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 PRINTED FOR THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY 
 
 AT 
 
OFFICERS OF PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 
 
 PRESIDENT. 
 FREDERICK NICKERSON, or Boston. 
 
 TREASURER. 
 
 JOHN M. GLIDDEN, of Boston. 
 
 DIRECTORS. 
 FREDERICK NICKERSON Boston. 
 
 WILLIAM T. GLIDDEN Boston. 
 
 HENRY A. BAELmG New Toek. 
 
 PRmCB S. CRGWELL East Dennis, Mass. 
 
 EDWAED D. MANDELL .New Bedford. 
 
 GEORGE W. W. DOVE Andoveh, Mass. 
 
 JOHN M. GLIDDEN ;.. Boston 
 
 CHEMISTS. 
 
 Db. ST. JOLIEN EAVENEL, Charleston, S. C. 
 
 A. F. CEO WELL, Woods Holl, Mass. 
 
 Of3ce, Sears Building, Boston, Mass. 
 
The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924081073862 
 
/776. 
 
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 1. PACIFIC GUANO CO. 5. NEW ENGLAND LOG HOUSE, 9. FRENCH RESTAURANT 
 
 2. WOMEN'S PAVILION. 6. U. S. GOVERNMENT BUILDING. 10. ART GALLERY. 
 
 3. AGRICULTURAL BUILDING. 7. GERMAN RESTAURANT, ||. FULLER, WARREN «c CO 
 
 4. HORTICUTURAL HALL, 8. AMERICAN RESTAURANT. 
 
THE 
 
 PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY: 
 
 ITS HISTORY; ITS PRODUCTS AND TRADE; 
 ITS RELATION TO AGRICULTURE. 
 
 EXHAUSTED GUANO ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN: 
 
 ROWLAND'S ISLAND, CHINCHA ISLANDS, 
 ETC., ETC. 
 
 THE SWAN ISLANDS. 
 
 THE MAEL BBDS AND PHOSPHATE EOCK OP SOUTH CAEOLINA. 
 CHISOLM'S ISLAND PHOSPHATE. 
 
 THE MENHADEN. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: 
 PRINTED FOR THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY 
 
 AT 
 
 tlLU Mtotveitit Pnse. 
 
 1876. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 We invite attention to the following pages, which we 
 trust will be found interesting to the general reader as well 
 as to those actively engaged in the pursuit of agriculture. 
 
 Few, perhaps, halve contemplated the wonderful provis- 
 ions of nature for maintaining cultivated soils in a state of 
 fertility, or considered the disastrous results which would 
 follow if the means provided for this end were unknown 
 or neglected. 
 
 The present generation of cultivators of the soils of the 
 Atlantic States have inherited from their ancestors estates 
 which have been under cultivation in many instances more 
 than a century, during which period the steady removal of 
 the elements of fertility from the soil would have resulted 
 in utter barrenness had not modern science and discovery 
 rendered available these gifts of nature for compensating the 
 soil for the constant drain made upon its resources. 
 
 By a wise use of these advantages the agriculturists of the 
 present day can transmit to their successors through cen- 
 turies to come estates unimpaired by continued cultivation. 
 
 The following pages will show the reader what these won- 
 derful provisions of nature are, and how science, art, and 
 enterprise have rendered them available for the benefit of 
 mankind. 
 
 Besides the sketch of its business herein contained, the 
 Directors of the Pacific Guano Company have decided to 
 exhibit the workings and the value of its products on the 
 Grounds of the Centennial Commission at Philadelphia, to 
 which attention is respectfully called. 
 
INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, 1876. 
 
 Board on bkhalf of U. S. Executive Depaf-tmeht, ") 
 
 National Museum, Smithsonian Institution, > 
 
 Washington, D. C, October 18, 1875. ) 
 
 John M. Glidden, Esq., Boston : My dear Sir, — I am pleased 
 to learn that you have concluded to make a display of your 
 wares at the Centennial, as this is one of the most important inter- 
 ests in the United States, and one that will be fully appreciated by 
 many visitors. As you know, the menhaden is a fish peculiar to 
 the United States, not represented by any corresponding species 
 abroad. It is true that the herring and the ofial of the cod are 
 converted into fertilizers, as is the case in North America ; but there 
 is no species worked up elsewhere comparable for a moment with 
 the menhaden, or pogy, as to numbers and the percentage of oil. 
 The combination, too, of the pogy scrap with the South Carolina 
 phosphates and the guanos of the West Indies and of the Pacific, 
 are also quite novel, and as being especially an American industry, 
 are eminently worthy of full appreciation. 
 
 As the object of this International Exhibition is to show the 
 resources and powers of the country in comparison with those of 
 Europe, it is especially important to have a proper presentation of 
 such elements as by their magnitude and value may be conspicuous 
 in the contest for distinction. 
 
 I am glad to hear too that you propose to have a model of your 
 Works, and would suggest that if you have but_ one it might properly 
 be placed in the United States Exhibition. 
 
 Yours truly, Spencek F. Baird. 
 
INTEKNATIONAI. EXHIBITION. 
 
 INTERNATIONAL. EXHIBITION, 1876. 
 
 AKTMENT, "i 
 
 ITION, > 
 
 3, 1875. ) 
 
 Boars on behalf of U. S. Executive Depaktment, 
 National Museum, Smithsonian Institution, 
 Washington, D. C, October 23, 
 Mt deab Mb. Glidden, — By all means make a first-class 
 exhibition in the Agricultural Department of the Centennial, where 
 you can present an impressive picture of a very important Amer- 
 ican industry. 
 
 So far as your contributions to the Government display are con- 
 cerned, we have already a good working series of the specimens. 
 I would be very glad, however, to have the model of your works. 
 Yours truly, Spencbk F. Baird. 
 
THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 
 
 res HISTORY. — ITS PEODITCTS AND TKADB. — ITS BELA- 
 TIONS TO AGRICtTLTUBB. 
 
 The Pacific Guano Company is a corporation chartered 
 by the State of Massachusetts, with a capital of one million 
 of dollars. 
 
 Its business office is located in the city of Boston, Massa- 
 chusetts. Its stockholders are residents of Massachusetts, 
 New York, Maryland, South Carolina, and Georgia. Its 
 works are located at Woods HoU, in Massachusetts, and at 
 Charleston, South Carolina. Its chartered privileges confer 
 upon it the rights to own Guano Islands and other deposits 
 of the crude bases of fertilizing material, to mine and dig 
 the same, to import it into the United States for sale as 
 imported, or for manufacture, and to export to foreign mar- 
 kets. 
 
 This Company, like many other corporations which have 
 grown to be of great magnitude and importance, is the re- 
 sult of a private association of a few of the largest shipping 
 merchants of Boston and New York, entered into a few 
 years previous to its organization into a joint stock company. 
 
 The firm of Glidden & Williams, of Boston, was largely 
 interested in shipping to the Pacific Coast, and their atten- 
 tion was first enlisted in the guano deposits, with a .view to 
 furnishing cargoes for their ships on the homeward voyage. 
 
8 THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 
 
 Among their first enterprises was an arrangement by which 
 they came into possession and control of the celebrated 
 " Rowland's Island," located in the Pacific Ocean, immedi- 
 ately over the equator, west longitude 177°. 
 
 The deposit of guano on Howland's Island was found to 
 be of the same origin as that attributed to the deposit on 
 the Peruvian Islands, but in consequence of its location, 
 being in a rainy climate, it had been subjected to a leaching 
 process for centuries, which, while it deprived it of its or- 
 ganic matter, left it a highly concentrated deposit of phos- 
 phate of lime of organic origin, a result which would follow 
 the combustion of a guano like that which was formerly ex- 
 ported from the Chincha Islands,^ off the coast of Peru, by 
 the government of that country. 
 
 When this guano was subjected to scientific examination 
 and investigation, with a view of arriving at the best method 
 of bringing it into market in such form and manner as to 
 serve most effectively the purposes intended, it was found 
 necessary to restore to it the organic matter it had lost by 
 exposure to the effects of a rainy climate. To accomplish 
 this object was a matter of no less importance to the agri- 
 cultural interests of the country than to the owners and im- 
 porters of the guano. 
 
 It was known that these deposits of guano found in the 
 Pacific were the accretion, during long centuries, of the ex- 
 crement of the fowl which make their home above the sea, 
 and find resting-places on these islands. It was equally well 
 known that the fish of the sea furnish the food on which the 
 sea-fowl subsist. Hence the conclusion that the ultimate 
 source of these valuable deposits was the fish which inhabit 
 and swarm in the sea ! 
 
 This fact suggested the same source for restoring to the 
 guano imported from Howland's Island its lost organic mat- 
 ^ See article on Peruvian guano, page 18. 
 
THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 9 
 
 ter, and thus make the sea tributary to agriculture by a 
 process involving days and months, instead of years and 
 centuries, as required by the slow processes of natural accre- 
 tion through the agency of sea-fowl. 
 
 Having called to its aid the best scientific ability the coun- 
 try could afford, the Pacific Guano Company first erected 
 its complete and extensive works at Woods HoU, Massa- 
 chusetts (a complete model of which is exhibited in the 
 United States Government building on the Centennial 
 Grounds), having selected that location for its convenience 
 to important commercial centres, for its exceptional facilities 
 for shipping, and because its waters swarm with the species 
 of fish most available for the purposes intended to be accom- 
 plished. In this vicinity the menhaden, or pogy, are taken 
 in great abundance ; the carbonaceous oil, useful as an arti- 
 cle of commerce but valueless for fertilizing purposes, is ex- 
 pressed by the most effective processes modern invention has 
 devised, leaving a compact mass of nitrogenous animal fibre 
 and bone which, when digested with oil of vitriol under 
 proper conditions, is brought into a state of minute division 
 analogous to that produced by the digestive organs of the 
 sea-fowl, thus yielding a result in a short lapse of time 
 which, in the slow process of natural operation, required 
 centuries to accomplish ! 
 
 This mass of digested animal fibre and bone, combined in 
 proper proportions with the guano imported from Howland's 
 Island, subjected to treatment by which its phosphate of lime 
 would be converted into soluble forms, it was believed, on sci- 
 entific theoretical grounds, would produce a guano not only 
 equal in agricultural value, but superior to that then imported 
 from the islands of Peru, the purchase of which made a drain 
 upon the agricultural resources of the country to fill the 
 treasury of a foreign government. 
 
 Practical results fully verified and confirmed the conclu- 
 
10 THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 
 
 sions arrived at upon scientific and theoretical grounds, as 
 will appear from the magnitude which the business of the 
 Company attained in a few years from the beginning of its 
 enterprise. 
 
 The exhaustion of supplies on the Pacific islands com- 
 pelled the Company to look in other directions for original 
 sources of phosphate of lime. It soon became the owner 
 of Great Swan Island,^ located in the Caribbean Sea, which 
 was estimated, after careful survey and examination, to con- 
 tain deposits of over three million tons of guano, much of 
 which was found of a grade equal in richness to that im- 
 ported from the Pacific Ocean. The accessibility of this 
 island, its safe harbors, and nearness to Atlantic ports, with 
 its large deposits of guano of high grade and excellent qual- 
 ity, rendered it a most valuable acquisition to the resources 
 of the Company. 
 
 Importations from the Pacific islands were attended with 
 long and dangerous voyages, high cost of freight and insur- 
 ance on ships and cargo ; hence the acquisition of a source 
 of supplies unattended with these contingencies and high 
 charges proved no less a benefit to agriculture than to the 
 Pacific Guano Company, and an immediate result was a 
 material reduction in the cost and selling price of its prod- 
 ucts. 
 
 The discovery, in 1867, of the remarkable deposits of 
 bone phosphate of lime along the coast of South Carolina 
 opened a new source of supply of this important crude ma- 
 terial. 
 
 The Pacific Guano Company immediately took measures 
 to secure tmd control the most valuable deposits of this phos- 
 phate, and consummated an arrangement by which it came 
 into possession of the deposits found on one of the Sea Isl- 
 ands, known as Chisolm's Island, which lies immediately on 
 ^ See article on Swan Island, page 25. 
 
THE PACIFIC GUAJIO COMPANY. 11 
 
 the coast of South Carolina, between the entrance to the 
 Bull and Coosaw rivers. The beds of phosphate found on 
 this island are not only the most extensive as to quantity, 
 but it yields supplies which, upon careful sampling and anal- 
 ysis, have developed the highest grade in phosphate of lime 
 that has yet been found in that quarter. A recent cargo 
 proved to contain 67.66 per cent, bone phosphate of lime, 
 while the average of various other deposits is from 58 to 60 
 per cent. 
 
