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ure of insect-powder in Europe has increased wonderfully, and has been extensively introduced into America.

Quite recently a second variety of insect-powder has come into notice under the name of Dalmatian Insect-Powder, derived from the flowers of the Pyrethrum cinerariafolium, a plant growing wild in Dalmatia, but whose cultivation is rapidly spreading. This is thought to be decidedly more powerful and more persistent in its action than the other kind, and justifies the higher commercial value. The discoid flowers of the plant are more powerful generally than the radiate; and as the former are larger, the greater activity of the Dalmatian flowers is due to the larger extent of the discoid portion in the Dalmatian plants. It is only after the flowers of the Pyrethrum are dried that their insecticide virtues are well developed. When fresh they exercise a slight action, but far inferior to that of the powder. It is said that in Vienna the druggists have on sale the dried flowers entire, as they are considered more effective and less liable to adulteration.-14 A, March 5, 1875, 503.

REMOVAL OF ACID FROM THE SOIL BY OIL-PRODUCING PLANTS.

It is said that land in the neighborhood of Torgau has been rendered fit for the production of wheat by planting it with rape-seed every two years; the oil-producing plants, like the crucifera in general, acting upon the soil like lime in the removal of acid.-9 C, July, 1874, 106.

AUSTRIAN PLAN FOR SUPPLYING AGRICULTURAL TEXT-BOOKS.

The need of appropriate text-books for instruction in various branches in agricultural science is every where very keenly felt. The Austrian Agricultural Ministry has attempted a very practical plan for supplying this want; namely, by offering rewards for authorship. Some ten different textbooks for schools of various grades are desired, and sums varying from 900 to 2500 florins are offered for satisfactory manuscripts, the authors being allowed, in addition, whatever may be received therefor from the publishers.

CONTINUED SUPPLY OF GUANO.

More detailed accounts of a report which has been previously referred to, made by the embassador from Peru at

London, on the supply of guano in that country, have come to hand, and are calculated to relieve the fears so widely entertained of an early failure of the guano supply. On some forty-five different localities on the mainland and islands of the Peruvian dominions guano deposits are found, some of them amounting to millions of tons.

ARTIFICIAL GUANO.

The so-called Stummer's guano, prepared from human excrements by chemical treatment, by means of peculiar apparatus, has been in the market since 1869, in four different grades, adapted to different crops. The consumption of it has increased from 3000 hundred-weight, in the first year, to 10,000 in the past year. That exhibited at the Vienna Exhibition was in the form of a loose, dry powder, and was found, according to analyses by Moser and Siersch, to contain nitrogen, 1 per cent., 1 per cent., 1.13 per cent., 3.52 per cent.; phosphoric acid, 6.30 per cent., 10.69 per cent., 7.26 per cent., 15.06 per cent., in the four grades, respectively.— 6 C, July 30, 1874, 308.

FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE MASSACHUSETTS INSPECTOR. OF FERTILIZERS.

The first annual report of the State Inspector of Fertilizers in Massachusetts, Professor Goessmann, of Amherst Agricultural College, contains considerable information about the more important of our fertilizing materials, their sources of supply, prices, and value.

From 30,000 to 35,000 tons of Peruvian guano are annually consumed in this country. This comes mostly from the Guanape Islands, and is somewhat inferior in quality to that formerly obtained from the Chincha Islands, the supply of which is nearly exhausted. Considering its composition, Peruvian guano is, when unadulterated, one of the best and cheapest fertilizers in the market. Of fish-scrap and fish-guano, large quantities are made on the coast of New England and Long Island. In 1872 some forty-two fish-rendering establishments were reported as in operation, producing 32,570 tons of scrap. Animal dust made of blood, meat-scraps, and bones from slaughter-houses; ground bones and bone-black waste, are also very valuable and of increasing importance.

It appears that superphosphates and ammoniated superphosphates constitute by far the larger part of our homemade fertilizers. Four fifths of the phosphoric acid in the superphosphates comes from South Carolina and Navassa Island phosphates. In the majority of cases the nitrogen is added in the form of some nitrogenous animal matter. Ammonia salts are very seldom, and soda or potash saltpetre more often used for this purpose. Crude sulphate of ammonia, Chili saltpetre (nitrate of soda), and German potash salts are also coming rapidly into favor. The higher grades of the German potash salts are much to be preferred to the lower, which contain large quantities of material of little fertilizing value; while the cost of freight in importation is as great as for the purer potash salts.

NEW GUANO DEPOSITS IN PERU.

Of all the states of South America, Peru appears to be most favored in regard to her financial condition, possessing as she does immense beds of guano, wholly controlled by the government, which furnish an ample revenue for all purposes. We chronicled not long since the discovery of new beds of this important manure, and we now learn that still later discoveries have been made of guano a few miles south of Iquique, which contain at least 20,000,000 tons of the fertilizer. Still other beds have also been found in the Bay of Independ ence, a few miles south of Pisco, the two together probably adding 25,000,000 tons of this substance to the treasury of Peru.

