DEMAND THE GUARANTEES. 367 



" We furnish raw Peruvian guano in the same condition as it 

 arrives from the islands, and cannot accept complaints regarding its 

 quality after the article has left our warehouse. We guarantee, on 

 the other hand, in the case of the dissolved guano, which we furnish 

 in form of a powder, fit for immediate application, until otherwise 

 stated, — 



" Nitrogen, protected against evaporation, from 8 to 9 per cent. 



"Phosphoric acid, readily soluble in water, from 9 to 10 percent. 



" We promise also to compensate for any difference below the 

 lowest figures stated. In the latter case, we reserve, however, to 

 ourselves the privilege of counting any possible excess of phosphoric 

 acid with its market value, for a possible deficiency in nitrogen, — 

 applying the same principle of adjustment of the commercial value 

 under a reverse condition." 



These two circulars (A and B) need no farther explana- 

 tion ; they tell us plainly that in Europe the variations in the 

 composition of the raw Peruvian guano have been of late 

 rather the rule than the exception, a fact that deserves our 

 particular attention when we consider that the Peruvian gov- 

 ernment has declared that all its customers shall be treated 

 alike. 



To decide upon the price of an article without any guarantee 

 of a definite composition, — with no particular responsibility 

 for compensation, — is, to say the least, a peculiar attitude on 

 the part of any dealer, and would not be recognized as satis- 

 factory in any other branch of business. The Royal Agricult- 

 ural Society of England has but recently addressed a petition 

 to the foreign secretary of the royal ministry, asking him to 

 use his influence in the interest of a better management of the 

 trade in Peruvian guano, and to convince the Peruvian gov- 

 ernment of the propriety of adopting a standard analysis of 

 the guano offered for sale, as the basis of its transactions in 

 that article. The successful introduction of the rules pre- 

 scribed by our law for the regulation of the trade in fertilizers, 

 renders it necessary that our dealers in Peruvian guano, like 

 those dealing in other fertilizers, should be required to give 

 a specified statement of the essential constituents (phosphoric 

 acid and nitrogen) of the articles which they send into our 

 market, and to recognize thereby a corresponding responsi- 

 bility for their sales. 