 At the time these deposits were discovered the demand 
 for the Company's products excee"ded the capacity of its ex- 
 tensive works at "Woods Holl. Hence Charleston, South 
 Carolina, was selected as the most desirable locality for the 
 erection of additional works to meet the increasing demand. 
 This locality was suggested because of its convenience to 
 Chisolm's Island, and the facilities for shipping by rail to 
 all parts of the Southern States, as well as for its ready ac- 
 cess to the sea. Large and complete works were erected in 
 the immediate vicinity of Charleston, on the Ashley River, 
 including acid chambers and all conveniences and improved 
 machinery for the economical conduct of the business on a 
 large scale. In connection with the Company's works, both 
 at Woods Holl, Massachusetts, and Charleston, South Car- 
 olina, covering more than ten acres of ground, there are 
 provided complete chemical laboratories fitted with all the 
 mysterious implements and appliances of that science, with 
 competent chemists constantly employed in the Company's 
 service, in order to reveal the secrets which nature withholds 
 from the observation of the senses. The chemist and the 
 laboratory are essential agencies in this connection ; therefore 
 the Company has, from the beginning of its history, employed 
 the most competent chemists it could command, and has fur- 
 nished complete laboratories at its works. 
 
12 THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 
 
 PEODTJCTS AND TRADE. 
 
 With the above resources, extensive and complete works 
 conveniently located, rich deposits of crude phosphate of lime 
 under direct and immediate control, the sea at its door swarm- 
 ing with abundant supplies of organic matter in the form 
 best adapted for its uses, with laboratories and chemists 
 called to its service, and with ample capital, the Pacific 
 Guano Company is now fully embarked upon the career of 
 its enterprise. 
 
 In 1865 the Company put its product into market under 
 the trade-mark of 
 
 SOLUBLE PACIFIC GUANO. 
 
 As will be gathered from the foregoing sketch, this pro- 
 duct was the result of considerations suggested by the origin 
 and composition of deposits of guano found upon the islands 
 of the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 Agricultural Chemistry, in its marvelous progress during 
 the last fifty years, has so far disclosed the secrets of nature 
 as to reveal the chemical composition of soils, and tell what 
 elements constitute the essential nutrition of plants, and 
 how they gi'ow. Agriculture, therefore, owes to science the 
 benefits arising from the revelation of those laws and prin- 
 ciples which have placed it upon the basis of an intelligent 
 art. 
 
 Agricultural Chemistry, also, teaches us that the ultimate 
 elements which constitute the valuable constituents of Guano 
 are Nitrogen (ammonia) ; soluble Phosphoric Acid, Reverted 
 Phosphoiie Acid, Insoluble Phosphoric Acid, Potash, and 
 Soda. Soluble Pacific Guano is a complex compound of 
 these elements in such relative proportions as experience, 
 aided by science, has demonstrated to be the best adapted 
 to- the purposes designed to be accomphshed, namely, to 
 furnish to agriculture a concentrated fertilizer, which, when 
 
THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 13 
 
 applied to the soil, will produce a maximum result of the 
 crop cultivated,- and at the same time more than compensate 
 the soil for the loss sustained by the removal of the crop, 
 and thus prevent deterioration. 
 
 That the Pacific Guano Company has, in the manufacture 
 and sale of its Soluble Pacific Guano, accomplished this end, 
 is more than demonstrated by its progress during the past 
 ten years. 
 
 In 1865, the first year of its enterprise, its sales amounted 
 to 7,540 sacks. The following year of 1866, the sales were 
 34,241 sacks. The demand and consumption continued to 
 increase annually until they reached in a single year a maxi- 
 mum of 353,700 sacks of 200 pounds each, making 35,370 
 tons, with an aggregate consumption in ten years, inclusive 
 of 1875, of over 157,000 tons, which would have been largely 
 exceeded had the Company been able to supply the demand 
 for its product at all times. 
 
 This record, made from the books of the Company, is a 
 demonstration of the importance of this enterprise to agri- 
 culture, and an unimpeachable testimony to the value and 
 continued reliability of its products. 
 
 In the prosecution of this trade the Company employs 
 large active capital, in addition to its fixed capital invested 
 in real estate, works, and improvements at Woods HoU, 
 Mass., and Charleston, S. C, beside fixed outlay on Chis- 
 olm's and Swan Islands ; it gives occupation, in addition to 
 chemists and managers, to between four hundred and five 
 hundred men, in its various departments of labor, and has 
 the capacity in its works at Woods HoU, Mass., and Charles- 
 ton, S. C, to put into market from 40 to 45,000 tons of 
 completed guano per annum. 
 
 It gives employment annually to from one hundred to one 
 hundred and fifty sail of vessels of large capacity, beside con- 
 stant employment to numerous flat-boats and lighters. 
 
14 THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 
 
 EBLATIONS TO AGKICULTUEB. 
 
 The importance of the relations to the agi'iculture of the 
 country of a company like this, with its vast resources, can- 
 not be over-estimated. 
 
 Of all the arts and occupations in which men engage. 
 Agriculture is the most important. It is alike the original 
 source of the essentials and luxuries of life, and is the basis 
 of the wealth, prosperity, and power of nations. 
 
 Previous to the revelations of science. Agriculture groped 
 its way under the empirical guidance of experience alone ; 
 and hence, in the absence of a knowledge of principles and 
 laws, guessed at the causes of observed results, thus having 
 no sure guide to material progress. Science has revealed the 
 fact that the power of soils to produce crops depends upon 
 the presence in them of certain well known elements, which 
 furnish the essential nutrition of plants ; that without the 
 presence of these elements in adequate quantity, a soil can- 
 not be productive. 
 
 It has shown that certain elements of nutrition abound in 
 all soils, while others exist in limited quantities. 
 
 It has taught us that by long and continued culture with- 
 out restoration, soils once fertile become unproductive by the 
 gradual but certain removal of these elements of fertility, 
 and that the only remedy is found in a system of judicious 
 restoration by means of the direct application of the sub- 
 stances which have been removed, in such forms, conditions, 
 and proportions, as experience guided by science suggests. 
 The truth of this teaching has been confirmed by the experi- 
 ence of the present generation, as is witnessed by luxuriant 
 crops grown on soils once exhausted, but now restored to 
 fertility. 
 
 The elements of fertility are divided into two classes, 
 organic and inorganic. When any product of agriculture is 
 
THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 15 
 
 subjected to combustion, its organic parts or elements are 
 dissipated and pass o£E into the atmosphere in gaseous forms. 
 Its inorganic parts or elements remain in the form of inde- 
 structible ash. The former are imponderable, and are in 
 part constituents of the atmosphere. The latter are ponder- 
 able, and have their immediate source in the soil only. 
 
 The organic parts of plants are derived mainly from the 
 atmosphere, which constitutes an exhaustless, ever-present 
 source of supply. Hence these elements do not constitute 
 the essential constituent of concentrated fertilizers. 
 
 Nitrogen (ammonia), however, one of the organic ele- 
 ments, has a remarkable effect when judiciously combined, 
 in proper relative proportions, with the inorganic elements. 
 But it is a settled fact that exhausted soils cannot be re- 
 stored and maintained in a condition of fertility by the ap- 
 plication of nitrogenous matter. On the contrary, as was 
 proved by the use of Peruvian guano, years gone by, its 
 application in undue proportion hastens exhaustion. 
 
 The soil is the only immediate source of the inorganic ele- 
 ments to agriculture. These ash constituents are ponder- 
 able, and of themselves immovable, and when taken from 
 the soil by the removal of crops, they can be restored only 
 by direct application. 
 
 Soils abound in many of the ash constituents of crops, 
 which are required in small proportions relatively to others. 
 Therefore it is only those ash elements which are largely re- 
 quired, and which do not naturally abound, which constitute 
 the essential inorganic constituents of concentrated fertilizers ; 
 of these, phosphate of lime, in its various forms, is the chief ; 
 and next in importance ai-e the alkaline salts, potash and 
 soda. If there were no sources of these essential elements 
 of fertility other than the soil, it would be only a question 
 of time as to when soils would become unproductive. 
 
 But Nature is prolific in her beneficence. Just at the time 
 
16 THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 
 
 when the progress of science develops the necessity to a 
 culture of large sources of phosphate of lime, as a mean 
 restoring to fertility its exhausted districts, discoTeries 
 made of vast deposits of this material, stored up by na 
 in imperishable forms. When potash and soda are nee 
 for a like purpose, similar natural deposits are broughl 
 light ; and when large supplies of nitrogen become necessi 
 in forms and conditions suited for agricultural purposes, 
 ence, aided by intelligent enterprise, puts the sea under c 
 tribution to this end, by converting its myriad swarms 
 fish into a source of this important element. 
 
 Nature, however, does not bestow her gifts in forms i 
 conditions ready for the uses for which they are desigr 
 On the contrary, they are given in crude forms. Golc 
 found embedded in the quartz rock ; coal and iron are sto 
 away in mountains ; so also with the long catalogue of 
 gifts of nature. The deposits of phosphate of lime, and 
 other constituents of concentrated fertilizers, form no exc 
 tion to this general law. Nature demands, as an equival 
 for her gifts, the exercise of skill, labor, and ehterpr 
 guided by intelligence, to convert them into forms and c 
 ditions suited to the purposes for which they are designed 
 
 To accomplish this object, with the crude elements of i 
 tility for the use and benefit of agriculture,' the Pac 
 Guano Company was organized; that it has successfully J 
 filled, and is now fulfilling, the objects of its organization 
 made manifest from its record during the past ten years. 
 
 The relations sustained by this Company to agriculture, 
 an instrumentality to bring to that most important of 
 industries the means of restoring its exhausted fields a 
 maintaining their fertility, are of the highest importance. 
 
 Without the intervention of such an instrumentality, i 
 vast deposits of phosphate of lime, and other crude eleme: 
 of fertility, would remain valueless, while the constant dri 
 
THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 17 
 
 on the soil, by the continued remoyal of crops without resto- 
 ration, would, in the lapse of a few generations, so exhaust 
 its producing power as to destroy the basis of our wealth 
 and prosperity. 
 
 Before another Centennial year, the agricultural districts 
 of the Atlantic States would be depopulated ; and their now 
 fertile fields, given up to barrenness, would, like the ruins 
 of antiquity, remain only to tell the story of a once prosper- 
 ous people. 
 
 It is the province of the Pacific Ghuano Company, as one 
 of the great enterprises of the times, developed by the neces- 
 sities which called it into existence, to place within the reach 
 of agriculture the means which nature has provided to main- 
 tain the fertility of her fields for centuries to come. 
 
18 
 
 THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 
 
 EXHAUSTED GUANO ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 OCEAN. 
 
 howland's island, chincha islands, lobos island, 
 
 COAST deposits. 
 
 It is a matter of congratulation, that now, when supplies 
 of guano from the Pacific islands are about exhausted, or the 
 quality of that remaining is so inferior as not to justify its 
 importation, other sources nearer home have been discov- 
 ered. 
 
 Howland's Island, referred to on a previous page as one of 
 the sources from which the Pacific Guano Company obtained 
 supplies, was abandoned about 1870. Up to that time, the 
 Company had imported from that source 42,607 tons of 
 guano. The following vessels were chartered and loaded 
 by the Company previous to 1870, soon after which time the 
 island was abandoned. 
 
 vessels loaded at howland's island by pacific 
 guano company. 
 
 T0N3. 
 
 Ship Star of the Union . . . 864 
 
 Ship Gladiator 800 
 
 Ship Fleetwing 1,160 
 
 Ship Avon 1,300 
 
 Ship Gladiator , 832 
 
 Ship Arno 1,300 
 
 Ship Mary Prancis .... 870 
 
 Ship Templar 1,060 
 
 Ship Christopher Hall ... 985 
 
 Ship Nimrod 1,500 
 
 Ship City of Boston .... 1,222 
 
 Ship Minnehaha 2,570 
 
 Ship Golden Eagle .... 1,600 
 
 Ship Ladoga 1,100 
 
 Ship Star of the Union . . . 1,000 
 
 Ship Cambodia 1,200 
 
 Ship Mantona 1,100 
 
 
 TONS. 
 
 Bark Scotland .... 
 
 442 
 
 Ship Anglo-Saxon . . 
 
 980 
 
 Ship Audubon .... 
 
 . 1,457 
 
 Ship White Swallow . . 
 
 . 1,950 
 
 Ship Asa Eldridge . . 
 
 . 1,807 
 
 Ship Asldron .... 
 
 . 1,600 
 
 Ship Nicabar .... 
 
 755 
 
 Ship Helen Angier . . 
 
 972 
 
 Ship Sowaonset . . . 
 
 . 1,090 
 
 Ship Lizzie Oakford . . 
 
 . 1,575 
 
 Bark Percileo .... 
 
 1,520 
 
 Ship Argo 
 
 516 
 
 Ship Hibernian . . . 
 
 ROO 
 
 Ship Mary Robinson . . . 
 
