ir voracious appetites upon this
finny multitude, until they can gorge no more, when they retire to the
islands to deposit their excrement, composed of the oily flesh and bones
of their only food, until the mass which has been accumulating for
thousands of years, is so great as almost to exceed human belief.

Humbolt, in his history of South America, states, some of these deposits
are 50 or 60 feet thick. Many have thought this the "romance of
history," but the actual surveys made by the Peruvian government five or
six years ago, have proved that the guano in many places is more than
twice that depth; and as there is good reason to believe, and as may be
seen by the diagram on page 79, it is probably 300 feet thick in some of
the depressions of the natural surface. And this has been accumulated by
an annual aggregation, so slow as to be scarcely visible from year to
year, until the quantity now exceeds 20,000,000 of tons.

As before stated, the Chincha islands are three in number; the Lobos
islands two; these are situated off the north part of the coast of
Peru.

If the right of Peru to the guano is to be disputed, let it be done by
national vessels and not by armed privateers. If farmers are convinced
that we have made true statements of the value of guano in renovating
the poor and worn out fields of America, let them purchase at once. The
only question to ask is not whether we can go to the Lobos Islands to
get guano--nor whether it would be better to buy it of government
agents, or speculators on private account, but

DOES GUANO PAY?

Because, if it does pay, that is, if the farmer can buy guano at present
prices, and realise an increase of crops more than enough to pay the
expense, it does pay. We think we have shown this fact by
incontrovertible evidence. If the first crop pays for the guano and no
more, the farmer has a certain profit in the improved condition of the
land. If the first crop does not pay, the land will be enough better to
pay cost. Upon this point, Mr. Mechi, of England, whose name has become
world wide known as an improver of the soil, says; "Whether guano will
pay, depends upon the condition of the soil. On poor exhausted soil it
is a ready and cheap mode of restoring fertility. I used it extensively
when I first began farming, and when applied to the grain crops at the
rate of two to three cwt. per acre, it paid well; but now it has lost
favor with my bailiff, which is easily accounted f