Along the coast of Great Namaqualand there are several small rocky islands upon which sea birds congregate in vast flocks; and as there is but little rain in that region, the guano is of considerable value.
The men employed to gather the guano are their only inhabitants.
Angra Pequena, and worked the huge deposits of guano on the Ichaboe group of islands, some of which are less than a mile off the mainland.
The islands off the coast remained British, and there the huge deposits of guano have been worked for years.
Both US and British companies mined for guano until about 1890.
It has been exploited for its guano and phosphate.
The youngster complained that it was very little, to which Banister replied that one of the casks had leaked amongst the cargo of guano or he would have had more.
The captain of a small steamer engaged in the guano trade went out of his way to warn the American that he was being exploited by a scoundrel.
Then, a Chilean gentleman, impressed by the fact that Power was an American, and therefore a millionaire, tried to extract gold from him by the safer and really more effective method of selling him a guano island.
The treatment of guano with sulphuric acid was first had recourse to in the case of cargoes damaged with water.
The appearance of the guano will serve fairly well to detect whether it is abnormally moist.
Quite recently a deposit of very high-class guanowas discovered in Corcovado, and a good many cargoes have already been shipped to this country.
That guano was a substance of by no means uniform composition was a fact early recognised in the history of the trade.
The manufacture is carried on at the fish-curing stations, and the quality of the guano made from this source is somewhat different from that made from whole fish, as a large proportion of the fish-offal is made up of bones and heads.
In appearance the guano obtained from them is very different from nitrogenous guano, being much lighter in colour, and of a fine powdery nature.
A great merit of the equalised guano is, however, that it is sold at a lower price than guano as imported; and as the guano is sold on a guaranteed analysis, the practice has done much to advance the true interests of agriculture.
An American guano company located on Palmyra Island some years ago, building sheds and a wharf, but after the guano deposit was exhausted they abandoned the island.
On a piece of ground which had been sowed with turnips, on which guano had previously been sprinkled during a gentle rain, there sprang up the most marvellous growth of purslane that ever met one’s eyes.
I intended to put a pinch of guano compost or a handful of poudrette into each hill, but thought I could not afford it, and so let them go, trusting to being able to give them a dressing of some kind of manure the following spring.
But as he was very careful never to over-state a case, Lord George assumed, that it would require three hundred hundredweight of guano to an acre to produce an extra quarter of wheat.
According to the experiments tried and recorded in the Royal Agricultural Journal, it would seem that by the application of two hundred-weight of guano to an acre of wheat land, the produce would be increased by one quarter per acre.
At this rate, one hundred thousand tons, or two million hundred-weight of guano would add one million quarters of wheat to the crop, or bread for one year for one million of people.
The Norfolk authorities whom he quoted have in like manner proved that two hundred-weight ofguano will add ten tons per acre to the turnip crop.
In this case, two million hundredweight of guano would add six million six hundred and sixty-six thousand six hundred and sixty tons to the natural unmanured produce of the crop.
Water them occasionally with liquid manure, made from guano and powdered charcoal, well mixed with rain water, and plant them out early in May.
If the grass is inclined to grow rank and coarse it will be much improved by a good dressing of sand over it; if it has an inclination to scald and burn up, sprinkle it with guano or soot just before a shower of rain.
A contributor to the North American Review in January, 1861, wrote: "The use of guano is increasing.
In North Carolina guano is reported to accelerate the growth of the plant, and this encourages the culture on the northern border of the cotton-field, where early frosts have proved injurious.
The pile of guano below each cluster of nests was large; an estimate made at the time indicated that there were 10 or more tons in each pile.
The presence of elevated islands containing phosphate, resulting from the deposition of guano by oceanic birds, is some indication of the length of time during which these birds have been present.
The accumulation ofguano of oceanic birds and the residue of fish and other organisms in the area of the lagoon remains as a rich phosphate deposit; these raised atolls have been called phosphate islands (example, Fais).
I was anxious to get to San Francisco, but no ships in harbour were bound in that direction, although a number arrived from there, loading with guano and going around Cape Horn.
Guano is the droppings from sea-birds, which have been accumulating for thousands of years.
It was estimated that one hundred tons of guano had been dumped overboard; however, nothing was said about the quantity of water that went with it.
Peru (1604) that guano was used by the Incas as a fertilizer.
Two hundred years later, Alexander von Humboldt revived this knowledge, and Humphry Davy wrote about the benefits of guano to the soil.
Another heavy expenditure is about 1,700 pounds yearly for artificial fertilisers, consisting of guano and blood-manure.
Then 1,700 pounds are paid annually for guano and artificial manures.
Guano is found upon the coasts of Peru, in the islands of Chinche, near Pisco, and several other places more to the south.
When guano or phosphates are used in the hills it will be well to mark out the rows with a plough, and then, where each hill is to be, fill in the soil level to the surface with a hoe, before applying them.
Unless the guano (and this is also true of most fertilizers) is faithfully mixed up with the soil, the seed will not vegetate.
I incline to the belief that it would be a judicious investment to start a thick growth of these by the application of guano to the surface sufficiently long before turning the sod to get an extra growth of the clover or grass.
If it hadn't been for theguano birds there would have been no Grace Lines, now 100 years old.
The murre remains until her enemy is close upon her; then she rises with a scream which often startles a thousand or two of birds, who whirl up into the air in a dense mass, scattering filth and guano over the eggers.
Poi is sold in the streets in calabashes, but it is also shipped in considerable quantities to other islands, and especially to guano islands which lie southward and westward of this group.
Naked cultivation was practiced in the orchard, and fertilizers consisting of fish guano and superphosphate of lime were being applied twice each year in amounts aggregating a cost of twenty-four dollars per acre.
The usual fertilizers for a peach orchard are the manure-earth-compost, applied at the rate of 3300 pounds per acre, and fish guano applied in rotation and at the same rate.
Nitrate of soda, Peruvian guano and superphosphate of lime in the form of bones dissolved by sulphuric acid were now added to the list of manures, and the practice of analysing soils became more general.
They are so named because frequented for their guano by traders from the United States.
Guano and mother-of-pearl shells are the principal articles of export; the population of the islands is about 300.