 . 1,600 
 
 Ship Kathay 
 
 . 1,700 
 
 Ship R. S. Lane . . . 
 
 . 1,175 
 
THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY 19 
 
 Of these ships six were lost at sea, on the homeward Toy- 
 age, two of which — the ship Avon with cargo of 1,300 tons, 
 and the ship Q-olden Eagle with 1,600 tons — fell victims 
 to Confederate cruisers, and constitute part of the celebrated 
 " Alabama Claims ; " the remainder arrived safely at port, 
 and their cargoes, with thousands of tons of the fibre and 
 bone of fish taken from the sea, have been fabricated into 
 golden harvests by the mysterious chemistry of nature. 
 
 The guano, distinctively known as Peruvian Guano, for- 
 merly imported from the Pacific, differed from other varieties 
 in its composition, from the fact that the islands, on which it 
 was found deposited, were located in a climate where rain 
 never falls. Hence the excrementitious deposit was sub- 
 jected to a dry decomposition, which was promoted by the 
 high temperature of its locality. 
 
 The islands from which this guano was imported are known 
 as the Chincha Islands. They are three in number, and 
 are situated about twelve miles off the coast of Peru, be- 
 tween thirteen and fourteen degrees south latitude. Each 
 of the islands is from five to six miles in circumference, and 
 consists of granite, formerly covered with guano, in some 
 places to a height of two hundred feet, in successive horizon- 
 tal strata varying in thickness from three to twelve inches ; 
 sometimes, however, it was found to a depth of one hundred 
 feet. 
 
 Although Peruvian guano as a fertilizer was not intro- 
 duced into this country and England until about 1841, its 
 value in agriculture was well known to the Peruvians long 
 before they were visited by the Spaniards. It is stated 
 in a work published as far back as 1609, that, in the times 
 of the Incas, no one was allowed under penalty of death to 
 visit the Guano Islands during the breeding season, or under 
 any circumstances to kiU the birds which yielded this sub- 
 stance. Overseers were appointed by the government of the 
 
20 THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 
 
 Incas to take charge of the guano districts, and to assign to 
 each claimant his due share of the precious material. 
 
 From these facts it would appear that at this early period 
 the Peruvians appreciated the agricultural value of this sub- 
 stance, and provided for its protection as a great treasure. 
 The Spanish invaders were doubtless so busily occupied in 
 caring for the more portable treasures of the Incas in the 
 forms of golden coins and plate, that they neglected the less 
 attractive treasures of the islands, which the Incas had so 
 jealously guarded, and for centuries it was allowed to re- 
 main undisturbed. 
 
 It is stated that Humboldt first took specimens of this 
 guano to Europe in 1804, and had it submitted to eminent 
 chemists for examination and analysis. It was not, however, 
 until 1841 that the first cargo was shipped to England. In 
 
 1840, twenty casks were imported, the results of which were 
 so wonderful as to excite very general attention, so that in 
 
 1841, 2,881 tons were imported ; and so great had become 
 the demand and consumption that four years later, in 1845, 
 283,000 tons were imported into England ; and in twenty 
 years, from 1841 to 1861, over 3,200,000 tons were im- 
 ported into England alone, beside very large importations to 
 this country and continental Europe. From these figures 
 it will be seen that the quantity of these deposits was enor- 
 mous, and its transportation gave employment to great fleets 
 of ships. 
 
 The age of the Peruvian deposits has been a subject of 
 curious inquiry. It is stated by Humboldt that, during three 
 hundred years, the coast birds have deposited guano only 
 a few lines in thickness. Assuming the correctness of this' 
 statement, the deposits on the Chincha Islands must have 
 required the lapse of ages for its accumulation. 
 
 The laborers employed by the Peruvian government for 
 the removal of these deposits were Chinese coolies, who were 
 
THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 21 
 
 subjected to a species of slavery, compared witli whicli that 
 of our former system was a blessing. It has been stated as 
 not an infrequent occurrence for these unfortunate children 
 of the sun to precipitate themselves from the cMs of the 
 island, and thus terminate a servitude too intolerable to be 
 endured. 
 
 These islands, which for so many years replenished the 
 treasury of Peru, have, like Rowland's Island, been aban- 
 doned, their supplies having been entirely exhausted, after 
 having for thirty-five years proved a source of wealth to that 
 government. 
 
 Upon the necessary abandonment of these islands, the 
 Peruvian government commenced the exportation of guano 
 from the Lobos Islands, and from deposits said to be found on 
 the coast of that country ; but these deposits fall so far short 
 in quality of the guano previously exported from the Chin- 
 cha Islands as to deprive Peru of her precedence as a source 
 of this article. 
 
 Peruvian guano, as formerly imported, was valued chiefly 
 for its ammonia, of which it yielded from fifteen to seventeen 
 per cent. It was in the condition of a fine dry powder, with 
 occasional lumps, which were often found to be crystallized 
 salts of ammonia ; but recent importations from Peru con- 
 tain from twenty to twenty-five per cent, of moisture, are 
 filled with lumps, frequently found to be stones, and yields 
 as low as six per cent, of ammonia. 
 
 In confirmation of these facts we quote the following 
 from the financial article of the " London Times," of Au- 
 gust 5, 1875 : — 
 
 " We have been favored with a sight of some private letters writ- 
 ten by the captain of a vessel sent out to the Peruvian coast to 
 load guano. They are dated in May and June, and give a very in- 
 teresting, evidently true, but also disastrous account of the state of 
 aflFairs there. It would seem that the good guano is exhausted at 
 
22 THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 
 
 Pabellon de Pica, and what the vessels had to take in was mixed 
 with stones and gravel to the extent of from twenty to fifty per 
 cent. The engineers in charge are burrowing and blasting among' 
 the roclts in search of more guano said to lie under them, and to 
 supply the ships with this dross the rocks were also being swept. 
 Over one hundred vessels had arrived off the coast, — there is no 
 harborage it would appear, — and some of them had lain three 
 months waiting for their loads, unable to get an ounce of guano to 
 put on board. Some ships refuse to take such rubbish unless on 
 the responsibility of the government contractors. Drafus & Co., 
 who, it was rumored, had obtained a discount of forty per cent, on 
 the remainder of their contract in consideration of the dross they 
 had to take, stood passive in the matter. Many ships had gone to 
 another part of the coast, called Lobos Point, seven miles from 
 Pabellon de Pica, where guano was said to be plentiful, but where 
 they fared even worse than in the old spot. In the first place, they 
 had to lie in open water forty to fifty fathoms deep, where the swell 
 was so heavy that the lighters out of which they loaded were con- 
 tinually getting smashed, and ships themselves losing anchors and 
 chains. The writer of these letters was told by a brother captain, 
 who had been at Lobos, that fourteen anchors and chains were so 
 lost in a fortnight ; nor was there any compensation for these evils, 
 the guano at Lobos being as full of stones as the other. We have 
 heard many statements to the same effect lately, but here we have 
 the testimony of men actually on the spot ; at this juncture it is 
 impossible to overrate its importance. 
 
 "It is beyond question that people in Europe have been kept 
 thoroughly in the dark as to the position of Peruvian guano, its 
 quality, accessibility, and probable quantity. It was obviously the 
 interest of the Peruvian government to keep everybody in the dark 
 for some time longer. Were a tithe of what we have been told 
 true, not only would it be impossible for Peru to borrow more, 
 but nobody in his senses would take the new guano contract. It is 
 better that the public should know the truth now, than that delu- 
 sive notions of the inexhaustible wealth of Peru, in guano, should 
 lead on to further mischief. Peru, in any case, has not a monopoly 
 
THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 23 
 
 in guano any more than of nitrate of soda, and the exhaustion of 
 her stores of the former is turning people's attention to the depos- 
 its to be found elsewhere." 
 
 In further confirmation of the above facts, if confirmation 
 be needed, private advices have been received, and in fact 
 the stocks of Peruvian guano now stored in Nevr York, Bal- 
 timore, and other ports fully attest the statements made by 
 the " Times," upon the authority of letters received from 
 captains whose ships were lying on the Peruvian coast await- 
 ing cargoes. It is a known fact that much of the guano in 
 store at New York and Baltimore is of exceedingly low grade 
 in ammonia, while its physical condition is such as to make 
 it very objectionable. An officer on board an American ship 
 at the island of Haunilla reports, in a letter dated February 
 1, 1876, that they were anchored close to the shore, with the 
 open sea upon the one side and high mountains on the other. 
 About sixty ships were there awaiting cargoes, some of which 
 had been there five months and have not received one hun- 
 dred tons of guano. They (the American ship referred to) 
 had been there two months and had not then received a sin- 
 gle pound of freight, and the writer thought they would be 
 fortunate if they got away in six months. 
 
 From the above and similar authentic statements it would 
 appear that the supplies of merchantable guano are about 
 exhausted in Peru and its contiguous islands. The later 
 shipments do not yield more than six per cent, ammonia. 
 Hence, as a source of ammonia for fertilizing purposes, Pe- 
 ruvian guano, such as now appears to be the only quality 
 available, cannot be relied upon, as it will not compensate 
 for the high freights necessarily paid for such long and dan- 
 gerous voyages, but our agricultural interests need suffer no 
 shock from the exhaustion of this source pf ammonia, neither 
 need our agriculturists make further contributions of treasure 
 
24 • THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 
 
 to fill the coffers of Peru, since the inventions of modern 
 ingenuity and the application of scientific discovery have 
 developed an inexhaustible and far more economical source 
 of ammonia at our very doors, so to speak, in the menhaden 
 fish vrhich swarm along our Atlantic coast. The compact 
 mass of the animal fibre and bone of these fish, remaining 
 after the oil is expressed, yields from five to ten per cent, of 
 ammonia. Neither is our agriculture or the agriculture of 
 the world longer dependent upon Peru for supplies of phos- 
 phate of lime, since vast deposits of that valuable element 
 are discovered on the coast of South Carolina and Swan Isl- 
 and, from whence large shipments are now going forward to 
 England and the Continent of Europe, to take the place of 
 supplies now no longer available from the Pacific Ocean. 
 Had not these sources been brought to light, and the sea put 
 under contribution for supplies of ammonia, the exhaustion 
 of the Pacific and Peruvian islands might have given rise to 
 alarm and uneasiness ; but, as it is, we have new sources of 
 abundant supplies, at greatly reduced cost, within the limits 
 of our own domain, which have only to be manufactured, as 
 before indicated, to produce an unequaled fertilizer. 
 
I'd -, w, ^ ° . J -lO <?- 
 
 
 rr^ 
 
THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 25 
 
 SWAN ISLANDS. 
 
 THE SWAN ISLANDS BELONGING TO THE PACIFIC GXTANO 
 
 COMPANY. 
 
 These islands are referred to on a previous page as one 
 of the resources of the Pacific Guano Company for supplies 
 of crude phosphate of lime. They were discovered prior to 
 1856, and were examined by commissioners appointed by the 
 United States Government. The commission consisted of 
 Lieutenant George T. Sinclair, Thomas P. Morgan, Esq., 
 and Thomas Walker, chemist. In their official report, they 
 state the quantity of guano contained on the islands to be 
 about three millions of tons. 
 
 These islands are held by the Pacific Guano Company, 
 under title acquired from the United States Government in 
 conformity with an act of Congress approved August 18, 
 1856. They are an appurtenance to the United States, and 
 entitled to the protection of the government. 
 
 The greater and lesser Swan Islands are situated in the 
 Caribbean Sea, 17° north latitude and 83° west longitude, 
 being about four hundred miles from Key West, five hun- 
 dred from New Orleans, three hundred from Aspinwall, 
 three hundred south of Cuba, and about one hundred miles 
 off the coast of Honduras. 
 
 Great Swan is separated from the adjacent island by a 
 boat channel. It has an irregular oblong form, its long axis 
 running nearly northeast and southwest, and its short one 
 northwest and southeast. Its length, exclusive of the ex- 
 treme narrow and unproductive points, is one and a half 
 miles, and its width about one half mile. Its surface is level 
 
26 THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 
 
 and smooth, with the exception of the long, narrow, rocky 
 ledge about the margin. Two small depressions, one near 
 the northwest, the other near the southwest angles of the 
 island, have received the names of lakes, because of their 
 becoming filled with water during the rainy season. 
 
 These islands are evidently the double summit of a sub- 
 marine mountain, which, as it rose through the ocean, was 
 subjected to degradation by the violent action of the sea. 
 The sea-wall presents a perpendicular water-worn front, ex- 
 cept where bays of varying length indent the coast. At 
 these points there is a sloping beach of coral sand. 
 
