THE FARMERS' CABINET, 



AND 



AMERICAN HERD-BOOK, 



DEVOTED TO 



AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, AND RURAL AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 



JOSIAH TATUM, 

 PROPRIETOR AND PUBLISHER, 



No. 50 North Fourth Street, 



PHILADELPHIA. 

 „ jl 



Edited by the Proprietor and James Pedder. 



Price one dollar per year. — For conditions see last page. 



Guano. 



Many inquiries have been made of us during the 

 past spring, in relation to the celebrated Peruvian ma- 

 nure, called Guano. It gives us much pleasure to throw 

 before our readers the following article from a late 

 number of the British Farmer's Magazine, published 

 in London. We think it will be read with a good deal 

 of interest. In the purchase of manures for enriching 

 his lands, it is an important object with the farmer— 

 particularly with him who has them to haul a consi- 

 derable distance — to obtain those which have the most 

 strength in the least compass, and thus diminish the 

 heavy expenses of transportation. The Guano, it 

 would appear, possesses to a great extent, this advan- 

 tage. We have not heard that any has been brought 

 to this city. If, however, the accounts of its use- 

 fulness continue favourable, and the article can be ob- 

 tained from its native location, the enterprize of our 

 merchants will not fail soon to place it on our wharves. 



Ed. 



In your quarterly number for July, last 

 year, pages 176 to 193, I presented your 

 readers with the account of an interesting; 

 meeting of the County of Kerry Agricultu- 1 

 ral Society, from which arose the publica- 

 tion in this work of the best concentrated i 

 documents, analyses and results, then known 

 as to the new (but yet old) and celebrated I 

 natural production, used as, and called ma-l 

 nure; the Spanish name for manure being 

 Hua.no. This article has been used forages; 

 by the ancient and present Peruvian agricul- 

 turists, and only imported into England the 

 last eighteen months, during which time, \ 

 3000 tons have been sold to manure the i 

 worn-out soils of England. This quantity I 

 has covered upwards of 40,000 statute acres. ' 

 The north country graziers are putting 50 

 to 100 tons on one farm. They declare it 

 saves them five pounds per acre, yielding 

 them 20 to 30 per cent, larger crops, and 

 bringing them to maturity much earlier — 



Cab.— Vol. VII.— No. 11. 



so very desirable to the British farmer, in 

 our damp and humid climate. Guano sold 

 at 22s. to 28s. per cwt. last year; it is now 

 only 14s. to 15s. per cwt., and I believe even 

 12s. to 13s. per cwt. for large parcels, allow- 

 ing a profit to the dealers. It is the most 

 permanent fertilizer ever discovered ; is 

 chiefly aromatic; but the old deposits or 

 strata, where found, are not so, the ammoni- 

 acal properties being concentrated and con- 

 creted. It remains for a long period of time 

 in the laud, and is not washed out by the 

 rains; neither is it volatile, so as to rise into 

 the air, as Professor Johnston, of Durham, 

 states in his lectures on Agricultural Chem- 

 istry, consequently exercising a beneficial 

 influence on the growing crops periodically, 

 being a compound of nature consisting of 

 the greatest variety of phosphates, muriates, 

 urates, phosphoric, lythic, acids, organic 

 matters, &c, of any article found in a natu- 

 ral state, all contributing food annually to 

 the plants, as required by them. 



From the numerous chemical ingredients 

 composing the guano, no doubt it is of vol- 

 canic origin, in part ; and as vegetation can 

 only draw from the soil sufficient food in one 

 season for its support, no more and no less, 

 for its due development, growth and matu- 

 rity, there is, of necessity, a supply of guano 

 left in the soil, constantly drawing down 

 from the atmosphere fresh ammoniacal life 

 by the rains, which the " guanoical 1 ' parti- 

 cles keep in the soil, by means of their nu- 

 merous inorganic matters, concretes, acids, 

 &c, until it is wanted by the succeeding 

 year's crop. So that one dressing of two or 

 three cwt. per acre, (costing £1 10s. to j£2,) 

 will last many years, without further ma- 

 nure of any sort, by digging the soil over 

 with a fork; and the agricultural professors, 

 i Pusey, of Oxford, and Johnston, of Durham, 

 recommended the guano manure to the Eng- 

 lish farmer, at 20s. per cwt., as being a per- 

 manent and excellent nourisher of the soil. 

 At times it is worth 12s. per cwt. in Peru. 

 About fifty ship loads have arrived in Eng- 

 land, paying as high as even £6 per ton, 

 freight; and the total quantity imported to 

 the present time, is about 12 to 15,000 tons; 

 3000 tons being consumed during the last 



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