The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-12-06
A BILL TO Be DEFEATED.
Fertilizer Manufacturers Before the
Senate.

They Convince the Committee That
the Bill Requiring a Cumulative
Analysis With Every Lot of .Fertili-
ger Sold is a Measure of No Benefit
TO the Farmer and an Injury
to the Manufacturer An Adverse
Report to Be Made
Messrs. Geo. J. Baldwin, j. w. Hurer
and c, II. Wilcox, the committee of Sa-
vannah's fertilizer manufacturers who
went up to Atlanta to oppose the bill be-
fore the legislature affecting the fertilizer
industry, returned to the city yesterday
morning. They were successful in their
mission as they succeeded in demonstrate
ing TO the committee to which the bill
was referred that it was not only i'm
practicable and unjust to the manufact-
urers, but absolutely of no benefit to the
farmers.
The bill was introduced in the legislat-
ure by Hon. Julian Wise. of Hancock
county, at the request of Judge Allen
Fort, Of Americas 1t required the
manufacturers TO furnish with every lot
of guano sold not only the chemical analy-
sis now required by law, but also guam
titative analysis giving the amount of
Ne'Ni-
the goods. 1t practically required the
manufacturer to make public his formula
on every variety of his product.
CANT DIyULGE THEIR FORMULA
This, of course, the manufacturers
could not afford to do. as their formula
are their trade secrets, some of which
have cost them thousands of dollars and
which each manufacturer desires to keep
secret from every other manufacturers
The cause of the introduction OF the
bill. 1t appears, was the report that a
certain manufacturer was using cinders
as filler for his goods, which was inter
preted to mean an adulterant.
The queer feature about the business is
that the bill was Introduced in the House,
recommended by the committee and
passed by the House before any word of
1t reached the fertilizer men. Chatham's
representatives. they suggest, were too
busilY engaged in furtheriug local regis
tratiou laws to give any attention to a
bill so seriously affecting the business in
terests of their section.
The fertilizer manufacturers of the
state learned of the bill after its passage
through the House, and committees were
sent to Atlanta to present their views be-
fore the agricultural committee of the
Senate.
THE BILL sHELvED.
u 40 not think we will hear any
further from the bill, said Mr.. Baldwin
yesterday, Il think after our explana-
ton Of the methods pursued in manu-
featuring that the committee was fully
satisfied that the bill would prove not
only unjust to the manufacturers, but use
less to the farmers. 1t is impracticable
anyway and if it should by any chance
become law the manufacturers would
simply say we can't do it and
take the consequences. All fertil-
izerS of the same grade are not
manufactured on one general formula as
many people naturally imagine. Instead
the goods are manufactured in small lots,
with frequently changing formula This
IS because of the varying quality and
character of the material used in manu-
featuring fertilizers. Several formula,
requiring different materials, can be used
with the same chemical result. and the
products will give the same results when
used By the farmer Florida rock con-
tains less sand than the Carolina product
and, consequently, requires a filler to re-
duce ii to the same grade. The manu-
facturer who used cinders as a filler
might have done so in all honesty. if he
was using high grade rock. and used the
cinders to reduce the quality to the COM
mercial grade.
such law would have been useless
and | think we convinced the committee
of this fact