 In reference to the geology of these islands, the late Pro- 
 fessor Piggot, of Baltimore, Maryland, who visited them in 
 1864, says : " In considering the geology of the islands, it is 
 convenient to begin with the lowest rocks. These are not 
 those which appear to occupy that position. They are best 
 exposed upon the sea cliff of Smith Bay, where they make 
 their appearance in the form of sandstones and argillites, 
 which seem to have been first upheaved, and constitute the 
 nucleus upon which the nearly horizontal superincumbent 
 strata have been subsequently deposited. What appears to 
 be the lowest rock is a coral conglomerate, which, when ex- 
 posed at low-water level, dips seaward all around the island. 
 It comes to the surface at one or two points in the interior 
 of the island, where its dip is similar to that observed on the 
 beach. Upon this rests a rock containing fossils, chiefly 
 shells. This is of different composition in different parts of 
 the island, at some localities being a loose friable sandstone, 
 embedding large quantities of shells ; at others, a close- 
 grained limestone containing few fossils." 
 
 Upon the irregular bed formed by the upheaval of the 
 island is found the valuable deposit of guano, which, no 
 doubt, as is the opinion of all scientific experts who have 
 examined it, had its origin from the droppings of the sea- 
 
THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 27 
 
 fowl, which for ages resorted to its cliffs as a place for rest- 
 ing and breeding their young. 
 
 The deposits found on Swan Island are of three distinct 
 varieties, varying in physical structure, location, and rich- 
 ness in phosphate of lime. 
 
 The surface, or upper layer of guano, is of a soft, earthy 
 texture, in a state of minute division of particles, and of 
 dark brownish color. Samples of this variety, when air- 
 dried, have yielded, upon analysis by Dr. Liebig, of Balti- 
 more, by Professor Johnson, of New Haven, and by the late 
 Dr. Piggot, of Baltimore, Maryland, phosphoric acid equal 
 to sixty per cent, of bone phosphate of lime ; and Dr. Liebig 
 remarks, in his report of analysis, "that, dried on a kiln, 
 it would yield phosphate of lime calculated (from the phos- 
 phoric acid present) sixty-six per cent." 
 
 This earthy guano is of the finest texture, and yields a 
 larger result in soluble phosphoric acid, when treated with 
 oil of vitriol, than is usually had from any varieties found on 
 other islands. 
 
 Some portions of this surface guano are reduced in grade, 
 which is caused by the decay of the leaves from the densely 
 wooded portions of the islands ; and the presence of this 
 mould or peaty matter reduces its percentum of phosphoric 
 acid; but when deprived by combustion of this foreign 
 matter, it yields a very high grade of a most excellent qual- 
 ity of guano. As this peaty substance is readily combustible, 
 it furnishes in itself the means of its own combustion, 
 after which it is free from moisture, and in finely pulverized 
 condition. 
 
 Treated in this manner, which is done at little expense, 
 vast quantities of guano readily accessible, now accounted of 
 low grade, are capable of being brought up to a standard of 
 the highest quality. 
 
 The second variety referred to is what may be called semi- 
 
28 THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 
 
 petrified, and is found below the surface, in soft, compact 
 masses, of light brown color, and is easily reduced to a fine 
 powder. This variety is comparatively free from moisture, 
 as taken from the beds, and yields phosphoric acid equal to 
 from fifty-five to sixty per cent, bone phosphate of lime. 
 
 The third variety consists of a compact rock of irregular 
 formation, which, when fractured, presents a mottled appear- 
 ance, having in some parts a brown, shining surface, in 
 others a dull, opaque, white color. This is the richest variety 
 found on the island, and yields upon analyses, from cargoes 
 imported, from seventy-five to eighty per cent, pure phos- 
 phate of lime, and is admirably adapted for the manufacture 
 of high grade super-phosphates. Being of such high grade, 
 it is particularly suited for export to remote markets, in 
 which cases the item of freight enters largely into the ulti- 
 mate cost. 
 
 All necessary facilities for removing the deposits of guano 
 on these islands have been provided by the Company. Ves- 
 sels can lie with perfect safety o£E the island ; the anchorage 
 is good, with five fathoms of water within a cable's length of 
 the shore, and at some points the shore may be approached 
 within less than one hundred feet. The Company has con- 
 structed a commodious wharf, at which vessels lie to receive 
 their cargoes, numerous dwelling-houses for workmen, and 
 extensive sheds for protecting and drying the guano while 
 awaiting shipment. 
 
 The examination of these islands, made under a com- 
 mission of the United States Government in 1858, is detailed 
 by Thomas P. Morgan, Esq., one of the commission, in an 
 official affidavit, as follows : — 
 
 " And this deponent further says, that Lieutenant Sinclair made 
 very full report in writing of said, visit to and survey of the said 
 Swan Island, and by careful estimate ascertained and stated the 
 quantity of guano thereon to be more than three millions of tons 
 
THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 29 
 
 (3,000,000), which estimate this deponent declares, from his own 
 personal knowledge and observation, to be a reasonable one, and not 
 to exceed the truth." 
 
 These islands possess great value from their geographical 
 and topographical character, entirely distinct from their 
 guano deposits. Their harbors are safe at all seasons, while 
 their distance from the main land, and from the mouth of 
 the Patook River, is but one hundred miles. 
 
 We quote the following from a letter written by a United 
 States Consul who is familiar with the location of these 
 islands, and whose opinion in regard to their value, for other 
 purposes, is entitled to consideration. He says : — 
 
 " They lie oiF the north coast of Honduras, about one hundred 
 miles distant from the mouth of the Patook Eiver, and about three 
 hundred miles from the south side of Cuba. In view of the fact that 
 the northern and eastern coast of Honduras, as well as the Bay 
 Islands, are to be brought into the front rank of cotton-growing 
 countries, it will be seen that the Swan Islands become very impor- 
 tant in a commercial point of view. 
 
 " A free port at Great Swan would undoubtedly soon rival in 
 actual business the free port of St. Thomas in the Windward Isl- 
 ands. 
 
 " As a coal station Great Swan has many special advantages. It 
 is directly in the route of steamships from Mobile and New .Orleans 
 to Aspinwall and Nicaragua, and in the direct homeward route of 
 steamships from those ports to New York. Its harbors are spa- 
 cious, safe, and accessible at all seasons. It would be invaluable to 
 our government as a coaling station and naval depot, worth more, 
 in this respect than, the famous Bay of Samana, which has been 
 thought so desirable. 
 
 " Its climate is salubrious and healthy. A marine hospital could 
 here be erected where our sick could be landed from the Gulf 
 squadron. 
 
 " Abundant supplies can be had from the main at all times. As 
 we have become a great naval power, it is particularly desirable that 
 
30 THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 
 
 we should have a port of our own of this description in the Carib- 
 bean Sea, where our ships can coal, refit, land their sick, and which 
 can be used as a general naval depot. Of course its vast deposits 
 of guano give these islands their primary importance in the com- 
 mercial world, but they have valuable tracts of timber, which may 
 be made serviceable for building piers, warehouses,'' etc. 
 
 In addition to the commercial value of these islands for 
 their vast deposits of high grade guano, which now finds a 
 market not only in the United States, but in England, 
 France, Germany, and other parts of the European Conti- 
 nent, and in addition to its importance to the government 
 for purposes as above indicated, it contains large tracts of 
 timber, constituted of those varieties of hard woods now so 
 much sought after for ornamental purposes in the construc- 
 tion of modern dwellings, and worked into all kinds of useful 
 and ornamental furniture. These tracts of timber embrace 
 walnut, rosewood, satinwood, lignum vitse, and other vari- 
 eties, which command high prices and ready sale. 
 
 The waters surrounding the islands abound in fish, oysters, 
 and turtle, which, with the salubrious and healthy climate, 
 render it a delightful place of abode. 
 
81" 
 
 ;()" 
 
 20 
 
 T-OE SOUTH CAR^ 
 CHARLESTON TO SAVANNAH, 
 
 Mctni rixe and fall nf' tides at 
 StfTelena Simnd.dlMuL 6 feet. 
 
 33° 
 
 33' 
 
THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 31 
 
 THE MARL BEDS AND PHOSPHATE ROCK 0!F 
 SOUTH CAROLINA. 
 
 chisolm's island phosphate. 
 
 Among- the objects of interest -which cluster around the 
 early history of South Carolina, especially in the vicinity of 
 Charleston, the most interesting, perhaps, to the scientific 
 investigator, as well as the most useful to mankind, are the 
 remarkable marl beds for which that region has been cele- 
 brated. They have long been the object of scientific interest 
 and attention. The recent discovery of the still more re- 
 markable deposits of beds of nodular phosphate of lime, in 
 which are found embedded curious remains of extinct ani- 
 mals, vertebrata, sharks' teeth of enormous size, and other 
 fossils, has increased the scientific interest which has at- 
 tached to this locality. 
 
 Notices of these beds of marl are found in Ramsay's 
 "• History of South Carohna," published as far back as 1797. 
 They are also referred to in Drayton's "Views of South 
 Carolina," published in 1802, also in the writings of Vanaux, 
 of S. C, in 1824, of Shecut and Mills, in 1826, and of Dr. 
 Edward Ravenel, in 1837. More recently they have been 
 the object of reference in the writings of Ruffin, Holmes, R. 
 U. Gibbs, Lyell, Tuomey, and Agassiz.i Mr. Ruffin, of Vir- 
 ginia, who had given much time and attention to the utiliza- 
 tion of the marl beds of that State, and published an Essay 
 on " Calcareous Manures," in 1832, examined these Carolina 
 marl beds with enthusiasm, but failed to note wherein they 
 1 See Appendix. 
 
32 THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 
 
 differed in constitution from the Virginia marls, — a differ- 
 ence which rendered calcination necessary to give them their 
 greatest efficiency. 
 
 Just above these beds of marl, in certain circumscribed 
 localities, separated by a layer of clay, are found hard, irreg- 
 ular, nodular bodies from the size of a pea to masses weigh- 
 ing from fifty to hundreds of pounds, at some points lying 
 so near the surface as to interfere with cultivation, and 
 render it necessary to gather them into heaps to prevent 
 their offering obstruction to the plough. "When broken, 
 these nodules emit a foetid odor and communicate an un- 
 pleasant taste. 
 
 In a geological report made by Professor Tuomey, 1848, 
 
 he says : — 
 
 " lu ascending the Ashley from Charleston, marl is first seen at 
 Bee's Ferry, on both sides of the river below high-water level. 
 Both here and elsewhere on the river it is exceedingly uniform in 
 structure and external appearance, with the exception of about two 
 or three feet of the surface, which is composed of irregular and 
 water-worn fragments of marl stone, embedded in clay, and contain- 
 ing numerous fossils. 
 
 " On the Rev. Dr. Hanckel's plantation I had a good opportunity 
 of examining these fragments, and at ' Drayton Hall ' they have 
 been gathered from the land and thrown into heaps. At first sight, I 
 was disposed to refer the beds containing tixQse^ fragments to a for- 
 mation different from the underlying marl, but I have since found 
 that nearly all the fossils are common to both, and that these frag- 
 ments are only the surface of the marl torn up and thus scattered. 
 That their dispersion took place at a comparatively recent period, 
 is evident from the fact that they are found in St. John's Parish, 
 resting on the post-pleocine ; and they also occur on John's Island, 
 which must be referred to the same period. The recession of the 
 waters of the ocean at the time of the elevation of the post-pleocine 
 to its present level, wonld be quite sufiicient as a cause to produce 
 such a phenomenon as this. 
 
THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 33 
 
 " I have more than once alluded to the removal by solution from 
 calcareous rocks of a portion or all of the lime. This has taken 
 place to a great extent in the beds under consideration. In many 
 instances there is little more left than the silica and the alumina of 
 the marl, with a trace of lime ; and the latter ingredient rarely ex- 
 ceeds six per cent." 
 
 It will be seen from the above extract, that up to this 
 time, the true nature of these nodules had not been appre- 
 hended ; that Mr. Tuomey considered them as having orig- 
 inally been a part of the marl beds. 
 
 Two years later, in 1850, Professor Holmes, of Charleston, 
 read a paper before the " American Association for the Ad- 
 vancement of Science," at a meeting held in the city of 
 Charleston, in which he described these nodules as " Marl 
 Rock," " silicious " masses, alluding to their peculiar odor, 
 their fossiliferous character ; and to the fact that they dif- 
 fered from the marl, as they contained but two per cent, of 
 carbonate of lime, while the marl contains seventy per cent. ; 
 and accounted for the absence of carbonate by supposing it 
 may have been washed out. It is manifest that, while at 
 this time, and for years previous, these nodules were the 
 objects of investigation and interest, and various specimens 
 adorned the cabinets of scientific students and professors, 
 their true nature and chemical constitution were unknown 
 and unsuspected. The value and importance of phosphate 
 of lime for fertilizing purposes was then fully appreciated, as 
 it was an object of search in the Pacific Ocean, the Carib- 
 bean Sea, and other parts of the watery domain, and was im- 
 ported from remote islands wherever found. 
 
