244 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



throughout the great West become as well skilled iu 

 the art of making the rare johnny-cake, and rye and 

 Indian, or wheat and Indian, as the famed matrons of 

 Yankee land. This consummation will be hastened 

 by the same causes which made Indian meal take the 

 place of wheat flour in New England — a better 

 adaptation of soil and climate to the successful cul- 

 ture of Indian corn. In many counties of Western 

 New York, when wheat was once the great paying 

 crop, that cereal, owing in part to the exhaustion of 

 the wheat-growing pabulum in the soil, and in part 

 to winter killing and insect enemies, is now considered 

 hardly worth growing ; but on the other hand, the 

 crops of Indian corn ai-e always on the increase, and 

 never failing. 



Bread made wholly or in part from Indian meal, 

 is, at least by way of change, more palatable, if well 

 made, than the wheaten loaf. The hot johnny-cake 

 from the kitchen range, or the hot loaf of rye and 

 Indian from the baker's basket, is considered at New- 

 port the prominent luxury of the breakfast table, 

 without which the tautog grille aux 07uons would 

 be set at nau<jht S. W. 



PETTI'TS FISHERIES GUANO.* 



This paper commenced by stating that guano was 

 generally understood to have been introduced to the 

 notice of Europeans by Von Humboldt, in 1804. It 

 was brought to England as an object of merchandise 

 in 1830. It had been used in Peru for 100 years and 

 upwards, and the island depositories had been for 

 ages under the management of the State. 



In 1841, Professor JonxsxoN gave the price of 

 gaano as £52 per ton in this country, and not more 

 thaji £2 5s. to £3 10s. on the spot; and having made 

 an analysis, and calculated the price at which the 

 same amount of fertilizing matter might be added to 

 %he soil from the manufactories of this country (say 

 £9 lOs.), he deduced that the British farmer should 

 not be called upon to pay more than £20 per ton for 

 Peruvian guano. Mr. Phillip Pusey also gave the 

 same opiaion. Of the excrementitious matter voided 

 by sea bird.s, a very large proportion was decomposed 

 before the guano of commerce was extracted from 

 its beds, and more still before its arrival in this 

 country. Proof of the rapid depreciation of guano 

 in keeping, might be found in the analysis of the dung 

 of birds, by M. de Coindet and Sir Humphrey Davy. 

 CoiNDET found in recent excrement 8.01 of pure am- 

 monia, and of ammonia in the form of its equivalent 

 of uric acid, 35.20, making a total of 43.81 per cent. 

 Davy found that the soluble matter of the dung of 

 pigeons decrejised from 23 per cent, in the recent ex- 

 crement to 16 per cent, in that of six months old, and 

 to 8 per cent, after fermentation. It appeared that 

 in five years (1845-50), nearly 650,000 tons of guano 

 had been brought almost round the world for the 

 stimulation of the soils of this country ; but it was 

 generally believed that the zenith of supply from 

 Peru was past. 



From the many analyses of different varieties, it 

 was stated that the amount of ammonia was, in Sal- 

 handa Bay, 1.68 per cent; in Patagonian, 2.55 per 

 • Bead before the Society of Arts, by Horace Grksw. 



cent.; in Cape and Algoa Bay, 2.00 per cent.; and 

 in the New Islands, 1.96 per cent ; but in phosphate 

 of lime, which was the next most important element, 

 the.sc guanos were richer as they were poorer in am- 

 monia. The mean amount of phosphate of lime was, 

 in Saihanda Bay, 1.6S per cent.; in Patagonian, 44.00 

 per cent; in Cape and Algoa Bay, 20.00 per cent; 

 and in the New Island, 62.80 per cent. The question, 

 however, arose, whether or not large quantities of 

 such manures could be sold at a price which should 

 not exceed the home cost of superphosphate of lime. 

 Reference was then made to the guano substitute 

 prize of £1000, and the gold medal, which were 

 offered by the Royal Agricultural Society for the dis- 

 covery of a manure equal in its fertilizing properties 

 to Peruvian guano, and which could be sold at a 

 price not exceeding £5 per ton; and it was contended 

 that according to the composition of guano, as given 

 by Professor Way, and the known value of these 

 several articles in the markets of commerce, the value 

 of a ton of such material would be upwards of £12, 

 it was not at all probable that any one could dispose 

 of it for £5. 



The author then proceeded to describe the fisheries 

 guano of Mr. Pettit, and gave the results of several 

 analyses, from which it was deduced that according 

 to the scale alluded to, the mean value of the sam- 

 ples tested was £9 7s. 6d. per ton. The manufac- 

 ture of this guano on a large scale would be carried 

 on by a process of the following nature : A given 

 weight of fishy matter was placed in a large tank, 

 and sulphuric acid of commerce added to the mass. 

 The action of the acid was so powerful as speedily to 

 reduce the organic matter to a soft pulpy consistency, 

 resembling in appearance the fecal matter of birds. 

 This pasty mass being placed in a centrifugal drying 

 machine, and the superabundant moisture forcibly 

 driven off, the partially dry matter was now submitted 

 to a heat not exceeding 212^ Fahrenheit, and after- 

 wards pulverized in a suitable manner. In this pro- 

 cess the oily matter of the fish separated itself, and 

 swam upon the surface of the Hquid, hence it could 

 be easily separated, and formed an important item in 

 the economy of the manufacturer ; since, taking all 

 kinds of fishy matter, we obtained an average of 3 

 per cent of oil, worth £25 per ton, or three-fourths 

 of the whole expense of the raw material. Another 

 process might in some cases be adopted with advan- 

 tage, especially with cartilaginous fish. As to the 

 supply of the raw material, it was believed, from tes- 

 timony of many persons on the coasts, as well as in 

 the evidence in several Blue Books, that an ample 

 supply of refuse fish would be obtained at an average 

 price of £1 per ton ; and taking 60 tons of this 

 weekly, the cost of manufacture and incidental e.x- 

 penses would be £10,043 per annum. From this 

 there would result 93 tons of oil, which, at £25 per 

 ton, would give £2,325, and 1,653 tons of guano, at 

 £7 per ton, or £11,571— making together £13,896 

 as the amount of sales, or a profit of £3,253. — Glas- 

 gow Practical Mechanics' Journal. 



Which is it ? — Which is the way to health ? 

 the Hydro-path, the Allo-path, or the Horace-path ? 

 Where there are so many paths, it is hard to know 

 which to follow. 



