SOLON ROBINSON, 1851 485 



mation upon the subject. The residence of Mr. Newton 

 is in Westmoreland county, Va., which lies between the 

 Potomac and Rappahannock rivers, and I venture to say 

 the land upon his home place was as poor an old field 

 of pines and broom straw as can be found in the State. 

 Before using guano, in fact, it was too much exhausted 

 to produce a decent growth of poverty grass — the last 

 effort of expiring fertility. 



When I was there about a year since, land of this char- 

 acter was covered by a growth of wheat that bid fair to 

 produce 15 or 20 bushels to the acre, while upon fields 

 that had produced that last year, a most luxuriant crop 

 of clover was enriching the land for another crop of 

 wheat. 



Two hundred pounds to the acre is the most usual 

 quantity as applied in that region, and the deeper it is 

 plowed in, the better. It must be turned under — sowing 

 it broadcast and merely scratching it in with such plows 

 as half the cotton planters use, will answer but a poor 

 purpose. You say, "a very little earth between the seed 

 and guano will prevent injury." Perhaps. And that 

 "a dress of light soil over the guano in drills," &c., would 

 be a proper manner to apply it; "or it may be sown in 

 damp weather, and that rains and moisture will convey 

 the elements of fertility into the soil from the surface." 



Allow me to say you never committed a greater error. 

 If 200 pounds were sown upon an acre during a shower 

 in this burning climate, two hours of hot sun would dis- 

 sipate the value of one half of it to the four winds of 

 heaven, and you would manure your neighbor's crop 

 about as much as your own. Covering it with a little 

 dust would be but little better. The best way to apply 

 guano to cotton or corn, in Georgia, would be to open 

 the bed just before planting, down to the very bottom, 

 with a double mouldboard plow, drawn by two mules, 

 and then scatter the guano, and follow immediately with 

 a light turning plow, throwing back the earth from one 

 side so as to cover it completely from all possibility of 



