PRACTICE WITH SCIENCE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2597, 3 August 1882, Page 4

PRACTICE WITH SCIENCE.

BBVBIATION3, Amonga the many interesting papers which may always be looked for in the “Journal ” of the Boyal Agricultural Society none, perhaps, are of greater .practical value than the reports of the Consulting Chemist: and the Consulting Botanist. No doubt, one reason of this is that they are so indubitably founded on fact, and another that they represent current experience of seme of —--Biorbfotner farmers in unlucky purchases of seeds, manures, and feeding staffs. Mr Carruthers reports the examination of eighty samples of grass seeds as, o.a the whole, satisfactory, the ohUf exception being that in certain mixtures intended for permanent pasture he found a large preponderance of seeds c£ short-lived grasses. Meadow foxtail, one of the earliest -flowering grasses, of which only about 20 per cent, of the seeds germinate as a rnle, showed - some improvement. A sample of florin consisted of empty chaff and unripe seeds which would not germinate at all, and some almost -worthless samples of dogetail and rough muadow gross were also reported on. Mr Carruthers affirms that the annual-lose from sowing bad grasses and worthless -seeds of good grasses is very great, and recommends cultivators instead of purchasing prepared mixtures to buy in separate parcels the seeds they pro£ose to sow and to mix -them themselves. It always advisable to tost the germinating power of seeds before sowing, and ire described the process in these columns in detail about a year ago. The samples of clover seeds and of- cereals have been generally good. Bat one sample of oats contained a plentiful admixture of the seeds of cleavers or goose grass, mustard, corncockle, climbing bistort, and peppnrwort. The official report is followed by another on laying down land to permanent pasture, but this and another paper by Mr iDa Lv-.me on the same subject we reserve for a separate notice.

Various members of the society submitted to the consulting chemist, Dr. Voelcker, no less than 1058 samples for analysis between December Ist, 1880, and December lit, 1881, These included 319 feeding cokes, 376 superphosphates and dissolved bones, and compound manures ; 87 waters, €6 guanos, 61 samples of bones, bone dust, and boiled bones; 60 soils, 25 refuse manures and the same number of samples of nitrate of soda, 24 feeding meals, 22 samples of wool dust and shoddy, and 21 of limestone, chalk, and minerals. Beceived in lesser numbers were samples cf fish guano, sulphate of ammonia, potash salts, soot, tewags and v sewage manures, manure rape dust, cattle spices, and a solitary sample of milk ; there were also eight examinations for poison. Superphosphates, bone dust, compound artificial manures and feeding cakes were fewer in number than usual, while applications for analyses of soils, with reports on their chemical and physical properties, and the best means of-raising their productiveness, show an hioreaie. From other aouroes, also, wel‘ am that demands for soil analysis are .on the increase, and this is a —-gratifying'feature in our home agriculture, especially when we learn that even so recently as four or five years ago analyses of and opinions on soils were scarcely ever asked lor.

Artificial manures, it appears, are often •old under wrong n- mes; thus, steamed bones, or the refute bones of glue and s-zj makers, are sometimes sold as bone dust, and charged for at the full rate of raw bonedust, though the former contains about onethird less nitrogen than the latter, and are worth fully £1 less per ton. Purely mineral phosphates, again, are sold as bone manures, at much above their real value. A case is mentioned in which £6 10s a ton tras paid for a so-called bone manure, which was really a mineral phosphate that would have b en dear at £4 10s. On the other hand, two very unusual instances are given, in which artificial manures were sold below their true market value, their composition being ouch that they ocnld not have been •old legitimately, even without profit, at the prices paid ; the one was a nitrophospbate ' ,a-'.4 the other a bone compound. Dr, Voelokor’s remarks on these oases are well ;rth reading. “ It appears to me that ‘her the manufacturers were never paid for tnemonures by the dealer who sold them at the remarkably low price in order to dispose of them without difficulty, or that, for some iUegitimato purpose or other, sma.ll quantities of the manures were prepared of very superior quality, which it was not intended to supply to the general public. I mention these particulars because occasionally, a fraudulent use is made of hona fide manure analysis. Buyers of manures are often satisfied by having presented to them tho analysis and favorable report of a respectable chemist, and never trouble themselves to have tested an delivery the manure bought on tho strength of such analysis." On the advantages of buying artificial manures by analysis, that i», securing from the seller a guarantee that tho quality of the manure shall be at least equal to that of a given analysis, the following oases are illns(native:—A special quality of dissolved bones eurehaued at £8 7s 6d per ton, less discount for cash, was guaranteed to contain 40 per cent, of phosphate and 8 per cent, of ammonia ; on analysis it showed a deficiency ot 8J per cent, of phosphates, and a define--Mod of I 7» per ton ▼#» therefore r*.

commended. A turnip manure bought at £8 per ton, lees discount, was guaranteed to possess 20 to 21 per cent, soluble phosphate, and 2i to 8 per cent, ammonia, but the latter ingredient was found to be deficient, and wl allowance of 12s per ton was claimed. Peruvian guano, for which £U per ton, net cash, was charged, was guaranteed to contain EG to 80 per cent, - phosphates, and 12 per coat, ammonia, but S the analysis preyed that the phosphates were 7 per cent., and the ammonia per cent, below the guarantee, so that the actual value of the guano was £4 Ifi* 6d per ton less than that represented in the analysis on the of which it was bought. The manner in which commercial transactions in Peruvian guano are carried on is again denounced as unsatisfactory, and particularly the practice of unscrupulous manure dealers in Belling guano of inferior quality at the top price asked for high quality guano. Dr. Toelcker thinks that a fraudulent use is sometimes made of official analyses of cargoes ; of guano of good quality, and that inferior guanos are sold to farmers on the strength of analytes which refer to superior cargoes, and not to the inferior gcsnos from which the buyer has been supplied Two case* are cited of guanos sold, the one at £8 17s'6d per ton in Liverpool, the other at £l2 5s in Liverpool, and yet the former was, if anything, rather better than the latter. It is mentioned that raw Peruvian guano can now be bought in a finely-sifted, dry, powdery condition on the basis of a guaranteed percentage of ammonia, thus doing away with the uncertainty which must prevail when it ie sold in bard, unbroken Inmps. The chemical committee of the Society still express their regret 1 that many members who send samples for -analysis will not furnish the names and addresses of the dealers. They refer to a number cf cases in which they would have liked to have exposed the names of the sellers. For example, au artificial manure said to contain blood, bone, guano, <feo., was sold at £7 10s in Jersey; it was found that about three-quarters of its weight was made up of moisture and useless earthy matters, and ■it would have been dear at £3 a ton. An artificial manure bought as extra top-dressing at £lO 5s per ton was found to be so far'below the printed guarantee by which it was purchased that it was not worth more than £5 -os a ton. A Norfolk farmer bought two tons of turnip manure at £6 10s per ton, cash, without guarantee, and on analysis Dr. Voolcker decided it was hardly worth £2 10s per ton. On paying the bill the purchaser asked’for the usual 10 per cent, discount for cash, whereupon the seller inf ormed him that he could not afford to give discount, as the manure was so well made that he ought really to tell it at a higher price! A guano guaranteed to contain 9* per cent, of ammonia was found to possess only 1 per cents its price was £l2 per ton for cash, and yet its actual value was not more than £2 In another case a nitrate of soda bought at £l6 per ton was so shamefully adulterated with common salt as to be worth only £9 16s a ton. Another sample sold as nitrate of soda turned out to be nothing but sulphate of soda. In a few instances members gave the names of the - parties from whom their purchases were made, and these are published in the “Journal.”