Report of the Consultinrj Chemist for 18G9. 
143 
guano, and there Is reason to fear they do, it is evident that the 
guano on the Guanape Islands is deposited in a region which is 
visited by occasional rains or heavy dews, which, I need hardly 
say, wash out the most valuable constituents of guano. 
A considerable number of samples of nitrate of soda were sent 
to the Laboratory last spring, and of these several were found to 
be largely adulterated with common salt. 
The demand for superphosphate of lime, dissolved bones, and 
similar artificials is increasing from year to year, and, generally 
speaking, most manures of that description are well worth the 
price at which they are offered for sale. More than 100 samples 
of phosphatic manures were analysed by me last season, and most 
were found equal to the guaranteed analyses by which they were 
sold.. 
With respect to feeding-cakes, I am glad to be able to report 
that a decided improvement has taken place in the cake transac- 
tions. Several firms, who formerly sold only mixed cakes, have 
recently begun to make pure linseed-cake. Best decorticated 
cotton-cake is again obtainable at a fair price in the English 
market, and some excellent samples have been remitted for 
analysis. In speaking of decorticated American cotton-cake I 
would reiterate the remark made on a former occasion, that this 
cake is too rich in nitrogenous or fleshforming matters to suit 
unmixed the health of herbivorous animals. It should always be 
given together with some food rather poor in nitrogenous matters, 
and but in moderate quantities during the summer period of the 
year. During cold weather in the winter it may more freely be 
given to stock than during the summer months, and at all times 
it is desirable to give with it an abundant supply of succulent 
root-feed, or, in the absence of roots, some bulky food, such as 
chaff, and food rather poor in nitrogenous matter, such as palm- 
nut meal or Indian corn. 
Green German rape, or Rubsen cake, has much risen in price, 
and is difficult to obtain quite free from mustard. In buying 
rape-cake it is always desirable to have it tested whether it is free 
from any injurious amount of mustard-seed. Several samples of 
rape-cake sent for analysis were found to be quite unfit for feeding 
purposes. 
Adulterated linseed-cakes are still found in the market, though 
less abundantly than formerly. A novel kind of admixture to 
linseed-cake I found to be the admixture of cocoanut fibre. Cocoa- 
nut fibre, I need scarcely say, possesses no nutritive properties. 
The expressed pulp of the cocoanut, on the contrary, contains as 
much oil as linseed-cake, and is a useful feeding material, as the 
following analysis of a sample recently examined will show : — 
