1882.] COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 65 



Various reports of the Islands came to Europe from 1 604 on. 

 Humboldt called the attention of European nations to them, and 

 brought samples which were analyzed and the results published in 

 1806. The first importation into Europe, .it is said, was not for 

 use as a fertilizer, but was made by a Hamburg apothecary, at the 

 request of Liebig and Wobler, who employed part of it for the 

 preparation of uric acid, in the course of their classic investiga- 

 tions on that subject. This was in 1837. 



To give an idea of the colossal nature of the transaction, 



"A whole ton," it was said, had come over. - 



In 1840, the same year in which Liebig's Chemistry in its Appli- 

 cation to Physiology and Agriculture appeared, parties in Callao 

 sent one ship load to England for use as an artificial manure. In 

 1842 Gibbs & Co., who became agents for the Peruvian govern- 

 ment, imported one hundred and eighty -two tons to England, and 

 from that time the trade increased till it reached enormous pro- 

 portions. 



For thirty years almost all our guano came from the Chincha 

 Islands, but in 1872 when seven milhon tons had been exported from 

 them and only about one hundred and fifty thousand tons remained, 

 the Peruvian government resolved to hold the rest for home con- 

 sumption, and exported only from the Maccabi and Huanape 

 Islands. In 1874 one miUion tons had been shipped from them, 

 and half a million tons remained. Since then large shipments 

 have been made from the Lobos Islands, and lately all that has 

 been sent came from these islands and the province of Tarapaca. 



Not long after guano was introduced into England it found its 

 way here, but we were somewhat slower than the English in 

 bringing it into general use, no doubt because our need of it was 

 less urgent. Its great fertilizing value was first most strikingly 

 shown on the old exhausted farms of Virginia and Maryland, and 

 so great was the demand for it there that in 1852 cargoes were 

 sold before their arrival. 



From then on the trade steadily increased till the war time, 

 when it averaged eighty thousand tons a year. It fell off greatly 

 at that time, and until lately only twenty-eight to thirty-five thou- 

 sand tons have been sold annually. 



From the first the high price of guano has operated against its 

 universal use. The freight from so distant a port as Iquique or 

 Callao is of course very heavy, and the other expenses have been in- 



5 



