22 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
character of the American superphosphates and the enormous differ- 
ences, in respect to price and worth, which exist between them and 
those ordinarily sold in Europe, can be made manifest with conclu- 
Siveness and precision ; but it would be seldom worth while for any 
single farmer to go to the expense of having analyses made of the 
fertilizers in his market, and practically it does not seem to do much 
good to publish lists of analyses like the one presented herewith. 
It is said to be a matter of common experience that when a fertilizer 
has once been publicly commended in this country by a responsible 
chemist, its quality is apt to undergo a rapid depreciation. On the 
other hand, the vendors of manures which have been pronounced bad 
take small pains to improve the quality of their goods, but protest that 
their processes of manufacture have been perfected, and that the ma- 
terial now sold is excellent. . 
Moreover, in view of the multitude of analyses which have now 
been made by chemists, —at great cost of ‘skilled labor, —it would 
seem as if the time had come for striking at the root of the matter, 
in short, for taking some definite action, by which to amend the ex- 
isting system of making and selling manures in this country. 
The subject is really one of very grave and general importance, 
both from the scientific and the political point of view. So far as the 
actual money loss to the farmers is concerned, it may be accounted a 
light, or at all events a comparatively unimportant, misfortune that 
they should pay out unwisely some hundreds of thousands of dollars 
every year to the dealers in manures; but it is a very serious matter 
that the farmers are by this very fact of injudicious purchase made 
to persist in their ignorance, and are prejudiced more and more strongly 
every year against those sources of knowledge which would not only 
protect them from this particular form of loss, but also must be the 
principal means of agricultural improvement. There can be no ques- 
tion but that the low quality of the commercial fertilizers now com- 
monly sold in our markets exerts a most pernicious influence upon. 
the growth of all American schools of agriculture, and obstructs agri- 
cultural progress throughout the land. It is idle to expect farmers to 
lend a ready ear to the teachings of Science so long as they continue 
to suffer in her name, as they do now every time they pay an undue © 
price for a fertilizer said to have been prepared in accordance with 
chemical theory. The experience of the European schools of agricul- 
