fertilizers in the New England 
market. ; 
It will be observed that the paper is one of merely local interest. "Wherever an 
experimental agricultural station has been established, one of the first questions 
