414 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Makch 2. 
Royal Agricultural Society wliicli waited upon the 
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs ; and the motion 
made in the House of Commons, by Colonel Blair, 
during the past month, urging upon our Government 
the importance of obtaining this manure at a cheaper 
rate from the rulers of Peru. In the course of his 
speech, Colonel Blair stated, that Guano was almost in¬ 
dispensable to Scottish farmers; and the supply of it 
being at a reasonable rate, affected, to a considerable 
extent, the food of the people; “ upwards of ten million 
bushels of Wheat being, it was said, added to the pro¬ 
duce of the country by means of this stimulant of the 
soil.” 
Now, we confess that we are not of the number of 
those who are anxious to procure Guano from Peru, 
because the more difficulties there are thrown in the way 
of procuring it, and the more costly it remains, by so 
much the more will the science and perseverance of our 
countrymen be excited to contrive for it an efficient 
substitute. If that science and perseverance are so 
directed and stimulated, as Mr. Slaney said at the 
last meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society, we 
have “ no doubt that the time is gradually approaching 
when such a substitute for Guano will be found within 
our own resources as will render us independent of a 
foreign importation.” 
Guano is nothing more than the remains of fish after 
they have passed through the digestive organs of birds ; 
and we have not the shadow of a doubt that, from the 
refuse of our fisheries, including those of the Sprat, 
Herring, Pilchard, Whale, Seal, Cod, &c., a manure may 
be prepared identical in fertilizing effects with Guano. 
We are confirmed in that opinion by the chemical re¬ 
searches of Dr. Apjohn, communicated to the Royal 
Agricultural Improvement Society of Ireland. He ana¬ 
lysed the “ Fish Manure” of Mr. Petit, and he found it 
composed as follows: 
Water, expelled by a heat of 212°. 8.00 
Sand. 33 
Oil. 2.40 
Organic Matter . 50.72 
Superphosphate of Lime. 9.85 
Sulphate of Lime, hydrated. 19.01 
Sulphate of Magnesia .71 
Sulphate of Potash . 2.05 
Sulphate of Soda . 2.42 
Chloride of Sodium . 1.12 
Sulphate of Ammonia . 2.72 
100 . 
This is a very close approximation to Peruvian Guano, 
and Dr. Apjohn shews that if this is worth £ 8 : 4 : 1 
per ton, then Petit's “ Fish Manure” is worth TO for the 
same weight. 
Pursuing his observations upon “ Fish Manure,” he 
observes: 
“If a fish of any kind he subjected to an accurate chemical 
examination, it will be found to consist of water, oil, and 
azotized organic matter; and associated with this latter, 
particularly in the bony parts, will be found certain mineral 
salts, which may be insulated by calcination, and the aggre¬ 
gate of which constitute the calx or ash. Now, in connexion 
with the process of Mr. Petit, it is obviously important to 
know the per centage quantities of these different consti¬ 
tuents ; and, as far as my information extends, the know¬ 
ledge already acquired on this subject is very limited—the 
only analysis which I have been able to meet with, being 
one of sprats, by Professor Way, published in Morton’s 
“ Encyclopaedia of Agriculture," and one of herrings, due to 
Mr. Sullivan, of this city, and given in an article of his, 
headed “The Undeveloped Resources of Ireland,” which 
occurs in the first number of a monthly periodical, brought 
out under the title of “ The Journal of Industrial Progress.” 
“ I here subjoin the results obtained by these chemists. 
The numbers for the sprats being the means of results ob¬ 
tained in 1847 and 1848. 
WAY. 
SULLIVAN. 
Fresh 
Dry 
Fresh 
Dry 
Sprats. 
Sprats. 
Herrings. 
Herrings. 
Water. 
64.12 
_ 
67.44 
_ 
Oil . 
19.05 
53.09 
13.77 
42-28 
Azotized matter.... 
14.72 
41.02 
16.39 
50.33 
Ash. 
2.11 
5.89 
2.40 
7.39 
100 
100 
100 
100 
Per centage of nitro- 
gen . 
1.94 
5.40 
2.77 
8.05 
“ The per centages of nitrogen—viz., 11.53 and 14.74, given 
by Professors Way and Sullivan, have reference, not to the 
dried fish, but to what Way calls dry nitrogenous matter, 
i.e., the dried fish minus the oil; and they are, therefore, 
not found in this table. 
“ Professor Way also gives the analysis of the ash, which is 
in the main composed of the phosphates of lime and potash, 
with alkaline chlorides, and traces of magnesia and iron, 
and is remarkable for containing no carbonic, and but a 
minute quantity of sulphuric acid. 
“Before I had seen these analyses, being under the im¬ 
pression that sprats and herrings were the fish most likely 
to be used in the preparation of fish guano, I had resolved 
to make them the subject of a chemical examination, but 
was not at the time (about the 10th of last January) able to 
obtain specimens of either in the Dublin market. I thought 
however, it would not be uninteresting to experiment upon 
some other varieties of fish, and I accordingly selected for 
this purpose a haddock and whiting of small size, which 
gave the following results. The haddock weighed 11.6, and 
the whiting 10.2 ounces. 
HADDOCK. 
WHITING. 
Fresh. 
Dry. 
Fresh. 
Dry. 
Water. 
74.33 
_ 
76.18 
_ 
Oil . 
1.15 
4.48 • 
2.34 
9,20 
Azotised matter.... 
19.35 
77.70 
17.74 
74.50 
Oil . 
4.57 
17,82 
3.74 
15.70 
100 
100 
100 
100 
Per centage of nitro- 
Fresh. 
Dry. 
Fresh. 
Dry. 
gen . 
3.53 
13.70 
3.43 
14.43 
“ The analysis of the ash is not as yet completed. 
“ Upon comparing these analyses with each other, the 
haddock and whiting are found to have very much the same 
composition, the principal difference being that the latter 
contains better than twice as much oil as occurs in the 
former. But when they are compared with those of Way 
and Sullivan, the discrepancies are very groat indeed. We 
find, for example, the amount of water in haddock and 
whiting to be about ten per cent, greater than in sprats or i 
herrings, their per centage of oil to be in comparison quite 
trilling, and the amount of their azotized matter and ash to 
be considerably higher. Lastly, the amount of nitrogen j 
found by Sullivan and Way is greatly less than has been 
yielded by my experiments—a circumstance easily under¬ 
stood when we bear in mind the very large relative quantity 
of oil in herrings, and particularly in sprats. This latter 
being a point of great consequence in relation to the manu- 
