Adulteration of Manures 



in a co-operative manner there can be no doubt 

 that the services such a union could render would 

 be enormous, and they would also benefit the small 

 holders who are naturally the least efficiently pro- 

 tected. In the meantuue farmers would do well 

 to club together and buy in common, each bearing 

 a proportional part of the cost of analysis. 



Generally speaking, manures in the form of salts 

 are the least subject to adulteration, and for the 

 others, buying first hand diminishes the risk of 

 being deceived. 



Compound and organic manures are much 

 adulterated, although phosphates do not escape 

 altogether. All sorts of things are used as adul- 

 terants, and nearly every manure has its own. 

 The chief material of each is always of little 

 value ; it is often quite useless, and in some 

 cases it is a substance known to be harmful to 

 vegetation. 



The most commonly employed is sand. It 

 appears that there are actually firms selling sand in 

 four grades of fineness intended for adulterating 

 purposes. Then come ground glass, sawdust, peat, 

 ordinary earth, very often cinders, waste from 

 charcoal furnaces, charcoal dust, plaster, mineral 

 phosphates, salts from skin preserving, common 

 salt, the calcined residue of distilleries, sometimes 

 kainite, etc. 



The kainite employed in the adulteration of 

 Chili nitrates sometimes has disastrous consequences 

 because of its chloride of magnesia [MgClg]. The 

 [MgClo] which the kainite contains eats the plants, 

 and is even capable of killing those to which it is 



27 



