42 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



measure of protection given, and the promiscuous shoot- 

 ing of the sea birds for millinery purposes stopped, these 

 beautiful and useful birds, which have few enemies beside 

 man, — and woman, — will again occupy their breeding 

 places along our coasts. 



Birds and Soil Fertilization. 



Aside from their usefulness as insect eaters, the sea birds 

 have benefited modern agriculture in another way. In the 

 Garden of Eden fertilizers were not necessary. The natural 

 decay of organic matter, resulting from the death of plants 

 and animals, maintained the fertility of the soil. When 

 population increased so that fertile land was not plenty, man 

 learned by experience how to treat the soil to make it })ro- 

 ductive, and began to apply different materials as fertilizers. 

 It is said that the Pilgrim Fathers in 1620 found that the 

 Massachusetts Indians, when planting corn, placed a dead 

 fish (herring or shad) in each hill. The Peruvian Indians 

 were known to have recognized the importance of guano as 

 a fertilizer more than three centuries ago. It is said to have 

 been held in such high esteem in the time of the Incas that 

 the deposits on the Chincha Islands were jealously guarded, 

 and the birds which resorted there were carefully protected, 

 the death penalty being inflicted on any one killing birds 

 there during the breeding season. In 1804, Humboldt, 

 returning from his travels in America, carried to Europe 

 some samples of this guano, and called attention to the value 

 of these deposits. His announcement received little notice 

 at the time ; but within fifty years guano had revolutionized 

 methods in progressive agriculture, and the possession of 

 certain islands occupied by sea birds and the revenue there- 

 from had become a bone of contention between nations. 

 These guano deposits are found on the breeding places of sea 

 birds. The material consists mainly of excrement, combined 

 with the rejected portions of the food. These birds, pen- 

 guins, albatrosses, pelicans, gulls, terns, petrels and others, 

 feed largely upon fish ; therefore the manurial matter de- 

 posited by them contains quantities of nitrogen, phospbate 

 and phosphoric acid. 



The introduction of guano into civilized countries gave a 

 great impulse to intensive cultivation. Some idea of the 



