858 
IRotee, Comntunicatione, anb 
IReviews* 
THE SAMPLING OF MANURES AND 
FEEDING-STUFFS. 
Attention has of late been directed somewhat specially to the preven- 
tion of fraud in connection with tlie purchase of manures and 
feeding- stuffs. This is largely due to the Government having ex- 
pressed its intention of shortly introducing in Parliament a Bill on 
the subject. 
It is therefore a suitable opportunity, while urging the necessity 
of resort to chemical analysis, to point out certain coiiditions which 
ought to be observed in oi'der that an analysis may be of full value, 
and in its results be equally fair to both vendor and purchaser. 
The conditions to which I would here refer are briefly these : — 
Firstly : A samjde sent for analysis should be fairly represerita- 
live of the bulk from which it was drawn. 
Secondly : TJie sample should reach the analyst in the same 
condition as at the time it was drawn ; in other words, it should 
not suffer change during transit. 
Little should be necessary to show that, injustice to the vendor, 
the foregoing conditions should be observed ; nevertheless, vendors 
of manures and feeding-stuffs are often not only put to considerable 
inconvenience and annoyance, but may also suffer in reputation 
through non-observance of such self-evident directions as the 
above. Thus, a purchaser who has had, say, mineral superphosphate 
guaranteed to him to contain 2G per cent, of soluble phosphate, may 
take a handful out of the top of the first bag he comes to, and, 
packing up loosely in paper, may send it to a chemist for analysis ; 
tlien, if he finds it turn out to have only 25.y per cent, of soluble 
phosphate, he will think liimsclf perfectly justified in making a 
claim on tlie vendor for the deficiency. So he would be, certainly, 
if the sample were fairly repi'esentative of the bulk, but frequently 
this is not the ca.se, and deficiencies often result from improper 
sampling and careless forwarding of samples, ratlier than from any 
fault of the vendor. Similarly, a farmer may break a bit oflF the 
end of a single cake out of many comprising a delivery, and, if 