 The very fact, that Professor Shepard, Professor Tuomey, 
 and others, in writing of the South Carolina marl, claim for 
 it a value far above the marls of Virginia, because it contains 
 from one to ten per cent, of phosphate of lime, is conclusive 
 evidence that the nodules, so frequently referred to, were not 
 
34 THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 
 
 known to contain from sixty to sixty-five per cent, of that val- 
 uable element. " Up to 1867, there is no recorded evidence 
 that the character of the nodules was understood ; although, 
 as we have seen, it was published to the world in 1847, in 
 ' Tuomey's Eeport,' that the marls of Ashley River contained 
 nine per cent, of phosphate of lime." (Report of Charleston 
 Board of Trade, 1873.) 
 
 Early in 1867, the manufacture of fertilizers, under the 
 chemical superintendence of Dr. St. Julien Ravenel, was be- 
 gun in Charleston, and two cargoes as a source of phosphate of 
 lime were imported from the Caribbean Sea. During the sum- 
 mer of the same year. Dr. Ravenel received from Dr. F. M. 
 Giddings specimens of sharks' teeth, nodules, and marl, taken 
 from the " Elm " plantation, Goose Creek, owned by Dr. E. 
 Giddings. While examining these specimens, Dr. Ravenel 
 became aware of their true character. Hence, from that cir- 
 cumstance, was developed a discovery which has proved, and 
 must continue to be, a source of wealth to South Carolina, 
 and of benefit to agriculture both in this country and Europe, 
 the importance of which cannot be computed. 
 
 Dr. Ravenel, having discovered the true character of these 
 nodules, immediately engaged parties to gather and bring 
 them to the city, for the purpose of manufacturing them into 
 a fertilizer ; and, obtaining sufficient supplies, substituted 
 them for " Navassa " phosphate, previously imported. The 
 unused Navassa phosphate was consequently reshipped to the 
 port of Baltimore, it being no longer required for the pur- 
 poses for which it was originally imported. 
 
 It is a little remarkable that this material, now known to 
 commerce and manufacture as " Charleston phosphate," so 
 great in quantity, so important to this country and the 
 world, so valuable to South Carolina as a source of material 
 wealth, should have been known as early as 1795, and yet 
 that its value and distinctive constitution should remain un- 
 
THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 35 
 
 discovered until within the past nine years, although it lay- 
 under the very eyes of scientific observers, and was placed 
 as curious specimens in their cabinets. The first cargo of 
 Charleston phosphate' was shipped to New York, December 
 4, 1867, which was followed on December 15 of the same 
 year by another cargo consigned to Dr. Clemts, of Baltimore, 
 Md. The first company organized ' for mining the deposit 
 was the " Charleston Mining and Manufacturing Company." 
 The first shipment of this Company was sixteen tierces by 
 steamer Falcon, consigned to George D. Lewis, Philadel- 
 phia, Penn. 
 
 Since 1867, a number of joint-stock companies have been 
 organized for the removal of these deposits, beside the opera- 
 tions of private firms and individuals. It is estimated that 
 more than six millions of dollars have been invested in works 
 and maichinery for the removal and preparation of these de- 
 posits for market. Up to July, 1872, over 206,000 tons had 
 been shipped from the diggings, over 90,000 tons of which 
 were exported to foreign ports; and up to the same time 
 more than 36,000 tons were consumed by local manufactur- 
 ers, making an aggregate of over 242,000 tons. 
 
 The earlier shipments to foreign ports, from want of ex- 
 perience and machinery adapted to the purpose, were imper- 
 fectly prepared for market. Hence, the adhering extraneous 
 matter had the effect of an adulteration, and unfairly repre- 
 sented the article to foreign purchasers. Native skill and 
 ingenuity, however, soon devised machinery and methods of 
 handling which corrected first unfavorable impressions, so 
 that now the phosphate is perfectly cleaned by improved 
 machinery for washing from all foreign matter, and is thor- 
 oughly dried before shipment. For the past few years the 
 domestic consumption has largely increased, and the demand 
 for export has been as great as, if not greater, for the best 
 grades, than existing facilities could supply. 
 
36 THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 
 
 The phosphate nodules lie along the watercourses of the 
 country, on the banks of the riTcrs and smaller streams, and 
 of the swamps now or formerly discharging their waters into 
 these streams ; and are not found in any abundance or avail- 
 able quantity beyond four or five hundred yards from the 
 watercourses and swamps. Besides, they do not, even here, 
 form a continuous border along the streams and swamps, 
 but are generally found in detached deposits at very irregular 
 intervals along the banks. The means requisite for making- 
 even a rough approximation to the area actually occupied are 
 not easily attained, but it is evident that it is much less than 
 has been supposed. 
 
 It is impossible to contemplate these wonderful deposits of 
 this substance now so necessary to the continuance of our 
 present civilization and their recent discovery, without being 
 struck with the marvelous provisions of nature for the wants 
 and necessities of mankind. During the silent march of ge- 
 ologic ages, when now extinct races of animals were the un- 
 disturbed tenants of these localities, the mysterious forces of 
 nature were slowly and silently fabricating into imperishable 
 forms these deposits ; transmuting the phosphoric acid of the 
 bones of expiring races of animals into condensed petrified 
 masses for the use and sustenance of the present generations 
 of mankind, requiring as an equivalent for their appropria- 
 tion only the exercise of those endowments which are the 
 peculiar inheritance of man. We have referred to the singu- 
 lar fact that the true nature of these remarkable deposits 
 remained unknown for so many years ; but in truth, like the 
 recent discovery of petroleum, just at the time when whale- 
 ships returned to port after fruitless voyages, and like the 
 discovery of mineral coal when the forests were vanishing 
 before the axe of the woodman, these deposits were discov- 
 ered just at the time when the exhausted soil of our Atlan- 
 tic coast would scarcely longer compensate the husbandman 
 
THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 37 
 
 for his toil. It is impossible, rationally, to attribute these 
 CTents and wonderful provisions made in the geologic past, 
 to the blind operations of chance. They must be gratefully 
 acknowledged as the evolutions of forces set in operation, 
 ages ago, by an Infinite Intelligence. 
 
38 THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 
 
 CHISOLM'S ISLAND DEPOSITS. 
 
 chisolm's island phosphates. 
 
 The southeastern portion of the State of South Carolina 
 for a distance of many miles from the coast is a region of 
 alternate swamp and forest-covered plain which, at its high- 
 est point, scarcely rises more than seventy-five feet above the 
 level of the sea. From Cape Roman, southward to Florida, 
 for a distance of from five to twenty miles inland, this coast 
 region is intersected by innumerable tide-water channels and 
 arms of the sea, from a few feet to two or three miles in 
 width, to which the general name of the Sea Island region 
 has been given. 
 
 Upon the physical geography of this interesting region 
 considerable light has been thrown by the labors of the 
 United States coast survey parties ; by which it is shown 
 that a relation exists between its width and the mean rise 
 and fall of the tide ; whereas at Cape Fear this only amounts 
 to two feet, at Savannah it is over seven. We see, there- 
 fore, that, while the coast of Maine, which resembles this in 
 being formed of a series of islands, owes its present config- 
 uration to the action of glaciers wearing away its hard crys- 
 talline rocks, it is here the scouring force of the tide waters, 
 which has cut through and worn away the soft surface of the 
 land, and divided it into a series of marshy islands. "While 
 the ocean is gradually gaining upon the land by the slow 
 subsidence of the whole coast, a more rapid interchange of 
 water for land is going on in the tide-water channels of the 
 Sea Island region. The depth is, however, limited to some 
 extent by a hard bed which forms their bottom in portions 
 
THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 39 
 
 of the region of the so-called phosphate bed. The action of 
 the ocean in this region is not, therefore, entirely destructive, 
 from an economical point of view, since, as it wears away 
 the cotton lands which were once the great source of wealth 
 to the State, it discloses the phosphate beds which now yield 
 a very considerable revenue. 
 
 Later developments have brought to light the fact, that 
 perhaps the most valuable beds of these remarkable phos- 
 phatic nodules, both as to the extent and thickness of the 
 stratum, and the richness of the deposit in phosphate of lime, 
 as well as in regard to accessibility and convenience for ship- 
 ment, are found on what is known as 
 
 CHtSOLM's ISLAND, 
 
 The deposits of which are under the exclusive control of the 
 Pacific Cruano Company, and constitute its source of supplies 
 for its own consumption, and for disposal to buyers of the 
 prepared crude phosphate for the European markets. 
 
 Chisolm's Island, so called, is situated in the widest por- 
 tion of the Sea Island region, at the junction of the Coosaw 
 and Bull rivers, not far from the head of St. Helena Sound, 
 and about eight miles north of Beaufort, from which Lady's 
 Island and the Coosaw and Beaufort rivers separate it. It 
 lies about midway between Charleston and Savannah, being 
 forty-four miles in a straight line from the former city, with 
 which communication may be had by about sixty miles' 
 travel by water, or fifteen miles' driving and sixty miles of 
 rail by land. It is more properly a peninsula than an isl- 
 and, being only separated from the main land by a tide- water 
 stream about six feet m width. It is about six miles long 
 and two miles wide, consisting of upland and marsh, all of 
 which is underlaid with strata of phosphatic nodules, varying 
 in thickness from twelve inches to three feet or more. The 
 phosphate nodules are also found in quantities in the beds 
 
40 THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 
 
 of the adjacent rivers and creeks. At the present diggings 
 in the marsh, the stratum there lies from two to five feet be- 
 low the surface, and is about three feet in thickness. 
 
 When properly prepared for shipment by the most ap- 
 proved machinery and methods adopted by the Company, 
 these deposits have yielded an average of phosphoric acid 
 equal to sixty per cent, of phosphate of lime, and recent ship- 
 ments have exceeded this per centum. 
 
 An average sample of a cargo recently shipped from the 
 island was submitted to Dr. G. A. Liebig, analytic chemist, 
 of Baltimore, Md., whose authority in this department is 
 recognized as undisputed. The result of his analysis is here 
 given, showing phosphoric acid equal to 67.66 per cent, of 
 phosphate of lime, which is about the highest result yet ob- 
 tained from any average sample of a full cargo, showing the 
 exceptionally high grade of the phosphate found on this 
 island. In addition to this advantage, it contains less than 
 the average quantity of those substances which are objec-, 
 tionable to manufacturers, such as oxide of iron, alumina, etc. 
 
 COPY OP ANALYSIS. 
 Labokatoey, Baltimoke, January 27, 1876. 
 Result of Analysis of a sample of Ground Phosphate, pre- 
 sented by John M. Glidden, Esq., Treasurer of Pacific Guano 
 Company : — 
 
 Moisture and organic matter . . 5.22 per cent. 
 
 Lime 37.62 
 
 Oxide and fluor ..... 3.05 
 
 Alumina 2.93 
 
 Phosphoric acid ..... 30.99 
 
 Indie, matter (Carb. acid, etc.) . . 20.37 
 
 The phosphoric acid present is equal to 
 bone phosphate of lime . . . 67.66 per cent. 
 (Signed) G. A. Liebig, Ph. Dr. 
 
THF PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 41 
 
 In an interesting paper read before the " Boston Society 
 of Natural History," by Professor N. S. Shaler, on " The 
 Phosphate Beds of South Carolina," Chisolm's Island is re- 
 ferred to as a locality where the beds have the greatest de- 
 velopment, and- are richer in phosphoric acid than at other 
 localities where the remains of vertebrate animals are more 
 numerous. Professor Shaler treats of the probable origin of 
 these deposits, illustrating his conclusions that they are not 
 the result of animal remains, by reference to the deposit 
 found on this island. 
 
 We quote the following : "The first and moSt natural 
 seeming explanation of the large amount of this salt is, that 
 it is derived from the bones and excrements of animals whose 
 remains are in the bed. But the points where the most bones 
 are found are not those where the phosphate deposit is thick- 
 est or richest. At Chisolm's Island, on the waters of St. 
 Helena Sound, where the bed has the greatest development 
 yet discovered, and where the analysis shows more phospho- 
 ric acid than at some of the localities the richest in bones, 
 the remains of vertebrate animals are very rarely found." 
 
