GUANO STANDARD OF MANURE. 101 



the means by which farmers can obtain that information. 

 Farmers find that they need manure, and they have an abiding 

 faith that, unless they are cheated in the quality, Peruvian 

 guano, or some superphosphate, is the best fertilizer they can 

 buy, without really knowing accurately why it is so. I speak 

 of the common farmers, who are apt to think that guano and 

 phosphates, if they are good, will satisfy the wants of their 

 farms. They buy, and are entirely satisfied with the results. 

 There is hardly any manure in the market which, if applied to 

 worn-out soil, will not produce satisfactory results to an ordi- 

 nary farmer. He supposes that he has obtained the value of his 

 money, and is well satisfied that the investment always pays. 

 This is his estimate, based upon his knowledge of the agricul- 

 tural value — the value to himself. He may be paying two or 

 three times as much as the manure is worth. The distinction 

 between the agricultural value and the market value of a 

 manure is a matter of which it is the object of the manure-ven- 

 dors, as a rule, to keep the farmers in ignorance. All fertilizers 

 ought to be sold with an analysis, and a warrant that the goods 

 delivered shall be equal to the analysis. The purchaser is then 

 at liberty, if he suspects fraud, to have a new sample taken, and 

 an analysis made by a competent chemist, and the fraudulent 

 dealer punished, exposed and forced to make good the damage. 

 But that is not the way we do business. The dealer in fertil- 

 izers has his manure analyzed. He sends a sample to a chem- 

 ist, to the State assayer, or somebody else who has a title and is 

 recognized by farmers as an authority ; the analysis is made ; it 

 gives results favorable to the vendor, of course, (he would send 

 no other sample,) and the manure is sold on that analysis. The 

 farmer may very well think of the possibility of the seller of the 

 manure sending one sample to be analyzed and putting upon 

 the market quite a different article ; but if the manure proves 

 satisfactory in its results, he is then convinced, and needs no 

 other proof that the manufacturer is honest, and that the article 

 which he buys is very similar to that which has been analyzed. 

 This is a great mistake. A series of analyses made by Prof. 

 Johnson, already quoted, proved that very few of the manipu- 

 lated guanos or superphosphates which were in the market of 

 Connecticut a few years ago were anywhere near up to the 

 proper standard of market value. They were extensively 



