The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1865-06-20 00:00:00

Agriculture.

NATURAL HISTORY OF GUANOS.

No. 1.

[The following is i passage from one of a 'alert course
of lectures lately delivered by lan Wallace Fyfe,
before the Royal Agricultural College.]
Guano is the leading article in the artificial
manure market. It is a natural enough sub-
stance, but classed with the artificials, to distin-
guish it from home-made manure. It is now
22 or 23 years since the first crop of guano (pro-
nounced nuano) was imported from the Chincha
(pronounced Chinks) Islands, on the coast of Peru.
These islands comprise three rocks, the joint
area of which is under 3,000 atatute acres ; and
the quantity of guano still upon these rocks is
commonly estimated at 16 millions of tons,
valued at more than 100 millions of money. I
may cite, however, the following account com-
municated by my brother, Lieutenant Thomas
Wallace Fyfe, now of the East India Service, to
Mr. Samuel Parr, the Nottingham chemist, as
given in that gentleman's "Letters to Farmers
on tbe Chemistry of Soils and Manures."

"Last year Captain Fyfe visited Peru, and brought
over from the Chincha Islands a cargo of guano. His
account of these Islands is totally different from any I
have ever yet seen published, for instead of the guano
being exhausted in 8 or 10 years, which most writers
assert, he says that the supply, comparatively speaking,
is inexhaustible, the beds of guano being in many
places more than 100 feet thick, and two of the three
principal islands being yet untouched. On climbing
the cliffs an innumerable quantity of skeletons of large
marine animals were presented to his view, such as
those of the seal and walrus, or ses•horse, sticking up out
of the surface in such quantities that the place appeared
to be completely white all over; and these" gays Mr.
Parr, "account in some measure for the white lumps
frequently met with in Peruvian guano, which are no
doubt the decomposed skeletons and vertebra of these
animals. Pawling along over the island he could scarcely
take • step without his foot breaking through into a
hole in which the guano bird makes its nest. These
holes extend 5 or 6 yards into the bed of the guano, and
the birds are continually occupied in fetching fish from
the sea to feed their young ones. The number is so
immense that the air seems completely alive with them.
By this amount, on which the most implicit reliance
can be placed, you will perceive," continues Mr. Parr,
" that guano is not all excrementitious matter, as we
have hitherto been led to suppose, but consists of a
considerable amount of decomposed animal matter, in
addition to the excrement of birds. It is evident, from
this brief sketch, that the supply of guano will be at
present by no means limited, and therefore it rests with
yourselves (meaning the farmers) to petition Govern-
ment, through your respective members of Parliament,
to endeavour to devise means to get it imported into
this country at a cheaper rate."

Thus far Mr. Parr. I may add that up to
the let of June, 1858, the total shipments of
guano had amounted to 2,608,659 tone; the
losses on shipment were, however, equal to 10
per cent., and the losses at sea to 14 per cent„
leaving the net proceeds, after paying all expenses
up to 1856, £416.., and up to 1858, £5 2s. a-
ton. Now in the year alluded to (1868), the
Peruvian Government was guilty of a piece of
gross injustice to England, its best guano
customer, in selling guano in the United States
at £ll, while charging England £l3 55., making
a difference in price of over £400,000 a-year.
This matter was, however, brought under the
notice of Lord Derby's Government by Mr.
Bernaghan and Mr. Caird, whereupon Mr.
Seymour Fitzgerald had the prices very promptly
equalised at £l2; but in 1863 the Peruvian
Government again raised them to £l3.* My
brother is absent on an East India voyage—
indeed I daily expect to hear of his arrival at
Point de Galle, in Ceylon, otherwise I might
have had some more special information to offer
you regarding the Peruvian monopoly. I find,
however, that in a subsequent note to Mr. Parr
he has forwarded confirmatory statements
respecting his estimate of the supply. He
says :

"It is stated by Mr. B. B. Wilson, the wellsinformed
English Consul at Peru, that though it is supposed that
about 3,000 tons a-year have been carried for centuries
from Chinoha, one of the islands in question, to the
opposite °oast, it is estimated that there is still upon the
island the enormous quantity of 17 millions of tons, and
that the supply in the various islands of the group now
alluded to may be safely estimated at above 40 millions
of tons. But exclusive of these there are other islands
more to the south whence guano is shipped for Arequipa,
and which are still far from being exhausted, and vast
deposits have been found on the coast of the mainland,
near Lamar or Cobiju ; so that making every allowance
for exaggeration, the supply of guano cannot for all
practical purposes, be regarded as otherwise than inex-
haustible.

(Signed)

"Thommi W, Fyne."

It must be admitted, however, that the im-
ports for British consumption alone represent ;
only about one-third of the guano trade of the
country, as carried on by Messrs. Thomson, I
Boner, and Co., and formerly by Messrs. Gibbs I
and Sons, of Liverpool, the agents or lesseee of '
the Peruvian Government. This trade took its '
existence from the attention which Liebig first
directed to the subject of guano. But Messrs.
Gibbs and Sons only began their trade in 1842,
two years subsequently to the appearance of
Liebig's work. Already, however, in 1841 guano
had, according to the Report of the Council of
the Royal Agricultural Society for that year,
been tried on 60 English farms; and these would
seem also to have been preceded by a few former
trials, extending over the two or three preceding
years—several cargoes of guano having been im-
ported and sold at upwards of £2O a-ton in these
years by Mr. Myers, Gibbs and Sons, in 1862,
imported only 182 tons of guano. In 1882, the
20th year from the commencement, the total
supplies for foreign, as well as British consump-
tion had, however, reached 435,000 tons for the
i year; of which from one-third to one-fourth
only was retained, hewever, for the United
Kingdom. At the outset of the guano trade the
price ranged from £lO to £l5 per ton; from
1846-48 it was at its lowest point, £9 a-ton ;
during the next four years, 1849-1853, £9 ss. ;
it reached £lO in 1854, £ll in 1855, £l2 in
1856, and its highest recent point, £l3, in 1857.
It has since slightly declined, and, in the language
of the trade circulars, now rules at about £l2.
Not contented with the Chinch& deposits, the
Peruvian Government are still extending their
exploration of the Guano Islands, and constantly
bringing valuable deposits to light. We read in
the " Gommerioo" of Lima, June 13, 1863, that
the engineers found the guano on the Lobos
Islands extended on a large part of the surface
to a depth of 10 to 12 feet, and in some parts
to as much as 40 feet deep—the guano of the
thinner strata being naturally inferior, owing to
the influence of the mists, but in the deep de-
posits the quality is superior. On both islands
the first-claiis guano, value £l3 a-ton to Peru, is
calculated at about three millions of tons; the
second-class, value £4, at about one million.
The Macabi group, not explored, near Malahrigo,
i whole guano first-class, not inferior to
the Chinches. Here the engineers broke
•er employed in their examinations, after
penetrated with great effort to the depth
feet without touching the foundation
nd in these excavations found crystalised
da at 30 feet depth. All this guano was
I quality, and the stock not lees than
)00 tons.
he Guanape group, opposite the point of
Ilona, the guano was also found to be of
i
,-
llike first-class, and the stock, judging by the
' eight and extension of the deposits, which em-
nence at the very sea, not less than 2,500,000
'tons. The Lobos Islands guano can only be
' • '. by means of long wharves, but both at

had ,
that
the 1

of 19
rook,

1,500,1
On 1

the rate of imports,