 And in a report submitted to the Company, under date of 
 March SO, of the present year, Mr. S. F. Emmons, the well- 
 known geologist of the Government Survey, after a careful 
 examination of Chisolm's Island, writes as follows : — 
 
 " The question of the origin of these phosphates of lime in 
 these nodules is one which has as yet received too little study 
 to afford a satisfactory theory. Several hypotheses have 
 been put forward. It was first thought, from the finding of 
 vertebrate remains associated with them, that it was derived 
 from the excrementa and bones of large animals ; that, dur- 
 ing the partial submergence of the coast, these remains had 
 accumulated in shallow lagoons, which were afterwards filled 
 by the sands which now cover the beds. But, unfortunately 
 for this theory, the points where the bed is richest in animal 
 
42 THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 
 
 remains, as on the Ashley and Cooper rivers, contain z 
 much lower percentage of phosphate of lime than at ChiS' 
 ohn's Island, where fossil vertebrates, and the so-callec 
 coprolites, are comparatively rare. The English geologists 
 in studying similar deposits in the cretaceous beds of Cam- 
 bridge, England, do not seem to have come to any agreemeni 
 upon the subject. Professor Seeley supposes them to have 
 been formed from a gelatinous phosphate of lime derived fron 
 sea-weeds and decaying animals, and rolled on the shore into 
 nodules with carbonate of Hme, and the materials of the 
 strand. Mr. Bonney considers them to be mainly of concrC' 
 tionary origin ; while the Rev. O. Fisher, after careful studj 
 with the microscope, thinks they are mostly the result- of 
 secretion by marine organisms, such as sponges, ventriculi- 
 ties, alcyonaria, etc. 
 
 "In my opinion, the processes here indicated may all have 
 had their influence in forming the phosphate beds. It is 
 well known to geologists that phosphate of lime — apatite — 
 is found in the older geological formations, forming beds ic 
 the earlier palseozoic strata already, and that in the crystalline 
 ingredients of the earliest formations, from whose dShrii 
 these palaeozoic rocks have been formed, microscopical apatite 
 is very' widely disseminated. Thus we see that from the 
 comminuted dihris of the older rocks a sufficient quantity oi 
 phosphate of lime may be furnished, if the conditions for its 
 concentration are favorable, to form even larger deposits 
 than occur here. 
 
 "Now, in cretaceous and tertiary times, the lowlands oi 
 South Carolina have been repeatedly submerged below the 
 surface of the ocean, and beds deposited from their sedi- 
 ments, which came from the wearing away of the older rocks 
 in the interior; these beds have been uplifted, contorted, 
 and in part worn away again, to form, in other periods ol 
 submergence, later formations. 
 
THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 43 
 
 " That this process has been repeated in cretaceous, eocene, 
 tertiary, and post-pliocene times is known, and it may rea- 
 sonably be supposed that there are other periods of submer- 
 gence that are not yet known. 
 
 " Thus, if the conditions were favorable for the secretion of 
 phosphate, we see that in these repeated washings out the 
 latest formation would be a concentration of the whole. Have 
 the conditions been favorable ? Yes. In early tertiary times 
 the peninsula of Florida was still submerged beneath the' 
 ocean, and the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, teeming 
 vyith marine life, flowed over the present lowlands of South 
 Carolina. Now these waters must have contained carbonic 
 acid in solution, resulting from decaying animal and vegeta- 
 ble matter, and moreover phosphate secreting animals, such 
 as lingula, abound in the waters of the Gulf. Now water 
 containing carbonic acid will dissolve a certain amount of 
 phosphate of lime ; the phosphate in solution was secreted 
 by marine organisms, then deposited in the eocene ocean, 
 formed nuclei of phosphate, to which, by dialysis, the phos- 
 phate of lime, disseminated through the general mass of the 
 beds, was drawn by segregation, as the flints are formed by 
 segregation in the chalk beds. When these beds were ele- 
 vated above the sea, this segregation was increased by the 
 percolation of waters highly charged with carbonic acid, for 
 in those times the surface vegetation must have been much 
 more luxuriant than at the present day, and the amount of 
 decaying vegetable matter, to furnish such carbonic acid, 
 proportionately greater. These waters, having taken up 
 phosphate of lime from the sands containing apatite, would 
 deposit around these nuclei and around the shells, or any 
 concretion where a commencement of concentration of phos- 
 phate had already been madie. In the final sorting over 
 of these beds in post-pliocene time, the phosphatic nodules 
 finally concentrated, and mixed with the animal remains, 
 
44 THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 
 
 whose presence indicates conditions particularly favorable 
 for the concentration of phosphate of lime, assumed their 
 present position." 
 
 THE company's LANDING AND WHAEP, DESIGNATED AS 
 PACIFIC LANDING, 
 
 Are located on the Bull River side of the island, at a bluff, 
 at which point also are constructed the necessary works for 
 preparing the phosphate for shipment, such as machinery for 
 crushing, washing, and drying the nodules. After thorough 
 washing, it is conveyed by machinery to an apparatus with a 
 capacity of 3,000 tons for expelling all the moisture. Here 
 it is subjected to hot-air blasts, which reduces the moisture 
 to about one half of one per cent. When the phosphate has 
 been subjected to these processes it is in perfect condition for 
 shipping. 
 
 The marsh deposits are removed by digging pits about six 
 by four feet ; from these the nodules are taken with pick 
 and spade before the water rises sufficiently to impede the 
 operation. Another pit is then dug, leaving a wall of two 
 feet or more between, which being exhausted, the nodules 
 underlying the wall of surface earth between are removed. 
 The nodules thus collected are transported to the landing 
 over a railway constructed for .that purpose, where it under- 
 goes the preparation above referred to, for shipping. 
 
 The phosphate taken from the rivers and streams is 
 known as " river rock," and is collected by means of steam 
 dredges adapted to this purpose. It is also taken by the 
 negroes in the warm seasons, who become expert in diving 
 for it in water of no inconsiderable depth. This variety of 
 the phosphate is more compact and difficult to grind than 
 the marsh or land deposits, and contains more of the objec- 
 tionable oxide of iron. Hence in this country the marsh or 
 land production is preferred. 
 
THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 45 
 
 The Company employs from one to two hundred laborers 
 in these operations, and can increase its productions to any 
 desired extent by an increase of labor. 
 
 Vessels approach " Pacific I^anding " through St. Helena 
 Sound, about fifteen miles distant, to which Coosaw and 
 Bull rivers are tributary, and can load to a draught of thir- 
 teen feet, ordinary tide, at the Company's wharf. Larger 
 vessels are moored at good anchorage about one and a half 
 miles below the landing in Bull River, where cargoes are 
 delivered alongside by lighters of one hundred tons capacity, 
 which are towed to and from ships when loading by tug- 
 boats, which also serve to tow vessels to a point outside the 
 bar of the Sound when going to sea. St. Helena bar en- 
 trance, thirty miles south of the entrance to Charleston Har- 
 bor, affords safe and easy access to the landing at the island. 
 
 Chisolm's Island is accessible to Charleston by steamers, 
 which ply between that city and Beaufort, touching at 
 "Pacific Landing" twice a week. It is accessible also to 
 Charleston and Savannah daily, by the Charleston and Sa- 
 vannah and Port Royal railroad, to Sheldon's Station, twelve 
 miles distant from the landing. 
 
 In the deposits of this island the Pacific Guano Com- 
 pany possesses a source of phosphate of lime of the highest 
 grade as to quality, the greatest abundance as to quantity, 
 and of the greatest convenience as to accessibility and ship- 
 ping facilities. 
 
46 THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 
 
 THE MENHADEN FISH.— ITS USES AND IM- 
 PORTANCE TO AGRICULTURE AND COM- 
 MERCE. 
 
 On the opposite page we present our readers with a 
 photograph of this useful inhabitant of the sea. We have 
 previously referred to this fish as furnishing in its bone and 
 fibre an inexhaustible source of ammonia for the uses Of 
 agriculture, making it available, when manufactured in 
 conjunction with phosphate of lime, as before described. 
 Intelligent fishermen with their nets, supersede the slow 
 process of the fish-eating sea-fowl, and the Pacific Guano 
 Company, with' its varied facilities and adaptations of ma- 
 chinery for mixing the phosphate and the fish, accomplishes 
 in a few weeks the work of centuries ; and myriads of men- 
 haden which this year swarm along our coast may, ere the 
 lapse of another season, be transmuted into food for man 
 and animals, in the forms of corn and wheat, and into cloth- 
 ing, in the forms of cotton and wool. 
 
 The menhaden is not adapted for food, in consequence of 
 the vast number of small bones which fill all parts of its 
 body. It belongs to the same family as the shad and her- 
 ring of our waters, and the sardine and anchovy of foreign 
 waters. 
 
 Doubtless few are aware of the extent to which these fish 
 are taken on our northern coast ; of the number of men and 
 vessels employed, and the capital invested in this depart- 
 ment of enterprise. 
 
 We give the following statistics from authentic sources, 
 which wiU prove interesting to our readers. 
 
 The number of men employed in 1875 was 2,643, and 
 
■ THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 47 
 
 the number of vessels three hundred and forty-three, thirty- 
 nine of which were steamers. The amount of capital em- 
 ployed was two millions six hundred and fifty thousand 
 dollars. The number of menhaden taken was five hundred 
 and sixty-three millions three hundred and twenty-seven 
 thousand, equal to one million eight hundred and seventy- 
 seven thousand seven hundred and sixty-seven barrels. 
 The products of this result was fifty-three thousand six 
 hundred and twenty-five tons of compressed fibre and bone, 
 which furnished for agricultural uses seven millions five 
 hundred and seven thousand five hundred pounds of am- 
 monia, in the best possible organic forms. This quantity 
 of ammonia is the equivalent in that element of nearly 
 twenty-six thousand tons of the Chincha Island Peruvian 
 guano, formerly imported from Peru, the gold value of which 
 was one million five hundred and sixty thousand dollars. 
 In addition to ammonia, the phosphate of lime obtained 
 from this source, convertible into agricultural products, 
 amounted to nearly one million seventy-two thousand five hun- 
 dred pounds ; which is the equivalent of nearly twenty-three 
 thousand tons of Peruvian guano as formerly imported. 
 
 From these facts it will be seen to what extent the sea has 
 been made tributary to the interests of agriculture. 
 
 Beside the products thus realized from this source for 
 specific uses, there were produced in 1875, for commercial 
 purposes, two millions six hundred and eighty-one thou- 
 sand four hundred and eighty-seven gallons of oil. 
 
 There are other sources of ammonia, available for agricul- 
 tural uses, beside that furnished by the menhaden fish ; but 
 it is believed that the elements of ammonia, disengaged by 
 the decomposition of animal matter in this form, are more 
 potent than that obtained from other sources. It may be 
 that the results which lead to this conclusion are due to 
 some other elements of value which as yet are undiscovered 
 
48 THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 
 
 by our laboratory chemistry; but the fact still remains, 
 whether it can be rationally accounted for or not. 
 
 While Agricultural Chemistry has made rapid progress in 
 unfolding the mysteries of nature, and has conferred im- 
 measurable benefits upon our age, the field is not yet ex- 
 hausted, and much still lies beyond the margin of the 
 known. This must so continue until all factors, which 
 enter into the development of observed results as unknown 
 causes, are discovered. 
 
 Nature yields her secrets to the persistent inquirer. 
 Hence we may anticipate new discoveries to reward the 
 laborers in this dpmain of science, and to add to the benefits 
 they have already conferred. 
 
OOEEESPONDEE'OE. 
 
 In confirmation of the large and extended trade in Soluble Pacific 
 Guano we annex correspondence from agents of the Company at 
 various central markets, referring to the rapid growth of the trade, 
 to the uniform excellence of the guano, and the high estimation in 
 which it is now held by consumers. 
 
 We could publish many thousands of letters from planters and 
 farmers from aU quarters giving their personal testimony to the 
 same facts, but they would occupy more space than can be allowed. 
 
 Office of Gbneeal Agency •> 
 OF THE Pacific Guano Company.) 
 
 Baltimoee, Mardi, 1876. 
 To John M. Glidden, Esq., 
 
 Treasurer Pacific Guano Company, Boston, Mass. 
 
 "We became the general agents of the Company in 1865, and 
 introduced Soluble Pacific Guano to the markets of the Middle and 
 Southern States in that year. 
 
 The first season we placed nearly eight hundred tons, chiefly in 
 Maryland, Virginia, and the near parts of Delaware. Up to that time 
 farmers, especially in Virginia, had but little confidence in any 
 other commercial fertilizer than Peruvian Guano, but the use of 
 that sold the first year, which was taken for trial and experiment, 
 proved so far superior as to establish it in popular favor at once, 
 the only question with farmers being whether it could be relied 
 upon for continued excellence. 
 
 We had no difiiculty in establishing confidence on this point. 
 From this small beginning the demand grew and extended so 
 4 
 
50 CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 rapidly, that in the third year it was impossible to get into market 
 within several thousands of tons as much as was demanded by con- 
 sumers. The necessity for increased facilities of production com- 
 pelled the Company to enlarge its works, which necessity again re- 
 curred in a short while, as the trade continued to develop through- 
 out the Middle and Southern States, until the consumption ex- 
 ceeded thirty-five thousand tons in a single year, — a parallel to 
 which does not exist in the history of any competing article in this 
 country. 
 
