INTRINSIC VALUE OF ARTIFICAL MANURES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2009, 25 August 1892, Page 6

INTRINSIC VALUE OF ARTIFICAL MANURES.

It is a noteworthy circumstance that the amended land laws in operation in the United Kingdom provide for compensation or the reverse for money expenditure in manures, including feeding stuffs fed te cattle during a tenure by a tenant, while on the other hand an outgoing tenant is liable for exhaustion of the soil. Disputed cases are generally referred to arbitration, and the arbitrators invariably require verified statements as to tho quantity and quality of artificial manures used, and especially when farmyard was used, the food the animals were supplied with, for badly fed cattle will leave as worthless a lot of rubbish as the veriest frauds of artificials advertised and foisted on the unwary. Whatever may be said of the fertilising properties of farmyard dung for some years to come, its make on farms must obviously be restricted in this colony, for it involves cartage of roots to cattle sheds, expensive attendance on the cattle, and in springtime the laborious carting out and spreading of the manure. Our farmers therefore place their dependence on the artificial manures obtainable, and as the season for making purchases is again at hand, we follow our practice of some years past in enforcing on intending buyers the importance of an insistence on guarantees from the vendors of manures of tho fertilising constituents iv the material offered. Farmers should bear in niind the costly carriage in addition to the primary cos*-, and then the contingent losses involved in a disappointing crop. With a guarantee insisted on, there is a remedy for malfeasance on the part of a vendor of inferior manures ; because by forwarding samples to the Government analyst at Wellington at a nominal cost, the quality of the article will be determined beyond dispute. There can be no question that were these test analyses frequently had recourse to, much money would be saved to farmers and vendors of stuffs offered, as matters go, heedless of consequences, to the buyer would meet their deserts. As showing the importance of the analysis test, the consulting chemist to the Royal Agricultural Society of England pointed out certain conditions to be observed in forwarding samples to him for examination, so that the results of his analysis would be of full value and equally fair to both vendor and purchaser. Tho directions are —

Firstly; A sample sent for analysis should fairly represent the bulk from which it was drawn.

Secondly: The sample should reach the analyst in the same condition as at the time it was drawn — in other wordß, it should not suffer any change during transit. Mr Voelcker proceeds to state that little should be necessary in explanation to show that even in justice to the vendor the foregoing conditions should be observed, and that while analysis proves the only useful and necessary check it should be supplemented by precautions which make it fair to both vendor and purchaser. He directs that in sampling manures for analysis, as they are generally sent to the farmer in bags, if their composition were uniform throughout, and the contents of one bag just like those of another it would be enough to draw a sample out of a single bag. But this is seldom the case and it may happen, e.g. with superphosphate, that though practically of the same quality, one part of the delivery has been manufactured at a different time from another part. It is only fair, therefore, to draw a sample not from one bag only but from several, and the use of a "tryer" similar to that used by grain merchants is recommended for the purpose. The different lots withdrawn should then be thoroughly mixed. Two well-fitting tins, each capable of holding from £lb to lib of the material, should then be filled from the heap thus left. One of these should be wrapped up and sent by post to the analyst, and the other be kept by the farmer for reference. Instead of a tin, a wide-mouthed glass bottle with wellfitting cork may be used, and this be enclosed in a wooden box, and so be sent by post or rail ; or, the sample may be wrapped in tinfoil or oiled skin and be enclosed in a box or in a stout linenlined envelope. This latter is a very convenient form for nitrate of soda, sulphate of ammonia, kainit, and similar salts. The tin is, on the whole, the most satisfactory, as it is easy to send ilb or lib of the manure in it, whilst if a bottle, or tinfoil, or oiled silk be used it is not easy to send so large a quantity. If a smaller quantity be sent, the final heap must be mixed still more carefully, and the sample be taken from different portions of it. In no case, however, should less than 4oz be sent as a sample, and when the material is at all uneven in character, or lumpy, or of a mixed nature, it is not satisfactory unless a lib sample, cr in some cases as much 21b, be sent. The more uueven the manure the larger the sample must be ; the finer and more even it is, the smaller may be the quantity to be sent for analysis. Whilst care musb be taken to ensure a fair sample being drawn, care must also be taken not to let the heap being sampled lie about too long. The sampling must be done carefully and also quickly, or the material may dry considerably during the process. The discrepancies which are sometimes pointed to as occurring between the analysis of different analytical chemists, and which are put down to want of skill or care on their part are in a great number of instances due to samples having undergone change during transit. Mr Vodcker instances a case in which a farmer seat him a sample of shoddy, mi rely wrapped up in brown paper. In reference to tius analytical results he says: — "It gave on analysis about 5i per cent, of ammonia, but had about 28 pe"r cent, of moisture. As the result came below the guarantee given him, the farmer sent to two other analysts other samples which he had taken at the same time and had since left lying about in paper. Their reports showed respectively 6J per cent, and 7 per cent, of ammonia. On re-testing, for my own satisfaction, the original sample which had been lying about similarly, I obtained results practically agreeing with the other chemists'; but then I found, too, that the percentage of jnoieture, instead of being 28, was now only 11 per cent., the sample having dried to this extent meantime, and my firjgingl result having been quite correct for the sampfe as it then was. There were really no discrepancies of analysis, but only of the condition in which the different samples came to the respective analysts." As a further necessity for attention in the selection of samples of manures for analysis, Mr Voelcker says: — "As an instance of the injustice that may be done in the sending of a sample that is not representative of the bulk, I may mention a case which recently occurred. It is well-known that superphosphate is liable to some extent to 'go back,' as it is termed, upon keeping, showing less soluble phosphate by 2or 3 per cent., it may be, than before. A farmer had deliveries sent to him monthly for a ppripd extending over six months, upon a

guarantee of a certain percentage of soluble phosphate. He took samples from each delivery as it came in, but kept these lying about until all six deliveries had come iv, when he mixed them all together and sent up one sample for analysis. Now, this was not fair to the vendors, for the real question was, What was the quality of each delivery ,as the contractor delivered It ? not, What would a sample test, some of which had been lying about for six months or more, other of ifc for five months, and so on ? "

The precautions necessary to be observed by farmers in the purchase of manures have been indicated, and the proper course for sampling for analysis pointed out. It would, we think, be to the advautage of buyers were they to intimate to vendors of manures that the wares would be subject to analysis.