Annual Report of the Consulting Chemist. 219 
Peruvian Government agents for France and Germany, into whose 
hands the sales for England will fall next August, if not earlier, at 
the present time import a first-class guano from the Ballestas 
Islands, which are situated in close proximity to the Chinchas. 
Excellent cargoes have been shipped already to Hamburg and to 
Rotterdam, as will be seen by the following analyses which I 
have lately made of fairly drawn whole cargo samples which 
were sent to me from Germany and Holland for examination 
(see next page). 
All the seventeen cargoes of Ballestas Island guano examined 
by me were dry, of light-brown colour, and not distinguishable in 
appearance from Chincha Islands guano. 
A glance at the following Table shows that all the cargoes 
contained but a small quantity of insoluble siliceous matter ; and 
that, with one exception, the sixteen remaining cargoes yielded 
over 14:^ per cent, of ammonia. 
Three of the cargoes, it will be seen, yielded from 16 to 16J 
per cent, of ammonia; nine from 15^ to 15| per cent., and four 
from 14i to 14j per cent, of ammonia. 
It is difficult to estimate with any degree of accuracy the 
quantity of this guano likely to be available for shipment, but 
the deposits are considerable and, to all appearance, they will 
furnish an abundant supply for a good many years ; and, as there 
are other islands on the Peruvian coast not yet worked, yielding 
guano of a similar high quality, the British farmer may look 
for large importations of a similar excellence. 
Amongst the large number of feeding cakes examined by me 
in the past season I found some utterly unfit for feeding purposes, 
and not a few linseed cakes, sold as pure, adulterated with earth- 
nut cake, bran, and similar cheap feeding materials. 
Green German rape-cake is generally considered much superior 
to ordinary rape-cake, inasmuch as it does not usually contain 
any appreciable quantity of wild mustard-seed, which often 
occurs in common rape-cake, and in such large proportions that 
the cake becomes unfit for feeding purposes. Quite recently, 
however, I examined two samples of green rape-cake which, as 
far as appearance went, had all the characteristics of a superior 
German rape or Riibsen-cake, but which nevertheless contained 
so much mustard that the cake could not be given with safety to 
animals. In a report on the samples of feeding cakes submitted 
to me during the past twelve months, I should, not omit to state 
that five or six cases have been reported to me in which decorti- 
cated cotton-cake was alleged to have caused the death of sheep 
and lambs, and to have seriously injured the health of others. 
The examination, however, of the cotton-cakes which were sup- 
posed to have done the mischief, showed that they did not con- 