The quality of the new guano is said by Professor Raimoni to be excellent, although not containing quite as much ammonia as that formerly obtained from the Chincha Islands.Panama Star and Herald, March 24, 1815.

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CHEMICAL ANALYSES OF FERTILIZERS.

In the chemical examination of commercial fertilizers variations have often been found between the analyses of dif ferent samples of the same article. These differences may be due either to differences in the analytical methods employed or in the actual composition of the substances analyzed. To obviate the former source of error, the German experiment stations have given considerable attention to devising and

adopting uniform methods of analysis. At a meeting, at Magdeburg, of the chemists of the stations, in 1873, a definite plan for the determination of phosphoric acid was agreed upon, to be used by all. But differences have been found in different analyses of the same fertilizer, even when the same method has been followed. Dr. Märcker, director of the experiment station at Halle, has lately sought to discover the cause of these variations. Superphosphates, as commonly manufactured, are by no means powder of uniform fineness, but often contain large particles that have clumped together in the treatment with acid. It would be natural to presume that these lumps would have the same composition as the fine powder. Such Dr. Märcker finds is not the case. number of superphosphates, made from guanos, bone-black, and bone-dust, were sifted through a sieve whose meshes (including wire) were one millimeter wide, and the coarser and finer portions were analyzed separately.

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The finer portions contained from 2.8 per cent. more to 4.3 per cent. less phosphoric acid than the coarser. If, therefore, in the analysis even of a superphosphate made from as finely pulverized material as bone-dust or bone-black, the clumpy portions are omitted and the finer portions analyzed, it is easy to see how incorrect results may be obtained,

From these observations Dr. Märcker concludes that "in the selection of samples of fertilizers for analysis the greatest caution should be observed on account of the difference in composition of the coarser and finer particles. It is necessary that the samples be so prepared and pulverized as to afford a safe guarantee for the uniform mixture of larger and smaller particles." "It would be just to expect manufacturers to see to it that fertilizers be well mixed and finely pulverized. Doubtless the best way to secure this would be found in the refusal on the part of consumers to buy imper⚫fectly prepared articles.”—Zeitschrift des Landwirthschaftlichen Vereins der Provinz Sachsen, 1874, No. 1, 12.

ABSORPTION OF AMMONIA, ETC., FROM SOLUTIONS BY THE SOIL. Among the conclusions reached by Eichhorn, from a series of experiments in regard to absorption by the soil, it is stated that hydrous double silicates of alumina and lime, as chabazite and stilbite, absorb the ammonia from solutions of

chloride of ammonium and phosphate of ammonia to a considerable extent, while the anhydrous double silicates, which are not decomposed by hydrochloric acid, do not absorb the ammonia, but those that are so decomposed do to some extent. By treatment with hydrate of lime these silicates take up water, and are rendered absorbent of ammonia, or, if so before, their absorbing power is increased. Carbonate of lime absorbs but little ammonia from a solution of chloride of ammonium, but somewhat more from a solution of the phosphate. Humate of lime and peat take out a considerable amount of ammonia and potash from solutions of their chlorides, with the passage of an equivalent amount of lime into the solution. Pure humic acid and peat, treated with hydrochloric acid, take up less ammonia and potash, under similar conditions. The chlorine in the preceding cases is not absorbed, but remains in the solution, in some cases combined with calcium in part, and in other cases in part as free hydrochloric acid. Phosphoric acid is largely absorbed from a solution of phosphate of ammonia by chabazite and stilbite, and also to a great extent by chalk, but the addition of the latter to the chabazite does not increase its absorptive power for phosphoric acid or ammonia. From a solution of a superphosphate the phosphoric acid is taken up very rapidly by humate of lime, and less rapidly, but completely, by acid carbonate of lime and chalk. Other bodies, as stilbite, brown hematite, kaolin, and humic acid, appear to absorb but little or no phosphoric acid from solutions of superphosphates.-14 C, CCXVI., 1875, 92.

FISH-GUANO, PARTICULARLY THE FATLESS, DRIED, SO-CALLED

POLAR FISH-GUANO.

According to Dr. Vohl, large quantities of a small species. of herring, so-called sprats (Clupea sprattus), collected upon the coast of England, and crushed, have been employed as manure for wheat and hops with good results. A process was also patented in England in 1854, by Pettitt, for the preparation of an artificial guano from herring by means of sulphuric acid. Analyses of three samples of this guano gave 4.1 per cent., 23.2 per cent., and 3.5 per cent. of phosphates of the alkaline earths; and 13.8 per cent., 10.6 per cent., and 11.2 per cent. of nitrogen, respectively. This in

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