"It is beyond dispute that guano contains the chief ingredients required for the growth of plants. The instances hereafter adduced will show that the combination and form of these ingredients are such as to promote not only its immediate action, but clearly to accelerate considerably the progress of vegetation."

The chief ingredients, then, of guano, are,

Ammonia, in various forms and combinations; Phosphate and oxalate of lime and magnesia; Salts of potash and soda; Animal organic matter; Sand and moisture.

Besides the evidence we have given of the value of an application of such a compound, it contains evidence within itself to every mind embued with any knowledge of agricultural chemistry, that it will not only promote immediate growth of vegetation, but produce a lasting benefit to the soil. It contains all the materials necessary for the growth of cereal or esculent vegetation in the exact form required—that is an impalpable powder—to promote rapid, certain, large growth, and abundant fruitfulness, and consequent profit.

EXPERIMENTS BY MR. TESCHEMACHER.

To Indian corn, applied one teaspoonful to the hill, well mixed with earth, at time of planting. When twelve or fifteen inches high, hoed in three tea spoons full around the corn, and covered two inches deep and watered. Soil—a poor, sandy, sterile one. Product—one seed produced three main stalks with eight perfect ears and five suckers, weighing 8-1/4 lbs. The best plant without guano, weighed 1-1/4 lbs. and only had one ear.—"I find the best mode of applying guano is to hollow out the hill, put in one teaspoonful and a half of guano, and mix it well with the soil. Spread even, then put on this about one or one and a half inch depth of light soil, on which sow the seed and cover up. When the corn is about twelve inches high, or the time of first hoeing, begin with the hoe about four inches from the stems, and make a trench the width of the hoe about two or three inches deep. Spread in this trench about three or four teaspoonfuls guano, stir it in, and cover the trench as quickly as possible. If this last operation can be performed just before or during rain, the action will be quicker and more effectual."

Four or five teaspoonfuls of dry powder producing such an effect, is what staggers the belief of those who see with their own eyes.

So great is the luxuriance of growth from such an insignificant application, it is necessary to increase the space nearly double between the hills. In a country where fodder is so valuable as it is in Massachusetts, the great increase of stalks is of equal importance with the increase of grain. Indian corn requires both phosphate of lime and magnesia which it finds in guano, in combination with ammonia, in a state just ready to be absorbed by the growing plant, wherever brought in contact, with its roots.

Mr. T. found the guanoed corn planted May 22d, ripened sooner than that planted May 1st. with manure. This alone on account of the difficulty from frost, is sufficient to give it great claim upon northern farmers.

Effect on Grass.—"The application of this manure to grass land already laid down is for many reasons often attended with uncertain results. The best mode is, to spread broadcast about 250 lbs. per acre of the Peruvian guano as soon as the snow is off the ground. It would be very advantageous if, after it was spread on, some light loam could be put over it, in the manner of a top dressing. I state the Peruvian guano is the best for this operation, as it contains what Dr. Ure calls potential ammonia, or ammonia in a more permanent form; whereas the ammonia from the Ichaboe guano evaporates more easily, and this valuable ingredient is therefore lost in the atmosphere when it is spread on the surface.

"Most excellent crops have been obtained, where the grass is sown and laid down in the autumn, on light, sandy soils, by sowing the guano evenly broadcast, then harrowing twice, sowing the grass seed, and rolling."

The best mode of applying it, however, is to sow broadcast and plow it in—at the south, on sandy soils, no matter how deep—at the north on soils more clayey, plow it in about four inches deep—the real object being to so mix it with the soil as to prevent the escape of ammonia, which is exceedingly volatile. Remember, Guano should never be used as a top dressing, except in combination with plaster, or some other substance which will prevent the escape of the most valuable portion of its composition.

In several case, where sods have been laid down for lawns or embankments round houses, the most surprising growth has been obtained by strewing the surface with guano previous to laying on the sod.

E. Baylies, of Taunton, sowed 460 lbs. African guano per acre, with grass seed, which yielded, this year, one ton per acre more than that without; and the appearance of the guanoed grass is now much more thick, luxuriant, and promising, for next year than the other.

"Another friend of mine sowed grass in sandy soil with a full quantity of manure, and an adjoining acre, with 400 lbs. Ichaboe guano. The guanoed acre grew stronger, and retained its full verdure the whole winter; the manured piece, on the contrary, became, as usual, brown by the action of the frost."

Mr. T. as well as nearly all the English writers upon the subject, has noticed the improvement in quality as well as quantity of grain and garden vegetables. It is a well authenticated fact, that birds wont touch the manured wheat, while they can obtain that which is much more plump and rich where guano has been applied.

Effects on Trees and Grape Vines.—"The experiments with guano on trees which have come under my observation, including exotics number about one hundred and fifty. The action has invariably been to produce large foliage, of a deep healthy green."

The best mode of applying guano to fruit-trees, or flowering shrubs, is to dig it into the earth at such distance from the trunk as will be likely to meet the largest number of fibrous roots.

"For instance, round an apple-tree of ten years' standing, dig a trench one or one and a half foot deep, at about the same distance from the stem that the branches extend; let this trench be about one foot wide; then put at the bottom one and a half inch depth of guano, dig it well in, and incorporate it with the soil; then cover up carefully and press the earth down. The effect of this application will unquestionably be felt for several years."

On grape vines, the action of guano has been proved exceedingly beneficial; increasing the growth of vines and fruit, improving the flavor and hastening the ripening, so as to escape early frosts.

In planting young trees, put about a pint in the bottom of the hole covering with soil so the roots will not touch it. No insects or grubs will disturb the roots of such a tree.

"Several friends, who have tried guano this year on their pear-trees, have reported to me the result to be greater crops, and of a much larger size, than they ever had previously."

Guano on Peas—Method of Applying.—The kinds on which I experimented were Prince Albert, Shilling's early grotto, (a dwarf pea,) blue imperial, and marrowfat. Draw a deep trench with a hoe, strew guano in the trench, mix it up with the soil, over this put about one inch and a half of earth, then sow the seed, and cover up. The quantity used should about equal the quantity of seed. The produce of the three first kinds of peas, was five full pecks to the quart of seed, besides a full quart of seed gathered for next year. From the marrowfats I obtained only four pecks and a half, and no seed. The growth of all was extremely luxuriant. The marrowfats were six and a half feet high, the stems from one to one and a quarter inch in circumference. Guano should be placed at such a depth that the natural moisture of the earth will decompose it and render it fit for the plant. In the lightest soils—plow and bury guano a little deeper than in others more heavy; the guano itself retains moisture, and absorbs it naturally.

Guano on Beans, doubled the yield of a paralel row, while the improved flavor was perceptible to those who had no idea of the cause which produced it. In drouth, the power given plants by guano, to resist the scorching rays of the sun, is remarkable.

On Melons, the effect was equally favorable, giving a large increase of highly flavored fruit.

On Potatoes.—We give out of many equally favorable, only one experiment, just to show the ability of farmers to grow this crop in the most unsuitable soil, by a small expenditure for guano, twenty per cent. better than with manure. Here it is. "Soil, very sandy and light; quantity, 800 lbs. African (per ship Samos) to the acre; cost, $20. Same soil, with twenty-two loads fine compost manure, cost $22. Yield, as eleven to nine, or twenty-two per cent. in favor of guano, the potatoes with which were larger than the others."

On Turnips, no manure is equal to guano. The crop has been doubled in numerous instances. Mr. T. says of one experiment he made, "The plants on this portion are now twice as large as those which have not had any. It is perfectly beautiful to see the luxuriance of all these guanoed vegetables compared with the others."

On Strawberries, nothing has ever been applied equal to guano, provided the plants are plentifully watered. The best mode of application is in solution. One pound is enough for ten gallons of water.

On Cauliflowers.—Two experiments, one with guano, the other with a solution. The first are fine strong plants, particularly one to which I gave a larger share than the other; it is heading finely. But those with the solution are much larger and finer. I have been accustomed to observe the cultivation of this vegetable, and never saw such a luxuriant growth. They are now, (Sept. 15th) beginning to show flower; and, if the season is favorable, I expect the heads will be very fine. The plants are at least four times larger than those on the same piece without guano, or any manure at all, planted on the same day, from the same seed bed.

On Rhubarb or Pie Plant, guano has the most decided beneficial effect, increasing the size, flavor and tenderness of the stalk; besides the very great advantage of bringing it forward some two or three weeks earlier in the spring. Fork it in all over the bed, just as early as the frost will permit, at the rate of 600 lbs. to the acre.

On Asparagus, the same treatment will more than double the quantity of this excellent, healthy vegetable. In the fall, give a dressing of salt equal to 15 or 20 bushels to the acre. With the guano, nothing else need be applied, if it is thoroughly mixed with the soil.

