To regulate the manufacture and sale of commercial fertilizers. Section 1. Be it enacted, &c., That every package of commercial fertilizer sold, offered or exposed for sale, for manurial purposes, within this Commonwealth, shall have plainly stamped thereon the name of the manufacturer, the place of manufacture, the net weight of its contents, and an analysis stating the percentage therein contained of nitrogen in an available form, of potash soluble in water, of soluble and reverted phosphoric acid and of insoluble phosphoric acid: Provided, That any commercial fertilizer sold, offered, or exposed for sale, which shall contain none of the above named constituents shall be exempt from the provisions of this act. Section 2. That every manufacturer or importer of commercial fertilizers as specified in section one of this act shall, on or before the first day of January next ensuing, or before offering them for sale in this Commonwealth, file annually with the Secretary of Agriculture an affidavit showing the amount of said fertilizer sold within the Commonwealth during the last preceding year; and if the said amount shall be one hundred tons or less, he shall pay to the Treasurer of the State the sum of fifteen dollars for each and every brand of such commercial fertilizer sold within the State during the last preceding year; and if the said amount shall exceed one hundred tons, and be less than five hundred tons, he or they shall pay the sum of twenty dollars, as aforesaid; and if the said amount shall be five hundred tons or more, he or they shall pay the sum of thirty dollars, as aforesaid. If such manufacturer or manufacturers, importer or importers, shall not have made any sales within the Commonwealth during the preceding year, he or they shall pay the sum of fifteen dollars, as aforesaid. Every said manufacturer shall, at the same time, file with the Secretary of Agriculture a copy of the analysis required by section one of this act, and shall then be entitled to receive from the Secretary of Agriculture a certificate showing that the provisions of this act have been complied with. Section 3. The Secretary of Agriculture is hereby empowered to collect samples of commercial fertilizers, either in person or by his duly qualified agent or representative, and to have them analyzed, and to publish the results for the information of the public. Section 4. The Secretary of Agriculture, and such assistants, agents, experts, chemists, detectives and counsel as he shall duly authorize for the purpose, shall have full access, ingress and egress to all places of business, factories, farms, buildings, carriages, cars and vessels, used in the manufacture, transportation or sale of any commercial fertilizer. They shall also have power to open any package or vessel containing or supposed to contain any commercial fertilizer, and take therefrom samples for analysis upon tendering the value of said samples. Section 5. Any person selling, offering, or exposing for sale, any commercial fertilizer without the analysis required by section one of this act, or with an analysis stating that it contains a larger percentage of any one or more of the above named constituents that is contained therein, or for the sale of which all the provisions of section two have not been complied with, shall be guilty of misdemeanor, and on conviction shall forfeit a sum not less than twenty-five and not exceeding one hundred dollars for the first offense, and not less than two hundred dollars for each subsequent offense. It shall be the duty of the Secretary of Agriculture to enforce the provisions of this act, and all penalties, costs and fines recovered shall be paid to him or his duly authorized agent, and by him be immediately paid into the State Treasury, to constitute a special fund to be used in accordance with the provisions of section six of this act. Section 6. The money paid into the Treasury under the provisions of this act shall constitute a special fund, from which the cost of selecting samples, making analyses, and other expenses incident to the carrying into effect the provisions of this act, shall be paid: Provided, That the total amount thus expended shall in no case exceed the amount paid into the Treasury. Section 7. The term "commercial fertilizers," as used in this act, shall be taken to mean any and every substance imported, manufactured, prepared or sold for fertilizing or manuring purposes, except barnyard manure, marl, lime and wood ashes, and not exempt by the provisions of section one of this act. Section 8. This act shall go into effect on and after the thirty-first day of December, one thousand nine hundred and one. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed, except that existing laws are to continue in force until this act goes into effect. Approved-The 25th day of March, A. D. 1901. LETTER OF SUBMITTAL. State College, Centre County, Pa., Hon. N. B. Critchfield, Secretary of Agriculture, Harrisburg, Pa.: Dear Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report, giving the results of analysis of the fertilizer samples received during the fall of 1906 from the official sampling agents, together with a prefixed discussion of the results obtained. Very respectfully, WM. FREAR, Chemist. |