AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



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we must look for fertilizers in the deposits of the ocean, and 

 from this source they come; also the mud of the river Nile, in 

 Egypt, is very fertile; this is so because it is largely composed of 

 animal matter; so is the mud of the Ganges, of the Amazon, of 

 the Mississippi, and of all the great rivers; so is the mud depos- 

 ited from our cities, and that found in our creeks, bays, and on 

 our mud flats along shore; the nitrogen from vegetable and ani- 

 mal matter carried down the rivers afford great quantities of food 

 for the fish of various kinds that visit the mouths of the streams, 

 hence the great feeding grounds for fish at the mouths of Colum- 

 bia river, the La Plata, the Amazon, the Chesapeake bay, the St. 

 Lawrence, the Amoor in China, and other distinguished streams. 



So are the deposits of animal matter in the ocean, which raised 

 up have formed the Chincha Islands guano. 



The composition of the guano at the Chincha Islands is evi- 

 dently a marine animal exuviae mixed with lime and soda, which 

 gives out carbonate of ammonia in large quantities when broken. 

 Much of the fertility of the guano is lost by exposure to the at- 

 mosphere even before it reaches us. On the south side of the 

 north Island the rock has much slag and iron ore and volcanic 

 cinders in it; on this Island is the most of the guano which is 

 found at the Islands. 



Many deposits of nitrate of soda and lime are found along the 

 western coast of South America. Any thing that contains animal 

 matter makes a fertile manure, and the best guano is always 

 found to be dead animals, buried and planted over for crops; fish 

 put into the ground produce great crops of corn, so does sea weed; 

 the white and blue mud found in our creeks, bays and harbors 

 along the Atlantic coast is one of the most valuable fertilizers, 

 while guano manufactured from fish and the bones of animals by 

 dissolving in sulphuric acid yields the superphosphate of lime 

 so celebrated as a fertilizer, indeed the more animal matter which 

 can be worked into artificial manures renders them the more fer- 

 tile for vegetable life; whatever produces ammonia produces fer- 

 tility; a snow storm in April is always said to be as good as a coat 

 of manure for the farmer, and where great storms of snows come 

 down on the earth in the winter, we always find heavy crops of 

 vegetation succeed the snows in the summer; the reason is when 

 the snow particles crystalize in the heavens they absorb ammonia 

 from the atmosphere and bring it down to the earth. The ammo- 

 nia liquor is the great stimulant for both animal and vegetable 

 life; the reproductive powersof animals contain a superabundance 

 of ammonia, and without it nothing is fertile, but all is barren. 