For Vegetables, Plants, Trees, and Shrubbery generally, where fruit is an object, apply the guano as above, in powder. Where flowers of rare size and beauty are desired, apply it in solution, or by frequently stirring in small dressings just before a shower. Another important observation on this subject is, that guano, or its solution, should never be applied except at that period of the season when the growth of wood is proper and natural.

In forcing houses, nothing can be equal to guano. One thing, it produces no weeds, or insects; this is enough to insure its favor wherever it may be tried.

On roses, the beneficial effect is already well known. If tea roses are cut down when the bloom is over, repotted in fresh earth, and well watered twice or thrice a week, with guano water, they will immediately throw out luxuriant shoots, and be covered with their fragrant blossoms. The cactus tribe will bear a larger quantity and stronger solution of guano, without injury, than most other plants.

"During the progress of my experiments," says Mr. T., "I have been delighted with the unfailing and extraordinary luxuriance of growth and produce on a miserable spot of land, induced by the use of this manure, and struck with the numerous instances which have come to my knowledge of erroneous applications of it. On a stiff clay, guano would be of little value, except on the surface, or an inch or two deep, unless it were considerably lightened by the addition of sand, or well broken up by exposure, in ridges, to frost, as every clay soil should be. A light, porous, sandy soil would require 300 lbs. Peruvian, or 400 lbs. best Ichaboe; and for this soil I think the Peruvian best adapted, as it retains the ammonia longer, and, being less soluble in water than the Ichaboe, its qualities are not so soon washed out."

In a soil already much enriched with manure, and at the same time abounding in phosphate of lime, I have found the guano to produce less visible effects than on a poor, sandy soil.

Most excellent effects have been produced by steeping seeds in guano water of moderate strength for eight to twelve hours, dependent on the kind of seeds, and then planting with one to three inches soil between the seed and the guano. The steep encourages the growth of the young plant, whose roots, in a more advanced stage, find the guano, which continues the stimulus.

Quantity for a Steep.—Put one, one and a half, or two teaspoonfuls of guano, according to quality, in a quart bottle, shake up, and when settled, use; then refill and use two or three times, previous to putting in fresh guano. Or, in the large way, from fifteen to twenty gallons of water to one pound; mix in a barrel, stir up and leave it to settle, taking care, however, to put a cover on, to prevent the escape of ammonia.

DIRECTIONS AS TO QUANTITY AND MANNER OF APPLYING GUANO TO VARIOUS CROPS AND SOILS.

The best action of guano is undoubtedly upon naturally poor or worn out light sandy soils. Next sandy loam—then loam proper—then clayey loam or exhausted gravelly soil, and lastly cold stiff clay, or land naturally wet. Upon the first particularly at the south, it should always be plowed in from four to six inches deep; and will always afford the greatest profit when applied to wheat land and that sown with clover.

Preparation of guano for use.—Until some ingenious Yankee invents a cheap mill by which he will make a fortune and the lumps be easily ground, the following method may be pursued. Take the bags on the barn floor or in some close room with tight floor and sift the guano over a box, through a 3/8 mesh sieve, putting the fine back in the bags and lumps on the floor. These may be mashed with a stout hoe or shovel, or with a block like a pavier's rammer. Sift and break again until all is fine. Lay the dust with a very slight sprinkle from the nose of a watering pot; of a solution of copperas, at the rate of 10 lbs. to the cwt. of guano, or with plaster or loamy earth—woods mould or dry fine clay. Many persons prefer to mix plaster with the guano in the first instance at the rate of a peck of plaster to a bushel of guano—others use an equal weight of each. Where plaster is not to be had, from five to ten bushels of pulverized charcoal or dust from the coal pit, or pulverized peat, to each hundred weight of guano may be used to fix the ammonia and prevent loss. Sulphuric acid 1 lb. to 10 of water, with which to sprinkle the mass may be used as a fixer. But if it is kept in the bags, in a dry room, until ready for use, and then prepared, sown and plowed in at once with as little exposure to the air as possible, very little of the ammonia will escape. The true axiom to be observed in the use of guano, is to plow it in as soon as possible after it is sown and before it is moistened with dew or rain; and to plow it in deep, or in some way thoroughly incorporate it with the soil, so that rains will not wash it away, or hot sunshine cause it to evaporate. We hold all top-dressings with guano, to be wasteful, on account of its volatile character, and because it needs the moisture in the earth to fit the substance of which it is composed so its fertilizing properties can be taken up by the roots of the plants. If spread upon the surface, it must wait for a dissolving shower to carry it down to the roots; in the meantime, it is moistened by dews and evaporated by the sun, and carried off to enrich your neighbor's crops half as much as your own.

Preparing Land and Sowing.—When ready to plow the land for wheat, measure an acre and lay it off in lands 18 feet wide; put the guano in a pail and walk up one side and down the other with a moderate step throwing handfulls across at each step, and you will find you do not vary much from two hundred pounds to the acre. Never sow in a windy day if it can be avoided, nor faster than it can be plowed in the same day.

To prevent guano from getting into the mouth and nostrils.—Take a thin piece of sponge and wet it and tie over the mouth and nose. Whenever the dust accumulates, wash it out. If you must sow while the wind is blowing, mix earth enough with guano to prevent blowing away.

Depth it should be plowed in.—On light sandy land, there is no danger of its ever being plowed in too deep. On sandy loam, it ought to be plowed under at least six inches—eight inches would be better. On true loam, a less depth will answer, though we are strong advocates of deep plowing. On clayey loam, four inches will answer, and on clay, particularly in the Northern States, if well harrowed or put in with the cultivator, there will be no great loss of ammonia, as the clay is a great absorber of that volatile substance. This rule may in general be observed; upon the light lands of the south, it cannot be too deeply buried; in the clay lands, or in the more heavy, cold, or moist lands of the north, it may be covered too deep to benefit the first crop; but, if the after cultivation is good, whatever is planted will be sure to be benefitted. Upon granite soils, it will be of less value than silicious or aluminous ones. Though most valuable on poor sandy or worn out old fields like those of Virginia, already described, still it must not be rejected by the owner of any land which can be improved by manure, because this is a manure of the very best and most concentrated kind; containing more of the ingredients necessary to promote vegetable growth, in the exact proportion and combination, ready prepared for use, than any other substance in the known world. It is a fertilizing substance which none will reject who once learn its value, unless very deeply prejudiced. It is idle to reject it because the Peruvian Government wont let us have it at our own price, because we can profit by it at theirs. It is nonsense to say, it will answer in the moist climate of England, but not in our dry one. Truth deduced from experience, in several States, in various climates and soils, refutes all such sayings. Besides, it has been used with continued success in the burning sun and soils of Peru, ever since the conquest by the Spaniards, and, according to tradition for ages untold previous to that time.

Guano on Wheat.—We repeat, sow broadcast and plow in upon all light lands, deep; at the rate of 200 to 600 lbs. to the acre, as you can afford, or as the land requires—we believe in the small quantity and repeat the next sowing, to be by far the most judicious. On heavy lands you may harrow or cultivate it in, but the plow is better. It will do well on lands previously limed, but should never be mixed with lime or ashes, unless mixed with plaster or charcoal. If you must use it as a top dressing in the spring, mix a bushel of plaster with every hundred of guano, sow and harrow in—don't be afraid of injuring the wheat Always sow clover or grass on guanoed grain.

On Indian Corn.—Follow the same directions as for wheat, or if the land is already rich, and you wish to give the corn an early start, scatter at the rate of 100 to 200 lbs. guano in the furrow, and cover it two inches deep with another furrow and then drill the corn. Be sure and never let the seed come in contact with the guano, or you will kill it most certainly. Guanoed corn should be sowed in wheat, particularly whenever it has been dressed with a large quantity.

To growing Corn, if it is desirable to apply it, turn a furrow away from the row on each side and scatter in the bottom at the rate of 300 lbs. per acre, and turn back the earth immediately.

Green Corn—roasting ears—are improved in taste by guano beyond anything ever conceived of by the lovers of this luscious food.

Quantity per acre.—Thomas S. Pleasants of Petersburg, Va., a well-known writer upon agriculture, and who has had much practical experience ever since the first introduction of guano into this country, says:—"Corn is a gross feeder and will take up a greater quantity of guano than perhaps any other crop. I have known as much as 600 lbs. applied to the acre and the product was in proportion. Each hundred pounds will give an average product of ten bushels as various experiments have proved From the above mentioned application of 600 lbs. a product of 73 bushels was obtained, which left 13 bushels as the product of the soil alone. For corn, guano may be spread broadcast on the land and ploughed in as deeply as it is desirable to break the soil; or it may be strewed along deep furrows to be afterwards ridged over and the cultivation to be in only one direction. The best result I ever obtained was from this latter mode, when from land not capable of producing five bushels, I harvested a crop that could not have been less than 35 bushels to the acre.

