128 LESSONS IN CHEMISTRT. 



187. Guano. — One of the most extraordinary features in 

 the agriculture of the last half century is the importation into 

 this country of enormous quantities of various animal sub- 

 stances, for the purpose of being employed in increasing the 

 produce of our farms. Every part of Europe has been 

 ransacked for bones to manure the fields of England and 

 Scotland, and within the last four or five years thousands of 

 tons of the droppings of sea-birds, deposited on the coast of 

 South America and Africa, have been purchased for the same 

 purpose. It has been stated that between 1841 and 1844, 

 England imported not less than 70,000 tons of this manure, 

 the very name of which was a few years ago scarcely known 

 in this country. Thus, whilst we neglect the fertilizing mate- 

 rails at our doors, we have not hesitated to send 5,000 miles 

 for the mineral matters contained in the excrements of birds. 



188. It is unnecessary to describe the characters of the 

 substance which is termed guano, as that manure is now well 

 known to every farmer. It consists of the excrementitious 

 matter deposited by sea-birds, which in certain parts of the 

 world congi'cgate in immense flocks, covering the islands and 

 promontories which they frequent with their droppings. It 

 appears to have been used from the earliest times by the 

 natives of Peru, who by its assistance and the employment of 

 irrigation, were enabled to produce rich crops of grain from 

 sterile sandy soils. Before the year 1841, though small 

 quantities of it had been brought to this country, it attracted 

 but little attention, and was regarded merely as an agricul- 

 tural curiosity until Lord Stanley, at the meeting of the 

 lloyal Agricultural Society of England, held in that year at 

 Liverpool, gave an account of its extraordinary fertilizing 

 qualities ; and the successful results which followed the trials 

 which were made of it, at once established its character as a 

 most important addition to our animal manures. 



1 89. The fii-st guano brought to this country was from the 

 islands near the coast of Peru, and was sold at from 22s. to 

 285. per cwt. ; but as the demand for the manure increased, 

 another deposit of it was discovered on the island of Ichaboe 

 on the coast of Africa, which however was in a short time 

 exhausted. Other deposits, both on the coast of America 

 and Africa, have since been found out, and at present afford 

 a considerable supply, though of inferior value to the Peru- 

 vian and Ichaboe guanos. 



