The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1886-03-17
The Vermont Fertilizer Law.

An eminent agriculturist and chemist,
for many years secretary of one of the
New England agricultural boards, who
has been formerly (but we believe is
not now interested in the manufac-
ture of one of the best standard fertil-
izers, sends us the following criticism
upon the Vermont fertilizer law, to
which he does not wish his name APP
pended because, as he says, he might
be charged with interested motives in
writing it, We believe, on the con-
trary, that his high standing for skill
and his high character, as a man of in
tegrity and veteran in agriculture,
would enhance the effect of his state
ments upon the public mind. Never
theless we comply with his request, and
place his statements before our readers
to be judged upon their merits alone.
He says
Some years ago l was requested to
furnish label which would meet the
requirements of the fertilizer law of
Vermont, and upon looking it over
got the impression that it was bad
one-very bad-because at the outset it
degrades the manufacturer below the
rank of the convict, whose term of con-
finement having elapsed, is again at lib
erty and free to steal or to offer for
sale adulterated silks, spices, or any
other goods ercept fertilizers; and, after
stealing again, is presumably liable to
punishment somewhat proportional to
the greatness of the offence.
But whoever will offer to sell fertil-
izers, no matter what his previous
record, must do so in chains-must f rst
submit to be bound in penal sum of
$1,000, with securities not only that
he will not cheat, but that he will obey
every requirement of the enactment.
If he fails to do so, whether with fraud
ulent intent or by technical error, or any
mistake or shortcoming of an agent,
he is punished-not according to the
measure of the offence, but by forfeit
ure of the bond. am no lawyer, but
it seems to me that if law be not the
opposite of equity there would be less
difficulty in showing such law to be
unconstitutional than in overturning
the oleomargarine statutes which have
been recently upset, and the difficulty
would not be enhanced by what is my
secondly, that the statute contains if
not several, certainly one requirement,
which, in the nature of the case, cannot
be complied with, viz: to state truly
the percentage content of so-called
&" soluble" and "reverted phosphoriC
acid - impossible because changing
every day. You may analyze and de-
termine what it is, or was, an hour or
two previously, but before the state,
ment reaches the printer the soluble is
less and the reverted more than the
statement. Nobody puts reverted -
into the product. 1t gropS there by
higher law than statute enactments-
by a conversion of the soluble Cir
wate) acid, and therefore injurious to
to plants, into condition in-soluble il
Observation-Disclosures harmless tC
plants, not liable to sink through thu
soil by teaching, etc. / could fill vol
ume with the little | have learned OF
matters involved in and connected will
this point, and the revolution whicl
has come since most people believed
that the value of plant food depended
on solubility Gin water)' Enough TO
now that it is generally admitted tina
soluble and reverted are of equal value