"The furrows were opened deep and wide by passing the plow both ways and the guano strewed along these at the rate 1 lb. per every ten yards. They were then covered over and the land thereby thrown into beds. But in whatever way it is used, the roots of the corn will be sure to find it all, and between these two modes, I think there is little or no choice. I would certainly advise against putting it in the hill, though I have sometimes seen good results. It is difficult, however, in such a case, to prevent the guano and seed from coming into close contact; and, unless there are two or three inches of earth interposed between them the seed will be certainly destroyed."

For wheat, the guano should be spread broadcast at the time of seeding the wheat, at the rate of 200 lbs. to 250 lbs. per acre and ploughed in. If the land has been previously fallowed, it will be sufficient to plow it in with a one horse plow; if broken up for the first time, there will be no objection to using a larger plough. The best depth for getting it in, however, is, I think, from four to six inches. It always acts more powerfully on clean land; indeed if there is much crude vegetable matter in the soil, there is frequently little or no advantage derived from its application. Experience, therefore goes to show that the most economical application is to corn land; that is, to land that has just produced a crop of corn, no matter how poor it may be. If it is intended to be put on land that has been lying in grass, it would be advisable to fallow it as early in the season as practicable, and afterwards to get it in with a small plow as already suggested.

The same direction will apply to oats and also to rye. But for oats, 125 to 150 lbs of guano will be as much as can be used to advantage.

A. B. Allen of New York, one of the earliest, and most strenuous advocates of using guano, who, long before he ever thought of being engaged in its sale, used to distribute small parcels among farmers and gardeners to enable them to try experiments and learn its value, in a letter to the Southern Cultivator, says:—"Never put guano in the hill with corn, no matter if covered two or three inches deep; for the roots will be certain to find it, and so sure as they touch the guano, so caustic is it, that it will certainly kill the corn; the same with peas, beans, melon vines, in fact most vegetable crops. Wheat and other small grains have so many roots, and tiller so well, there is no danger of guano killing them, when sown directly with the seed. Still, as before remarked, it is better to plough it in before sowing the seed.

"After corn is up, you may apply a table spoonful, at the first time hoeing; dig it an inch or two deep six inches from each stalk. A table spoonful to the hill will take 250 to 350 lbs., per acre, according to the distance the hills are apart. If the soil be rather poor, a second dose at the time the corn first shows its silk, will add considerably to the yield in grain, if followed by rains, but little or nothing to the growth of stalk. Guano increases the size of grain more than stalks; hence one must be content to wait till the grain is fully matured before giving an opinion of the virtues of guano.

"Before applying the guano, it is better to mix it well with an equal quantity of plaster of Paris or charcoal dust. Either of these substances help to retain the ammonia and prevent its evaporation.

"The genuine unadulterated Peruvian guano, is so much superior to any other kind, it is in reality the cheapest, though the price is considerable higher than that of the other qualities."

Guano on Oats.—Mr. Allen says, "I am satisfied from experience and observation in the use of guano, for the past twelve years, that the best method, decidedly, of applying it to crops in our dry climate, is to plow or spade it into the ground; and autumn is the best time for doing this, as it gives time for the pungent salts contained in the guano, to get thoroughly mixed with the soil before spring planting. Do not fear to loose the guano by plowing it in as deep as you please—it will not run away, depend upon it. At the south, it loses half its virtue if not plowed in at least three inches deep; six or twelve inches would be still better."

Because "autumn is, for many reasons, the best season" for applying guano, as a general thing, we do not recommend an application to this crop, notwithstanding our full conviction it will increase the product upon any light, poor soil, from ten to twenty bushels to the acre, for each cwt. applied. As some however, will find it more convenient and profitable to manure the oat than wheat crop, we recommend them to plow in from 200 to 300 lbs. to the acre, on ground that was clean tilled the previous year, and sow the oats in drills, three or four bushels to the acre and seed with clover, herds, or ray grass. If not to be followed with grass, we would use a much less quantity; say 125 or 150 lbs. to the acre. As may be seen in the account of Mr. Harris' crop, not one half of the 400 lbs. was taken up by the oats. With wheat, on the contrary, the guano is dissolved more slowly by winter rains, giving the crop a vigorous growth in fall, and sometimes all winter, so it sends out double the number of stalks in spring. The sun too, is so much less powerful at that season, evaporation does not take place so easily as in summer.

Great Crops from Guano.—In England, 48 bushels of wheat and 100 of oats have been made from an acre dressed with 200 lbs. of guano. A late English writer, in detailing his own experiments, and urging others to the same course, says; "The reason guano is serviceable to all plants arises from its containing every saline and organic matter required as food. It is used beneficially on all soils; for, as it contains every element necessary to plants, it is independent of the quality of the soil. So far as the experiments in England and Scotland may be adduced, one cwt. of guano is equal to about five tons of farm-yard manure, on an average; but it is much higher for turnips than for grass."

Guano on Grass.—As we are opposed to using it as a top dressing, of course we shall not recommend its application to this crop. Generally, by using it on wheat and other crops, the farmer will save manure enough to top dress his meadows. Nevertheless, in combination with proper ingredients, we do say it is a good and profitable manure for grass. For each acre mix from 200 to 400 lbs. with as many bushels of plaster, or ten to one of charcoal, or twenty to one of dry swamp muck or peat, woods mould or fine clay, and sow upon the meadow or pasture early in spring. If the season is moist, the benefit will be very great; if dry, it will probably be said, as it has been before; "Oh, this guano is good for nothing—I tried it once on grass and it never done a bit of good."

On potatoes, 400 lbs. to the acre, broadcast, may be used to good advantage, if it is plowed in deep enough, on clean land. As it is a caustic manure, and requires a good deal of moisture, as well as potatoes, it is not suitable for the hill or surface dressing. A less quantity will pay a greater profit to the immediate crop, without much after benefit, if it is drilled in the bottom of a deep furrow and then covered by turning two furrows, one from each side, so as to leave a slight depression between them, and directly over the guano. Upon these beds plant the tubers in drills. After hoeing, scatter a mixture of equal parts of lime, salt, ashes and plaster, a large handful every yard, all over the rows, and we will warrant the crop free from the potato rot.

On turnips, nothing can exceed guano, unless the phosphate of lime in bones could be rendered equally pulverulent. Use 3 to 600 lbs. per acre, and plow it in at the last plowing, and top dress with five bushels of ashes and two of salt as soon as the turnips are up. Follow with wheat or rye and grass. One half the above quantity and five bushels of bone dust dissolved in sulphuric acid, will produce a wonderful crop of turnips, or ruta bagas. Guano may be used to equal advantage upon all kinds of root crops.

Benefits to the Dairy Farmer.—The beneficial use of guano in the manufacture of butter and cheese, is unquestionable. In many districts in England, and in some in this country, the continual cropping of grass and conversion of it into cheese, has so exhausted the soil of its phosphates, the milk will no longer produce the quantity of casein necessary to make cheese making profitable. When this is the case, you will find the cows seeking to supply the deficiency by eating bones. Wherever guano has been used upon pasture land, it is found that cows eat the increased luxuriant grass most greedily, and improve not only in quantity but quality of their milk. We cannot, therefore, recommend too earnestly, to all dairy farmers, to give their pasture lands an immediate dressing of guano. If you have not full faith in what we are telling you, try an experiment for yourself. Mix 200 or 300 lbs. of guano with two or three bushels of plaster, and that with two or three loads of charcoal dust from the bottom of some coal pit, or from burnt peat, or swamp muck; or, if the charcoal is not attainable, use woods mold, or powdered clay or fine loam, to any extent you can afford; and if you can afford nothing but the guano and plaster, don't fail to afford a dressing of that, because it will afford you a rich return. No other manure can be used upon pasture land, to produce the same effect. Cattle never reject the grass of guanoed land, as they do that lately manured.

On Flax.—Experiments in England have proved guano superior to any other substance ever applied to this crop. With the aid of this manure, farmers will never complain of flax exhausting the soil. With 300 lbs. per acre, successive large crops can be grown upon the same ground. It should be plowed in, but not so deeply as for some other crops, as it is not expected to benefit succeeding ones as much as the present. As soon as the "flax cotton" movement now progressing is fully understood, there will be immense fields of flax grown for that purpose, and the best and most economical fertilizing material, and for which there will be a large demand, will be Peruvian guano; for no good farmer will attempt to grow a crop without it. A top dressing of 25 or 30 bushels of ashes to the acre will be found beneficial; but farmers ought to try which is best, more guano and less or no ashes, or the reverse. We cannot advise rotation with this crop, where guano is used, because the ground becomes so clean and free from weeds, it is of great advantage, and so far as we are informed, continuous good crops result from the annual application of the same quantity of guano, year after year.

