44 MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



another method, and I therefore had a one year old plant shifted into a pot a 

 foot in diameter, in a rich loamy soil, not sifted, well drained, I placed in a 

 forcing pot heated by hot water, and having a brisk and moist temperature it 

 grew rajiidly ; and having a free supply of water, absorbing much, it produced 

 fifteen vigorous spikes of bloom, and when just expanding I had it removed to 

 the greenhouse, where it continued to bloom till November. The plant can be 

 procured at the nurseries for a trifling sum, and it deserves a place in every 

 greenhouse collection. 

 Somerset. W. W. Hall. 



Guano Manure. — That the manures in present use, and the slovenly and 

 expensive modes of applying them, are inefficient for the purposes required, no 

 person can doubt ; and 1 trust the time is not far distant when every agricul- 

 turist will coincide with the opinion there expressed. If individuals would but 

 discard from their minds all prejudice, all dread of innovations being made on 

 the old system, and discontinue those practices which they have hitherto adhered 

 to, merely because their forefathers did so, I feel confident one fair trial of guano, 

 bone-dust, nitrate of soda, and many other substances, v/ould convince even the 

 most sceptical that it is to their interest to continue the use of them, and that 

 their lands never previously produced such heavy crops. Numerous experiments 

 have been made on the guano, and the details given in various provincial papers 

 by gentlemen who have no nutive in misstating facts, and the result in every 

 case appears to have been satisfactory. I can corroborate those statements in 

 all essential particulars, and assert that, as a general fertiliser, and in the growth 

 of wheat, barley, oats, hops, turnips, wurzel, and on grass lands, guano will be 

 found one of the most valuable manures of modern introduction. Several of my 

 acquaintance have tried it in the cultivation of Pines, Melons, Cucumbers, &c, 

 and many florists' flowers, and all concur in giving it the highest character. The 

 quantity used for the latter purposes was about a quarter of a pint of manure to 

 one barrowful of common garden soil, but probably these proportions may be 

 improved upon. From the experiments made it would appear that two hundred 

 weight of guano is sufficient for an acre of wheat, barley, or oats. I am myself 

 going to use guano in the cultivation of Dahlias, Carnations, Pinks, and Pansies, 

 and shall forward the result in due season. Guano is obtained from islands in 

 the South Seas, where it forms a stratum many feet thick, it being the accumu- 

 lation for ages of the excrement of innumerable sea-fowl. It is used as a 

 manure with great advantage on the coast of Peru, where the soil is otherwise 

 extremely sterile. Its composition is said to be — 



Earthy insoluble salts, principally phosphate of lime . . 20 2 

 Soluble salts, fixed alkaline sulphate, and chloride . 2 5 



Organic matter G8 3 



100 

 The organic matter consists of — 



Lithic acid 16 1 



Ammonia 87 



Cnher organic matter 43 5 



68 3 



Experiments on various Flowering Plants, with Guano and Nitrate ov 

 Soda. By J. E.Teschemacher — Small parcels of the new manure guano having 

 been very generally circulated in this vicinity, it is right to put those in posses- 

 sion of it on their guard against using it too freely, many plants in England and 

 some here having been killed for want of proper care in the application of it. 

 Guano is an extremely powerful and warm manure, and if applied in large 

 quantities, or in lumps, destroys the roots. For Pelargoniums, Roses, and all 

 hardy, strong-growing plants, one tcaspoonful to a quart of earth, or about 1 



