440 



GUANO 



GUARANTY 



of application to the soil, on account of the bulky 

 as well as the unpleasant nature of the material, is 

 obvious, the non-fertilising moisture alone amount- 

 ing to between 60 and 80 per cent. , and by so much 

 enhancing the cost of general haulage. The desira- 

 bility of converting raw fish into a concentrated 

 and portable powder comparatively free from 

 moisture was first practically realised only shortly 

 before 1862 by M. Rohart, whose product was 

 obtained from 'the refuse of the Norwegian cod- 

 fisheries by drying the heads and backbones of, 

 the codfish upon heated floors after they had been 

 sun-dried on the rocks, and subsequently grinding 

 them between millstones to a floury powder. 



Of late years fish-guano has grown rapidly in 

 favour among agriculturists, a preference based 

 doubtless upon its merits as a fertiliser, and prob- 

 ably also due to its similarity both as regards 

 origin, analysis, and effect to Peruvian guano. 

 The supplies of Peruvian guano, as is now gener- 

 ally known, are practically exhausted, the imports 

 into the United Kingdom having fallen from about 

 300,000 tons per annum in years gone by to about 

 17,000 tons in 1888. Not only in quantity is Peru- 

 vian guano deteriorating, but also in quality, the 

 ammonia, for example, found by Voelcker in 1864 

 being 18 '62, whereas in 1889 the very best shows 

 only 9 '50, and others vary from 6 "50 percent, down 

 to as low as 3 per cent. 



In some quarters nitrate of soda has been named 

 as the probable substitute for Peruvian guano ; 

 but, although its supplies are at present enormous, 

 the character, composition, and action upon the soil 

 are entirely different, one being of a mineral and 

 the other of an organic origin. Fish-guano may 

 be held to contain the fish with its natural properties 

 of nitrogen and phosphoric acid in full ; while 

 Peruvian guano, which is the accumulation during 

 ages of the excrement of birds whose main food has 

 been fish, must have suffered by the action upon 

 the fish of the digestive organs of the birds, as 

 well as the effect of the weather upon the deposits. 

 Fish-guano may therefore be considered as the best 

 substitute for the failing supplies of Peruvian guano. 

 Another advantage is the fact that the available 

 supplies of fish in Norway, Canada, Newfoundland, 

 and elsewhere are practically inexhaustible. Fish- 

 guano, according to the fish from which it is made, 

 analyses from 9 to 14 per cent, of ammonia, and 

 from 13 to 32 per cent, of phosphate of lime. At 

 the present time the selling price per ton is fixed, 

 as regards the ammonia it contains, by the ruling 

 market price per unit of that ingredient in nitrate 

 of soda, and, as regards the phosphate of lime, by 

 the price of bone and Calcutta bone-meal. The 

 market value of fish-guano varies, according to the 

 analyses, from about 6 to 8 per ton weight. 

 One ton of fish-guano is said to be equal in 

 chemical effect to seventeen times its weight in 

 farmyard manure. 



Of the most generally known fish-guano there 

 may be said to be four kinds. There is the 

 ' raw ' guano made in Christiansund and the Lofo- 

 dens, upon M. Rohart's principle, which is used prin- 

 cipally in Germany. There is also a guano made 

 in London, Hull, and elsewhere, from fish which 

 has been condemned by the authorities as unfit 

 for human food. This description, naturally, em- 

 braces fish of all kinds and sizes, its great draw- 

 back being the large quantity of oil left in the 

 guano, the presence of which element is preju- 

 dicial to any fertiliser. By far the largest quantity 

 of fish-guano is manufactured in various parts of 

 Norway, but principally at Brettesnoes, in the 

 Lofodens, by Jensen & Co., who make as much 

 as 5000 tons per annum. This guano is made 

 from the heads and backs of the codfish, find also 

 from the herring. In both instances the ' raw stuff' 



is artificially dried and ground, much time being 

 saved by this process, instead of waiting some 

 months until the bones were sufficiently dried by 

 the sun. To make 1000 tons of cod-guano 7,000,0(X> 

 heads are necessary, and to obtain these 50,000 tons 

 weight of fish have to be caught. The oil found in, 

 this guano is practically nil. In making ' herring- 

 guano,' the oil and moisture are extracted by press- 

 ure, and the remaining ' cake ' is ground in the 

 ordinary way by disintegrators, yielding a fine 

 powder of high manurial value. Owing to the 

 predominance of bone over fleshy or nitrogenous 

 matter, cod-guano contains about 30 per cent, phos- 

 phates to 10 per cent, ammonia, while in the herring- 

 guano the predominance of fleshy or nitrogenous 

 matter brings the phosphates down to about 13 per 

 cent., ammonia being about the same. Guano made 

 in Canada and elsewhere from lobster and crab shells 

 is said to be valuable as a garden manure. The 

 annual production of fish-guano in England, Scot- 

 land, Norway, Sweden, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, 

 the United States, &c., is at present estimated at 

 75,000 tons. For Rock-guano, see APATITE. 



Gliailtaciaino, a city of Cuba, 13 miles N. of 

 Caimanera, its port, on Guantanarno Bay, and 49 

 miles E. of Santiago de Cuba. It is in the chief 

 coffee-raising district, and exports much sugar and 

 lumber. Pop. ( 1899) 7137. 



Guapor& a navigable river of South America, 

 rises in Brazil, and for some distance forms' the 

 boundary between Bolivia and Brazil. It unite* 

 with the Mamore to form the Madeira (q.v. ). 



Guarana, from the seeds of a plant belonging 

 to the genus Paullinia (natural order Sapindacese ), 

 from whose seeds Guarana Bread, a kind of food, 

 is prepared by the Guaranis and other savages of 

 Brazil. P. sorbilis is the species which yields the 

 paste called Guarana bread. It is made in round 

 or oblong cakes, which are regarded in all parts of 

 Brazil as very efficacious in the cure of many dis- 

 orders, and which contain, besides other substances, 

 some of them nutritious, a considerable quantity of 

 a substance supposed to be identical with theine or 

 caffeine. It has been used medically in the United 

 States and Europe. The Brazilians pound the 

 Guarana bread, sometimes called ' Brazilian cocoa,' 

 in water, sweeten it, and use it as a stomachic and 

 febrifuge. It is also reputed aphrodisiac. Tha 

 genus Paullinia contains several species remark- 

 able for their extremely poisonous properties. In 

 the bark, leaves, and fruit of P. pinnatu abounds a 

 principle which slowly but surely causes death, and 

 is employed for that purpose by the Brazilians ; the 

 dangerous Lechequana honey is obtained from P. 

 australis ; and from P. cupana, a native of the 

 banks of the Orinoco, an intoxicating drink is. 

 procured. 



Guarantee Associations, joint stock 

 companies on the insurance principle, which become 

 security for the integrity of cashiers, travellers, and 

 other employees, on payment of an annual sum cal- 

 culated either upon the salary or upon the amount 

 for which the association holds itself liable. The 

 advantage of the system is that it obviates the 

 necessity of requesting private friends to become 

 sureties. See GUARANTY, and CAUTION. 



Guaranty* or GUARANTEE, is a contract by 

 which one person binds himself to pay a debt or do 

 some act in case of the failure of some other person, 

 whose debt or duty it is, to do the thing guaranteed. 

 The person so binding himself is generally called 

 the surety in England, while the person who is 

 primarily liable is called the principal. Thus, 

 where A borrows money, and B joins as a party in 

 a bill of exchange or a bond to secure the loan, B is 

 a surety. Where B guarantees that certain goods 

 which are supplied to A shall be paid for, he is 



