ANALYTICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 403 



guano is a fancy one, but it is one which many are quite willing 

 to pay if the article is genuine, and it is a manifesb injustice to 

 sell ammonia in the form of sulphate, as if it were the ammonia 

 of genuine guano. 



Fortunately, the adulteration is easily detected by any chemist 

 who makes a study of it, for genuine guano is a complex 

 substance, whose various constituents bear certain proportions 

 to each other, so that when any one ingredient, such as ammonia, 

 is high, others are found to vary in a corresponding manner. 



Nitrogenous manures are the great want of high farming, and 

 it is gratifying to find that the supply of these is now so 

 abundant, and the prices so low in comparison with those of 

 recent years. Nitrate of soda and sulphate of ammonia, which 

 are the most powerful and valuable of all nitrogenous manures, 

 are now to be had at prices which will do much to brighten 

 the prospects of agriculture in the immediate future ; and the 

 recent improvements made by Bielby and Grouven, in the 

 extraction of ammonia from paraffin shales, coals, turf, and 

 similar substances, afford the prospect of a cheap and ever- 

 increasing supply of sulphate of ammonia for the use of 

 farmers. 



FricUy Comfrey. — This is a plant which has been long before 

 the public, and has been strongly recommended as a means of 

 giving abundant green fodder on a limited area. It does not 

 seem to have obtained much popularity north of the Tweed, but 

 there seems no reason why it should not be grown as a very 

 useful adjunct to the resources of the farm. 



I received two samples from Mr Mackenzie of Portmore, and 

 made an analysis of them. No. 1 was cut in the young state 

 when it was not more than a foot high, and No. 2 was taken 

 from the same bed when about 3 feet high — 



AILuminoid matter, 



Oil, .... 



Carljohydrates, (S:c., 



Water, ..... 



"Wuody iibre, ... 



Ash, ..... 



100-00 l(X)-0() 



These analyses show that this plant is an excellent kind of 

 fodder. It consists, as turnips do, uf upwards of 90 per cent, of 

 water, but the amount of albuminoid matter it contains is more 

 than doulde that usually contained in turnips. It requires to 

 be well nourished in order to produce good results ; but it is 

 said that, when properly manurc<l and cultivated, it produces 

 from 50 to GO tons per acre of green fodiler annually. 



