GUANO, IN CONNECTION WITH FLORICULTURE. 
203 
the fecal deposit of cormorants, gulls, and sea-fowl, that feed entirely upon fish ; 
the work of countless centuries, still going on, though slowly progressing, we 
cannot fail to be struck with wonder and astonishment. There is not, perhaps 
in the whole world, a substance which comprises in a volume so small and compact, 
all the decomposable appliances of all vegetables. Can it, then, be matter of 
surprise that men, greedy of gain and reckless of principle, should attempt, first 
to imitate-— but failing in that, then to palm off spurious succedanea, resembling the 
true material in nothing but the colour, and barely in that ? 
Setting aside the question of purity or fraudulent adulteration, which involves 
much of doubt and perplexity, it must be evident, after what has been written, 
and all but proved, especially by the late disclosures made in the Gardeners' 
Chronicle, that no certainty can be attained by any other means than a rigid 
analysis of every individual specimen. Such an analysis cannot be at present 
undertaken by practical gardeners ; but any man of sense can determine one point 
of importance which, if established, will go far to prove the excellence or worth- 
lessness of a sample. This is done by simply mixing as much guano as will lie 
upon a four-penny piece with half as much quick-lime, fresh from the kiln, or a 
few grains of potash, and so much boiling water as will reduce the whole to the 
consistence of thin paste. Being rubbed together in a small mortar, or on a piece 
of glass, a very pungent odour of pure smelling salts will be immediately extricated, 
if the Guano be genuine and well preserved. If, on the contrary, the smell be 
feeble, the article is spurious, or damaged ; for if the ammonia really exist, and 
become revealed, it affords evidence, almost amounting to demonstration, of the 
real quality of the manure. 
From all that has been stated above, and in the communications of high 
chemical authorities, it must be evident that the floral gardener ought to employ 
the utmost caution in using an article which abounds in salts of most active and 
stimulating quality. Such salts are produced in nature ; all of them have their 
specific uses, but then they are strictly specific, and the earth yields them in very 
modified forms, and to an extent which cannot be injurious. 
Plants growing in beds and borders select aliment suitable to their individual 
temperament ; but, in pot culture, we limit their range of pasture, and arbitrate 
the supply of what we still manure. Great errors may thus be committed, and 
conduce to much mischief and disease ; therefore in applying Guano, the quantity 
used experimentally, whether in bulk among the soil, as top-dress, or in solution, 
should be almost inappreciably small till experience sanction a more liberal supply. 
What we want, above all things, is a rigid and faithful system of organic 
analyses. Liebig first impressed this great truth, and we believe he is now engaged 
in a course of demonstrative experiments. Till we know the salts which every 
plant, or, at least, every tribe contains, we act in the dark, and apply our artificial 
combinations empirically. It fortunately happens, thanks to the stimulus which 
has been given to a spirit of inquiry, that an apparatus for organic investigation 
