Annual Report of the Secretary of the Board of Agriculture

which consist of other and cheaper materials, said label shall give a correct general statement of the composition and ingredients of the fertilizer it accompanies.

SECT. 2. Before any commercial fertilizer, the retail price of which is ten dollars or more per ton, is sold, offered or exposed for sale, the importer, manufacturer or party who causes it to be sold or offered for sale within the state of Massachusetts, shall file with the director of the Massachusetts agricultural experiment station, a certified copy of the statement named in section one of this act, and shall also deposit with said director at his request a sealed glass jar or bottle, containing not less than one pound of the fertilizer, accompanied by an affidavit that it is a fair average sample thereof.

SECT. 3. The manufacturer, importer, agent or seller of any brand of commercial fertilizer or material used for manurial purposes, the retail price of which is ten dollars or more per ton, shall pay for each brand, on or before the first day of May annually, to the director of the Massachusetts agricultural experiment station, an analysis fee of five dollars for each of the three following fertilizing ingredients, namely, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, contained or claimed to exist in said brand or fertilizer: provided, that whenever the manufacturer or importer shall have paid the fee herein required for any person acting as agent or seller for such manufacturer or importer, such agent or seller shall not be required to pay the fee named in this section; and on receipt of said analysis fees and statement specified in section two, the director of said station shall issue certificates of compliance with this act.

SECT. 4. No person shall sell, offer or expose for sale in the state of Massachusetts, any pulverized leather, raw, steamed, roasted, or in any form as a fertilizer, or as an ingredient of any fertilizer or manure, without an explicit printed certificate of the fact, said certificate to be conspicuously affixed to every package of such fertilizer or manure, and to accompany or go with every parcel or lot of the same.

SECT. 5. Any person selling, or offering or exposing for sale, any commercial fertilizer without the statement required by the first section of this act, or with a label stating that said fertilizer contains a larger percentage of any one or more of the constituents mentioned in said section than is contained therein, or respecting the sale of which all the provisions of the foregoing section have not been fully complied with, shall forfeit fifty dollars for the first offence and one hundred dollars for each subsequent offence.

SECT. 6. This act shall not affect parties manufacturing, importing or purchasing fertilizers for their own use, and not to sell in this state.

SECT. 7. The director of the Massachusetts agricultural experiment station shall pay the analysis fees, as soon as received by him, into the treasury of the station, and shall cause one analysis or more of each fertilizer or material used for manurial purposes to be made annually, and publish the results monthly, with such additional information as circumstances advise: provided, such information relates only to the composition of the fertilizer or fertilizing material inspected. Said director is hereby authorized in person or by deputy to take a sample, not exceeding two pounds in weight, for analysis, from any lot or package of fertilizer or any material used for manurial purposes which may be in the possession of any manufacturer, importer, agent or dealer; but said sample shall be drawn in presence of said party or parties in interest or their representative, and taken from a number of packages which shall be not less than ten per cent. of the whole lot inspected, and shall be thoroughly mixed and then divided into two equal samples, and placed in glass vessels and carefully sealed and a label placed on each, stating the name or brand of the fertilizer or material sampled, the name of the party from whose stook the sample was drawn, and the time and place of drawing; and said label shall also be signed by the director or his deputy and by the party or parties in interest or their representatives present at the drawing and sealing of said samples; one of said duplicate samples shall be retained by the director and the other by the party whose stock was sampled. All parties violating this act shall be prosecuted by the director of said station; but it shall be the duty of said director, upon ascertaining any violation of this act, to forthwith notify the manufacturer or importer in writing, and give him not less than thirty days thereafter in which to comply with the requirements of this act, but there shall be no prosecution in relation to the quality of the fertilizer or fertilizing material if the same shall be made substantially equivalent to the statement of analysis made by the manufacturer or importer.

SECT. 8. Sections eleven to sixteen inclusive of chapter sixty of the Public Statutes are hereby repealed.

SECT. 9. This act shall take effect on the first day of September in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-eight. (Approved May 3, 1888.

The above-stated regulations are now in force, and a

compliance with them is imperative on all manufacturers, importers, agents or sellers of any brand of commercial fertilizer or of any material used for manurial purposes, the retail selling price of which is ten dollars or more per ton.

It will be noticed that the new provisions for the control of the trade in fertilizers in Massachusetts apply not only, as heretofore, to a certain class of more or less compound, distinct brands of commercial fertilizers, but to all materials, single or compound, used for manurial purposes, without regard to source, when offered for sale at ten dollars or more per ton.

The official report of analyses and of all materials used for manurial purposes, which are sold in this State under a certificate of compliance with the present laws for the regulation of the trade in these articles, has been restricted to a statement of chemical composition, and to such additional information as relates to the former. This change, it is expected, will tend to direct the attention of the consumer of fertilizers more towards the composition of the different brands of fertilizers offered for sale.

The practice of affixing to each analysis of this class of fertilizers an approximate commercial valuation per ton of their principal constituents has, therefore, been discontinued. Those who are not yet familiar with the current market value of fertilizing constituents may benefit by a short discussion of that subject at the close of this chapter.

The approximate market value of different brands of fertilizers, obtained by the current mode of valuation, does not express their respective agricultural value, i.e., their crop-producing value. The higher or lower market price of different brands of fertilizer does not necessarily stand in a direct relation to their particular fitness, without any reference to the particular condition of the soil to be treated, and the special wants of the crop to be raised by their assistance. To select judiciously from among the various brands of fertilizers offered for patronage requires in the main two kinds of information; namely, we ought to feel confident that the particular brand of fertilizer in question contains the guaranteed quantities and qualities of essential articles of plant

food at a reasonable cost, and that it contains them in such form and in such proportions as will best meet existing circumstances and special wants. In some instances it may be mainly either phosphoric acid or nitrogen or potash; in others, two of them; and in others again, all three.

A remunerative use of commercial fertilizers can only be secured by attending carefully to the previously stated considerations.

The new duties assigned to the director of the Station render it necessary to discriminate in the future, in official publications of the results of analyses of commercial fertilizers and of manurial substances in general, between analyses of samples collected by a duly qualified delegate of the Experiment Station, in conformity with the rules prescribed by the new laws, and those analyses which are made of samples sent on for that purpose by outside parties. In regard to the former alone can the director assume the responsibility of a carefully prepared sample, and of the identity of the article in question.

More detailed information in this connection, regarding the duties of the director of the Massachusetts State Agricultural Experiment Station, and the obligations of the manufacturers, dealers and agents engaged in the sale of commercial fertilizers or materials used for manurial purposes, may be obtained by addressing the director at Amherst, Mass. Copies of the above-printed Act may be had on application.

SAMPLED AT.

I.-ANALYSES OF COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS COLLECTED DURING THE PAST SEASON IN THE GENERAL MARKETS, BY THE AGENT OF THE MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION.