GUANO—ITS GREAT MERITS AS A FERTILISER. 
139 
viile. I saw last week every plant lifted, and 
examined the roots. They grew remarkably 
last summer, and are now fully rooted, with 
line large main and collateral roots with an 
abundance of fibrous radicals. They all stood 
the snow, eight to nine inches deep upon a level, 
on the 3d of January, and the severe frosts of 
winter, without the slightest covering or protec¬ 
tion, and without the loss of a single plant. 
They are now all forming part of the plantation, 
composed of those received from China last 
June, and a few planted the first week in June, 
which germinated the 17th of September. All 
these young plants were thinly covered with 
straw. Some of them have lost their foliage, 
others have not. The stems do not appear to 
have sustained any injury. The fresh buds are 
beginning to shoot. I cannot help thinking 
that we have now demonstrated the adaptation 
of the tea plant to the soil and climate ot this 
country, and succeeded in the permanent estab¬ 
lishment of the plant within our own borders. 
Junius Smith. 
Greenville , S. C., March 12th , 1851. 
GUAR"O—ITS GREAT MERITS AS A FERTILISER. 
The vast superiority of guano over all other 
manures is attributable to the fact, that it 
is wholly composed of animal remains, con¬ 
centrated by the evaporation of most of its 
moisture, at the same time that no portion of its 
substance has escaped in consequence of these 
insidious changes, known as fermentation, de¬ 
composition, &c., by which new products are 
formed, and some of the most nutritive ele¬ 
ments are evolved and pass off as gases. This 
condition, so different from what is observed 
elsewhere, over nearly the whole surface of 
the globe, is owing to the circumstance that these 
deposits are found in a dry, warm climate, 
where rains are almost wholly unknown. The 
moisture voided with the excrements of the 
birds is soon evaporated in the dry atmos¬ 
phere, as well as that contained in the refuse 
fish, (which constitutes their exclusive food.) their 
broken or addled eggs, together with their feath¬ 
ers and carcasses, thus withdrawing from these 
substances one of the indispensable requisites 
of decomposition. There is a gradual change, 
however, going forward in these remains, by 
which the recent animal features are broken up, 
their form and texture slowly altered and re¬ 
duced to a fine powder, and they at last, perhaps 
after ages of rest, have assumed that brownish 
hue, and homogeneous mass, known as Peruvi¬ 
an guano. 
The simple statement of its origin and sub¬ 
sequent condition, clearly reveals the full merit 
of guano, unapproached and unapproachable 
in value by any other manure. The analyses 
of average specimens of Peruvian guano have 
been repeatedly made, and with nearly the 
same result. We subjoin one, as indicating, 
with little variation, the character of most of 
the guano imported for American consumption, 
This average was taken from numerous analy¬ 
ses made by Dr. Anderson, of Scotland. It 
gave of 
Organised matter and ammonical salts, 53.16 
Phosphates, 23.48 
Alkaline salts, 7.97 
Water, 13.73 
Sand, . 1.-66 
100.00 
The quantity of ammonia yielded by the 
above was 17 per cent. The proportion of 
phosphates is also very large, being nearly one 
fourth of the entire quantity, which is acounted 
for in the fact that these sea fowls subsist solely 
on marine fish, which yield large quantities of 
these valuable ingredients. 
Yon Martius estimates guano to be five times 
as valuable as night soil, and four times more 
so than pigeon dung; and Liebig considers the 
importation of one ciot . of guano , when properly 
applied as manure, as equivalent to the impor¬ 
tation of eight ewi, of wheat. 
The supereminent value of guano may be fair¬ 
ly claimed, because it embraces every clement 
required by plants for their most rapid devel- 
opement and growth, with the exception, per¬ 
haps, of potash, except such as abound in ever y 
soil and atmosphere, and even potash it prob¬ 
ably aids in liberating from the soil, where it: 
has been securely locked up for ages. The- 
silicates of soda, magnesia, and other salts,.almost 
everywhere exist in sufficient quantity to fur¬ 
nish the necessary food for crops, while the 
organic elements, carbon, hydrogen, and oxy¬ 
gen, are profusely furnished by the dews and 
rains, and atmosphere. Nitrogen, the only or¬ 
ganic element, so difficult of arrest and appro¬ 
priation by plants, while floating through the 
air, is abundantly furnished by the various 
ammoniacal compounds of guano. 
There is no doubt that much of the efficacy 
of guano is owing to the large proportion of 
phosphates it contains, which are so minutely 
divided as to yield all their vegetable food the 
instant it is demanded, to which demand the 
rootlets are strongly stimulated by the presence 
