328 TALKS Ol!i MANUEBS. 



Value per ton o/ 2,000 lb«. 



Ammonia 17.41 per cent $60.93 



Soluble phosphoric acid.. 5 00 " " 10.00 



Kevorted " " .. 4.00 " " 6.40 



Insoluble " " .. 75 " " 30 



Potagh 3.00 " " 3.00 



*80.63 

 Selling price per ton of 2,000 lbs $40.00 



Ichaboe guano, which was largely imported into England in 

 l844:-5, and used extensively as a manure for turnips, contained, 

 on the average, 7+ 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 $26.25 



Soluble Phosphoric acid, 4 per cent 8.00 



Kevertud " " 10 " 16.00 



' $50.25 

 Selling price per ton of 2,000 lbs $31.80 



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

 dollars to its estimated value. 



"All of whicli 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 in 1845, for lcs3 

 than $23 per ton ! 



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

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

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

 consequently not so valuable, pound for pound. ^luch 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 tlie unleached guano. An this 

 fact ought to be understood." 



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

 is charging a consid( rably higher price for guano, in proportion 

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



I 



