252 Annual Report of the Consulting Chemist for 1877. 
The analyses which I have made of samples of such fish-manures, 
during the last twelve months, confirm my previous experience 
that these and similar refuse-manures, which are sold at from 21. to 
4Z. a ton, contain much water and valueless earthy matter, and are 
seldom worth more than half the price at which they are sold to 
small farmers, who, misled by the strong smell of rotten fish, 
and tempted by the low price at which these manures are offered 
for sale, are apt to pay far more for them than they are worth. 
Wheat and other cereal grains, as is well known, are often 
steeped in a solution of sulphate of copper, with a view to the 
prevention of smut in the grain. Salt and lime sometimes are 
used for the same purpose, and occasionally coal-tar and prepa- 
rations containing crude carbolic acid are employed for dressing 
seed-corn. If proper care be taken to guard against accidents, 
which may occur when wheat steeped in a solution of blue 
vitriol is left loose about the premises and accessible to fowls, 
no objection can be taken to the use of this salt as an efficient 
means of protecting wheat against smut ; still there is some risk 
that the wheat impregnated with the poisonous copper-salt may 
be picked up by birds, and do mischief ; and as coal-tar, or coal- 
tar oil, appears to answer equally well the purpose for which sul- 
phate of copper is used, and at the same time, by its peculiar smell, 
deters rooks and other birds from eating the seed-corn, I would 
recommend comparative trials to be made with wheat dressed with 
blue vitriol and with coal-tar, or, better still, coal-tar oil. Occa- 
sionally, seed-wheat is dressed with white arsenic, or compounds 
containing arsenic. These poisonous preparations are highly 
objectionable, and should not be allowed to be sold openly as 
wheat-dressings, on account of the risk of accidents in mani- 
pulating wheat with arsenical preparations, and the abuse which 
may be made of poisoned wheat. A short time ago 1 had occasion 
to analyse a sample of a preparation which is largely advertised 
as a dressing for seed-wheat, and found it mainly a mixture of 
powdered blue vitriol (sulphate of copper), green vitriol (sul- 
phate of iron), and white arsenic coloured by Armenian bole. 
The peculiar smell of the preparation was due to a little crude 
carbolic acid or light tar-oil, which appears to have been added 
to it. This preparation, 1 was informed, was employed for 
dressing seed-corn by the tenant of a member of the Royal 
Agricultural Society, who had the misfortune to find a number 
of dead partridges on his estate, which were supposed to have 
been poisoned by the arsenical compound. The examination 
of some seed-wheat which was found in the field where the dead 
jiartridges were picked up, however, revealed neither copper 
nor arsenic ; and the analysis of grains of wheat taken from the 
crop of a dead partridge likewise indicated neither copper nor 
