# Find an island of bird crap, and it's yours. (apparently) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 30, 2003, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-an-island-of-bird-crap-and-its-yours-apparently/185281 "2003-06-30T03:09:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-an-island-of-bird-crap-and-its-yours-apparently/185281/1 "2003-06-30T03:09:35Z")
From [The United States Code](http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/48/1411.html). Apparently, if you find an island of bird crap, you have full fledged rights to export said crap (as fertilizer, I guess). This must be on the books for some reason. Has anyone ever _really_ had to have something like this spelled out in the frickin’ United States Code rather than a local (or closest continental) Court? Tripler I know the government has better things to do than shovel bird shit. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-an-island-of-bird-crap-and-its-yours-apparently/185281/2 "2003-06-30T03:21:12Z")
Read the section on [guano](http://www-geology.ucdavis.edu/~gel115/115CH16fertilizer.html). A long time ago there was some serious contention for guano supplies, as it was the major source of fertilizer. In fact, it was so important that > [@](#): > > The US Senate debated guano in 1850, and President Fillmore referred to the urgent question of the nation’s guano supply in his State of the Union Address in December that year. Ain’t that some shit? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-an-island-of-bird-crap-and-its-yours-apparently/185281/3 "2003-06-30T04:41:11Z")
According to [this site](http://www.american.edu/TED/projects/tedcross/xconf16.htm#r7) guano was an “international commodity for almost 200 years”. The coastal Peruvians had been trading guano since before Inca rule. It would seem that the US didn’t want to be held hostage by South American bird shit cartels and wanted to develop a domestic guano industry. Of course, guano lost its edge in thanks to our modern, better living through chemistry, world. BTW, zoos often sell sell a wide assorment of animal excrement for people to mix into their gardens. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-an-island-of-bird-crap-and-its-yours-apparently/185281/4 "2003-06-30T12:23:57Z")
Sweet Jeesus, then the windshield of my truck is a veritable gold mine! **Airman Doors** , I read that link. The worst part was that: > [@](#): > > a flat area could be carved out on one of the islands, and on a very unsavory foundation of solid guano were erected the headquarters for the Peruvian Governor, the British consul, the offices of the exporting companies, and the barracks for the laborers and the guards that acted as their overseers. Jeez, not only are they shoveling shit, they’re living on it. :rolleyes: Tripler I had no idea shit was this hot! ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-an-island-of-bird-crap-and-its-yours-apparently/185281/5 "2003-06-30T17:03:05Z")
Guano, or the lack of it, is one reason that Germany had to invest heavily in its nascent chemical industry in the years before WW1. They had planned for a war and thought it likely that their access to ammonium nitrate, a precurser to certain explosives, would be either drastically reduced or stopped altogether by Britain.