No. 3. Tfie History of Guano, from Dr. Gardner'' s Essay. 



85 



better crops, and stock essentially improved. 

 With all these man improves. But there is 

 a vast deal yet to be done, and we must not 

 talk of good farming until we can in all 

 things double, and in many treble our pre- 

 sent product; for, let me tell you the pro- 

 ductive powers of the earth are almost illim- 

 itable. 



I commenced this Address by propounding 

 the query — Where is the farm that will now 

 upon the average yield forty bushels of wheat 

 to the acre ! Tf in this assemblage there is 

 one individual who owns that farm, and he 

 realizes, positively realizes that result, I 

 will here stop and respectfully ask him to 

 give us the benefit of his practice and intel- 

 ligence. No one speaks. If not forty, then 

 thirty; if not thirty, then twenty. With 

 less i cannot be content, because with less, 

 although it would be an improvement, it 

 would not be so decided as that tlie man's 

 experience would be an essential benefit. 

 They have raised seventy bushels, eighty 

 bushels of wheat to the acre in England ; 

 and shall we, the freemen of America, who 

 own the soil and its improvements, be con- 

 tent with less than twenty] No, I will raise 

 the standard higher. It must be doubled, 

 and let no farmer stop until he comes up to 

 the average of forty. We cannot accom- 

 plish great things if we do not attempt them, 

 and success is only to be won by effort. Be- 

 tween sixty-eight and sixty-nine bushels of 

 wheat to the acre have been raised in the 

 town of Wheatland, as stated by Gen. Har- 

 mon, of Genesee. This is a proof that it 

 may be done here, because it has been done 

 in this State, and if in that portion of it why 

 not in this ] 



Wheat was orighially a wild plant, the 

 kernel much smaller than it is now, and we 

 hear of it first in the East. But we know 

 nothing definite as to the era in which it 

 first appeared, the country that produced it, 

 nor at what time it was first used as the food 

 of man. Its growth is almost co-cxlensive 

 with the world; and whether .sown under 

 the tropics or in northern latitudes it always 

 matures, and always furnishes the same val- 

 uable and nutritious food. Valuable as it is 

 in its nutritive powers, that value is very 

 much enhanced from its universality, for it 

 will thrive in all climes, and man can avail 

 himself of it in all places. It is- so well 

 adapted to his support, that bread made from 

 it is justly termed "the staff of life." A 

 plant that is so useful both as an article of 

 food and as a means of commerce, surely 

 ought to draw onr most careful attention to 

 its successful cultivation. It is a hardv 

 plant; what it wants is a rich, clean soil, 

 well pulverized, and to be sown in season. 



The History of (^uaiio, from Dr. Gard- 

 ner's Essay. 



Amoxg the many surprising discoveries of 

 the Spanish adventurers in America, that of 

 islands formed of the excrement of birds was 

 not the least. The fertilizing pov.'er of this 

 new manure, evoking the most extraordinary 

 growth from barren sand, in a climate unvis- 

 ited by rains, was so worthy of attention, that 

 the earlier writers are fnll in their accounts 

 of the guano, and speculations on its origin. 

 The Indians knew that it was the excrement 

 of the flammands, cormorants, cranes, and 

 other piscivorous birds that darken the air of 

 their coast. They calculated the supply of 

 manure, and fixed seasons for its removal. 

 The birds were to them prcvidors of food, 

 for their sands wnild yield none; and hence 

 they looked upon them with so great a reve- 

 rence, that human life itself was scarcely 

 equal to that of these birds. They called 

 the deposit hnuna, or dung for manuring, 

 and formed from it the verb huanuchani, to 

 manure. But the Spaniards were not equally 

 satisfied of its origin ; they had no hesitation 

 in referring the white, recent excrement, to 

 birds; but the dark brown fetid ^Mff?20 seemed 

 to be altogether another s\ibstance. 



Ulfoa says — when the depth is consider- 

 ed at which the guano is dug, it appears 

 probable that it is an earth, although the 

 smell might be considered against this opin- 

 ion ; and he is inclined to suppose that a 

 considerable portion of earth is mixed with 

 the birds' dung. Frezier, who examined 

 the coast in the last century, and visited the 

 island of Iquique, (Voy. dans la Mer. Sud.) 

 tells us that Indians and negroes are en- 

 gaged in collecting guano, which is a yellow 

 earth, believed to be the dung of birds from 

 its smell, and the occurrence of feathers at 

 a great depth ; but he is overcome with diffi- 

 culty to account for such accumulations, 

 since, for upwards of one hundred years, 

 tiiere were loaded annually ten to twelve 

 ships, and without any great diminution in 

 its height. 



It wa.s, perhaps, this doubt as to the na- 

 ture of the manure, that led the Spaniards 

 to neglect the wholesome provision of the 

 Incas in respect to the birds, so that now 

 the bustle of ships and boats has driven them 

 away. The discovery of large stores in the 

 earth, under layers of sand, and sometimes 

 clay, seemed to remove the necessity ?ot 

 new deposits; and the recent article, which, 

 in remote times, was almost exclusively 

 used and gathered from the several islands 

 to the extent of 20 to 2-5 tons the season, is 

 now only procured from such collections as 

 were overlooked by them, or unnecessary to 

 their culture, and will be soon exhau.-ted. 



