220 
The Present State of Agriculture 
27,000 lbs. of sulphuric acid were sold last year for the purpose 
of dissolving bones. 
Or if I he farmer will consent to give a higher price for a good 
article, which he can mix or adulterate for himself, honourable 
dealers will spring up, in whom he may as surely confide as we 
now can in the tinctures of the chemical apothecary, or in the 
pills, boluses, and conserves which stand ready prepared upon 
his shelves.* 
" In connection with the clieapening of artificial manures, the analysis 
of the refuse of manufactories is a suljject of much economical importance. 
Such refuse substances are usually of little money value where they are 
produced, and yet they may contain substances which will make them 
valuable to the larmer when properly understood and applied. 
At present such substances are largely employed in the manufacture of 
the lower-priced varieties of artificial manures, but in many cases they are 
little better than useless additions or adulterations, and therefore a source 
of disappointment and loss to the farmer who buys the mixtures which 
contain them. The manure-maker is satisfied with a more or less rude 
analysis of the refuse he purchases, or with a simple assurance, perhaps, 
that it contains certain things in certain proportions. He then employs it, 
perhaps, in perfect good faith in the preparation of his manures, but the 
l)ractu al farmer, in his diminished crops, pays a penalty for the neglect of 
the preceding parties. 
I may illustrate this statement by mentioning a circumstance which oc- 
curred to myself within the last three months. A prepared manure was 
sent to me by the manufacturer for an analysis and opinion as to its value. 
It was found to contain, among other deficiencies, only about half a per 
cent, of phosphoric acid. l\Iy analysis and opinion were of course both 
unfavourable. The reply of the manure-maker was, that he used the re- 
fuse of a certain manufactory to supply the phosphates, and that he bought 
this refuse for the purpose, on the faith of an analysis made by myself, 
and furnished to them by the manufacturer. Of this analysis a copy was 
sent to me, and it proved to be one made in my laboratory three years be- 
fore, for fuiothcr person, and of a substance produced at another nuuwfactory, 
and which analysis had led to an improvement in the manufactory liy 
which the refuse was altered. This refuse did not itself contain more than 
1 or 2 per cent, of phosphoric acid, and could not therefore supply it in 
sufficient quantity to a manure. 
Before such refuse matters can be used with honesty by the manure- 
maker, and with profit by the consumer, we must ascertain not only the 
exact composition of particular samples, but the average general com- 
position of the refuse, and that this composition does not alter from week 
to week witii the methods or manipulation which attend its production. 
When these things are known, the manufacturer will be able to judge how 
far they can with propriety be employed as ingredients of a mixed manure 
which, to produce constant and uniform effects, must be possessed of a 
unitbrm and constant composition. 
I would venture also to suggest to all professional chemists, as a duty 
they owe to the practical farmer, that they should give no written recom- 
mendation of an artificial manure, nor allow any such to be published in 
Dieir names, without fii'st ascertaining, in addition to the composition of 
the samples sent to them for analysis, the kind of materials employed in 
the manufacture, the quantities in which they are mixed, the mode of 