On Cabbages.—Field culture. After the ground is well prepared, lay it off in checks three to four feet square. With a spade, throw out a deep spit at each check and put in a spoonful of guano, or at the rate of 400 lbs. per acre, and cover with soil. Set the plants immediately and water if possible. After the first hoeing, throw a handful of ashes on each plant.

For Carrots, Beets and Parsnips, plow in 500 lbs. per acre, twelve to eighteen inches deep. Top dress with ashes, salt, and fine manure in compost, to assist the young plants; the long roots will find the guano and it will produce such a crop as you never saw before.

On Hops.—Make a mixture of three cwt. of guano, one of salt, one and a half of saltpetre, and one of gypsum, for each acre; sow broadcast and plow in about four inches deep, and you will find your manure well paid for, and no exhaustion of the soil, as is usually the case wherever this crop is cultivated, as it is a very gross feeder, and requires very rich land or great deal of manure; for which reason it is not as much cultivated as it will be as soon as the virtues of the above application become fully known.

For Tobacco, guano has been found to possess superior qualities, particularly in obviating the difficulty heretofore experienced in getting plants sufficiently early. We have the testimony of several witnesses to prove that burning a seed bed is quite unnecessary, if guano at the rate of 400 to 600 lbs. to the acre be mixed with an equal amount of ashes, and plaster and well raked in previous to sowing. Of the effect upon the crop, we give the testimony of a Virginia planter.

"In the spring of 1850, I applied 200 lbs. to the acre, on eight acres of land, which had been manured three years before for tobacco, and the same quantity, on three acres which had never been manured, and was very poor. On the last I also turned in some half rotted straw, raked up in the barn yard, after all the farm yard manure had been hauled out. Between these two pieces of land, 19 acres were heavily manured. The whole 30 acres had been well broken with four horses, early in the winter. The last year was the worst I have ever known for tobacco. Nevertheless, the first eight acres produced a very fine crop—the last three acres brought much better tobacco than the adjoining manured land, I should say not less than 600 lbs. to the acre."

Wheat on Guanoed Tobacco Land.—This field was sown with wheat, and the writer says—"I measured from these 30 acres next year upwards of 600 bushels of wheat of very fine quality; both pieces of guanoed land being above the average of the whole lot. Adjoining the three acres is an equal quantity of land of the same quality, which did not yield five bushels to the acre."

Of the effect upon another crop of wheat, the same gentleman says—"Two years ago I purchased three tons, two of which I applied to 20 acres of a James River hill, which though not gullied, had been a good deal worn by hard croppings, or bad cultivation, or both combined. The Guano was sowed dry, and on the wide rows laid off for sowing wheat, and ploughed in with two horses, the wheat then harrowed in. I forgot to say that the land had been fallowed in with three horses in the month of August, and the wheat sowed in October. In consequence of the dryness of the guano, and the width of the rows, the wheat was very much striped, being very luxuriant where the guano fell in the largest quantities. The product did not exceed 200 bushels, or 10 bushels to the acre, but the quality was so superior that I saved it all for seed."

"The land sowed two years ago, is now striped with clover, as it was with wheat."

This land is a tenacious red clay formation, from which the soil we presume has all been washed away "long time ago." No planter, he says, would have put such land in tobacco without heavy manuring; and yet it produced a fair crop of tobacco. Owing to distance from navigation, he could not use lime, or any heavy manure, and without guano he could not make crops, and, consequently could not make manure at home.

The editor of the American Farmer, in a note says—"Our correspondent appears to desire that his land should be brought to a state of fertility by the quickest practicable process, and from the beautiful results of his experiments with guano, we know of no agent to which he could look with so much certainty of success as to that very manure."

The quantity per acre for Tobacco.—We should recommend at least 400 lbs. sown broadcast and plowed in, on such land as described, not over four inches deep. The tobacco to be followed with wheat, the wheat with clover, the clover after one year with corn and then tobacco and guano again. The clover should have a bushel of plaster fall and spring. Whoever tries this will find the benefit of guano on tobacco. But there is one still greater benefit; we have been assured that the tobacco worm which it was supposed from his natural taste, nothing could nauseate, actually gets sick of guano, and refuses his accustomed food.

Another mode of applying it to tobacco has been practised successfully as follows:—Mark off the land in checks and put a small spoonful in each check, and cover up directly under the bed where the plant is to stand, three or four inches deep. To this a handful of ashes and plaster may be advantageously added. Guano does not give tobacco the rank flavor that is often acquired from high manuring.

Mr. Pleasants, although many experiments have failed, principally, as he believes, from improper application, says in a recent letter—"There is no actual reason why guano should not act as well on tobacco as any other crop. The failures are doubtless to be ascribed to the injudicious manner in which it has been applied. I can conceive of only one mode in which it can be used to advantage, and that is by strewing it along a deep furrow as described for corn; then bedding upon it and confining the cultivation to one direction. This has been my way of cultivating cabbages for the market for several years, and the guano has always acted promptly and powerfully. If chopped in at the base of the hill it would require a great quantity of rain to dissolve it and make it available to the young plants, for the conical shape of the hill has a tendency to shed the rain instead of absorbing it. I expect soon to receive very accurate results of a crop grown with guano, which Judge Nash represented to me as splendid. If I cultivated tobacco, I should have every confidence of success by planting it on ridges with the Guano buried at a considerable depth, say from four to six inches beneath the surface of the ridge—1 lb. to ten yards would be a sufficient quantity.

"In short, I consider guano good for any crop. For potatoes (that is Irish potatoes) I regard it as a specific manure. The quantity I apply is 3/4 lbs. to every ten yards put in the furrows as recommended for corn and tobacco, and then covered over about one inch with earth drawn from the sides of the furrows. After this the potato cuttings are planted and covered over with the plough or hoe. The quantity recommended is about right as far as my experience goes (which is of several years duration) if the cuttings are placed about two inches apart."

Guano for Cotton.—But few trials upon this crop have come to our knowledge, but such as have, indicate that it will prove one of the most valuable promoters of the growth of this staple product of America ever discovered. The analysis of cotton—stalk, seed and lint—compared with that of guano, is sufficient to prove the latter to be the very matter required to produce the former. We are assured upon the most reliable authority that guano will give an average increase of pound for pound upon any soil producing less than a bale per acre so that every pound of guano costing two and a half cents, will give a pound of cotton averaging at least 6-1/4 cents.

Mode of applying on Cotton Land.—Open a deep furrow and drill in the bottom at the rate of 400 lbs. to the acre, upon land usually producing 300 to 500 lbs. seed cotton, and less for a better quality of land, down to one-fourth the quantity. Bed on this as deep as you please; the moisture of the earth will disengage the ammonia and phosphates, and send their fertilizing properties up to the roots. Never use guano as a top-dressing for cotton. The seed will be found better matured, and consequently more valuable to manure another crop, besides being so much easier separated from the lint, which will be found as much improved in quality as quantity. For Sea Island planters, where manure is so valuable and so hard to obtain, we would earnestly recommend a thorough trial of guano. As the land for this crop is mostly prepared with hoes, care must be taken that the servants do not neglect to bury it at the very bottom of a good bed.

From the knowledge the writer has of the culture and value of long staple cotton, and the price and value of guano, he has no hesitation in expressing his honest conviction that a clear profit of two to four hundred per cent. may be made upon every dollar expended in the purchase and proper application of guano to that crop.

Guano, for all staple crops in the United States, is no longer an experiment. It has been clearly demonstrated, to be the cheapest and most valuable fertilizer, particularly for all poor, worn out, hard used and exhausted soils ever discovered; which no sensible man will neglect to profit by, as soon as he learns its value, unless prevented by deep prejudice or strong circumstances.

Application to Miscellaneous Crops.—Under this head we will give the experience of several individuals in various sections, soils and climates, in hopes it may encourage the doubtful, and direct those who are disposed to emerge from darkness into the light of scientific agriculture. A gentleman from Warsaw, Virginia, where the soil is generally a sandy loam, badly worn by long years of bad tillage, says, "My wheat looks finely, especially where I applied guano last fall. I put it in with the seed furrow about three inches deep, and also with double plow six inches deep, harrowing in the wheat frequently side by side. At this time I can see no difference in the wheat crop. I use a large wooden toothed harrow extending over the bed of ten feet, and an even soil, free from stone; they do admirable work and drill the wheat as if put in with the drill."

