Patapsco Guano Co. v. North Car. Bd. Of Agriculture, 171 U.S. 345 (1898)

APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED

STATES FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA

Syllabus

The Act of the Legislature of North Carolina of January 21, 1891, must be regarded as an act providing for the inspection of fertilizers and fertilizing materials in order to prevent the practice of imposition on the people of the state, and the charge of twenty-five cents per ton as intended merely to defray the cost of such inspection, and as it is competent for the state to pass laws of this character, the requirement of inspection and payment of its cost does not bring the act into collision with the commercial power vested in Congress, and clearly this cannot be so as to foreign commerce, for clause two of section ten of article one expressly recognizes the validity of state inspection laws, and allows the collection of the amounts necessary for their execution, and the same principle must apply to interstate commerce.

The case is stated in the opinion.