Fertilisers and Feeding Stvffs Act , 1906. 
243 
cent, of oil, he is fairly secured to getting within 1 per cent, 
or so of these quantities, or, failing it, will be able to demand 
compensation. 
On the other hand, the Act still presents deficiencies, 
possibly unavoidable. The power which County Councils 
formerly possessed, of instituting action on their own account, 
is now taken away, and this may lead, not improbably, to 
a decrease of local interest and energy. Further, the Act, 
though it will put an end to the giving of bogus guarantees 
that comply with the letter rather than the spirit of the law, 
fails (as probably all Acts must fail) in securing to the 
purchaser that the price he has to pay for an article has any 
necessary relation to its intrinsic value. A vendor can still, 
though guaranteeing the actual contents, charge whatever 
price he likes. 
Accordingly, I anticipate that, though the new Act may 
cause a considerable increase of activity in having analyses 
made under County Council and Borough auspices, there will 
yet be ample scope for the carrying on of the beneficial 
work which the Royal Agricultural Society of England has 
now for so long a period conducted on behalf of its members. 
Lastly, it may be pointed out that the new Act will concern 
itself mainly, or almost entirely, with the civil relations 
between vendor and purchaser, and that the criminal sections 
of the Act will only rarely, and in extreme cases, be taken up. 
Coming to the main features presented in the following 
Report, it may be said that throughout the year the examination 
of fertilisers generally has shown an exceedingly satisfactory 
condition of things. Of feeding stuffs, however, the same can 
hardly be said. Foreign-made linseed cakes have, in several 
instances, been found to be unsatisfactory, whilst Bombay 
cotton-cake has, as a class, distinctly deteriorated, this deteriora- 
tion being specially marked in an increase in the sand and 
dirt attaching to the woolly fibre of the seed. Instances are 
given of this exceeding 1 per cent, and sometimes going up to 
5 per cent. In compound feeding cakes and meals harmful 
ingredients, such as castor-bean husk, have been not infre- 
quently found, and a new danger has been introduced by 
the discovery that certain foreign beans, known variously as 
“ Java "beans ” or “ red Rangoon beans,” become poisonous 
through the development in them of hydrocyanic (prussic) acid. 
Numerous materials in which beet-sugar molasses form a con- 
siderable item continue to be largely offered, and, generally 
speaking, at prices much beyond their value. They obtain, 
however, a ready sale mainly because, their sweetness inducing 
animals to take them greedily, purchasers think they must be 
excellent foods. 
