AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Jmgitrt to imjroiro i|o Ifarmn, % patter, art % <®artmr* 
AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHY, THE MOST USEFUL, AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF JUAN. Washington. 
ORANGE JUDD, A. M., 1 
CONDUCTING EDITOR. ( 
VOL. XIII.—NO. 17.] 
Published Weekly by Allen & Co., No, 189 Water-st 
I UNDER THE JOINT EDITORIAL SUPERVISION OF 
A. B. ALLEN & ORANGE JUDD. 
NEW-YORK, WEDNESDAY. JAN. 3, 1855. 
[NEW SERIES.— NO. 69. 
ibr iprospectus, Mentis, $zt. 
®"SEE LAST PAGE.^J 
Every one writing to the Editors or 
Publishers of this journal will please read 
“ Special Notices," on last page. 
COMPARATIVE VALUE OF PERUVIAN AND 
MEXICAN GUANO 
Our attention has been recently called 
to an article on the above subject, in one of 
the larger city papers, with the request that 
we should correct some of its absurdities. 
Had it been admitted as an advertisement, 
(in which character it should only have ap¬ 
peared,) any notice of its misstated facts and 
flippant deductions would have been equally 
superfluous, as to have to criticised the ab- 
surdest of the thousand and one nostrums 
daily puffed through the columns of our pa¬ 
pers. Or had we agricultural schools and col¬ 
leges, with which to imbue the minds of our 
youth with the elementary principles of agri¬ 
cultural chemistry and science, such notice 
would be unnecessary; for the specious state¬ 
ments and inferences of the writer are as 
transparent to the veriest tyro as the most 
open spider’s web. Yet there are some 
who might be misled by just such articles, 
and we therefore shall make a brief correc¬ 
tion of this and similar leading errors. 
But in the outset, and for the sake of 
avoiding what might be deemed a one-sided 
or partisan view, we are ready to acknow¬ 
ledge some value in Mexican guano as a fer¬ 
tilizer. Like the African and Patagonian, it 
has a certain, but by no means a uniform or 
constant value, as the Peruvian, from the 
fact that each of these are exposed to 
drenching rains, which dissolve and wash 
out more or less of the most important and 
fertilizing soluble materials ; while the Peru¬ 
vian, never having been thus exposed, al¬ 
ways presents a uniform quality, and that by 
far the highest of any of the general fertil¬ 
izers. It is the effort to exalt the value of 
Mexican guano, far beyond its merits, to un¬ 
dervalue the Peruvian, and what is of infin¬ 
itely more consequence, “ to remove the an¬ 
cient landmarks,” by the attempt to foist 
wrong principles on the community, and in¬ 
culcate their adoption it is this effort that we 
most deprecate and shall ever be ready to 
combat. 
That we may do no injustice to the writer 
alluded to, we shall quote the most import¬ 
ant points from his article, and on which he 
evidently relies to prove that “ the Peruvian 
guano, from the Chincha Islands, can not be 
worth more than one-third as much as the 
Mexican, even if the poisonous ammonia 
which the Peruvian contains, could be 
leached or washed away before it comes in 
contact to kill the corn, roots, stems, and 
leaves of valuable crops.” 
He quotes Dr. Ure, on ammonia, to prove 
that “ an animal plunged in it speedily dies,” 
and the Dispensary, to show that 
“ it is irrespirable, the glottis closing spas¬ 
modically when the attempt is made to 
breathe it.” “ Like arsenic and other poi¬ 
sons, it is sometimes administered in small 
doses ; and, in extraordinary cases, when 
taken in the form of aqua ammonia, largely 
diluted with water, it is given to the extent 
of ten to thirty drops ; when swallowed in 
an over dose, its effects are those of a cor¬ 
rosive poison.” 
Again, “ Plants encounter ammonia from 
Peruvian guano, in the form of soluble saline 
compounds, mostlycarbonate. Liebig says : 
‘ It has been observed that where a soil is 
too highly impregnated with soluble saline 
materials, these are separated upon the sur¬ 
face of the leaves. In consequence of these 
exudations the plant sickens, its organic ac¬ 
tivity decreases, its growth is disturbed, and 
if this state continues long, the plant dies.” 
