The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1911-04-06
OF INTEREST TO FARMERS.
How the Fertilizers Are Analysed
at Clemson College.


the inspection and analysis of COM
mercial fertilizers, South Carolina
would be made the dumping ground
for fertilizers that could not be sold
in States having an inspection law.
No one, not even a chemist, without
a chemical analysis can tell the diff
ference in the value, for instance,
of an S-3-S fertilizer and a lO-4-4
fertilizer. The farmers would SIM
ply be at the mercy of the manu-
facturer land there are always some
unscrupulous manufacturers were
it not for the fertilizer analysis con-
Quoted by Clemson college. 1t is
the purpose of this article to show
how this analysis is carried on.
The General Assembly of South
Carolina makes laws governing the
inspection and analysis of CONNER
cial fertilizers. and the board of
trustees simply carry out these laws.
There are two kinds of samples,
namely, official samples. drawn by
the college inspectors and farmers
samples" that may be drawn by any
purchaser in manner prescribed by
law. For the collection of official
samples the State is divided into
fourteen districts. with an Inspector
for each district. These ispectors
canvass the several districts and Sc
cure samples wherever they may
find fertilizers. These samples are
placed in thirty-two ounce bottles,
sealed and numbered in the pres
ence of witness who writes with
the Inspector an affidavit to the ef-
feet that the sample is a just and
fair one and drawn in accordance
with the law. These samples are
then sent to Mr. H NJ Stackhouse.
secretary of the board Of fertilizer
control.
Upon receipt of these samples by
MIR Stackhouse they are turned over
to the chemical department by num-
ber only and skilled chemists are d.
rected to test for the ingredients
claimed by the manufacturer. The
name of the manufacturer aud the
percentage of each ingredient
claimed by the manufacturer is not
known to the chemist. The chemist
is. however, given the Ingredient
but not the amount. or percentage,
guaranteed by the manufacturer for
the following reasons: If, for In
stance, potash alone is claimed by
the manufacturer, it is utter folly
and waste of time and money to look
for phosphoric acid and ammonia.
1t takes just as much time and costs
lust as much money to prove the
absence of an ingredient as it docs
to determine the percentage OF an
ingredient. The chemist will have
to analyze about l, 400 official sam
Piles this season, and this means
about 1000 separate determinations.
1t will be impossible for them to
complete this work before the first
of July. Now, if they were required
to make a complete analysis Of any
fertilizers sent in there is no telling
wnen the work of the season would
be completed.
When an analysis is completed the
chief chemist sends the result of the
analysis to the secretary of the
board of fertilizer control. Should
the sample fall below guarantee in
any ingredient the secretary returns
the sample and the chemists are re-
uuired to make another analysis to
correct or confirm the first analysis.
The results of the analyses are then
published and every manufacturer
whose goods fall below the limit
prescribed by law (37) has his name
published in black letters with a
black index hand pointing to it.
These results are published in bulle-