Annual Report of the Consulting Chemist for 1878. 347 
Judging from the number of samples of nitrate of soda which 
were received for analysis, this valuable ferliliser, notwithstanding 
the considerable rise in price which took place in the beginning of 
the present year, appears to have been extensively used by the 
British farmer, but not with uniform success. On light land 
more especially, where nitrate of soda was used as a top-dressing 
for cereal crops, it had the effect, in not a few instances which 
have come under my notice, of producing rather rank straw and 
thin grain. 
As a rule, nitrate of soda is used as a spring top-dressing for 
wheat or barley and rarely for other crops. It may, however, 
be applied with much advantage to roots grown with super- 
phosphate or bone-manure. The best time for applying nitrate 
of soda to root-crops is the period after the plants have been 
singled out ; upon mangolds, from 1 to 1 J cwt. of nitrate of 
soda, sown by hand along the rows, has a marvellous effect, which 
is plainly visible in the course of a week or ten days, provided 
rain has fallen in that time and washed the nitrate into the soil. 
I had an opportunity of noticing, in the VVoburn experiments 
this year, the striking effect of nitrate of soda on mangolds. On 
the acre in the rotation experiments where the mangolds were 
top-dressed in spring with 248 lbs. of nitrate of soda, the yield 
in cleaned and topped and tailed mangolds was 18 tons 13 cwts. 
and 20 lbs. ; whilst on the adjoining acre of mangolds, not 
manured with nitrate of soda, the produce in clean roots was 
only 11 tons and 16 cwts. 
In the Quarterly Reports of the Chemical Committee for the 
past year, reference has been made to several cases of grossly 
adulterated samples of nitrate of soda which were sent for 
analysis during that season. I need not therefore refer to them 
in detail in the Annual Report. It may, however, be satisfac- 
tory to the Members of the Society to learn that, in one of these 
adulteration cases, the buyer of a lot of nitrate of soda, which I 
found largely adulterated with common salt, was allowed by the 
seller to deduct no less than 62/. from the bill amounting to 
162/. for nitrate of soda. This was not a bad return for the 10*. 
paid for the analysis and the annual subscription of a member 
of the Royal Agricultural Society. 
Of the 41 samples of bone-dust analysed by me in 1878 there 
were some which, although bought as " pure raw bones," in point 
of fact were mixed raw and boiled bones (such as glue-maker's 
refuse). If it be borne in mind that raw bone-dust is worth 
from 1/. 5s. to 1/. 10s. per ton more than glue-maker's or 
steamed bones, purchasers of bone-dust will at once recognise 
the propriety of obtaining from dealers in bone-dust a written 
guarantee warranting the bone-dust to be made from clean raw 
