GROUNDSEL. 



GUANO. 



abundance of the oil they produce. This is 

 said to be equally as valuable, for the table and 

 other purposes, as the oil of olives, and supe- 

 rior to that for burning. A bushel of the nuts 

 produces by cold expression a gallon of oil ; 

 but more may be produced by heat, but of a 

 quality inferior. (Jim. Or chard ist.) 



GROUNDSEL, or RAGWORT (Scnecio). 

 An extensive genus of plants, many of the 

 species of which are very ornamental. Of this 

 genus Sir John Smith includes ten species as 

 indigenous to England, four only of which 

 however, come properly under the head ground- 

 sel. The remainder are referred to under the 

 name of RAGWOIIT, by which name they are 

 generally known. 



Common groundsel, or Simson (S. vulgarii) 

 grows almost everywhere in cultivated or waste 

 grounds, in rubbish, dry banks, the tops of 

 walls, &c. ; it flowers almost all the year. It 

 is too well known to need description. Cage 

 birds (particularly goldfinches and linnets) are 

 fed with the young buds, seeds, and leaves, 

 which are cooling, and have a saltish herba 

 ceous flavour. Cows do not relish this plant; 

 it is, however, eaten by goats and swine, but 

 refused by horses and sheep. A weak infusion 

 of groundsel is in England a common purge; 

 a strong infusion or juice is used as an emetic, 

 and sometimes given to horses to free them 

 from bots. All the groundsels are annual. 



Fifteen or sixteen species of senecio are 

 found in the United States, of which Dr. Dar- 

 lington met with four in Pennsylvania. These 

 are: 1. The golden; 2. The obovate, which 

 in New York is called squaw-weed, and de- 

 nounced as poisonous to sheep. 3. Balsamita- 

 like, common groundsel. 4. Fireweed, or hie- 

 racium-leaved. This plant is remarkable for 

 its prevalence in newly cleared grounds, espe- 

 cially around spots where brushwood has been 

 burned; whence it derives its name of fire-weed. 



GRUB. "The common name for worms or 

 maggots, hatched from the eggs of beetles. 

 Under the name of gentles, grubs are a prin- 

 cipal bait to the angler for many kinds of fish. 

 The grub produces the beetle, and is by some 

 called the rook-worm, because rooks are par- 

 ticularly fond of it. Land newly brought into 

 cultivation is generally most subject to the 

 grub. The best way of destroying it is by 

 good and frequent ploughings, and the applica- 

 tions of lime in pretty large proportions in its 

 caustic or most active state, or common salt. 

 Irrigation is also very beneficial, as tending to 

 destroy grnbs. See BEETLES and INSECTS. 



GRUBBER, or CULTIVATOR. See HAR- 

 HOW and SCARIFIER. 



GUANO. The name of a manure recently 

 imported for the first time into England, which 

 has long been extensively employed by the 

 cultivators of Peru to fertilize their sterile 

 sandy places lands, on which occasionally 

 there is a total absence of rain for many 

 months. This manure is the excrements of 

 sea-birds, and, like>that produced by all animals 

 feeding on animal food, is of a very powerful 

 description. It exists, according to M. Hum- 

 boldt, in the greatest abundance in some of the 

 small rocky islands of the Pacific Ocean, as 

 at Chinche, Ilo, Iza, and Arica. Even when 



\ Humboldt wrote, some 20 years since, 50 ves- 

 I sels were annually loaded with the guano at 

 ! Chinche alone, each trader carrying from 1500 

 i to 2000 cubic feet. The guano is found on the 

 surface of these islands, in strata of several 

 feet in thickness, and is, in fact, the putrefying 

 excrements of innumerable sea-fowl that re- 

 main on them during the breeding season. It 

 is used by the farmers of Peru chiefly as a 

 ! manure for the maize or Indian corn, and it is 

 I said sometimes in the small proportion of 

 about 1 cwt. per acre. "The date of the dis- 

 covery of the guano and of its introduction 

 as a manure," says Mr. Winterfeldt, "is un- 

 known, although no doubt exists of its great 

 antiquity. In many parts of America, where 

 the soil is volcanic or sandy, no produce would 

 be obtained without the guano. It has been 

 calculated that from 12,000 to 14,000 cwts. are 

 annually sold in the port of Mollendo for the 

 use of the country round the city of Arequipa. 

 In the province of Taracapa and in the valleys 

 of Tambo and Victor the consumption should 

 be something more, as wheat, all kinds of fruit, 

 trees and plants, with the single exception of 

 the sugarcane, are manured with the guano; 

 which is not the case with the district of Are- 

 quipa, where maize and the potato alone re- 

 quire it. In the district of Arequipa 3 cwts. 

 of guano is spread over an extent of 5000 

 square yards (about an English acre); but in 

 Taracapa and the valleys of Tambo and Victor, 

 5 cwts. are required. The land thus manured 

 in Arequipa produces 45 for 1 of potatoes, and 

 35 for 1 of maize, where wheat manured with 

 horse dung produces only 18." 



There are, it seems, three varieties of guano, 

 which bear on the coast of Peru different 

 prices. "The white guano is considered the 

 most valuable, as being fresher and purer. If. 

 is found on nearly all the islands along the 

 coast. The red and dark gray are worth 2s. 3d. 

 the cwt. ; a higher price is given for the white 

 on account of its greater scarcity ; it is sold at 

 the port of Mollendo at 3s. 6rf. per cwt., and at 

 times, as during the war, it has obtained as 

 high a price as 12*. 



It appears, in the state in which it has been 

 lately introduced into England, to be a fine 

 brown or ^^n-coloured powder, emitting a 

 strong marine smell: it blackens when heated, 

 and gives off strong ammoniacal fumes. When 

 nitric acid is mixed with it, uric or lithic acid 

 is produced. It has been analyzed by various 

 chemists. In 1806, an analysis of a very ela- 

 borate description was published by MM. Four- 

 croy and Vauquelin ; they found in it a fourth 

 of its weight of uric acid, partly saturated with 

 ammonia and partly with potash. Some phos- 

 phate of lime and ammonia, and small quanti- 

 ties of sulphate and muriate of potash, a little 

 fatty matter, and a portion of sand. It has been 

 more recently analyzed by Mr. Hennell of Apo- 

 thecaries' Hall, who found in guano 



Part*. 



Bone earth --...... 30-5 



Sulphates and muriates - .... 3 



Uric or lithic acid ----.-_ 15 



Carbonate of ammonia ...... 3 



Matters volatile at 212, consisting chiefly of water 



and carbonate of ammonia - - - - 12 



Dther organic matters ...... 36-5 



595 



100 



