77 



ally in Massachusetts alone is estimated at $45,000,000 to $50,- 

 000,000,* and it is not improbable that the value of the annual 

 poultry product of the world would reach $25,000,000,000. 

 When it is considered that in all the centuries but few species 

 of birds have been domesticated, only one of which, the turkey, 

 originated in America, it seems probable that the possibilities 

 of profitable domestication have not yet been exhausted. 



Fertility from the Sea. Immense Value of Guano Deposits. 



Bird guano consists mainly of the excreta of fish-eating sea 

 birds, in which are sometimes intermixed much smaller quantities 

 of undigested or partially digested fish dropped or regurgitated 

 by the birds, together with the remains of birds and sea lions 

 and other mammals. The best guano comes from the Chincha 

 Islands of Peru. In those nearly rainless regions it retains 

 a large percentage of its nitrogen, and Dr. Robert Cushman 

 Murphy remarks that, calculated according to the nitrogen 

 content, the best Peruvian guano is more than thirty-three 

 times as effective as barnyard manure. 2 



Centuries before the discovery of America there existed on 

 the west coast of the South American continent a civilization 

 noted for its agriculture, textile industries and architecture. 

 The intensive agriculture of the Incas, upon which their civiliza- 

 tion was based, was made possible by the deposits of guano, 

 and through a wonderful system of agricultural engineering by 

 which they laid out irrigation works which enabled them to ex- 

 tend their crop-producing industries far into the naturally arid 

 wastes. Guano was used even on the mountain terraces two to 

 three miles above sea level. The Incas wisely conserved the 

 birds that produced guano. The breeding birds were zealously 

 guarded, and the wanton destruction of one of them was made 

 a capital offence, punishable by death. Unfortunately protective 

 measures were not adopted by the whites, who, on the con- 

 trary, not only exploited the supply, but destroyed the birds 

 that produced it. Humboldt returning from his travels in 

 tropical America in 1804 carried to Europe samples of guano, 



1 Bulletin No. 1, Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, 1917, pp. 6, 7. 

 * The Seacoast and Islands of Peru, Brooklyn Museum Quarterly, Vol. VII, No. 4, Octo- 

 ber, 1920, p. 245. 



