New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-09-29
INTERESTING TO FARMERS.
GUANO.
IT'S HISTORY, TRAFFIC. USES, ABUSE, AND
FRAUDS

GUAM.
IT'S HISTORY, TRAFFIC, USES, ABUSE, AND
FRAUDS.
The year 1910 wss one Of very great importance TO
Brtish farmers for il marks the nroouciJD Of guano
ID their poce 1t ia true that thyeix years before,
it's value hao been publicly announced by the great
Humboldt, and theoretically demon trsted BY the
ar alyses Of Fourcroy vanquelin and Klaprolhi and
true that lie possible valoe as a special was in
1910, alluded to by Sir Humphrey Davy, and prs:ti-
calls tested in St Helena by G IN. Beatson the then
Governor But the means Of conoborsting 10 actual
home practice these several assertions not Afforded
until Mr. Myers had landed twenty cssks Of the pun
gent powcer Liverpool Docks in the year aforesaid.
True to the old Peruvian provesb, "Guano, though
no saint, works many miracles" it wrought such mar
v.lous effects upon the several plss to which it was
applied that great popular furore was produced in
the agricultural world; and, in 1884, 500 tuns were
imported snd used. Its real valae being by degrees
understood the consu n ,ton enormously increased,
and from 1912 TO 1917 the average annual imp taion
wss nearly 80 600 tuns
Guano OF Hu0nO as the Peruyians write it, is not
merely the excrement Of seafow but comprises also
their dec imposed bodies and eggs aud the remains Of
seals Long before Pzarro conquered Peru, euano
wac used as q by the natives; aud we lsarn,
through HFesColt from Acostb,
ing season of the birds the penalty of death visited
BY the In cas upon any one who set foot upon the
Vuano islands, and upon any one who killed the brda
at any season Of the year Some faint conception may
be formed of the centuries which have elapsed
sipce the deposit of the lowest stratum Of guano
on the Chinchas when we reflect tat in the three
hundred years anterior to Humbolirs visit 10 the
islands, the deposit had no. been increased more than
LIE IN he .ha Ia
mas of manure is said to be 100 feet in thickness Pro-
vided that the deposit had ale avs been made in the
same ,atio must have required more than ll52, 900
years TO form the mass from which our preeent sup
plies are being dug.
TIE Cbincba -lands lie off the South coast Of Peru
about twelve miles between latitude l3o and lio 81
they are three in number, and each five 70 six miles
in circumference Their basis s granite and not coral
as come have a'ed The quantity of guano on ali
three islands BY the Peruvian Governm snt at about
40 COO GOO tuns that the lsrgest slaod at 0c %
Another group the North Coast ofPeru kno the
Lobos likewise contain deposits; and these,
with the supply on what is called the Southern
ton of the guano islands and other smaller detached
islands, quite sufficient supply the agricultural
world for at least q century.
As early az 1924 and consequently sixteen years be-
fore Myers twenty casks were lsndea in Liverpool
two barrels Of Peruvian guano received At Bai-
more, by the late John Skinner then iitor of Tbs
american Farmer. Distributed in small parcels,
among many farmers of ryland and Virginia, for
experiment it produced satisfactory results but Is was
not until 1913 that its merits sufficiently sppreca-
ted in Mis- country TO demand for single cargo
of ,0l3 tuns.
From 1911 to 1857; the quantity of guano exported
from the CbiDchas amounted to two-andshalf millions
(2i57 977 tuDs aod in 1857 the customers were sc-
cordipg to AppletOn's New American Cyc opedis In
ratio thus