COMMERCIAL MANURES. 211 



to sell St. Louis flour or Portland kerosene, or some other manu- 

 factures which might be named. 



I am aware that it is very common to hear observations implying 

 that frauds abound with commercial fertilizers, beyond any other 

 branch of trade. I doubt if this is the case. When you go to the 

 druggist to get powdered rhubarb, or ipecac, or a bottle of wine or 

 brandy, for a sick member of your family, do you always get that 

 which is pure ? When you go to the grocers' for pepper, or ginger, 

 or soap, or cream of tartar, do you never get anything but what 

 you ask for ? Is all which is sold for roasted, ground coflFee quite 

 innocent of peas and rye ? When you buy a coat, does it never 

 contain any more shoddy than is set down in the bill ? 



There is one single fact bearing on the proportion of fraud to 

 fair dealing, in the sale of commercial fertilizers, which comes to 

 my mind with the force of mathematical demonstration. It is 

 the steady and rapid growth of the manufacture and sale, — from 

 nothing to great magnitude, — within a term of less than thirty 

 years. It was about 1840 when Peruvian guano was first imported 

 for agricultural uses. Very nearly at the same time the value of 

 superphosphate, i. e. of a true soluble phosphate, was first recog- 

 nized. The introduction of both was slow during the earlier years 

 following, but latterly it has been more rapid. What amount is 

 now sold annually I cannot state ; but I can give a few facts bear- 

 ing on the subject. In 1839, the first con.signment of Peruvian 

 guano arrived in England. It consisted of thirty bags. The first 

 cargo arrived in England in 1841. About a dozen years later the 

 sales amounted to upwards of £1,000,000 annually. 



One of the most interesting papers relative to commercial fer- 

 tilizers which has come to my notice, is a chapter devoted to the 

 "Industry of Manures," in the Chemical Report of Dr. Hoffman, 

 of the International Exhibition held at the (Sydenham) Crystal 

 Palace in 1864. It is there stated, that the amount of superphos- 

 phate mixed daily at the establishment of Mr. Lawes (one of the 

 earliest manufacturers, as well as one of the most successful, and 

 who deserves the gratitude of every farmer for his untiring labors 

 and liberal expenditures in aid of progress in agriculture), was 

 one hundred tons, and his yearly product was from eighteen thou- 

 sand to twenty thousand tons ; and he estimates the amount made 

 at that time in England to be from one hundred and fifty thousand 

 to two hundred thousand tons annually. A statement more recently 



