122 OF FERTILIZERS. 



and solid, to mix them with such substances as will ren 

 der them inoffensive, and afterwards to compost them 

 with other materials for manure and to restore them to 

 the soil. 



894. Many substances will prevent all disagreeable efflu 

 via ; plaster, copperas, Glauber s salt, sulphuric acid, or, 

 better still, Epsom salts, chloride of manganese, sulphate 

 and chloride of zinc, chloride of lime, all of which sub 

 stances can be procured at a very low price. Most of 

 these are completely soluble in water. Plaster is not so, 

 and should therefore be put into those places only which 

 are regularly and thoroughly cleared out. 



395. If the above mentioned substances and all others 

 capable of being used as manure, were always carefully 

 husbanded and used, there would be no necessity for the 

 use of guano. 



Guano, (pronounced gooahno,) is the Peruvian name 

 for the droppings of sea-fowls, found upon certain unin 

 habited islands on the coast of Peru and of Africa, in a 

 climate not subject to rain. Guano has been accumu 

 lating there for an unknown length of time. It is found 

 in deposits of great depth and is now dug out and ex 

 ported to Europe and the United States, as a substitute 

 for or an adjunct to farm yard manure. Guano consists 

 principally of alkaline and earthy phosphates, and of 

 ammonia and ammoniacal salts or compounds capable of 

 being resolved into ammonia. 



Good guano, exposed to a heat of 212, loses not more 

 than from 6 to 12 per cent, including a little ammonia. 

 Poor guano, or that which is in a state of advanced 

 decomposition, loses as much as 35 or even 40 per cent, 

 of water. 



