366 



Guano as a Manure. 



Vol. VII. 



From the Cultivator. 



Guano as a Manure. 



Messrs. Editors, — This article, now 

 making a considerable noise in the world, 

 and attracting the attention of agriculturists 

 in Europe and America, was first introduced 

 into the United States in 1830. At that 

 time the writer of this article received a 

 barrel of it, and distributed it to many per- 

 sons, reserving a small portion for his own 

 use. From an ignorance of the proper ap- 

 plication of it, probably, it either destroyed 

 every thing on which it was applied, or pro- 

 duced no effect. So far as the writer heard 

 from those to whom he gave it, one or the 

 other of these effects resulted in every case. 

 Since then it has been occasionally intro- 

 duced in small parcels, but nothing favour- 

 able to its high value, has as yet resulted 

 from its use in this country, so far as the 

 writer is aware. But it has not been tried 

 with sufficient care and information of its 

 nature; and therefore no judgment of its 

 value can be formed from any experiment 

 made with it in this country. The object 

 of this paper, therefore, is to lay before Ame- 

 rican agriculturists all the information at 

 present to be had, of its true character, the 

 materials of which it is composed, and the 

 results of experiments made with it in Eng- 

 land. 



Baron Humboldt first introduced this arti- 

 cle to the notice of Europe. He considered 

 guano as the remains of birds' dung, that 

 has accumulated on the shores of certain 

 islands on the coast of South America, Pa- 

 cific side, between the 13th and 21st degrees 

 of south latitude, from time immemorial. Its 

 composition, according to Voickel, (the most 

 recent analysis,) is as follows: 



9. 

 - 10.6 

 7. 

 6. 

 2.6 

 5.5 

 3.8 

 4.2 

 14.3 

 4.7 



Urate of ammonia, - 



Oxalate of ammonia, 



Oxalate of lime, - 



Phosphate of ammonia, 



Phosphate of magnesia and ammonia 



Sulphate of potash, - 



Sulphate of soda, - 



Sal ammoniac, ... 



Phosphate of lime, - 



Clay and sand, ... 



Organic substances not estimated, 

 containing 12 per cent, of matter 

 insoluble in water, soluble salts 

 of iron in small quantity, water, 



32.3 



100.0 



From this analysis, it appears that about 

 one-third of the whole mass of guano is 

 salts, of which ammonia is the base; one- 

 fiflh is phosphoric salt, and one-fifth a salt 



of which lime is the base ; and that all the 

 other ingredients, (potash, soda, &c.,) are 

 universally considered highly valuable, and 

 even necessary ingredients of good soils. 

 But the ammonia, of which so large a por- 

 tion of guano consists, is the most important 

 of all nutritious salts, on account of the large 

 amount of nitrogen it affords. It is a sub- 

 ject, however, worthy of consideration, whe- 

 ther we cannot obtain all the valuable pro- 

 perties of guano directly from the chemists, 

 in the form of the various salts of which 

 guano is now known to be composed, at less 

 expense than we can guano itself.* A very 

 respectable mercantile firm in Baltimore, 

 who have received a moderate quantity of 

 guano for sale, informed the writer that the 

 cost of importation, all charges included, 

 (and including the duty assessed by govern- 

 ment, of 20 per cent.,) was seven cents a 

 pound. This price, it is believed, will ef- 

 fectually prohibit its use in this country, no 

 matter how valuable it may prove to be as a 

 manure ; because from two to four hundred 

 weight will be required to the acre, and 

 thus it will cost from &14 to !$28 per acre, 

 to manure the ground. But if it cost seven 

 cents to import it, of course it must be sold 

 at eight or ten cents, to yield a profit to the 

 importer, and of course it will not be im- 

 ported unless it yield this profit. It is, how- 

 ever, hoped that t!:ere is some mistake as to 

 the cost of importation, because it is well 

 known that the article retails in England, 

 at 20 shillings per hundred weight. Of 

 course, the profits of the importers, and also 

 of the retailers, are added to the cost of im- 

 portation ; and if all these together, amount 

 to only four cents and nine-tenths per pound, 

 it is difficult to conceive how the simple cost 

 of importation into this country, should be 

 seven cents. 



As to the value of guano as manure, all 

 who have published the results of their ex- 

 periments in England, concur in the opinion 

 that it is very great. The writer of this, 

 has searched the agricultural periodicals of 

 Great Britain, published during the last, two 

 years, and has not been able to find a single 

 objection as to its high value. On the con- 

 trary, all the writers concur in the opinion 

 that it can be very profitably applied as a 

 manure, when it costs twenty shillings a 

 hundred weight. 



The manner of applying it in England, 

 appears to have been various. Some mixed 

 it with pulverized charcoal, some with wood 

 ashes, others with seed wheat, oats, or bar- 



* Artificial guano is regularly advertised for Fate in 

 the English agricultural papers, at £15 per ton, which 

 is 25 per cent, cheaper than the guano itself. 



