National Fertilizer Ass'n v. Bradley

18 F. Supp. 263, 1936 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1636
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. South Carolina
DecidedDecember 8, 1936
DocketEquity No. 513
StatusPublished

This text of 18 F. Supp. 263 (National Fertilizer Ass'n v. Bradley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
National Fertilizer Ass'n v. Bradley, 18 F. Supp. 263, 1936 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1636 (southcarolinawd 1936).

Opinion

GLENN, District Judge

(after stating the facts as above).

The function of an opinion in an equity case where full findings of fact and conclusions of law, separately stated, are also filed, is to tie the two together so as to clarify and explain the decision of the court. Manifestly, Equity Rule 70%, 28 U.S.C.A. following section 723, reading as set out below2 requires the trial court to present its findings of fact on vital matters in a much more definite way than was formerly the practice. An appellate court can much better ascertain the views of the trial court about questions of fact when they are separately stated than disentangle them from a general opinion in which findings of fact are intimately intermingled with legal propositions. In this particular case, we have taken the view that a full statement of the findings of fact is not only necessary, but is the most important element in the decision of the case. After all, in constitutional cases where the attack on a state statute is made on the ground of arbitrariness, impossibility of enforcement and unreasonable- hardship, the decision of the final issue depends essentially upon the factual showing. The Supreme Court of the United States has only recently in the Stockyards Case (St. Joseph Stock Yards Co. v. United States, 298 U.S. 38, 56 S.Ct. 720, 80 L.Ed. 1033, and in the case of Nashville, C. & St. L. Railway v. Walters, 294 U.S. 405, 55 S.Ct. 486, 79 L.Ed. 949, pointed out that in cases of this character the decision of the questions of fact is the important matter both in the trial court and on final appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Subject-matter of the Suit.

Agriculture is the chief industry of the state of South Carolina. The census of 1930 shows that most of the adults in the state were engaged in farming and derived their chief support from agriculture. The witness, Hamilton, thoroughly familiar with agriculture in South Carolina, testifies as follows: “Now, my work, that has been continuously with the farmers, and one of the greatest problems that we have and the subject which I have had to give more information on to the farmers in South Carolina is fertilizer. We have in South Carolina 165,000 farmers — I don’t mean rural population, but 165,000 farms or farmers which include share-croppers, ten[275]*275ants, wage hands and the land owners. Almost without exception every one of those farmers, his living and his welfare is affected by fertilizer because every one of them that grows any cash crop uses fertilizer with the exception, I will admit, in the time of depression when they don’t have money to buy fertilizer. If it went up, in case they choose to do without it, they do without it because they cannot pay for it.” The use of commercial fertilizers in agriculture has always been a practice in this state. As testified in this case, most of the farmers in South Carolina use commercial fertilizer, and the animal expenditure therefor runs into the millions of dollars. Of course, large use is made of the manure obtained from domestic animals on the farms themselves, but from the very beginning it has been recognized that this source is not only inadequate so far as quantity is concerned, but has not the variety of content necessary for producing the staple crops of the state. Wise or unwise, South Carolina has always produced marketable crops such as cotton, truck, and tobacco very greatly out of proportion to the livestock raised in the state. To meet this demand for commercial fertilizer corporations have developed this enormous business. The commercial fertilizers are manufactured and sold in this state, and such manufacture and sale have inevitably been the subject matter of legislation by the state Legislature.

In the early nineties an agricultural college was established in the state. This institution, Clemson Agricultural College, has grown rapidly and has through many agencies spread the information with reference to the use of fertilizers to the farmers themselves. By reason of federal and state legislation and enabling appropriations, county demonstration agents have been abroad in the land, and with more or less efficiency and success have brought the benefits of scientific investigation and experiment to the farmers and enlightened them on the proper use of commercial fertilizers. Clemson Agricultural College has been largely supported by a sales tax on the fertilizers used in the state. The theory is that the college and its ancillary services are primarily for the farmers and it is nothing but just that the proceeds of the sales should support this institution and its extension work. Therefore, we find that the trustees of this institution are logically charged with the' enforcement of the fertilizer law. These trustees are, therefore, properly named as the defendants in this suit.

Statutes of the state have for years made it necessary for the fertilizer companies to show by way of tag the contents of the particular mixture contained in the sack. As pointed out in the findings of fact in great detail, the farming population has for a long time known the particular value of three major plant food elements. These three plant foods are phosphoric acid, nitrogen, and potassium. The terminology used in statute and regulation has not always been uniform or accurate. Phosphoric acid is valuable because it contains a large percentage of the ultimate chemical element phosphorus. Nitrogen is the ultimate chemical element of value contained in the substances variously referred to as nitrogen and ammonia. Potassium is the ultimate chemical element contained in the substance more frequently referred to as potash. So in this discussion we refer to these major plant foods as phosphoric acid, nitrates, and potash. For many years the law required the analysis of the final mixture as put into the sack to be shown on the tag attached thereto and to reveal the percentage, in the final mixture, of these three major plant foods.

As science and experience have enlightened the farmers about the use of fertilizer, regulation by the Legislature has required the publication on the tag of increasing information. Several years ago a statute was passed requiring the fertilizer companies to declare from what sources these major plant foods were obtained. This requirement was generally found to be so reasonable and to meet such a reasonable need for information on the part of the farmers that no serious question has ever been, made of its propriety in fact or in law. Additional legislation has required the information to be given with greater particularity than this so far as the nitrates are concerned. The function of the nitrates generally is to speed the growth of the plant during the growing season. Nitrates, if rapidly soluble, accelerate the growth of the plant itself in a very positive and evident way. Nitrates, when less soluble, are no less valuable for certain types of crops on certain types of soil, but the effects are distributed over a longer period and the increased rate of growth not so noticeable. It was, therefore, nothing but [276]

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

United States v. Coombs
37 U.S. 72 (Supreme Court, 1838)
Presser v. Illinois
116 U.S. 252 (Supreme Court, 1886)
Bauman v. Ross
167 U.S. 548 (Supreme Court, 1897)
Holden v. Hardy
169 U.S. 366 (Supreme Court, 1898)
New York Ex Rel. Silz v. Hesterberg
211 U.S. 31 (Supreme Court, 1908)
Lindsley v. Natural Carbonic Gas Co.
220 U.S. 61 (Supreme Court, 1911)
The Abby Dodge
223 U.S. 166 (Supreme Court, 1912)
Purity Extract & Tonic Co. v. Lynch
226 U.S. 192 (Supreme Court, 1912)
Plymouth Coal Co. v. Pennsylvania
232 U.S. 531 (Supreme Court, 1914)
Erie Railroad v. Williams
233 U.S. 685 (Supreme Court, 1914)
St. Louis Southwestern Railway Co. v. Arkansas
235 U.S. 350 (Supreme Court, 1914)
United States v. Standard Brewery, Inc.
251 U.S. 210 (Supreme Court, 1920)
South Utah Mines & Smelters v. Beaver County
262 U.S. 325 (Supreme Court, 1923)
Graves v. Minnesota
272 U.S. 425 (Supreme Court, 1926)
Phelps v. United States
274 U.S. 341 (Supreme Court, 1927)
Matthews v. Rodgers
284 U.S. 521 (Supreme Court, 1932)
St. Joseph Stock Yards Co. v. United States
298 U.S. 38 (Supreme Court, 1936)
Fox v. Washington
236 U.S. 273 (Supreme Court, 1915)
L'Hote v. New Orleans
177 U.S. 587 (Supreme Court, 1900)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
18 F. Supp. 263, 1936 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1636, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-fertilizer-assn-v-bradley-southcarolinawd-1936.