 This result will not appear surprising when it is considered that 
 in bringing to farmers and planters Soluble Pacific Guano, we 
 placed at their disposal an available agency which rendered the 
 labor of one man equal to that of two ; the labor of one horse or 
 mule equal to more than that of two ; that rendered the product of 
 the culture of one acre in cotton or tobacco equal to that of from 
 two to five acres, and so also approximately in all other crops. 
 Every farmer knew that the cost of his products was regulated by 
 the quantity realized from a given number of acres and a given 
 amount of labor ; that if one planter made one bale of cotton from 
 one acre, and his neighbor made one bale from three acres, the cost 
 to the latter was three times as great per pound as to the former, 
 and so in relation to all other agricultural products. 
 
 All that was needed was a knowledge of the fact as to these 
 results, and this knowledge disseminated itself from the use of this 
 guano; hence the rapidity with which it grew into popular favor 
 and use in all accessible regions where the soil needed the aid of 
 fertilizers. 
 
 After passing through all the contingencies of varying seasons in 
 ten years' use, the question of uniform reliability no longer exists. 
 
 In the introduction of this guano we feel that we have placed 
 at the command of agriculture an agency the importance of which 
 cannot fail to be recognized and appreciated. 
 
 John S. Reese & Co., 
 General Agents of the Pacific Guano Company. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 61 
 
 VIRGINIA AGENCY FOR SOLUBLE PACIFIC GUANO. 
 
 ALLISON & ADDISON, GENERAL AGENTS FOE VIRGINIA, 
 
 RiCHMom}, Va., March 21, 1876. 
 
 John S. Reese, Esq., 
 
 Genl. Agent Pacific Guano Co., Baltimore. 
 
 Deae Sik, — We take pleasure in stating that we have been act- 
 ing as agents for the Pacific Guano Company since 1865, and for 
 the last seven or eight years have had general control of the State 
 of Virginia. In 1865, we managed to place some twenty tons only, 
 but the guano being a good thing, gave satisfaction, and the demand 
 for it has grown steadily until our sales are now several thousand 
 tons annually. 
 
 Soluble Pacific Guano was one of the first manipulated or pre- 
 pared guanos put on this market since the war. Our people were 
 prejudiced in favor of Peruvian, and this had to be overcome. Its 
 excellence has been, such, that it has overcome not only that preju- 
 dice, but also the combined opposition of most other manufacturers, 
 both local and out of the State. We are happy to say that it has 
 always held its own, and is now, and has been for many years, the 
 leading fertilizer on this market. 
 
 The large capital of the Company, and the liberality of its man- 
 agers, have enabled us to help many of our planters and farmers, 
 who came out of tlie war stripped of everything, to get upon their 
 feet again, and this has made many friends for the guano. 
 
 No fertilizer which has ever been upon this market has under- 
 gone severer tests and come out of them with its reputation as a trust- 
 worthy article more firmly established than this ; and it has been a 
 pleasure and pride to be connected with so good an article, and one 
 which has given such general and great satisfaction. 
 
 Wishing you and the Company you represent continued success, 
 we are, very respectfiiUy, 
 
 Tour obedient servants, 
 
 Allison & Addison. 
 
52 CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 Griffin, 6a., March 25, 1876. 
 J. S. Reese & Co., 
 
 General Agents Pacific Guano Co., Baltimore, Md. 
 
 Sirs, — As regards my opinion of the Soluble Pacific Guano, 
 manufactured by the Pacific Guano Cojnpany, it affords me great 
 pleasure to state that I have used, and have seen used, and have par- 
 tially dealt in your guano, for about eight years, and in every in- 
 stance, with proper application and cultivation, it has increased the 
 yield of the crops from one to two hundred per cent, above the 
 natural production of the soil. 
 
 I think, Sirs, the planters of Georgia are under lasting obliga- 
 tions to the Company for its- introduction into this State, as it has 
 been of great value to them. 
 
 I find that planters are bringing lands into a good state of culti- 
 vation which were once considered utterly worthless, and have been 
 idle for a number of years, and are producing large crops per acre, 
 by the use of Soluble Pacific Guano. 
 
 As yon are aware, it is very expensive for planters to clear and 
 prepare woodlands and get them into a good state of cultivation, 
 whereas, by the use of your guano, planters can take old lands, con- 
 sidered worthless, and by its use bring them into a good state of 
 cultivation, and produce large crops at one fourth the cost that it 
 would take to clear and prepare woodlands. 
 
 I was traveling through the country last summer, and a friend and 
 planter requested me to inspect his crop of cotton, which I did, 
 and took the trouble to ascertain the difference in the yield, where 
 your guano was used, and where there was no guano used. The 
 result was as follows : Fifty stalks of cotton, where no guano was 
 used, contained 237 bolls, and where the Soluble Pacific Guano was 
 applied (at the rates of 150 lbs. per acre), fifty stalks contained 682 
 bolls ; showing an increase of about 188 per cent. The land was 
 what is termed in this section thin gray land, being an old field which 
 had not been in cultivation for a number of years, and ten years ago 
 was considered worthless. 
 
 I have also seen great increase in the yield of both com and wheat 
 by the use of Soluble Pacific Guano. I could give you many more 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 53 
 
 instances, and a large number of testimonials as to the profit to the 
 planter by the use of your guano, but do not deem it necessary, as 
 its reputation is well known in Georgia. 
 
 Hoping, Sirs, as most of Southern planters do, that we may be 
 blessed with an abundant yield from the present crop, and the price 
 of the staple may be profitable to both the producer and the manu- 
 turer, I am, 
 
 Very truly, etc., W. T. Cole. 
 
 AuouSTA, Ga., March i, 1876. 
 Me. John S. Reese, 
 
 General Agent Pacific Guano Company, Baltimore, Md. 
 
 Dear Sik, — Understanding that the Pacific Guano Company 
 will be represented at the Centennial, we deem it not out of place 
 to give you our views as to the merits of the guano they man- 
 ufacture. 
 
 We have been selling it since 1865, and from sales that year of 
 fifty tons, the demand has steadily increased until in 1875 we sold 
 3,200 tons, while the present season we expect to sell 5,000 tons, and 
 from the present demand, we do not think it will fall far short. It 
 has the best general reputation of any guano sold in this market, 
 and the best evidence we have of its continued excellence, we are 
 selling to the same men now that used it in 1865, and have con- 
 tinued to use it every season since. 
 
 Very truly, 
 
 J. O. Mathewson & Co., 
 
 Agents Padfie Guano Go. 
 
 Atlanta, Ga., April 20, 1876. 
 John S. Reese & Co., 
 
 General Agents Pacific Guano Company, BaUimore, Md. 
 
 Gentlemen, — As is known to you, we became the agents of the 
 
 Pacific Guano Company for the sale of its " Soluble Pacific Guano" 
 
 at this market in 1866. The first year of our agency we sold a few 
 
 tons only, but its remarkable results, shown in the increased pro- 
 
54 CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 duction of cotton and corn, soon became known in this part of 
 Georgia and the near parts of Alabama, which resulted in largely 
 increased consumption the'following year. The guano has main- 
 tained its high standing, as is manifested by its annually increasing 
 consumption, and it now is by far the most popular fertilizer in all 
 this region of country. Our sales this year are thus far larger than 
 any previous season, and will probably exceed 3,500 tons. It is the 
 most popular fertilizer in the market. Although we have hereto- 
 fore sold several other brands, we have abandoned all others, and 
 now limit our trade to Soluble Pacific Guano alone. It appears 
 better adapted to cotton than any other, from the fact that it matures 
 the plant earlier, and its results are less affected by the prolonged 
 droughts which are frequent in this part of the South. 
 
 Tours truly, etc., Adair & Brothebs. 
 
 Savannah, Ga., March i, 1876. 
 John S. Eeese, Esq., 
 
 General Agent Pacific Guano Company, Baltimore. 
 
 Dear Sir, — For eight years our predecessors and ourselves 
 
 have been the agents at this port for the sale of the Pacific Guano 
 
 Company's " Soluble Pacific Guano." During that time we have 
 
 each year sold very largely to planters in Georgia, Florida, and 
 
 South Carolina, and in all cases it has given entire satisfaction. After 
 
 a close study of commercial fertilizers for the above mentioned time, 
 
 and after carefully watching the results of the different brands, we 
 
 unhesitatingly give it as our opinion that the " Soluble Pacific 
 
 Guano " is the best article ever offered in this market. 
 
 Very truly yours, Woods & Co. 
 
 Geeenvilxb, AhA.., March 10, 1876. 
 John S. Reese, Esq., Baltimore, Md. 
 
 Dear Sir, — I have been continuously engaged in selling your 
 " Soluble Pacific Guano " ever since the winter of 1868-69 (inclu- 
 sive). The first season (1868-69) I sold 150 tons. This was the 
 first introduction of any commercial fertilizer into this market. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 55 
 
 My sales increased in the successive seasons following that of intro- 
 duction, until they have exceeded 700 tons in a single year. This 
 was within the scope of several counties, chiefly in two, in a thinly 
 populated region, comparatively, never wealthy, and impoverished 
 by the war and its consequences. 
 
 Many fertilizers have been introduced here, since I began spilling 
 this one, but the " Soluble Pacific Guano " has continued to hold 
 precedence over all others. It is looked upon by many of our best 
 farmers as an absolute necessity as regards the cotton crop, while 
 the great benefits derived from its application to other crops are 
 universally acknowledged. 
 
 It is making a low estimate to say that the profits from its use in 
 the production of cotton are not less than (100-200) one hundred 
 per cent, upon its cost. 
 
 Very respectfully, John K. Henry, 
 
 Agent, Greenvitte, Ala. 
 
 EnrAULA, Ala., March 24, 1876. 
 John S. Eeese & Co., 
 
 General Agents Pacific Guano Company. 
 Deae Sies, — Several years ago we took the agency for the sale 
 of Soluble Pacific Guano in this district. At that time the Chin- 
 cha Island Peruvian was the only guano that had any reputation 
 as a fertilizer, and it was hard work to induce the planters to be- 
 lieve that any manufactured article could be made to take the place 
 of the Peruvian in the remotest degree. Our first year's business 
 amounted to thirteen tons sold. The people being unacquainted 
 with it, touched it very lightly. Some bought one sack, some two, 
 and scarcely any bought over five sacks. All eyes were turned 
 toward these experimenters, and the fate of Pacific Guano in this 
 section depended upon the result of them. You may be sure, how- 
 ever, that it behaved itself handsomely, when we tell you that a 
 beginning of a sale of thirteen tons resulted in a sale of over 500 
 tons a year, in about five years' time. It is not only adapted for 
 cotton culture, but it is equally potent as a fertilizer for corn, sugar- 
 cane, tobacco, wheat, oats, and in fact any other crop that is made 
 
56 COKRESPONDENCE. 
 
 in this region. With us it is the standard of all manufactured 
 guanos. The price and manner of selling all other guanos is pretty 
 well regulated by the Pacific Guano Company. 
 
 Very respectfully your obedient servants, 
 Weedon & Dent, 
 
 Agents Pacific Guano Co. 
 
 Wilmington, N. C, March 15, 1876. 
 Messks. John S. Reese & Company, 
 
 General Agents Pacific Guano Company. 
 Gentlemen, — We have been agents for the sale of Soluble 
 Pacific Guano for ten (10) years. The guano has given general 
 satisfaction. It has been used extensively in this State and South 
 Carolina, on wheat, corn, cotton, and tobacco, with good results, and 
 has now become so well and favorably known that no further rec- 
 ommendation is needed from us. 
 
 Yours truly, W. H. MoRaet & Co. 
 
 Philadelphia, March 23, 1876. 
 John S. Reese & Co., 
 
 General Agents Pacific Guano Co., Baltimore, Md. 
 
 Deak Sirs, — The Soluble Pacific Guano was introduced into 
 this market about the year 1867, by our predecessors Messrs. John 
 S. Reese & Co. and Shillitoe & Forke, and has been sold very 
 largely each year since that time. We know of this by some sharp 
 experiences in the way of competition, during its introduction. We 
 have been in the trade here for about twenty years, and were active 
 competitors for the trade about the time of the introduction of the 
 Pacific Guano. Our experience was that customer after customer 
 of ours commenced dealing in Pacific Guano, its sale curtailing that 
 of other articles. We thought it would be short-lived, but when the 
 farmers had tried it they wanted it again, so that it has established 
 itself as one of the standard and reliable articles of this section. 
 
 Our experience as Agents for the Pacific Guano Company is of 
 very recent date, but as we come in contact with the dealers we 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 57 
 
 find they express great confidence in the guano and expect to make 
 large sales this year. We are yours very truly, 
 
 Sharpless & Carpenter, 
 Whoksale Agents for Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. 
 
