302 Annual Report of the Consulting Chemist. 
for the importers and dealers in Redonda and Alto Vela phos- 
phate to try to find a ready market for these minerals. Any- 
body at all acquainted with the true character of Alto Vela and 
Redonda phosphate, I am convinced, will support me in the 
opinion which I expressed in my paper, in opposition to the 
recommendations of the parties interested in the sale of these 
phosphates. 
This, however, is not the first time that phosphate of alumina 
has been recommended to farmers. 
I have before me a circular, issued in 1873, in which the 
Directors of a certain Company " desire to draw the particular 
attention of farmers, market-gardeners, and all parties interested 
in the sale of artificial manures, who may be desirous of obtaining 
high-class fertilisers at a moderate cost, to the phosphate of 
alumina, which they are now importing from the island of Alto 
Vela, in the West Indies, of which they have already a large 
stock in store for immediate delivery." 
The same circular further states : — " The very small quantity 
of the Company's Alto Vela phosphate of alumina required per 
acre, in comparison with ordinary superphosphates, renders it at 
once a most economical manure, the first cost being much lower 
in price per ton, and producing an equally satisfactory result 
over a much larger area than is the case with any hitherto known 
artificial manure." 
This phosphate is offered in a ground state, ready for imme- 
diate use, at 4Z. 12s. 6(f. per ton, and the reader of the preceding 
extracts from the Company's circular will not be surprised to 
find in it likewise the following paragraph : — " It may be con- 
fidently asserted that the Alto Vela phosphates, as manures for 
potato-crops, are unequalled. These phosphates will be found 
to be highly beneficial, not only as stimulating agents, but as 
preventives of the disease which has ruined these crops in 
recent seasons. For top-dressings for grass-crops very satis- 
factory results will be obtained." 
The sum total which is annually lost by farmers in the 
purchase of all but practically useless fertilising materials, or 
artificial manures that are not nearly worth the price at. which 
they are sold, if it could be ascertained, I doubt not would excite 
astonishment, and put a very serious aspect on the question of 
the value of unexhausted manures. 
In illustration of the great variations in the real money-value 
and the actual price at which different artificial manures are 
sold, I be^ to direct attention to the following analyses of three 
samples of artificial manures, which were sent to me last June 
by a member of the Society : — 