Willoughby Newton, whose operation we have already spoken of, says; "I do not believe it possible to improve a farm, on the old three shift system, of corn, wheat and pasture, without a large supply of foreign manures. If clover can be substituted for pasture in the summer, then the land, if not naturally poor, may be rapidly improved by the use of lime alone, in addition to the putrescent manures that may, by proper care, be made on the farm. On other land of less fertility, and drier, I greatly prefer the five field system, under which, with the use of lime, guano and clover, a rapid improvement may be effected at the same time that heavy crops of wheat are reaped."

Another writer in speaking of how to improve worn out lands, says; "Let whatever little surplus he can spare from supplying the necessary wants of his family be laid out in the purchase of some one of the reliable concentrated manures. [Guano is by far the cheapest, and therefore the best for him, if he will plow it in well]. And my observation and experience have convinced me that he may make such improvement as will bring him a quick return, and soon enable him to get his farm well set in grass. This once effected, his facilities for its further improvement will assuredly increase in a ratio just in proportion as he is careful to pursue the course indicated. If a farmer can succeed in getting his fields well set in grass, a large and long array of facts and experience have proved that he may then, under a judicious course of management, render them more and more fertile without foreign aid of any kind whatever."

The editor of the American Farmer, in deprecating the price of guano says, "Of the efficacy of guano, in restoring worn out lands to productiveness—of its capacity to increase the yield of any lands in a sound condition—there cannot be a doubt; but even with all its regenerating properties, we do think that its market value is too high. Forty-eight dollars for a ton of 2,000 lbs. of Peruvian guano is more than it is intrinsically worth, and should it be continued thus high, must, we should think, limit its use, for the obvious reason, that farmers cannot afford to pay a price for it which is so disproportionate to its real value."

Yet they do continue to pay, and make it pay a greater profit than any other manure ever purchased. We hold to have done as much as any other individual to reduce the price of guano, and wish as heartily as does the editor of the Am. Farmer, it was only half the price it now is; yet, we must counsel our readers not to wait for that cheap time coming. It is now cheaper than it was then, and probably as low as it will be for years; and in the hands of the present agents, the public may depend upon a regular supply, and of genuine quality, at what the Peruvian government deem a fair price.

Guano for Melons and other Vines.—Mr. Pleasants, of whom we have before spoken, and whose long experience in the use of guano in connection with a market garden, entitle him to a high degree of credit, says, "I have been in the habit of using it for several years, and can testify to its value, not only using it for melons, but for the whole tribe of cucurbitacae. The mode of application which I prefer is this; when the ground is prepared and checked off, remove the loose soil at the intersections of the furrows, leaving clear spaces on the substratum of not less than eighteen inches in diameter. Upon these spaces sprinkle guano, at the rate one pound to eight hills. Follow with a hilling or grubbing hoe, and incorporate the guano with the subsoil; then draw the loose earth back, and finish by chopping a small quantity, a spadeful or less, of well rotted manure into the hill near the surface. Guano placed near the surface, will remain almost inert, and buried deep, as I recommended, it will be too remote from the seed to give the young plants the quick start which is indispensable to an early crop of melons. The small quantity of manure near the top of the hill answers the purpose of immediate forcing, and enables the roots to strike rapidly into the guano, when the growth of the vines will be stimulated to such a degree as to cause them to mature their fruit a week or ten days earlier than they would do from either guano or manure alone. Melons equally fine may be raised from nothing but guano, applied in the manner directed; but they will not be an early crop, from the fact that the plants remain almost stationary until the roots reach the guano. Last year, from such a preparation as is now recommended, I had as fine a crop of melons as I ever saw; and they began to ripen at a very early period in the season. Two years ago, I had them nearly or quite as good from guano alone; but they were late. This year the crop was almost a failure, from the wetness of the season, which caused the vines to die. Cantelope melons, however, have produced abundantly, grown entirely with the aid of guano. Where manure is scarce, I have no doubt an admirable compost might be prepared, consisting of guano and rich earth. It should be made several weeks, or even months, before it is wanted for use; and the heap worked over frequently in order to bring it into a suitable condition. Such a compost would doubtless supply the place in the hill which I have assigned to the manure. For pumpkins, squashes, cymblins and cucumbers, when it is not particularly desirable to have them early, nothing more is necessary than to prepare the hills with guano."

The following extract from a letter of E. G. Booth, to F. C. Stainbrook, written in that plain familiar style of one friend to another, which characterises the man, with an evident intent to do good; though it was not designed for publication, we give it because we believe it will do others good, as well as the recipient. Mr. Booth confirms our opinion often expressed, that the poor old barren fields of lower Virginia, are really more valuable than the rich lands of the west; because, owing to facilities of intercourse with commercial cities by water, these lands can be bought, and cultivated by aid of guano, with more profit than the richest prairie farm in Illinois. Mr. Booth's testimony upon the durability of this manure, is enough to contradict all the assertions that "it is of no use for only one crop." On his land, strangers can easily tell where guano was applied four years previous.

"Yours of the third has been received, and it affords me pleasure to give you any information in my power. The wheat crop during the the winter was very unpromising. There was a general complaint that it was too thin. The Poland wheat (most generally sown in this neighborhood,) is said to branch more than other kinds, and I regard the present prospect of the wheat crop as flattering, particularly where guano was used. It is now a fixed fact, that no poor land ought to be cultivated without guano, by any person who can command the money or credit to buy it. It is remarkable that it pays a much better profit, or per cent. on the investment, on poor land, than rich. I was inclined for some time to believe that the difference was really in appearance alone. The difference of five bushels increase on land which without it would bring only fifteen—or in other words, an increase from fifteen to twenty bushels to the acre, would not be very perceptible, while an increase of five bushels on land previously making only five, would be very evident. Still, the real increase would be five bushels in each case. I am now however, decidedly of the opinion that it pays a much larger per cent. on poor than rich land; because it supplies that in which poor land is deficient, and of which rich land may have enough. I have it now in strips on a clover fallow, scarcely showing any difference. I last applied it on about the poorest land on my plantation, and the product was remarkable. This circumstance much reduces the difference between the value of poor and rich land, and admonishes us that there is not a plot in our wide extended surface, which need be abandoned or neglected. We can, if we manage properly, support a population which will out vote the West in 1865. There is another fact which experience confirms, that is it is much more durable than at first supposed. My visitors have been able to point out the strips of land on which it was sown, four years after its application. I noticed a very evident effect on the farm of Mr. William Fitzgerald, a few days ago. He last year put it in drills, and hilled on them for tobacco, in the fall the whole surface was sown in wheat, which is now growing in ridges corresponding with the furrows where it was placed.

"While on the subject I will mention another fact different from first impressions, viz: that it is more productive, (the first crop, at least,) when harrowed in with the grain, on the surface, than when turned in very deep. I have yet to satisfy myself which is most durable. In the experiment which lasted four years, I think it was turned in. The purchases the ensuing fall will be very large. Those who were most incredulous are now going in largely. A very intelligent and enterprising friend of mine, who has been improving his land judiciously and profitably in this way, related to me an anecdote which occurred to him. He had two neighbors remarkable for their judgment and success in farming as well as other things, who, however, were inclined to underrate his expenditure of money in these elements of improvement. They knew he had purchased and used a ton of guano, and thought they knew where he had used the whole of it. They went, not exactly by night, but rather privately, to examine into the result. They made their observations and calculations, and agreed that he had got his money back, but no profit worthy consideration, and were only confirmed in their opposition to such an expenditure. The truth was, however, that only about one eighth of the ton had been used where they calculated for the whole. One of these gentlemen, I am informed, is now about the largest purchaser of such articles in the county; and perhaps the other also, though I have not been informed."

PLASTER WITH GUANO.

A Virginia farmer, in a letter of December 1847, in speaking of using plaster with guano, and the effect says—"I am a firm believer in the merits of the mixture, and always use it. I have used it on turnips with decided effect, as decided as that following any application of guano I ever saw. Several farmers of my acquaintance used the mixture of guano and plaster, and stable manure and plaster habitually, like myself, and one told me he used it half and half, producing the most marked effect on wheat, and that a neighbor of his had used it in the same proportion with the same effect—the usual surprising effect of guano. For myself, I used some $400 worth of guano on wheat this fall, the whole of it mixed with plaster. I believe the effect of the mixture will not be so vigorous on the first crop, as guano by itself—the plaster husbanding the ammonia for succeeding crops, upon which the mixture, (if the theory be correct,) will have more effect than guano unmixed, that being exhausted by the first crop."

A gentleman after making sundry careful experiments with plaster and carbonate of ammonia, thus expresses his conclusions—"These experiments prove to me that no matter in what state, (whether wet, moist, or dry,) plaster is presented to guano, or any other manure from which the carbonate of ammonia is escaping, it must retain a certain amount of ammonia that would otherwise be lost in the atmosphere."

