The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1859-05-19
GuanO.

We referred last week to this subject, but were not
able to print all the information we had on the SUBJ
ject. Since cur paper was issued we came across an
article in the Albany Country Gentleman, written,
we believe, by Prof. johnson, Secretary of the N. Y.
State Agricultural Society. which will be of interest
just now. No person is probably better qualified to
give an opinion on this new guano than Prof ].
We quote what he says, as it is popularity supposed
that nothing can be considered as guano, except it
possesses the strong ammonia smell.
PHOSPHATE Cause.-The increasing price of Peru
Wan Guano, and the fact, experienced by many
farmers, that its continuous and exclusive use is fol-
lowed by impoverishment of the soil, have led to
numerous explorations with the view to discover new
sources of the cheaper phosphate guanos. These
have been found in various localities, and are of two
kinds. The first kind comprises the long known
Saldanha Bay and Bolivian guanos, the so-called
Pacific Ocean and Mexican guanos. and the more
recently discovered guanos of Jarvis Island, Bakers
Island, and of the Kooria Mooria Islands.
They occur in rainy regions, consequently their
soluble salts, and especially the heterogeneous ammo
nia-yielding matters are mostly removed. The best
kinds are chiefly composed of phosphate of lime with
some organic substances, but the poorer samples con-
tain sulphate and carbonate of lime and sand, often
in large quantity.
The other kind of phosphate guano is represented
by the Columbian guano, which is reported to come
from the islands of the Caribbean Sea. This SUBJ
stance is a rock, and contains no organic matter.
Some specimens OF it are nearly pure specimens of
phosphate OF lime: others contain no lime, out are
phosphates of iron and alumina, mixed with consid-
cradle sand. On the west coast of Africa a similar
substance has been discovered.
In the last year or two, the circulars of the Com
panies which manage the enterprise of bringing these
fertilizers into the market, have been widely circu-
lated among our farmers. Nobody can deny that
the Phosphate guanos are an excellent fertilizer,
capable of producing all the good effects of burned
bones; but they are inferior to Peruvian guano, and
inferior to the dust of unburned bones or to super
phosphate of lime.
When we say that a body is a good fertilizer, we
speak in a general sense. When we say that Peru
Wan guano is the best fertilizer, we mean that it,
more than any other manure. contains those ing redi-
ents. which on the whole, are most often lacking in,
and most expensive TO supply to, the soil. When a
manure becomes a commercial article, it acquires q
commercial value, depending upon what it can be
bought and sold for. entirely independent of any
other use, though in most cases growing out Of
another use. Diamonds are the most costly, and
commercially the most valuable articles of merchan-
die. and yet their value is only conventional and
fictitious. They have few uses, and the most expen-
sive are the least useful for any but for trading pur-
poses.
To the dealers in manures, Peruvian guano is
worth $50 per ton, and Bakers Island $40 per ton,
or just as much as he can get for them. He can get
$50 for the one and $40 for the other, because
farmers having used them at these prices, are salts
fed that these are their real worth for producing
wheat, corn, grass, SC. But manures like diamonds
have often a fictitious value. The proper commercial
value of the manure is the price which many farmers
can afford to pay for it. 1t is the figure which NAV
be generally agreed upon.
The true relative value of Peruvian and phosnhatic
guanos as agricultural, not as commercial articles. is
what is established, not by the experience of one
farmer or of one district, but in an average express
sion of the experience of many farmers in many-in
all districts. The wants of different soils are so vari-
Gus, that in one locality Peruvian guano NAV be n
most efficient manure, and the phosphate guanos of
no use, while elsewhere the phosphate guano is the
best IN. all respects. The first question with the
farmer hQtora m lo..a1.x - 81
to settle what is its fertilizing value on his soils.
When we take a comprehensive view of agricul-
ture, and compare the teachings of all experience and
OF all science, there is no refuge from the conclusion
that neither for sands, loans or claws. neither for
wheat, clover or turnips, for no soil and no crop is
there any one special and unfailing fertilizer. The
plant, In It's maturity, is the result of the favorable
union OF a number of conditions. among which are
seed, warmth, moisture, light, carbonic acid, ammo
MIA, potash, soda, lime, magnesia, oxyde of iron.
phosphoric acid, sulphuric acid, &C., and if one of
these fail the plant fails. That one of these condi-
lions which is naturally wanting in any locality, but
may be supplied by art, gets the credit thus of being
the most important. In Greenland it is warmth
IN Sahara moisture; on this farm ammonia. ON that
acid; here lime, yonder potash.
1t constantly happens that a manure which was
once highly eflcacious, ceases to produce marked
effects, while another fertilizer, long disused. comes
again into favor. This is easy to understand. and
must occur wherever farmers have got to rely on any
t.lng put stable manures or something that, like il,
yields to vegetation all the forms of plant food.
The true system of mauuring is to know all that
the plant requires, and to supply all that the soil is
deficient in. This supply must except up constantly
and symmetrically. The scientifS farmer does not
dose his soil q series of years with fome, and then
turn to guano, and then to plaster, &c., but each
year or during each rotation, he sees the crope are
provided with all they need. Such doemas g
: ammonia for wheats and phoephates for turnips.ss
70 be trne only when they are proved true.