374 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



per bushel. As these experiments were so very satisfac- 

 tory upon the light lands, he wished to try what benefit 

 guano would be to soil of a different character. He there- 

 fore selected ten acres upon one of his Potomac farms, of 

 a cold white clay, and applied one ton of Peruvian guano, 

 which cost $50. His overseer declared "that stuff" never 

 would make wheat and he would beat it upon the next 

 ten acres, which to do, he dressed with lime, and plowed 

 finely, and put in the wheat as well as he knew how. Find- 

 ing in the spring, that the guanoed wheat was getting 

 ahead, he gave his ten acres a good top-dressing of ma- 

 nure. The result was 55 bushels for the limed and ma- 

 nured lot, while the guanoed lot gave 135 bushels of a 

 much better quality, which also sold at $1.25 per bushel, 

 for seed. Here was a clear gain of $63.75 upon an outlay 

 of $50, in one crop, ready money, besides the advantage 

 to the land of getting a good growth of clover. In 1849, 

 he used ten tons of Peruvian guano at $47, and ten tons 

 of Patagonian, at $30, upon 260 acres of wheat, at the 

 rate of 75 to 250 lbs. guano to the acre, and the result 

 now, (May 3d, 1850,) is so promising, that he has bought 

 30 tons of Peruvian, intending hereafter, to use no other 

 kind, as the wheat now growing side by side, upon which 

 the two kinds were applied, at equal cost, shows very 

 largely in favor of the Peruvian. 



Upon one acre of sandy loam, in 1847, Mr. N. used one 

 barrel of African guano, cost $4, and sowed one bushel 

 Zimmerman wheat, and reaped 17. He also used a barrel 

 of "fertiliser," last fall, at the rate of $12 an acre, along 

 side of guano, at $4 an acre. The present appearance of 

 the crop is in exact inverse proportion. 



It is the concurrent opinion of Mr. N., and others who 

 have used it most, that an application of 200 pounds per 

 acre, plowed in deep, [How "deep?" It will not do so well 

 to plow guano in what we call "deep," in a northern cli- 

 mate. — Eds.,] and wheat sowed late, say last of October 

 or first of November, is the most economical application, 

 and that it will give an average increase of twelve bush- 