The editor of the American Farmer says—"If the soil be poor, and it be desired to permanently improve it, at least four hundred pounds of guano, without respect to the fixer used, should be spread broadcast, on every acre of it, and plowed in to the full depth of the furrow. If the land be in moderate heart, three hundred pounds will be enough per acre. Where the soil may be good, two hundred will be sufficient. These quantities, as the reader will observe, have relation to broadcast applications, as all should be where general improvement is contemplated; if compelled to confine his experiments on corn to applications in the hill, a form of manuring, we have ever disapproved, two hundred pounds, or even one hundred of guano, will manure an acre, mixed with a bushel of plaster, five bushels of slaked ashes, and a double horse cart of wood mould more effective than ten loads of manure applied in the hill."

Yes, as has been proved by careful experiment made in England, more than fourteen tons of manure. The editor also says, what we have so often repeated—"We hold these to be agricultural truths—that guano is most beneficially applied, when ploughed in as spread on the the earth, never less than four inches deep—and better, for permanent effect, to be ploughed in deeper, say six to eight inches—where it may be desirable only to bury it four inches deep, the land should be previously ploughed as deep as the furrow can be turned up, and the guano applied at a second ploughing—that all top-dressings with guano are wasteful, inasmuch, as from the volatile nature of the more active parts of the manure, great loss must inevitably result from all such applications, and because, more moisture than is to be found on the surface, is necessary to excite, and carry on, that healthful progressive state of decomposition, which is required to render guano most available for present production and future improvement.

"We do not hesitate to express the opinion, that when properly used, as an adjunct to lime or marl, that it will bring up any sound worn out land, to at least its original degree, if not a greater degree of fertility; provided its application be followed by clover. We believe that, when properly applied to land, either limed or marled the previous year, it will add twenty-five, thirty, and, in some instances, forty per cent. to the product of wheat; besides infusing into the soil, the capacity to grow luxuriant crops of clover, and thus fit it for profitable future culture. If it will do this, and we are certain it will, then it will achieve all that any agriculturist can reasonably expect of it, or of any other fertilizing agent; and we are very sure there is no other manure equally efficacious, within the reach of farmers and planters.

"Guano differs much in quality; that from Peru, is confessedly best of any which has yet been submitted to actual experiment by agriculturists, or tested by the analysis of chemists, being much richer in its nitrogenous element, than either the Patagonian or African variety."

He also says—"400 lbs. of guano and 1 bushel of plaster, will ensure a good crop of corn, so will 200 lbs. guano and eight bushels of bone earth, or 20 bushels of bone earth, 10 bushels of ashes and 1 bushel of plaster. Each to be ploughed in."

Much more might be said in favor of using plaster with guano, or some other fixer of ammonia, wherever it is exposed, on or near the surface. We add a few more extracts mainly to show that deep ploughing, and plentiful manuring, are the sure guarantee of bountiful crops. Bone-dust, except when used in the drill, should always be harrowed in. It should be put in bulk with other matters, and excited into an incipient state of decomposition before being used.

Guano should always be ploughed in, if practicable. Harrowing and cultivating in guano "have been practised both in this country and in England, by intelligent farmers; and in various instances have been spoken approvingly of, success having attended such applications in single crops; but we doubt whether much, if any permanent benefit were done to the soil, in qualifying it for the production of the subsequent crops of a course of rotation. In Peru it is used topically, but such applications are always followed by immediate irrigations of the soils to which it is applied, the Peruvians acting upon the philosophical principal, whether they comprehend its theory or not, that to secure the nutrient properties of this active fertilizer to their growing crops, it is essential that they provide an absorbent, and that they find in the water furnished by their processes of irrigation. Experience, practice, and irrigation have taught them, that unless they cause the carbonate of ammonia, and the various compound substances with which it exists in the guano, to descend speedily to the roots of their plants, that from the volatility of its more active and efficient elements, they will be expelled by the heat of the sun, escape into the air, and be lost for all the purposes of vegetable growth.

"But in view of the whole ground, taking into consideration the evanescent nature of any ammonia in guano in the compounds in which it exists, to be converted into that form, we honestly believe, that so far as lasting benefit to the land may be concerned, guano should be ploughed in.

"In all tolerably good Guano, there is a sufficiency of the carbonate already formed to carry on healthful vegetation, and therefore, it is best to place it sufficiently deep to prevent the waste of an element so essential to the growth of plants, and so liable to loss.

"It is possible where the soil had been, by repeated harrowings, reduced to a state of very fine tilth, that guano may be covered sufficiently deep with the Cultivator to become mixed with, and consequently be absorbed by the vegetable remains of the earth, and thus be prevented from loss by escape of its volatile gases; especially would this be the case, if the process of cultivating it in, were soon after followed by penetrating rains. In admitting this, we still adhere to the opinion, that so far as permanent benefits are concerned, the most economical mode of applying guano to the earth, is by the plough.

"As soon as the guano is ploughed in, the wheat should be sowed and harrowed in, in the usual way. In our climate we can sow wheat on the poorest corn ground late in November and have as fine a crop, and harvest it as soon, as we can obtain from well prepared and fallowed without guano sowed early in the season, For every 100 lbs. of guano, not exceeding 250 lbs. we calculate on reaping of an average season from six to seven bushels, sometimes eight. From a greater quantity though the product will be increased, yet it will not be increased in the same proportion, and 200 lbs will also be sufficient for the production of two good grass crops following the wheat and will then leave the land in an improved condition."

Charcoal and Guano.—The benefit of charcoal with guano will be understood from the following extract from "Scientific Agriculture," on the nature of charcoal and its use as a manure.—"Charcoal on account of its power of absorbing gases and destroying offensive odors, is a valuable addition to the soil; its operation as a manure is not so direct as some other manures; that is, it is not so useful on account of any element it furnishes to plants, as by the intermediate office which it performs, of absorbing and retaining in the soil those volatile matters which plants require, and which would otherwise escape and be lost. It is beneficial as a top-dressing, and as an ingredient in composts; it evolves carbonic acid in its decomposition, and is in this way directly useful to plants. Its powerful antiseptic properties render it very useful to young and tender plants, by keeping the soil free of putrifying substances, which would otherwise destroy their spongioles and prevent their growth."

And its capacity to absorb many times its bulk of gaseous matter, will always give it value as an absorbent of escaping ammonia from surface dressings of guano.

The editor of the Farmer also says—"In our climate, we should be opposed to all topical applications of any strongly concentrated manure like guano by itself,—and, indeed we should, under all circumstances, prefer to have it ploughed in, if practicable; but as we presume our correspondent has been prevented by circumstances, from using guano at the time of ploughing for wheat; and of course, must avail himself of the next best plan of deriving benefit from its use, we would advise, him next spring, as soon as the frost is out of the ground, and it is in a state to bear a team; to mix, in the proportion of 100 lbs. of guano, one bushel of fine charcoal, and one peck of plaster per acre, then to sow the mixture over his wheat field, lightly harrow the ground, and finish by rolling; and we have no hesitation in saying, that his wheat crop will be benefitted more than twice the cost of the manure. We say to him farther that he need not fear injuring his wheat plants by the operation of harrowing and rolling; for, on the contrary, it will act as a working, and prove of decided advantage. We feel very certain that the admixture of charcoal and plaster with guano, together with the covering it will receive by the harrowing, will prevent any material loss of the ammoniacal principles of the latter; as independent of the affinity existing between charcoal, plaster, and all nitrogeneous bodies, they will be greatly aided by the vital principle of the plants themselves. We are not, however, left to the lights of theory alone, in this matter, but have the experience of the Honorable Mr. Pearce, of Kent county, of this State, to guide us to a practical result,—he used, some years since, a top-dressing of guano and plaster upon his wheat field, and was rewarded by a large increase of crop."

A correspondent says—"I am satisfied from experience and observation in the use of guano for the last twelve years, that the best method, decidedly, of applying it to our crops in this dry climate, is to plow and spade it into the ground; and autumn is the best season for doing this, as it gives time for the pungent salts contained in the guano to get thoroughly mixed with the soil before spring planting. Do not fear to lose the guano, by plowing it as deep as you please—it will not run away, depend upon it. At the south it loses half its virtue if not plowed in at least three inches deep; six to twelve inches would be still better.

"Spread broadcast on grass land, late in the fall or early in the spring, if not plowed in before sowing buckwheat, rye or wheat, then spread it broadcast after sowing the grain, and harrow well and roll the land. This last operation is quite important."

Value of Guano on account of its Phosphates.—He who wishes to have the best grazing grounds, where he can present the richest and most nutritious herbage to his cattle, will keep his ground well supplied or manured with guano that abounds in phosphates, knowing that it will supply the needed nutriment to the grass, and by the grass to the cattle; and thus his stock will be kept in a high condition and full flesh, either for the farm or the market.

