THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



401 



remedy for it, Guano was of a very light and volatile nature, 

 and if, when sown broadcast, there happened to be ranch 

 wind stirring, it wa3 blown to a part of the land where 

 the farmer did not want it to be deposited ; or, if the locality 

 was near one of the extremities of the farm, it fell, perhaps, 

 on a neighbour's land instead of his own. He had mixed it 

 with ashes, and occasionally with salt, in order to insure a 

 more certain and equable distribution ; but that had not al- 

 ways secured the object. He had thus been led to water it, 

 and he wished to know whether his doing so deteriorated the 

 quality of the guano. lie had, in fact, never been able to 

 distribute guano as he wished to do. 



Mr. J. H0W.4RD (Bedford) observed that it was very evi- 

 dent that Mr. Coussmaker had not a broadcast machine, as 

 that would have enabled him to drop th? guano immediately 

 on the surface. 



Mr. R. Baker (Writtle) said he had not many remarks to 

 offer on this subject, feeling, as he did. that Mr. Sainsbury 

 knew much more than he himself did with re2;ard to the ap- 

 plication of guano. Still there were some points connected 

 with the use of guano which he would proceed to mention, 

 especially as it might easily be subjected to the test of experi- 

 ment. He had before observed in that club that in his opinion 

 g«ano should never be applied, either for turnip or for mangel 

 wurzel, immediately before the depositing of the seed. For 

 applying it for turnips he hid ploughed it in immediately, and 

 let it remain for ten days or three weeks, or whatever time was 

 required : in the first instance he ploughed it in with a surface 

 ploughing and afterwards with a deeper ploughing, and by 

 that means it became thoroughly incorporated with the soil, 

 and acted in the most beneficial and regular manner, none of 

 its constitueut properties being lost. During the turnip- 

 sowing season he had frequently had indicated to him a piece 

 of land where guano was used by the smell a quarter of 

 a mile before he reached the spot. Of course where that 

 was the case a very large proportion of the guano was 

 taken up by the air, and entirely lost to the crop; where- 

 as, if the guano had been ploughed in immediately after 

 it was deposited, and had thus become fixed in the soil, 

 none v/ould have been lost. When guano had once be- 

 come incorporated with moist soil, uo subsequent ex- 

 posure to the action of the atmosphere would cause it 

 to evaporate. That was a very important point to bear in 

 mind. As regarded the beneficial influence of guano, experi- 

 ments were often very fallacious. The result of an application 

 of guano depended very much on the state of the weather at 

 the time when it was applied. If there were not sufficient 

 moisture to fix it ia the soil at once, it was far less beneficial 

 than it would otherwise he. In reference to its application by 

 Bowing or drilling, he must observe that he had not got a 

 broadcast machine ; but he sometimes sowed it with a manure- 

 drill, and ploughed it iu immediately, which prevented the 

 wind from blowing it about. When sown it should be incor- 

 porated with some other substance. He sometimes used de- 

 composed sawdust with it ; if salt was desirable for the land, 

 he used it with that; and he generally combined it with wood 

 ashes, or some other substances, iu order to prevent it from 

 being taken off into the air. It was well known that guano 

 was much more beneficial to laud which comprised a large 

 quantity of loam or clay than to gravelly soils ; the reason 

 being that when it was incorporated with loam, it was im- 

 mediately fixed, whereas if used in gravelly soils, it was very 

 apt to be carried off. Having used guano for a great many 

 years, he must pronounce it to be, in his opinion, the cheapest 

 manure that could be employed— especially for root-crops. 

 Whatever might be the case with regard to corn-crops, for 



turnips and mangel-wurzel it was undoubtedly the cheapest 

 manure they could use, notwithstanding the high price of it. 

 He had been led to the belief that a large portion of the 

 beneficial qualities of manufactured manures consisted of 

 guano in another form (Hear, hear). About a week ago, a 

 person asked hira to purchase some manure, and in so doing 

 said — "We have two kinds of manure, turnip-manure and 

 corn-manure; but the latter contains twice as much guano as 

 the former." The price of the one being £ 1 more than that of 

 the otlier, then what was the advantage of buyuig the cheaper 

 article, when you must apply two tons instead of one ? (Heari 

 hear.) He wanted to gei, if possible, a cheap manure ; but 

 so far as his experience enabled him to judge, there was, in 

 fact, no cheaper manure for root crops than guano. (Hear, 

 hear.) Hia opinion was, that for ordinary use there was no- 

 thiug so cheap, and nothing so beneficial in the production of 

 root-crops, as guano ; but its beneficial application must, he 

 maintained, depend very much upon the state of the weather 

 and the soil, and upon the mode of application. 



Mr. King (of Beedon) wished to know what amount of 

 guano he considered a sufficient dressing when he did not use 

 any farm-yard manure ? 



Mr. Baker did not hesitate to say that guano might be 

 applied liberally for root crops, but when applied to corn crops 

 any quantity beyond 2 cwt. per acre produced comparatively 

 with the increased coat but little benefit. He thought 

 2 cwt. per acre was the maximum that should ever be applied 

 for corn crops, and that for root crops that quantity would 

 yield a better return in proportion to the cost than any 

 additional quantity. Some years ago Mr. Vernon made some 

 experiments, the results of which were published in the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle. It was there shown that 2 cwt. was 

 all that could be usefully applied for corn crops ; that although 

 a larger application might yield an apparent advantage in the 

 foliage and so ou, still when the produce was put in the bushel, 

 or weighed, the increased outlay was not justified by the result) 



Mr. J. Thomas (Bletsoe) said, he had been in the habit of 

 applying guano fgr several years past. He had invariably 

 applied it with farm-yard dung. He generally cultivated hia 

 turnips ou the Northumberland or ridge system, putting a 

 fair quantity of farm-yard dung, then sowing the guano broad- 

 cast, and reversing the ridges. He usually mixed about 2 cwt. 

 of coal ashes — having a steam-engine of his own he found this 

 mixture economical —with about the same quantity of guano, 

 aud also about 15 or 16 tons of farm-yard manure. He had 

 on two occasions tested guano by a comparison of it with 

 blood manure, and on his turnips, produced with the aid of 

 the two, being weighed separately, he found very little differ- 

 ence in money value between blood manure and guano. He 

 did not concur, however, iu the observations which had been 

 made to the effect that whatever might be the price at which 

 guano was sold, they must have recourse to it, and it alone ; 

 for he thought that would depend on the price at which they 

 could obtain other artificial manures (Hear, hear). He per- 

 fectly agreed with Mr. Baker, that guano answered 

 better on clay land than on gravelly land. Having a portion 

 of each on his own farm, he had invariably found the greatest 

 effect from guano on the clay. Some allusion had been made 

 to boaes. Now ou grass lands he had used as a manure a 

 mixture of bones, guano, and salt, at a cost of SOs. per acre. 

 He had also used guano by itself, and bones by themselves, but 

 the mixture had answered best. Ia some counties it was quite 

 proverbial that bones were preferable to everything else ; but 

 in Bedfordshire he had found the best application to be a 

 mixture of bones, guano, and salt. In growing mangel-wurzel, 

 particularly on land recently broken up, or broken up within 



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