agricultural press, that great caution is necessary in order to
avoid deception. It will be well for farmers before being led
away by certificates of the superiority of any manure over "best
Peruvian guano," or equal mixtures of "best Peruvian and best
Mexican," to ascertain if these guanos came from the same par-
ties as sold the manure, and whether they were really what they
assumed to be The business of making artificial manures is
profitable in proportion to the amount of fraud practiced in it, and
unfortunately professed men of science, have furnished their offi-
cial position and name to the recommendation of such manures,
and thus have become aids to gross imposition on the purchaser.
Again, I say to all, beware of them, unless accompanied in every
instance with a written guarantee as to the per cent, of ammonia
and of biphosphate of lime they contain.

There have been manures sold in the Baltimore market under
the name of "superphosphate of lime," which on analysis did con-
tain not three per cent, of that article; as well might one call a
coin a silver coin which only contained three per cent, of silver.
There are manures also sold here the chief materials of which are
bought in Baltimore, thence carried hundreds of miles to be man-
ufactured, and then again brought back and sold to our farmers.
Do they not have to pay thus double freight on these manures,
and then trust to both the honesty and intelligence of a manufac-
turer for their purity and goodness ? Manure dealers of this class
can afford to advertise largely, for their profits are great, and al-
though their manures may be heralded to the agricultural public
as superior to the best Peruvian Guano, or as superseding it, yet
such cannot be the case except in very rare instances. They are
sold at a price above their value, and farmers will find to their
cost, when it is too late for redress, that they have been induced to
part with their hard earnings for comparatively worthless articles.

To prove this I have furnished a review of a publication made
some time since, recommending a manure made in New York and
sold here under the name of De-Burg's Superphosphate of Lime.
Superphosphate of Lime for various reasons had become a popular
one, amongst many farmers, in various parts of the country, and
hence I presume the above name was chosen: it was sold here by
agents of high mercantile credit and standing, and recommended
by the chemist of the Maryland State Agricultural Society. All
of these things had a tendency to induce public confidence in it,
and therefore I feel it more my duty to examine into its merits;
what these merits, or rather demerits, were, the following commu-
nication shows, and I only introduce it here for the purpose of
cautioning planters and farmers against all similar sources of im-
position for the future.

It was in reply to a gentleman who had always taken a deep
interest in scientific and practical agriculture.

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