Again; he who raises wheat, corn, or other grains, has an equal inducement to look to it that his manures are abundantly impregnated with these essential elements. Phosphates, so available to the raiser of stock, are equally so to the producer of grain; because the size, richness, and nutritious qualities of the grain depend largely on the presence of these in the soil. A farmer, therefore, has a vital interest in this matter, and should obtain what best suits his purpose. The most intelligent English farmers are so well convinced on this point, that substances containing only ten per cent. of phosphate of lime, are sought after, dissolved in sulphuric acid and water, and sprinkled on the soil. Bone dust also is used, and to a certain extent, is available, because one of the principal constituents of bones, is phosphate of lime. But the article in which the phosphates are the most convenient, because the most minutely distributed, is guano; and this, when judiciously used, must find favor wherever it can be obtained.

That which contains a large proportion of phosphates, in combination with ammonia, nitrogen and alkaline salts, apparently in the exact proportion required by nature, such as analysis and experience proves is the case with Peruvian guano, will be sought after by every farmer who reads the evidence of its value which we have given in these pages.

It is idle to talk of bones to restore the waste of phosphates in the soil that is being constantly carried away in grass and grain, beef, pork, mutton, milk and cheese, much of which passes into the sea from the sewers of cities, to be there retained in that great reservoir for the future use of men. It is from that we are now drawing our present supplies. Happily for mankind in all civilized countries, the discovery of guano has, in a providential manner, met the very wants of the times, in reference to the reinvigoration of certain kinds of soil, since this manure furnishes the elements most needed to supply the waste arising from cultivation, and to develop vegetation.

The impossibility of procuring bones enough to supply the wants of the comparative few now engaged in using guano, may be readily learned by any farmer who uses ten tons of guano per annum, if he will undertake to "pick up bones" enough to furnish him the same amount of phosphates contained in that quantity of guano. Then if all who are now using it, would drop guano and take to bones, it would soon be found to be hard picking. Save all the bones and apply them to the soil, is a standing text with us; upon the same soil use all the guano your can procure and you will not need to pick bones—you will grow bones to pick. It may be very patriotic to talk about expending the money at home, for bones, instead of sending it to Peru, for guano; but that talk is all for Buncombe, there is not a particle of sound reason in it. If all the bones in the United States could be saved and applied to the land again, we should still fall short of a supply, and be obliged to do as England did before the introduction of guano; go about and ransack grave yards of great battlefields, for more bones. With all the guano imported, or that will be imported, and all the bones that will be saved, there will still be room for more phosphates in the millions of acres of hungry soil in America. What would be the effect if a few such farms as Willoughby Newton's, and Col. Carter's, who each use 30 to 40 tons per annum of guano, should come all at once into the bone market for their supplies. In our opinion there would be such a rattling among the dry bones, we should hear no more about substituting them for guano. The fact is an incontrovertible one, that nothing on earth nor under the earth, or in the sea, has ever been discovered, which can be used as a substitute for guano. Its small bulk is alone sufficient to commend it to favor.

The Royal Agricultural Society of England offers a prize of L1,000 and the gold medal of the society, for the discovery of a manure with equal fertilizing properties to the guano, of which an unlimited supply can be furnished in England, at L5 per ton.

"Analogy between Bones and Guano.—There is a striking analogy in composition between bones and guano, which is, for other reasons interesting to the practical man.

The following table exhibits the composition of bones compared with guano, supposing both in the dry state. Bones, as they are applied to to the land contain about 18 per cent. of water. Ichaboe guano from 20 to 25 per cent.

Bones. Guano.

Organic animal matter, 33 56 Phosphates of lime and magnesia, 59 26 Carbonate of lime, 4 6 Salts of soda, 4 10 Salts of potash, trace trace Silicious matter 0 2 —— —— 100 100"

And these substances are found in guano already in a pulverulent state, while bones have to be reduced by mechanical or chemical means to the same condition before they are of any use as manure. Do not, we again repeat most emphatically, do not waste a bone; dissolve all you can get in sulphuric acid and mix with guano—save and make all the manure possible, both by the stable, compost heap and green crops, and then you will have money to buy guano, by which you can save the immense labor of hauling to distant fields, and still have the satisfaction of seeing them as fertile as those highly manured near home.

When the farmer raises crops for sale, and removes his grain and grasses from the land, he sells a portion of his soil; and if he does not renew in some way the saline matters taken away in his crops, he invariably impoverishes his farm. This work of exhaustion is now going on to an alarming extent, and the prolific wheat lands are to be searched for farther and farther westward as the operation proceeds.

Every one knows the superiority of wheat grown on newly cultivated lands, and most farmers are aware of the fact that soils become exhausted of something, they know not what, but of something essential to the most favorable production of grain. This something is found in guano, and by it the original fertility of land can be more easily, more certainly and cheaply restored than by any other means as yet discovered.

Professor Mapes in one of his letters of advice says; "As no farm, under ordinary usage, will supply as much manure as may be used upon it with profit, I am glad you intend to use guano, as it is an admirable manure, replete with many requirements of plants. The ammonia of the guano is in the form of a carbonate, and therefore so volatile as to escape from the soil into the atmosphere before plants can use it.

"You will readily perceive, therefore, that the sulphuric and phosphoric acids require amendments, and the ammonia should be changed from a carbonate to a sulphate of ammonia, which is not volatile. All this may be readily done by dissolving bone dust in dilute sulphuric acid, mixing it with the guano, and then with a sufficient amount of charcoal dust to render the mass dry and pulverulent. The more charcoal dust the better, as it absorbs and retains ammonia, and after it is in the soil, will continue to perform similar offices for many years, only yielding up ammonia as required by plants, and receiving new portions from rains, dews, &c."

If used as a top dressing, this change from a carbonate to a sulphate may be necessary; but not so if well mixed with the soil, particularly one in which clay predominates. In such a soil it is not even necessary to adhere to the direction to plow the guano deeply under. If it is but slightly harrowed in, the nature of the clay is such it will prevent the escape of the ammonia. If you require phosphates, more than ammonia, add the superphosphate of lime; but in no case omit the guano.

Use of Salt with Guano.—Common salt at the rate of a bushel to 100 lbs. of guano, well mixed, may be used to good advantage either as a top dressing, or when plowed in. The effect of the muriatic acid of the salt upon the guano will be, as both are dissolved in the earth, or by dews and rains, to form muriate of ammonia, which is not volatile; consequently the salt prevents loss by exhaustion, which is sure to take place when the guano is used as a top dressing, unless prevented by something to act as a fixer of the ammonia.

The wisdom of this law of nature in making the most precious saline manure a fixed and difficultly soluble salt, is at once obvious; for it is thus kept always ready in the soil for the plants to act upon according to their need. If we cut plants down before the seeds form, we have all the phosphates the plants contain diffused throughout them, and if we allow the seed to ripen, the phosphates, as before observed, will be found mostly in the seed. We find them in the state of phosphate of potash, phosphate of soda, phosphate of magnesia, and phosphate of lime, and probably, also, phosphate of ammonia. Now all these salts are essential to the growth and sustenance of animals, and without them grain would cease to be sufficient.

The necessity of restoring inorganic substances to the soil, may be better understood by examining the following table:

Mr. Prixdeaux states that the following quantities (of inorganic matters) are removed from an acre of soil by a crop of wheat, of 25 bushels of grain, and 3000 lbs. of straw—

By the grain. By the straw. Total. lbs. lbs. lbs. Potash, 7.15 22.44 29.59 Soda, 2.73 0.29 3.02 Magnesia, 3.63 6.99 10.62 Phosphoric acid, 15.02 5.54 20.56 Sulphuric acid, 0.07 10.49 10.56 Chlorine 0.00 1.98 1.98 —— —— —— 28.60 47.73

Gross weight to be returned to an acre, 76.33

Professor Johnson says—"Soils are barren either from the presence of a noxious principle or the absence of a necessary element. It is therefore highly important to be able to distinguish between the two cases.

"The art of culture is almost entirely a chemical art. Its processes are explained on chemical principals in part, but partly on mechanical and natural ones.

"All forms of matter may be divided into one of the two great groups—organic or inorganic matter."

In Peruvian guano, both these substances exist in a better and cheaper form than can be obtained from any other source.

The editor of the Genesee farmer, whose scientific information none can dispute, strongly corroborates this opinion. In a late number he says—If we admit that phosphate of lime is a necessary ingredient in a special manure for wheat—Peruvian guano would at present be much the cheapest source of it; for, in addition to the 16 per cent. of ammonia, it contains 20 per cent. of phosphate of lime in first-rate condition for assimilation by the plant, as well as other fertilizing ingredients of minor importance.

As a manure for wheat, therefore, we greatly prefer good Peruvian guano, even to the improved superphosphate of lime.

