The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-04-16
Commercial Fertilizers.
EpoRr OF CHEMIST AND NOTES.

At the last session of our legislature law
was made to regulate the sale Of commercial
fertilizers, from which law the following ex-
tracts are taken:
SECTION g. Manufacturers and importers of
mercal fertilizers sold offered for sale in this state
SHALL before such fertilizers sold offered for SALE
securely afx TO each BARREL bag or package OF such
print the and place of business of such manufac-
turer importer, the year of the manufacture of such
importation, and the net weight Of the same, also the
constituent parts of such fertilizer and the percentage
Of nitrogen of potash OF soube reverted and nsolu6e
phosphoric acid.
SECTION 4. manufacturer or importer Of CONNER
cal fertilizers, sold or offered for sale in the state, who
violates any of the provisions of this act sha forfeit to
the state thousand dollars be recovered in action
on the bond given by such manufacturer orimporter u,
der the provision OF section two of this act And 1t
shall be the duty OF the secretary OF the board OF ag
culture to notify the state of all violations OF
the provisions of this ac and the state treasurer shall
Immediately commence suit the bond in the rame OF
the state, and prosecute the same to hna Judgment
part of section ten is that the state
chemist, who shall properly analyze the same.
shall duly report to the secretary OF the board
OF agriculture the result of said analysis, stat
ing the methods used by him to determine the
amounts of potash, nitrogen soluble, reverted,
and insoluble, phosphoric acid, and such
amounts and said secretary OF the board OF
agriculture shall cause such reports TO be pub
hshed, giving the name OF the chemist making
the same" and agreeably to this | submit the
following: Professor A. II. Sabin of the Uni
ist, er o1icio, to analyze the same, and has an
alyzed as follows a part Of said samples, but
sickness in his family and increased work has
prevented the completion of all the samples.
The methods used are determination Of phos-
pboric acid in absence of iron and aluminium
by uranium method; in presence of iron and
aluminium by Pemberton's molybdate OF am
monia method; potash, by precipitation with
platinum chlorides, and nitrogen by combus-
tion with soda lime. The latter does not give
nitrogen present as nitrates but is the com
mon method. That the farmer may under
stand their relative value, figure their worth
rs believe it to be a comparative standard,
by placing supposed value to ammonia OF
twenty-six cents; nitrogen, twenty-four cents
soluble and reverted phosphoric acid at twelve
and one-half cents; insoluble phosphoric acid
ut six cents and potash at five cents per
pound. Some figure soluble phosphorc acid
at twelve and one-half cents and revert
ed at eight cents, but as l believe that
the reverted is as valuable as the soluble,
] see no reason to reduce the price for it, yet
it is usual so to do. figure thus that the
farmer may see their comparative value, as
believe, from q reasonable standpoint; and
yet it does not show that the benefit is limited
to that price, or that it will benefit you at all.
This must be found out by experiment give
in the following tables the percentage OF each
ingredient supposed to be valuable, as called
for in the law First, as found by the average
OF three separate analyses of our state chemist,
and second as guaranteed by the manufacturer.
1t will be seen that figure the worth also from
the prices before mentioned, and place the
same under the percentages. Thus the farmer
at glance can see the comparative value;