262 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. 



Allowing 12.5 cents per pound of soluble phosphoric acid, 20 

 cents per pound of nitrogen, there are but 6 cents left per 

 pound' of potassium oxide (in the form of sulphate) to make 

 up the price of the rectified genuine Peruvian guano to $60 

 per ton of 2,000 pounds, the amount charged for it in the 

 retail trade at the office of the agents, No. 63 Pine Street, 

 New York City. This new form of the Peruvian guano takes 

 thus a foremost rank in the present condition of our trade in 

 commercial fertilizers, — among the rich nitrogenous super- 

 phosphates, — on account of a reasonable price, as well as a 

 suitable condition of its constituents for immediate action. 



Encouraged, it seems, by the general favorable criticism 

 which the introduction of a guaranteed rectified genuine Peru- 

 vian guano has received, on the part of all progressive agri- 

 culturists throughout the entire country, as well as animated 

 with the intention to meet the more exacting regulations 

 regarding the trade in commercial fertilizers, the parties 

 interested in the sale of the genuine Peruvian guano are 

 induced to make for the future some important concessions 

 to their patrons at large in regard to the sale of the raw 

 genuine Peruvian guano, which cannot fail to engage the 

 serious attention of the farming community, as well as of the 

 dealers in commercial fertilizers. A disinterested considera- 

 tion of the stand-point assumed in two previous reports 

 regarding the condition of our supply of Peruvian guano, 

 renders it but an act of justice on my part, that any improve- 

 ment in the mode of selling it should be promptly recognized, 

 for the mutual benefit of dealers and consumers. To meet this 

 obligation in the most acceptable way, I propose to enter here 

 on record an abstract from a business circular, as far as it 

 bears on the main question under discussion : — 



"Peruvian Guano Guaranteed. — The guano found in the deposits lately 

 discovered in Peru and on the Lobos Islands, contains the same fertilizing 

 ingredients that characterized the Chincha and Guanape guanos, though in 

 different relative proportions. The new guanos, as a general rule, contain 

 less ammonia, but at the same time are considerably richer in phosphoric 

 acid and potassa. It is a most noteworthy fact, which experience, as far 

 as it goes, has established, that even among samples of guanos taken from 

 the same locality, the loss ammonia they contain, the larger is the propor- 

 tion found in them of phosphoric acid and potassa. To such an extent is 

 this the case, that, within certain limits, all Peruvian guanos are of the 

 same agricultural value. 



