REPORT OF DR. G. A. LIEBIG.
Baltimore, Sept. 10th, 1864.
To the Corporation of the
Navassa Phosphate Company of New York:
Walter E. Lawton, Esq., Treasurer.
Sirs:
Amongst the different fertilizers imported from distant localities for the wants of Agriculture, the divers varieties of Guano, by their powerful influence upon the crops, and the easy manner of application, have justly been kept in high estimation by the farmers, and found an extensive market.
Under this name, other substances not less beneficial to the culture of plants and cereals, have been introduced as Phosphatic Guanos—the earthy debris of birds' deposits—and for a number of years the islands in the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, along the coast of South America, have been the main source of supply of this article, so important for the agricultural development of our country. By furnishing to the manufacture of concentrated manures a chief material, containing a large proportion of phosphoric acid, an agent mostly derived from animal substances, and consequently of expensive origin, they were the means of restoring and exalting the fertility of exhausted and worn out lands; have increased our agricultural products, and thus largely contributed to our general welfare.
It has been ascertained that the importation into this country of this material during the last ten years, since its first introduction—amounted to upwards of a hundred thousand (100,000) tons; but however large this sum appears to be, it will fall into insignificance, when compared with the resources of the island of Navassa, of a valuable phosphate to the agricultural community at large and the manufacture of fertilizers in particular.
The exploration of this island could not have been made at a more propitious time, and opens a new era in the production of
