Annual Report of the Consulting Chemist for 1881. 337 
The special dissolved bones thus showed a deficiency of 8J 
per cent, of phosphates, for which deficiency I recommended 
the buyer to deduct 175. per ton. 
The turnip manure showed a deficiency of ammonia, for 
which an allowance of 125. per ton was claimed ; and the 
Peruvian guano turned out both deficient in phosphates and in 
ammonia ; the deficiency in phosphates amounted to 7 per cent., 
and that in ammonia to 44 per cent., or, in other words, the 
guano was worth 4/. 155. Qd. less per ton than that represented 
in the analysis by which it was bought. 
Peruvian Guano. — In the Annual Chemical Reports for 
1879 and for 1880, I directed attention to the unsatisfactory 
manner in which commercial transactions in guano are carried 
on. Peruvian guano, as is well known, is sold by the Govern- 
ment contractors or agents, at prices varying with the compo- 
sition and quality as ascertained by the analysis of fairly drawn 
samples of each cargo on arrival in this country. Reference 
has been made in former reports to the practice of unscrupulous 
manure dealers in selling Peruvian guano of inferior quality at 
the top price at which high quality guano is usually sold. 
Judging from the number of similar cases which have come 
under my notice within the last twelve months, this practice does 
not appear to have been abandoned, but rather to have increased ; 
and, moreover, I am inclined to think that a fraudulent use is 
sometimes made of official analyses, of cargoes of guano of 
good quality, and that inferior guanos are sold to farmers on 
the strength of analyses which refer to superior cargoes, and 
not to the inferior guanos from which the buyer has been 
supplied. It will not be amiss for me, therefore, to refer once 
more in this Report to the prevalence of the unsatisfactory 
condition of the trade in Peruvian guano. 
The composition of 11 samples of Peruvian guano which 
have lately been analysed by me is shown in the Table on 
page 338. 
The guano marked No. 1 was sold at 13Z. 15*. a ton, which 
is a high price for a guano represented to contain 8"86 per cent, 
of ammonia and 33"81 per cent, of phosphates, but which, on 
analysis, was found to contain only 6"73 per cent., and was 
worth 305. less per ton than the guano represented in the official 
analysis. 
No. 2 was sold in Liverpool at 12Z. 5s. a ton ; but as it con- 
tained only 6^ per cent, of ammonia, it was not worth more at 
Liverpool than about 9Z. lOs. a ton. 
No. 3 was sold at 13Z. IO5. a ton, although it contained only 
8;^ per cent, of ammonia. 11/. a ton is about its true value. 
No. 4 sample, although really a better guano than No. 3, was 
VOL. XVIII. — S. 8. Z 