Difference in favor of Guano over Bone dust.—Robert Monteith, England, dressed oat ground with 276 lbs. guano per acre, cost 31 shillings, produce 59 bushels, value L7 7s 6d. Same quality of land with 10 bushels bone dust, cost 23 shillings and fourpence, produced 43 bushels value L5 7s 6d, which gives a balance in favor of guano of L1 12s 4d, or about $7 50 per acre.

Difference in favor of Guano over Manure.—The Yorkshire Agricultural Society of England, instituted a series of experiments several years ago for the purpose of working out practical facts in relation to guano, through a series of crops, upon different soils, by different persons, upon whose report the utmost reliance might be placed, so as to determine the value, or advantage to British farmers, who might use this extraordinary fertilizer. This report has just been published, and the following is a synopsis of the results. The experiments were arranged under the following heads—

1. To show the natural produce of the land, one part was to have no manure whatever.

2. Was to have twelve tons per acre of farm-yard dung.

3. Was to have six tons of dung, and one cwt. each of guano and dissolved coprolites; and

4. Was to have two cwt. of guano and two cwt. of the coprolites.

Other substances might be tried as additions, but these were to be the standard experiments.

Mr. Cholmeley's turnips, grown on a loamy soil had the heaviest crop on No. 3, the dung, coprolite, and guano, beating the farm-yard manure by some 5-3/4 tons per acre.

Mr. Johnson's experiments were tried with various manures singly; and his Peruvian guano gave the greatest weight of the class of substances tried; but 10 cubic yards of farm-yard manure had previously been applied to the whole land.

Mr. Maulevere's heaviest weight, also applied singly, was with the 12 tons of dung; but only 14 cwt. more than the dressing with 2 cwt. of coprolites. This soil was a light clay.

Mr. Newham's on a limestone soil, were the heaviest with No. 3—the same as Mr. Cholmeley's—and were 16 cwt. heavier than an application of dung alone.

Mr. Outhwaite's, on a hungry gravel, were the heaviest, with 9-3/4 tons of dung and 2 cwt. of guano, for all the land had been dunged at this rate, and exceeded 14-1/2 tons of dung by 2 tons 9 cwt. per acre.

Mr. Scott's were the heaviest on No. 4,—the guano and coprolites, and 1 ton 7 cwt. more than 20 tons of dung,—his soil was a strong loam.

Mr. Wailes's were the heaviest, with 4 cwt. of coprolites, showing an increase over 20 tons of dung of 2 tons 9 cwt. per acre; the soil is a useful loam.

The first fact which strikes the observer, is, that as a general rule, there is not only an addition to the crop by the addition of those artificial manures, but there is, in some cases, more absolute crop produced by them than by farm-yard manure alone.

Now to bring this to the test of figures, the coprolites at L5 per ton, and the guano at L10 per ton, will be at the rate of 2 cwt of each, L1 10s per acre. Now assuming this to be equal to 20 tons of dung per acre, we should require to be able to produce the dung at 1s 6d per ton to cost us the same money. But it can be neither produced nor purchased at any such money. In the whole of the cases referred to, the manure is most costly, and yet we find hardly any case where there is not an addition to the crop, of say two to three tons of turnips per acre, by such an increase of manure as the guano. Now, if a ton of turnips be worth 10s., or even 9s, there is at once an element of repayment; for, if a soil be in a condition to give a large crop of turnips, it is almost certain to be capable of giving a large crop of any other plant to succeed.

Mr. Charnock gives it as the result of his practical experience, that 4 cwt. of Peruvian guano, without manure, is the cheapest and best mode of growing turnips; but the general testimony seems to be decidedly in favor of what all farmers find it the best and easiest to do, viz., to add a small quantity of artificial manure to that which the farm will supply, and so to spread the whole over the land, rather than put all the dung in one place, and all the artificial manure in another.

No one can doubt the true statement of this report, which proves $7 50. worth of guano equal to 20 tons of manure—reducing the worth of that to one shilling and sixpence—about 34 cents—per ton, or one dollar a cord. Now, as manure is often estimated in this country by the cord, and valued at about $4, and applied at the rate of 6 cords per acre, it follows that a saving of $14 50 per acre may be made by using 250 lbs. of guano instead of purchasing the manure. This Yorkshire experiment exactly corresponds with those made in this country, some of which we have detailed, and which proves that a farmer cannot buy manure at the common selling prices; and if he hauls his own the distance of a mile, he will expend more value of time, than it is worth to him on the land; because the same value of time—"time is money"—expended for guano, will bring him better returns. In this, as before stated, we are confirmed by Professor Mapes; and here is the opinion of Mr. Hovey of Boston, the eminent horticulturist, which we find in the August No. of his magazine, as follows—

"If, after such evidence as this, farmers will continue to buy ashes at eight cents a bushel, or manure at three to six dollars a cord, including carting, and use them alone, then let them do so, but they should not complain that their crop cost more than it comes to. To orchardists and fruit growers, this information is of the greatest value, and we trust they will not let it pass unheeded."

This opinion is valuable because it has been stoutly asserted, that however well guano might answer at the South, it was of no use in the hard soil and cold climate of New England. This is a fallacy which will soon be cured by knowledge, and self-interest is a very strong prompter towards the acquisition of the knowledge, that guano is the best, cheapest, most suitable, convenient and productive manure ever used by a New England farmer, and just as suitable for that climate and soil as it is for Virginia. We assert, without fear of successful contradiction, that there is not a farm—not a field—covered with five-finger vines and mullens, in the State of Massachusetts, which may not be made to produce as profitable crops, by the use of guano, as any Connecticut river farm. Farmers are about the hardest class of men in the world to learn new doctrines; or that science has anything to do with the business of this life, and what all other life in a civilized country is dependent upon. Yet science teaches, by unerring truths, that the plants the farmer cultivates, are composed of carbon, obtained by plants chiefly from the soil and atmosphere; oxygen and hydrogen, obtained by plants chiefly from water, carbonic acid, &c.; nitrogen obtained by plants chiefly from manure, and also from rain and snow; silicium, in combination with oxygen, called silicia or sand; lime in combination with phosphoric and other acids; potash and soda in combination with acids; magnesia, in combination with acids, and various oxides of metals, the presence of which, however, is not very important, as they exist in an exceedingly small quantity. And that guano is composed of ammonia (formed of nitrogen and hydrogen,) combined with carbonic, oxalic, phosphoric, and other acids; lime, combined with phosphoric oxalic, and other acids; potash and soda, combined with muriatic and sulphuric acids; magnesia, combined with phosphoric and other acids; animal organic matter, containing carbon, and also nitrogen.

Now, is it not enough to prove that all the ingredients, with the exception of the metallic oxides, exist in guano, which are required by the plants grown for the sustenance of man.

Putting guano into the soil, therefore, as a manure, is clearly restoring to the earth those substances which plants abstract from it, and which are absolutely necessary for their growth.

The questions, then, which the farmer should now ask are, "which is best for me to buy, guano or coarse manure?" The evidence just given answers that question. "I have manure, teams, and men to haul it; my fields are from one to three miles distant, is it economy for me to let my teams lay idle and buy guano?" By no means. But you can probably employ men and teams in other improvements to much better advantage. With your manure make all your home lots exceedingly rich. With your men and teams clear off stones, dig ditches to put them into, drain your land, or build fence—bring bog meadows and swamps into dry cultivation—send every little brook through artificial channels for irrigation—send water up from lowland springs and streams by hydraulic rams for the same purpose, and for stock on the hills; or bring it down from hillsides if you are so situated; and buy guano for those distant fields, instead of wasting time in the laborious operation of hauling manure. Those who use guano, are enabled by the saving of time, to say nothing of their increased profits, to make improvements which are utterly impossible to accomplish under the old system.

How to choose Guano.—As we are satisfied no sensible reader can have perused the preceding pages, without having come to the determination to make a trial for himself, we will give him some general instructions about buying guano.

In the first place, we lay it down as an incontrovertible axiom, that the Peruvian guano, at the current price for years of that and all other, is the cheapest and best, because it contains the largest amount of ammonia, in a perfectly dry state; as a carbonate, true, but because dry, it is permanent and not likely to loose by volatilization by long keeping.

If other varieties contain a larger proportion of phosphates, and are sold at a less price, experience proves they are not cheaper. If an additional quantity of phosphates is desirable, it can be obtained in a cheaper form from dissolved bones, or bone dust and shavings of bone workers; or from mineral phosphates of lime. Recollect, guano under no other name, has ever equalled the Peruvian, in the results as compared with the quality or cost.

Therefore buy none but Peruvian. To guard against deception, be careful of whom you buy. If you cannot buy directly from the agents, be sure the character of your merchant is a sufficient guarantee against adulteration.