The evening times., 1898-11-24
AGAINST FRAUD
IN FERTILIZERS
Agricultural Department EX-
tends Warning.
GROWTH OF THE INDUSTRY
WOrk Assigned TO Agricultural Ex
pertinent Stations.
system of Inspection, Which Has
Been quite Effective I'm Reprcss-
ing Spurious s5ocds.

ing
The Department Of Agriculture is doing
sll within its power to warn farmers
against frauds in fertilizers, and A. c.
True. director Of experiment stations has
produced a good deal OF literature on this
subject for circulation in agricultural dis
tricts
The value of commercial fertilizers used
usually in this country, is estimated at
from SIS 900, 0OO to s4O.000,O00 The industry
has grown to these proportions within
fifty years Director True says: 1t is
but natural that a business growing so
rapidly and Offering such opportunities
and temptations for fraud and imposition,
should have early become field for eN-
tensive operations Of unscrupulous and
dishonest men. Fraud became so preVa-
lent as the industry developed In one
State after another, that there was an
urgent demand both from the consumers
OF fertilizers and from honest manufac-
turers and dealers in fertilizers for laws
providing for the inspection Of fertilizers
with view TO the prevention or the de-
lection and punishment of fraud Nearly
every State in which commercial fertil-
izers are used TO any great extent, has
now provided for such inspection.
This work, in the majority Of cases,
has been assigned to the agricultural eX-
pertinent stations OF the different States
and forms one of their most important
and exacling duties. In some cases the
stations cooperate with the State boards
OF agriculture, while in few Instances
the inspection is entirely in the hands OF
The latter or of the State chemist Thou
sands of analyses OF fertilizers made ana
r,.r,oryed by the inspection Of oiheia!s
each year. accompanied in most cases py
general information relating 10 fertlllz-
prs
'Thie system Of inspection has beeh
Quite effective in repressinS IFaud- pu1
- has b,- no means eliminated ii from
the fertilizer business. The man VINO
ned5les a worthless formula AT an eX-
n-h,tant price. or exploits under high
sounding name a mixture which mas Mt
tie or no value as fertilizer, is sun
abroad in the land.
The dt-nartmsut has received Dulteth
from the Maine station, which follows:
There are TWO claims which generally
characterize the representations OF the
campanies and agents selling these gueS-
lionable goods:
I'D The process OF manufacture Is a
secret one having been discovered oy
some one who Is generally unknown eltA-
,r To science oT practice.
",2, The fertilizer or food either
contains ingredients of which the whole
world outside OF = favored few. is ig-
n6rant. or else certain ingredients are SO
wonderfully compounded as 10 produce
marvellous results.
A buuetn from the North Carolina
station follows:
''Tha farmers of tht state are urgently
advised not 10 pay any money for fertli-
ling formulas. as the station i ready
and wiling to suggest any mixture for
any crop. using any materials al hand
OF moFt convenient 10 be had II has i'm
the past distributed many hundreds OF
these formulas and j. distributing them
every DAY. These formulas are sent en-
tirely free. and are MADE Up in proper
tions tnaJ are known To be correct not
only from a scientific bat practical
standpoint OF what earthly use is It
TO buy from man, Al "A high price,
set Of figures which nine times ont Of ten
is incorrect: and. even if correct, could
be had by application 10 The station with
out COST"
Director True continues:
There is large class of fertilizers on
the market which are not strictly fraud
ulent, although eXtraVagant claims are
made Tor them. They are often sold II
low prices bu; are nevertheless very ex-
pensiye. They are sold al low prices be
cause they contain very small amounts
OF fertilizing constituents in the form OF
low-grade materials. the greater part of
IL may be laid down as a general rule
that such low-Erade fertilizers are actu-
ally more expensive than higE-gradc
goods. Ii costs just much TO mix. bag
and snip ton OF material furnishing ff-
ty pounds Of actual fertilizine constitu-
ents tphosphoric acid, potash and nitro
gem as X does the same amount of fer
tilizer furnishing 500 pounds OF valuable /
constituents. The farmer therefore must I
be guided not by the price per ton. but /
by the actual amounts OF fertiiizing con-
stituents which the fertilizer contains I
and the requirements Of his own crops /
and soils.
The purchaser Of fertilizers is general /
ly, but not always, justified in regard |
ing with suspicion a fertilizer for which ,
extraordinary claims are made. While 4
the best fertilizing neutrality-suspicious. |
pilates, potash, salts nitrates and am
as tankase, dried blood, cetton-seed meal /
etc.-haYe become standard articles of /
commerce and there is no good reason /
why fertilizers compounded from them
should not stand on their merits and be |
sold under easily understood names. alb /
surd names and eXtravagant claims have 1
IN many cases east suspicion upon mix |
tures Of these standard articles which are |
really hish-grade fertilizers"
DIR {. ". Dabney. referring to this /
practice has said:
Farmers who take their life work Sc
riously and study earnestly the expert /
mental work Of the State stations, for the |
purpose Of informing themselves with re-
gard to the useful ingredients of fertil- 4
izors, the proper method of applying /
them, and such matters are get 1
ting more and more into the habit of +!
buying the raw materials for fertilizers /
and mixing them themselves, or else they |
have a compound mixed at a factory ac- |
cOrding 10 their own formula and from /
materials OF their own selection"
Hank WRtchman May Die.
Fishery Mo Nov 24-Early vester-