322 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



No. I., from Messrs. Bowker & Co., Boston, Mass., was 

 of reddish-white color, and a distinct, coarse crystallization. 

 No. II. was collected of H. Phelps, Northampton, Mass. It 

 was of the usual grayish-white color, and of good crystal- 

 Knic condition. It represents, to some extent, the variation 

 which we notice in our markets. One ton sold, at the begin- 

 ning of the season, at seventy-five dollars, or twenty-four 

 cents per pound of its nitrogen. The manufacture of this 

 article is, as is well known, under government control, and 

 its guaranteed average composition is usually stated as fol- 

 lows : — 



Per cent. 



Sodium nitrate 95.00 



Sodium chloride 2.50 



Sodium sulphate, &c 50 



Moisture 2.00 



100.00 



The prospects of an ample supply of this saline for many 

 years are very encouraging, as may be inferred from the 

 following statement : — 



Along the Pacific coast of South America, extending from 

 the fourth to the fortieth degree of south latitude, about 

 twenty-four hundred miles along the slope of the Andes 

 to the sea, in Bolivia, Peru, and part of Chili, there has 

 been found a line of deposits of sodium nitrate, commonly 

 called Chili saltpetre. The existence of such deposits in 

 Southern Peru — Atacama — had been known for many 

 years previous to the discovery of their extension into 

 Bolivia and Cliili. The dry soil of the larger portion i^ 

 these rainless sections of those countries is pervaded in some 

 degree with these deposits. The beds are varying in thick- 

 ness, and are covered with from one to ten yards' depth of 

 earth or half-formed sandstone. The material of which they 

 are composed is called by the natives "caliche," and it con- 

 tains from fifty to seventy-five per cent of sodium nitrate. 

 It is estimated that the quantity of this saline compound 

 in the Province of Tarapaca alone, within an area of fifty 

 square leagues, is not less than sixty-three million tons. 

 The annual production of the sodium nitrate is for the 

 present limited, by the decision of the governments, to 

 five million quintals, or to from forty-four to forty-five 



