ANALYTICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 399 



margins for the same mauure. They give a minimum and 

 maximum guarantee, and claim a margin below the minimum ; 

 that is to say, they claim a double margin. There is a want of 

 straightforwardness about that kind of guarantee, and manures 

 offered in that way ought to be avoided. 



There is another kind of guarantee that is a dangerous one 

 for the buyer. It is sometimes expressed in the written 

 guarantee that any deficiency in one constituent may be 

 balanced by excess in another ; such as a deficiency in soluble 

 phosphate to be made good by excess of insoluble phosphate, 

 or by excess of ammonia or of potash. Intelligent manuring 

 cannot go on under such a guarantee, which is based 

 upon the erroneous principle that the only difference between 

 the various constituents of a manure is their price, and that one 

 mixture is as good as another, so long as it contains the same 

 money value of materials. Some of the guarantees of the 

 manures supplied to associations last year were of the kinds 

 above described. They were very deficient manures, but the 

 Society refrain from publishing them, for though they evade the 

 spirit they comply with the letter of Kegulation III. 



A guarantee affords security only when it is a good guarantee, 

 and the exact terms of a guarantee ought to be carefully 

 noted before accepting it. Instances are not wanting in which 

 manures are sold under guarantees, which could not apply to 

 them if the manures were genuine, and it is important that the 

 buyer should be acquainted with the proportion of the various 

 constituents which ought to exist in a genuine manure of the 

 kind he desires to buy. Useful information on this point will 

 be found in Appendix B, p. 21, where all the manures in 

 common use are described, and the proper proportions of their 

 constituents are defined in numljers per cent. 



It is satisfactory that out of so large a number of manures 

 the number of samples showing a marked deficiency is so few. 

 It is a sign that tlie analytical associations throughout the 

 country are doing good work, and the Committee hope that when 

 the benefits derived from such associations becomes better known 

 their number will be largely increased. There are nuiuy 

 districts throughout the country where no such organisations 

 exist, and there is good ground to fear that, for the want of them, 

 the buyers of these districts are annually subjecting themselves 

 to great ])ecuniary loss. They are also losing the op[)ortunity 

 aff<jrded by co-o])eration of becoming better acquainted with the 

 nature and use of artificial manures. 



With the view of encouraging the formation of such associa- 

 tions, and of inducing all those already formed to come under 

 the Society's regulations, the Directors have this year doubled 

 the amount of their grant. The Society now oO'ers to all 



