360 Annual Report for 1913 of the Consulting Chemist. 
like, to fall off, owing largely to the facilities provided by 
County Councils, Agricultural Colleges, &c., and also, no 
doubt, to the security provided by the Fertilisers and Feeding 
Stuffs Act, it is yet found that the Society’s Laboratory is 
resorted to in matters of real importance, or when more 
difficult problems, such as those relating to the treatment of 
soils or the purity of water supplies, are concerned. 
As regards the supply of both feeding-stuffs and fertilisers, 
it must be said that this is really very good at the present time, 
and that a continued marked improvement has been shown of 
late years. There will always be, here and there, some new 
material brought out, or something which, though it conforms 
to the guarantee given, is sold at a price much above its real 
value ; but, still, it must be allowed that if a purchaser goes to 
a respectable vendor, he may reckon on being well supplied 
and fairly dealt with. 
It has only been necessary, during the year, to issue one 
private circular to Members regarding a case of misrepresen- 
tation, and the material in question had already been referred 
to in an earlier Report. 
Linseed cake has been uniformly pure, and the same may 
be said of undecorticated cotton cake. Of decorticated cotton 
cake, now and again a good sample is met with, but, generally 
speaking, this cake is found to be hard, and neither well-made 
nor well-decorticated. 
No notable new feeding material or fertiliser has been 
brought into general use during the year. 
Soya bean does not appear to have made much advance in 
popular favour. Feeding stuffs, in which “prepared sawdust” 
figures, continue to be sold, but the public is, I think, coming 
to be aware of the nature of these substances. 
Compound meals still require constant watching, for though, 
as a rule, coming up to the guarantee which has been given 
with them, it is not unfrequently the case that they contain 
constituents which are not what they should be. Something 
more than mere analytical figures is needed in order to guard 
against this, and a purchaser should know, not merely what 
the analysis of such compound food is, but whether it is made 
of constituents to which no objection can be taken. 
As regards fertilisers, there is not much to remark, except, 
possibly, in respect of basic slag. Considerable interest in the 
question of the solubility of basic slag was aroused by a law 
case which took place during the year, and in which this 
matter was brought to the fore. It is important, however, 
to insist that the point at issue was not whether a basic slag 
of low qualiiy, and sold at a relatively high price, possessed 
virtues that other basic slags, which, on the face of it, were of 
