Report to the General Meeting. v 



knowledge of the sustenance required by or taken up by plants, 

 have, after mature deliberation, agreed to the following Report of 

 their Chemical Committee, in the hope that while an immediate 

 personal privilege is conferred by it on the Members of the 

 Society, a decisive step will have been taken for the attainment 

 of the more remote, but not less certain advantao-es resultinsf 

 from a well-organized system of chemical research, on questions 

 connected with the mutual relations of the plant and soil, and 

 from analytical investigations into the composition and value of 

 substances produced by the farmer or employed in his ope- 

 rations. 



^' REPORT OF THE CHEMICAL COMMITTEE. 



" The Committee recommend that in future the privilege of ob- 

 taining analyses of manures, agricultural products, and soils, at the 

 following reduced rates, be made a privilege of all Members of the 

 Society. 



"No. 1. An opinion as to the genuineness of a manure in the 

 market, *ls. 6d. By this is meant such an opinion as could be 

 formed by a scientific person, by inspection, with a few simple con- 

 firmatory experiments. — [It will protect from fraud, but is not calcu- 

 lated to assist materially in the choice of the best specimens, where all 

 are genuine; it will inform the applicant whether a specimen of guano 

 or oilcake, for instance, be adulterated or not ; but will not touch the 

 question of its relative value as a pure specimen. Such an opinion 

 will only apply to ordinary market articles, as guano, oilcake, super- 

 phosphate of lime, sulphate of ammonia, gypsum, common salt, &c.] 

 No. 2. Guano. A determination of the nitrogen (ammonia), or of the 

 same and of the earthy phosphates, &c., 1/. The following is an 

 instance, taken at random, of such an analysis: — Water, 17 '95; 

 organic matter and ammonial salts, 51 '39; sand, &c., 1*34; earthy 

 phosphate, principally phosphate of lime, 20*98; alkaline salts, and 

 loss to make up the difference, often consisting of common salt, &c., 

 8-34: total, 100*00. This is all that is needed to give the agri- 

 cultural value of guano, or a close approximation to it. No. 3. Lime- 

 stone. The proportion of lime, 7^. 6d. ; the proportion of magnesia, 

 10*.; the proportion of lime and magnesia, \6s. This analysis is 

 sufficient for many purposes ; but in most limestones, sulphur, lime, 

 phosphorus, and magnesia are present. The next analysis is better 

 for farmers, inasmuch as it is impossible to say how much of the eflTect 



