Annual Report of the Consulting Cliemist. 
349 
delivery, over and above the guaranteed percentage ; and, on tlie 
other hand, that he should be allowed to make a deduction in the 
price of the manure corresponding to the deficiency in the per- 
centage of soluble phosphate whicli may be found in the bulk on 
delivery. I refer s])ecially to this matter, because several cases 
have been brought under my notice during the last twelve months 
in which buyers of mineral superphosphate, adopting the plan of 
paying a certain price, say os. (nl. ])er unit per cent, for soluble 
])hosphate, were allowed to make considerable deductions from 
the purchase price for deficiency in the guaranteed percentage of 
soluble phosphate. Supposing the superphosphate to cost 4Z. 45., 
and to be guaranteed to contain 24 per cent, of soluble phos- 
phate, the price for each unit per cent, of soluble phosphate will 
be 3*. &d. If the manure, on delivery, should be found to test 
onlv 20 instead of 24 per cent., the buyer would be entitled to a 
deduction of 4 X 3.*;. 6rf. = 14.';. for every ton of superphosphate, 
and thus would have to pay 3/. 10a'. instead of 4/. 4s. per ton. 
Differences of from 3 to 5 per cent, between the actual and the 
guaranteed percentage of soluble phosphate in mineral super- 
phosphate I find occur much more frequently than might be 
supposed, and for this reason I would advise the members to 
make it a regular rule to draw a fair sample from a number of 
bags, thoroughly to mix them together, and to forward me a 
portion of the mixed sample for the determination of the per- 
centage of soluble phosphate. 
In consequence of the exceptionally low price of nitrate of 
soda, this salt has been used in the past season much more freelv 
than in former years as a top-dressing for cereals and for grass- 
land, either by itself or in conjunction with phosphatic manures. 
As many as forty-two samples, or more than twice as many 
samples as in former years, were sent for analysis in the past 
season, and all were found genuine and of good quality. 
Potash-salts, on the other hand, as a rule, do not appear to find 
much favour in England, and not a single sample was sent for 
examination during the last twelve months. 
Whilst the number of samples of nitrate of soda sent for analysis 
largely increased, fewer samples of Peruvian guano were received 
than in previous years. All the guanos were found genuine, 
and, with few exceptions, they yielded fully 12 per cent, of 
ammonia. 
Although the percentage of ammonia in Peruvian guano^has 
not declined, but somewhat increased, the condition of the present 
importations from the Guanape and Macabi Islands, as a rule, is 
anything but good. It is not unusual to find as much as 24 
to 26 per cent, of moisture in Peruvian guano from the Guanape 
and Macabi Islands, and guano containing so large a percentage 
