Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1874-07-13
NEW GUANO >DEpOSIrS OF PERU.

NEW GUANO >DEPOSlGS OF PERU.
Il will be o! interest to our agrlcutur>tS, a.
we'll as 10 lnanu.c: urcrs Of artificial fertilizers,
IN learn tha; The new guaao deposits of Ptiu
arc said to be very decidedly superior IN coE.-
uercial value to that OF the Chucha Islands.
Prof Ramoud Of Lima, has lately made re-
rort to the government, in which he makes the
following remarks:
The guauo of the province of Tarapaca Is
dly auu pnwdcry; some specimens OF II did not
cuntain SlXteeu per CT. OF water, among when
,hirty-thrce seemed about equal 10 that respect
To the Ch,nch. guan9 The guauo OF the south
OF Peru has IN this an advantage over that Of
Guanape, which is pa>ly, and not so easily
spread over the soil. The guano OF Tarapaca,
iron it, dlyneSS makes the uric acid and other
heterogeneous principles less app 70 be decompos-
cd. In guano more ahouudiug IN humidity those
eleulen;s become transformed into carbonate of
ammonia, which being volatile, escapes during
TRANSPORTATION. This suauo although abouhd-
iug in ammonia, has lltte smell, aud troD this
fact nigh, be judged Of less value, but the want
of strung am IL onlacal odor Is not OWING 10 the
lack of ammonia, but from Two different cau>us.
! Being very dry, as before observed, the Tor
matiun of carbouat,. of ammonia does not 50
readily take place The presence Of strong
amDouiaca smel iudica,cs that the ANN MA
is being gwen off, aud this condition, !nste ad
Of beng favorable, is prcju ilccd. : The
ammonia in this guauo is combined III great
part with phospholic acid, uudcr the form +
phosphate Of ammonia. witch Is fixed salt
aud cunts no smciI. The association OF am
mona with piosphorlc acid gives greater M
rurtauce to this artlcic, because those two nrst
4 = Ill Is.
lug 10 a soluble state are more easily taken up
by plants Ii circumstance which makes the GU
ano Of Tarapaca prcterabl aud superior to all
others yet known In these guauos pho-phorlc
acid in SOLUBLE condition prevails to the ex-
tent in many samples OF 10 per cent aud even
to II and Is per cent While IN that OF the Chln'
chas it does not 20 beyond per cent
From tie proceeding results, II Is eV!dcut
that if, in the province o! Tararaca, soue OF rs
yuano is poor 10 ammonia, there are others
coual to the best guauo Of the ChlchaS, and
even more valuable than the latter trom the
greater proportion OF soluble phoSpLorlc acid
they contain the most abundant deposits,
such as those of the Pabrllon dc Poo, Patacne,
1Iuanos, and Point LobOs arc also those ol
superior kiud of guano
Oi the specimens from Point LoboS one con-
tanned only O.S per ceut OF mmoula, another
3:l5 per ceut another the extraordinary
amount Of Is 81 per cent. The inference was
that these three specimens were taken at diff
icren depths, the deepest abouading most in
ammoDiacaI salts. \ bottle was received from
Patache filled with muriate of ammonia, very
lure and of fbruus structure. Its presence
would 20 to show that Ike suano of these de-
posts may be expected TO improve in proper
lon to the d.ph from which it is extracted
.: the 33 specimens from different poir,s ara
Iszcd by the Professor, the value ranges trou
Il los. to elG TOP, the latter being from Ia
bcllou dc Pco.