And passing from the theoretical to the 
practical, he quotes : 
“Seth Raynor, Esq., of Manorville, L. I., in 
his letter giving his experience with their 
ammonical guano, says : ‘ One table spoon¬ 
ful applied to a hill of corn is quite enough, 
and that requires to be put in some six 
inches from the seed; otherwise it will kill 
it. Some have lost acres by putting their 
corn on that little quantity.’—(Peruvian 
government pamphlet, page 90.) The tes¬ 
timony on this point from practical planters, 
was so overwhelming that the compiler of 
the Peruvian government treatise was con¬ 
strained to say of their poisonous ammoni- 
acal compound, ‘ never put guano (Peruvian) 
in the hill with corn, no matter if covered 
two or three inches deep, for the roots will 
be certain to find it; and so sure as they 
touch the guano, so caustic is it, that it will 
certainly kill the corn. The same with 
peas, beans, melon vines, and, in fact most 
vegetable crops.’ ” 
Would any one believe that, in the latter 
half of the nineteenth century, a tolerably 
clever writer would sit down, deliberately, 
and by such specious statements as the 
above, attempt to prove that ammonia—so 
generally acknowledged by all intelligent 
writers as one of the most powerful aids to 
luxuriate vegetation hitherto known, and 
which is so abundantly supplied to it from 
Peruvian guano—that this invaluable fertili¬ 
zer is only a poison to plants ? The veriest 
clod-hopper who has ever tried a handful of 
it, would laugh him in the face if asserted 
in his presence. That it is destructive to an¬ 
imal and vegetable life, if used to excess, no 
one doubts, but it is in the proper use,not the 
abuse, that we contend it is beneficial. Is 
any one of the constituents of plants less 
injurious, when applied in improper quan¬ 
tity or proportion ? Is caustic potash, or 
soda, quick-lime, or undiluted sulphuric acid 1 
Is not corn an appropriate food for horses 
and oxen? Yet how many of each have 
been killed by eating it in immoderate quan¬ 
tities—yes, and so harmless a thing as 
green clover, too. To such absurdities we 
are almost ashamed to reply. 
The writer rapidly passes from the nega¬ 
tive to the positive ; from the injurious prop¬ 
erties of the Peruvian to the valuable quali¬ 
ties of the Mexican, and here, like many other 
champions, his zeal has outrun his discre¬ 
tion ; he has decidedly overstated his case. 
He says : “ Phosphate oflime, the great 
universal food for plants, constitutes 69 per 
cent of the gross weight of Mexican guano, 
and about 24 per cent of the gross weight of 
Peruvian guano. In other words, the Mexi¬ 
can guano contains, in round numbers, three 
times as much phosphate oflime as the Peru 
vian. Now, if ‘ phosphate of lime is the only 
valuable ingredient in guano of any kind,’ 
then clearly the Mexican guano is worth 
three times as much as the Peruvian guano 
for agricultural purposes.” 
Would any one, not determined on carry¬ 
ing his point at the expense of all reason, 
presume to state the average proportion of 
“ phosphate of lime in Mexican guano at 69 
per cent of its gross weight,” (we don’t know 
the use of the termgio^s as here used, ex¬ 
cept to show the gross absurdity of the writer,) 
when reliable analysis gives the average of the 
same substance in hones , at 50 to 56 per cent 
only l ;That is, Mexican guano contains from 
13 to 19 per cent more of phosphate oflime 
than pure bones ! Credat Judaeus. It is 
true that bones may sometimes contain a 
greater proportion than is above stated, un¬ 
der peculiar circumstances, as when freed 
from all animal matter, (oil, fat, gelatine, tis¬ 
sue, &e.,) which is about 33 per cent of its 
entire weight, but we are now speaking of 
the average composition of bones in their 
naturalstate. And if this statement were true, 
it would again prove too strong for his object, 
as pure bone-dust can be had for agricultural 
purposes at about twenty dollars per ton; 
while our disinterested commercial writer 
modestly asks twice the sum, for what he ac¬ 
knowledges, after an excessive over state¬ 
ment, does not contain 20 per cent more of 
this “ universal food for plants.” He has 
