n 16 per cent of ammonia, and 10 per cent of
phosphoric acid. Price, [L]9 5s. per ton of 2,240 lbs.--say $40 per ton
of 2,000 lbs.

The average composition of thirty-two cargoes of guano imported into
England in 1849 was as follows:

Ammonia 17.41 per cent.
Phosphoric acid 9.75 " "
Alkaline salts 8.75 " "

At the present valuation, adopted by the Agents of the Peruvian guano in
New York, and estimating that 5 per cent of the phosphoric acid was
soluble, and 4 per cent reverted, and that there was 2 lbs. of potash in
the alkaline salts, this guano would be worth:

Value per ton of 2,000 lbs.
Ammonia 17.41 per cent $60.93
Soluble phosphoric acid 5.00 " " 10.00
Reverted " " 4.00 " " 6.40
Insoluble " " .75 " " .30
Potash 2.00 " " 3.00
-------
$80.63
Selling price per ton of 2,000 lbs. $40.00

Ichaboe guano, which was largely imported into England in 1844-5, and
used extensively as a manure for turnips, contained, on the average,
7-1/2 per cent of ammonia, and 14 per cent of phosphoric acid. Its value
at the present rates we may estimate as follows:

Ammonia, 7-1/2 per cent $26.25
Soluble Phosphoric acid, 4 per cent 8.00
Reverted " " 10 " 16.00
------
$50.25
Selling price per ton of 2,000 lbs. $21.80

The potash is not given, or this would probably add four or five dollars
to its estimated value.

"All of which goes to show," said the Deacon, "that the Peruvian
Government is asking, in proportion to value, from two to two and a half
times as much for guano as was charged twenty-five or thirty years ago.
That first cargo of guano, sold in New York under the new guarantee, in
1877, for $56 per ton, is worth no more than the Ichaboe guano sold in
England in 1845, for less than $22 per ton!

"And furthermore," continued the Deacon, "from all that I can learn, the
guano of the present day is not only far poorer in nitrogen than it was
formerly, but the nitrogen is not as soluble, and consequently not so
valuable, pound for pound. Much of the guano