 NoKPOLK, Va., March 21, 1876. 
 Messes. John S. Reese & Co., 
 
 General Agents Pacific Guano Company, Baltimore. 
 
 Gentlemen, — We have been agents for the Pacific Guano 
 
 Company in the sale of their Soluble Pacific Guano at this place 
 
 for the past four years, and have sold it largely to our customers to 
 
 be used under cotton, in North Carolina and Virginia, and with 
 
 general satisfaction to aU. Tours truly, 
 
 Htmans & Danct. 
 
 Macon, Ga., March 3, 1876. 
 
 Jno. S. Reese, Esq., Gen'l Ag't Pacific Guano Co. 
 
 Dear Sir, — I take pleasure in saying that after an experience 
 in selling the Soluble Pacific Guano for ten years, it has proved an 
 excellent fertilizer, and given general satisfaction. By the use of 
 fertilizers since the war, the crop of cotton has been increased thirty- 
 three and a third per cent. 
 
 Tour obedient servant, Asher Atres. 
 
 Charleston, S. C, March 24, 1876. 
 
 John S. Reese & Co., 
 
 General Agents Pacific Guano Co., Baltimore. 
 
 Dear Sirs, — The Pacific Guano Company have for ten years 
 been manufacturing near this city their Soluble Pacific Guano as a 
 fertilizer for cotton and corn. In all this time it has held a high 
 place among the many fertilizers manufactured for the same purpose, 
 and is much esteemed by the farmers who use it. 
 
 It is thought that the use of the Soluble Pacific Guano increases 
 the yield of the cotton crop, to which it is chiefly applied, twenty-five 
 to one hundred per cent., varying with seasons more or less favorable 
 and with the skill of the agriculturist. 
 
68 CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 The cultivation of cotton in the northern and colder portions of 
 this State has been largely extended by the introduction of phos- 
 phatic ammoniated fertilizers ; they stimulate the growth of the plant, 
 and promote an early maturity of its fruit, 39 that cotton is now cul- 
 tivated largely where in former years, owing to the shortness of the 
 seasons, it was not thought of as a crop ; and in all parts of the 
 State the use of such fertilizers is esteemed almost indispensable to 
 success ; among them all we do not think any stand higher than the 
 Soluble Pacific Guano. 
 
 We are, dear sir, very respectfully yoiirs, 
 
 E. H. Frost & Co., 
 
 Agents for South Garolina, 
 
 Charleston, S. C, 1873. 
 
 Gents, — As requested, I write to you in relation to Soluble 
 
 Pacific Guano, for which I am agent for this State. This is my 
 
 seventh year, and the demand has steadily increased. The Guano 
 
 has given entire satisfaction, and in every instance has paid the 
 
 planter for his investment. I yearly have it analyzed by our most 
 
 competent chemists, and its uniform high standing has always been 
 
 maintained. My sales are mostly for cotton, but it has also been 
 
 used upon corn and other grain with great effect. 
 
 Tours, truly, 
 
 Joseph Eobson. 
 
 Columbus, Ga., March 29, 1876- 
 Messes. John S. Reese & Co., 
 
 General Agents Pacific Guano Co., Baltimore, Md. 
 Gentlemen, — I have acted as agent for the sale of Soluble 
 Pacific Guano at this place since 1866, a period of ten years. My 
 sales in that year were about two hundred tons. Peruvian Guano 
 was at that time the only fertilizer of any standing known in this 
 part of Georgia, and most of the Soluble Pacific sold the first year 
 was used in comparison with that article. Its results were so en- 
 tirely satisfactory, that it thereafter became the standard fertilizer 
 \v this section of the country. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 59 
 
 My sales have exceeded twelve thousand tons, and under more 
 favorable conditions as to ability to purchase they would have 
 largely exceeded that quantity. 
 
 Through all the varying seasons of ten years, embracing climatic 
 changes in all their extremes, from excessive drought to excessive 
 rains, this fertilizer has maintained a character for uniformity of 
 quality and reliable excellence which renders it a staple in our 
 market. 
 
 An application of two hundred pounds per acre, on exhausted 
 lands under average conditions of season, produces a crop of cotton 
 equal to that grown on soils which are so fertile as not to require 
 the aid of fertilizers, thus enabling our planters to keep under cul- 
 tivation lands that would otherwise have to be abandoned. 
 
 Hence Soluble Pacific Guano is found to be an essential adjunct 
 
 to the successful cultivation of cotton in the upland districts of this 
 
 part of the country. 
 
 Very respectfully, etc. 
 
 Wm. H. YotTNG. 
 
APPE»"DIX. 
 
 Key West, February 25, 1858. 
 Peofessob F. S. Holmes. 
 
 Mt deak Sir, — I have not forgotten my promise to write you 
 my impressions respecting your important discoveries of fossil mam- 
 malia in the post-pliocene beds of South Carolina. Indeed, I have 
 been thinking of them continually since I saw them, and nothing 
 impressed me so deeply for many years past as the sight of these 
 bones. I consider their careful study in all their relations as of the 
 utmost importance for the progress of our science. It is true, there 
 is hardly anything of interest in the animals themselves, since they 
 appear to be all well-known types ; but their simultaneous occur- 
 rence in the same beds, showing that they have lived together at a 
 time when the white man had not yet planted himself upon this con- 
 tinent, render their association as undisputed. How does it happen, 
 that horses, sheep, bulls, and. hogs, not distinguishable from our 
 domestic species, existed upon this continent, together with the deer, 
 the musk-rat, the beaver, the hare, the opossum, the tapir, which in 
 our days are peculiar to this continent, and not found in the coun- 
 tries where our domesticated animals originated ? The whole matter 
 might seem to admit of an easy solution by supposing that the na- 
 tive American horse, sheep, bull, and hog were different species from 
 those of the old world, even though the parts preserved show no 
 specific differences ; but this would be a mere theoretical solution 
 of a difficulty which seems to me to have far deeper meaning, and 
 to bear directly upon the question of the first origin of organized 
 beings. 
 
 The circumstances under which these remains are found admit 
 of no doubt but the animals from which they are derived existed in 
 North America long before this continent was settled by the white 
 
APPENDIX. 61 
 
 race of men, together with animals which to this day are common in 
 the same localities, — such as the deer, the musk-rat, the opossum, — 
 and others, only now found in South America, such as the tapir. 
 This shows, beyond the possibility of a controversy, that animals 
 which cannot be distinguished from one another may originate inde- 
 pendently in different fauna ; and I take it that the facts you have 
 brought together are a satisfactory proof that horses, sheep, bulls, 
 and hogs, not distinguishable at present from the domesticated spe- 
 cies, were called into existence upon the Continent of North America 
 prior to the coming of the white race to these parts, and that they 
 had already disappeared here when the new-comers set foot upon 
 this continent ; but the presence of tapir teeth among the rest 
 showed also that a genus peculiar to South America and the Sunda 
 Islands existed also in North America in those days, and that its 
 representative of that period is not distinguishable from the South 
 American species. 
 
 It would be desirable in this stage of the inquiry to compare your 
 tapir teeth with those of the species from Central America, which is 
 considered distinct from the Brazilian species. This circumstance 
 leads naturally to the question of the specific identity of all these 
 animals with those now living in the same locality, and with the 
 domesticated species'. And here I confess the difficulty to be almost 
 insuperable, or at least hardly approachable in the present state of 
 our science, when the views of naturalists are so divided as to what 
 are species among the genera Jos, ovis, capra. For myself, I enter- 
 tain doubt respecting the unity of origin of the domesticated horses. 
 But whatever be the final result of this inquiry, this much is already 
 established by the fossils you have collected, that horses, hogs, bulls, 
 and sheep were among the native animals of North America as early 
 as the common American deer, the opossum, the beaver, the musk- 
 rat, etc. What remains to be settled respecting their specific identity 
 is involved in the controversy now carried on between naturalists, 
 who admit specific distinctions upon a very wide range of differences, 
 and those who limit them within narrow boundaries. But the final 
 solution of this point can in no way lessen the interest of your dis- 
 coveries. 
 
62 APPENDIX. 
 
 Should you publish anything upon this subject, let me have your 
 notice, for I am deeply interested in the subject, as I always shall 
 be, in everything you do. 
 
 Ever truly your friend, 
 
 (Signed) L. Agassiz. 
 
 HORTICULTUKE. 
 
 The peculiar adaptation of Soluhle Pacific Guano for the culture 
 of flowers renders it an object of especial interest to horticultjir- 
 ists. 
 
 The fact that Peruvian Guano could not be safely applied for this 
 purpose has doubtless prejudiced the growers of plants against this 
 guano, from an apprehension of like injurious effects ; but this is a 
 mistaken apprehension, and is the result of a want of a proper un- 
 derstanding of the different forms in which the elements of fertility 
 exist in the' two articles, as w.ell as the difference in their relative 
 proportions. Peruvian Guano contained an excess of ammonia, a 
 large part of which existed in the form of the caustic alkaline salt of 
 carbonate of ammonia. This, wlien brought into contact with the 
 delicate roots of young plants produced injurious results ; hence the 
 extreme caution necessary in its application and the danger resulting 
 from its uses. The same objections do not hold against the use of 
 this guano, because its ammonia is not in excess, and further, because 
 it does not exist in the condition of ready formed salts, either as 
 carbonate, sulphate, or muriate of ammonia, but it exists as potential 
 ammonia, that is, in its elements, and is gradually generated as the 
 decomposition of the guano takes place after its application is made, 
 hence there can be no caustic or other injurious effect on the tender 
 fibres of the plant, but on the contrary the most beneficial results 
 are had. 
 
 If applied as directed, it will be found a most valuable adjunct in 
 promoting the speedy growth and prolific flowering of horticultural 
 plants. 
 
APPENDIX. 63 
 
 DIRECTIONS 
 Ir[ the cultivation of soft and hard wooded plants taken from the 
 propagating bed. They should not receive any fertilizing stimu- 
 lants until their roots are thoroughly established in the pots. This 
 rule holds good for after " shiftings " or repottings. When the roots 
 are in working order commence watering with the Pacific Guano, 
 in the following proportions. 
 
 First week. 4 oz. to the gallon, applied once. Second week, twice. 
 Third week, three times. 
 
 Fourth week. 6 oz. to the gallon, applied twice. Fifth week, 
 three times. 
 
 Sixth week. 10 oz. to the gallon, applied every other day. Sev- 
 enth week, applied once each day. 
 
 Ninth or tenth week. 16 oz. to the gallon, use freely each day. 
 
 As the plants advance in vigor, which will be apparent in a very 
 short time, increase the quantity of Pacific Guano, using it in the 
 form of a thick paste, and apply ad libitum. 
 
 In fine clear weather syringe freely with solution of the guano. 
 
 For the cultivation of roses this fertilizer has no equal. To pro- 
 duce strong healthy wood and fine flowers it should be applied early 
 in the spring and also early in the fall as a top-dressing, and should 
 be lightly forked into the soil. 
 
 We give these directions from an experience of thirty years' use 
 of all kinds of Guanos, Manures, Phosphates, etc., and we confidently 
 recommend the Pacific Guano as the surest, safest, and most reliable 
 article ever introduced to horticulturists. 
 
AGENTS OF THE PACIFIC GUANO COMPANY. 
 
 The following are the Agents of the Company at the central markets and in 
 the Sonth, through whom Local Agents are supplied thronghont the Sonthern 
 
 Boston. 
 Baltimokb. 
 Chablbston, S. C. 
 Richmond, Va. 
 
 NOEFOLK, Va. 
 
 Wilmington, N. C. 
 Chablottb, N. C. 
 Savannah, Ga. 
 
 AUGTTSTA, Ga. 
 Atlanta, Ga. 
 Columbus, Ga. 
 Macon, Ga. 
 Geeenyillb, Ala. 
 Macon, Ga. 
 Geiffin, Ga. 
 EuFAULA, Ala. 
 3, Philadelphia Pa. 
 
 GLIDDBN & WILLIAMS, 
 JOHN S. REESE & CO., Geni Ag'ts, 
 E. H. FROST & CO., Agents, 
 
 ALLISON & ADDISON, « 
 HYMANS & DANCY. » 
 
 W. H. McsRARY, " 
 
 BURROUGHS & SPRINGS, « 
 WOODS & CO., " 
 
 J?0. MATHEWSON & CO., " 
 ADAIR & BROS., " 
 
 W. H. YOUNG, " 
 
 TURPIN & OGDEN, " 
 
 JOHN K. HENRY, » 
 
 ASHBR AYRES, " 
 
 WILLIAM T. COLE, " 
 
 WEBDON & DENT, «' 
 
 SHARPLBSS & CARPENTER, Ag't 
 
^^TEN^^^ 
 
 V