328 TALKS ON MANURES. 



Value per ion of 2,000 Ibs. 



Ammonia 17.41 per cent 00.93 



Soluble phosphoric acid.. 5.00 " " 10.00 



Reverted " " .. 4.00 " " 6.40 



Insoluble " " .. 75 " " 30 



Potash 2.00 " 3.00 



5=80.03 

 Selling price per ton of 2,000 Ibs $40.00 



Ichaboe guano, which was largely imported into England in 

 1844-5, and used extensively as a manure for turnips, contained, 

 on the average, ?i per cent of ammonia, and 14 per cent of phos- 

 phoric acid. Its value at the present rates we may estimate as 

 follows : 



Ammonia, 7i per cent 026.25 



Soluble Phosphoric acid, 4 per cent 8.00 



Reverted "10 " !' 00 



" tf;>U.'J5 

 Selling price per ton of 2,000 Ibs $21.80 



The potash is not given, or this would probably add four or five 

 dollars to its estimated value. 



" All of which goes to show," said the Deacon, " that the Peru- 

 vian Government is asking, in proportion to value, from two to 

 two and a half times as much for guano as was charged twenty- 

 five or thirty years ago. That first cargo of guano, sold in New 

 York under the new guarantee, in 1877, for $56 per ton, is worth 

 no more than the Ichaboe guano sold in England hi 1845, for less 

 than $22 per ton ! 



" And furthermore," continued the Deacon, " from all that I can 

 learn, the guano of the present day is not only far poorer in nitro- 

 gen than it was formerly, but the nitrogen is not as soluble, and 

 consequently not so valuable, pound for pound. Much of the 

 guano of the present day bears about the same relation to genuine 

 old-fashioned guano, as leached ashes do to unleached, or as a ton 

 of manure that has been leached in the barn-yard does to a ton 

 that has been kept under cover." 



"True, to a certain extent," said the Doctor, "but you must 

 recollect that this * guaranteed ' guano is now sold by analysis. 

 You pay for what you get and no more." 



" Exactly," said the Deacon, " but what you get is not so good. 

 A pound of nitrogen in the leached guano is not as available or as 

 valuable as a pound of nitrogen in the unleached guano. An this 

 fact ought to be understood." 



" One thing," said I, "seems clear. The Peruvian Government 

 is charging a considerably higher price for guano, in proportion 

 to its actual value, than was charged 20 or 25 years ago. It may 



