Nitrate of Soda as a Manure. 



383 



into the other ; whether, that is, the acid is changed into the 

 alkali, as Dr. Wilson deems possible and Dr. Hartstein asserts, 

 or whether what appears a more easy transformation takes place, 

 and Ammonia is changed into Nitric acid. 



This scientific question between Ammonia and Nitric acid 

 assumes indeed further a very practical commercial shape. For, 

 as is well known, our main foreign supply of manure reaches us 

 from the rainless side of South America, in rival cargoes of 

 guano and cubic saltpetre, the former of which, as it happens, is 

 ammoniacal, the other a nitrate. Now this rivality is most im- 

 portant, since the guano trade is a monopoly of the Peruvian 

 Government ; and, even were the trade open, there is a doubt how 

 long it would last, for in that free republic, as we are told, Don 

 Domingo Elias was sent to the gaol of Callao last summer for 

 alleging that the supply of guano would be worn out in nine 

 years. 



This sensitiveness of the Peruvian rulers in itself raised sus- 

 picion ; and authentic intelligence has just reached our own 

 Government from the admiral in command on the coast of Peru 

 which renders the whole question of monopoly less important, 

 inasmuch as, if Admiral Moresby's report be accurate, the entire 

 trade may come to an early end from exhaustion of the material. 



According to a semi-official statement of the Peruvian Govern- 

 ment,* the total deposits of guano in their territory amounted 

 nearly to 27,000,000 tons, which, at a yearly export of 200,000 

 tons, would last more than a century. It was apportioned as 

 follows : — 



Northern District 854,000 



Middle ditto {CJiinchas Islands) . , 18,250,000 

 Southern ditto . . . • . . . . 7,621,000 



Total .... 26,725,000 



But Admiral Moresby states that the larger of these Spanish 

 numbers is reduced by English survey (no unusual occurrence, 

 by the way, in the Peninsular war) from 18,250,000 to 8,600,000 

 tons. Furthermore, it appears that, of this reduced quantity, 

 only one-half is by its quality fitted for English consumption. 

 This reduced amount is also now being exhausted more rapidly 

 by an active demand from the United States ; for the American 

 ships loading at the Chinchas actually exceed the British in 

 tonnage. In short. Admiral Moresby, in his official despatch, 

 comes to the conclusion that, " at the present average rate of ex- 

 portation, the islands would be exhausted of the guano that would 

 pay freight, or be saleable, in the English market, in eight or 



* Correspondence on the Guano Islands, presented to the House of Commons, 

 May, 1852. 



