No. 11. 



African Guano. — Spirit of Rivalry. 



353 



The African guano has the external cha- 

 racters of the iSouth American, and each 

 aflbrded Dr. Davy as follows : 



American. .Africa n . 



41.2 40.2— Matter soluble in water, volatile, 



or destructible by tire, being ox- 

 alate of ammonia, diphosphate 

 and muriate of ammonia, and 

 animal matter. 

 29.0 28.2— Phosphate of lime and magnesia, 



little sulphate of lime and sand. 

 2.8 6.4— Common salt, sulphate and sesqui- 



carbonate of potash. 

 19. 0.0— Urate of ammonia. 



8. 25.2— Water and carbonate of ammonia. 



100. 100. 



Your readers will be no less surprised 

 than was Dr. Davy, at finding no urate of 

 ammonia in this African guano. It abounds 

 in crystals of oxalate of ammonia, but con- 

 tains no oxalate of lime, nor traces of urea. 

 The absence of urate of ammonia is veiy 

 remarkable, as this salt is so very character- 

 istic of the urine of birds, always voided 

 with their excrement. Dr. Davy instituted 

 new analyses of the excrements of several 

 birds, and confirmed the received opinion, 

 that urate of ammonia is always a constitu- 

 ent of bird excrement, whatever may be the 

 food of the bird. Thus, he found urate of 

 ammonia in the common goose, fed on grass; 

 in the pigeon, common fowl, gull, pelican, 

 and white-headed sea eagle. The three last 

 were in the garden of the London Zoologi- 

 cal Society; and were fed, the gull wholly, 

 and the others chiefly, on fish. What has, 

 therefore, become of the urate of ammonia, 

 the characteristic of the bird excrement, in 

 the African guano? Dr. Davy thinks, in 

 accordance with Liebig's view, that uric 

 acid has changed to oxalic acid. He found 

 not a trace of oxalate of ammonia in the 

 excrement of the above birds. Time and 

 the oxygen of the air, he thinks, have pro- 

 duced this change. He goes further, and 

 experimentally, by boiling urate of ammonia 

 with oxide of manganese, in a few hours ef- 

 fected a transformation of uric to oxalic acid. 

 Certainly some peculiar influences have con- 

 trolled the changes in African guano. With- 

 out affbiding more oxalate of ammonia than 

 the American, its urate of ammonia and 

 urea, seem to be replaced by carbonate of 

 ammonia. These are changes unnoticed by 

 Dr. Davy, though the change of urea into 

 carbonate of ammonia, by the addition of the 

 elements of water, is one of the best estab- 

 lished facts of modern chemistry. Allowing, 

 then, the .\frican guano to have been origi- 

 nally like the excrement of other birds, some 

 peculiar influences seem to have changed 

 its uric acid, as well as its urea, into carbon- 

 ate of ammonia. Now, Mr. Editor, so far 



as this has occurred, it has replaced a fixed, 

 by a very volatile salt, and of course has 

 produced an article more liable to deteriora- 

 tion in proportion to its amount of carbonate 

 of ammonia. 



The Liverpool price of the African article 

 is £9, the American about £12 per ton. 



S. L. D. 



Lowell, May 10th, 1844. 



Spirit of Rivalry. 



The dififerent breeds of live stock, neat 

 cattle, and sheep, have each their partizans; 

 often influenced solely by their own honest 

 preferences and convictions, founded — as 

 they at least persuade themselves — upon 

 exj-erience and observation; and in some 

 cases, it will not be denied, by private inte- 

 rests, a stimulus which is too seldom absent 

 from most of the disputes and contentions in 

 life. Now, if a man should pronounce a 

 preference over all others for the Short- 

 horns, he must expect to be tossed by the 

 Long-horns; if he sides with the Herefords, 

 the Durhams will shake their heads at him ; 

 and if he advocates, above all others, the 

 claims of the polled Scotch, the Angus, or 

 the Fife cattle, the West Highlanders will 

 be down upon him with a vengeance. So 

 it is with the South-downs and the Leices- 

 ters — meek, quiet, placable animals them- 

 selves — who may be seen feeding peaceably 

 together out of the same manger, and lying 

 down without passion in the same pen ; but 

 not so their owners and breeders. A spirit 

 of rivalry pervades every department of life. 

 Under due restraints and discipline, it is 

 productive of the most useful results; but it 

 too often blinds the judgment, and becomes 

 fierce and vindictive. , We are not satisfied 

 with the undoubted good qualities of what 

 belongs to ourselves; but we resolve upon 

 exposing the defects and faults, whether 

 real or imaginary, of what belongs to our 

 neighbours. It is not enough that our 

 own children are handsome, good-tempered, 

 clever, and accomplished; but we insist upon 

 it that those of our neighbours are ugly, mo- 

 rose, and ill-endowed. Perhaps agriculture 

 presents a more limited field for any ill-na- 

 tured emulation than almost any other de- 

 partment of life. Here men cannot conceal 

 their discoveries and improvements. Here 

 there cannot be long any monopoly of ad- 

 vantages. Here men perceive how rapidly 

 and widely, improvements and discoveries 

 extend themselves. In the present condi- 

 tion of the world, for a man to pretend to 

 keep any distinguished agricultural improve- 

 ment to himself, would be very much like 

 his holdmg up his umbrella before the sun, 



