PKOCEELING^S AT GENERAL MEETINGS. 31 



very few samples of rough bones, crushed bones, or bone-dust, but that nearly all are 

 samples of bone meal. The liner that bones are ground the more valuable are they as a 

 manure, and money spent in grinding is well spent. The average composition of the 

 bone samples is 51 percent, of phosphates and nearly 4^ of ammonia. This is a high 

 average, and it shows that the bones supplied have been of good quality. A few of the 

 samples analysed have evidently not been pure bones. Some contain less phosphates 

 and more ammonia than can occur in genuine bones. Others contain more of both than 

 genuine bones can contain. These have evidently been mixtures ; but as I have not seen 

 the samples, I have no means of knowing of what they were composed. They are able 

 to be sold cheaper than genuine bones. The average price of bone meal, I find, is £8, 2s. 

 per ton, while that of the mixtures is £7, 9s. It would be better if such mixtures were 

 not sold as bone meal, but rather under some name indicating their character. There 

 is no name in common use indicating a mixture of nitrogenous matter and insoluble 

 phosphate, which need not be bone. Perhaps the term " nitrophosphate '' would 

 describe them better than any other ; and when bones enter largely into their composi- 

 tion, they might be called "bone nitrophosphate." Very few of the bone manures 

 seem to have been overcharged. One sample from the Wester Ross Association has 

 been bought at about £1 per ton above the average value, and a few others have been 

 bought by other associations at from 10s. to los. per ton over the average value ; but 

 perhaps these have been ground to a very fine flour, and may have been well worth the 

 extra cost. 



I come next to dissolved bones, which is the favourite manure. A careful examina- 

 tion of the analyses shows plainly that much that is sold under the name of " dissolved 

 bones " has no claim to such a title. Probably all the samples had some bone material 

 in them, but there has been a great deal of mixing. The peculiarity of dissolved bones is 

 that it is a manure containing nitrogenous matter along with soluble phosphate. And 

 here again we are in want of a name to indicate such a manure when it does not consist 

 of bone. A manure consisting of some nitrogenous material such as shoddy, blood, 

 horn dust, &c., along with superphosphate, is naturally sold as "dissolved bones" for 

 want of some more accurate name. Perhaps " nitrosuperphosphate " would be a good 

 name for such manures. They may be very good manures— quite as good as dissolved 

 bones, or perhaps better — but it is a pity to give them a name which is misleading. 

 The word " bone" has a chai-m for a farmer, and dissolved bones have a value which 

 might almost be called sentimental. 



In the practical business of life, however, when w^e are carrying on an industry for the 

 sake of profit, the indulgence of sentiment is frer[uently found to be very disadvan- 

 tageous, and I think the analyses before us show that farmers may pay too dearly for 

 the sentiment surrounding -the term " dissolved bones." 



From an examination of the ordinary analyses of dissolved bones, it is not always 

 possible for a chemist to say whether they are analyses of genuine dissolved bones or 

 not. They may have all the characters of analyses of pure bones, and yet may have 

 been obtained from mixtures into whose composition bones did not enter. A very 

 critical examination and minute analysis may show that an imitation manure is in whole 

 or in part not a bone manure ; but in the ordinary practice of manure analyses a well- 

 made mixture i»a.sses easily for a sample of pure dissolved bones, so that no chemist is 

 entitled to .say, from the results of his analysis, that any sample consists of pure dis- 

 solved bones or genuine dissolved bones. When a mixture is made unskilfully, then a 

 chemist is able to afiirm quite positively, from the results of his analysis, that it is not 

 a sample of genuine or pure dissolved bones. 



From the 6.5 analyses of di.ssolved bones sent in, I have selected 16 which cannet 

 possibly haae been derived from genuine bones dissolved in sulphuric acid. I have no 

 means of knowing what they are or how they were made, but their analyses show that 

 they have a comj)Osition interior to dissolved liones, and they amount to one-fourth of 

 the whole number of samples. It may \)e fairly pre.snmed that they are composed, in 

 ]»art at least, of materials cheaper than bones, and we should therefore expect tnat their 

 price Would be proportionately small. 



The average price of the 49 samples whose analyses more or less resemble that of 

 !' ■ dissolve«l bones, is £7, f'S. per ton. An<l by seleeting units ba^ ' ' ' 



\ 'H — viz., 3s. t>d. per unit of soluble phosphate, 2s. per unit of ii - 



phate, and 16s. per unit of ammonia— I find that the average value of these manures, 

 as eal(ulate<l from their anal y^is, is also £7, 5s. These are units to which no objection 

 can he taken, tor they are fi.xed l>y the prices themselves. 



By applying these imits to the 14 samples which are not real di.ssolved bones, I find 



that their average value is £5, 8s. pnr ton. Their rr selling price, however, is £6, 



17s. per ton, so that they have Wen sold at an av. : £1, l»s. j>er ton de.nrer than 



genuine dissolved Itoues. But that is talking a verj* eiinrituble view of the matter, for 

 ad we chosi-n units of lower value eorresjtondine tothe lower value of the r- -*"•"» of 

 which the imitations were made, wo shoulil ha.o found that there was an av. • er- 



charge of more than £2 per ton on these spurions dissolved bones. Even at the higher 



