SOLON ROBINSON, 1851 487 



agents, and various pickings and stealings of the officials 

 through whose hands the money has to pass. The supply 

 upon the Islands on the coast of Peru is almost inexhaust- 

 able, and if there was a free trade in the article, every 

 farmer would find it the cheapest manure he could use. 

 As it is, I would earnestly recommend every planter, who 

 knows the value of manure upon his land, to try the 

 experiment faithfully upon cotton, and see if he cannot 

 make it profitable If any of my acquaintances desire 

 to give an order through me, or to Messrs. Allens, 189, 

 Water st.. New York, I will assure them the genuine 

 article. 



I have to notice one more item in the article to which I 

 have alluded. The writer says : — "When corn or cotton 

 is hoed the first time, guano may be applied near the 

 plants to be nourished, and covered by the hoe, cultivator, 

 plow or scraper." So it may, but take care of the word 

 near, or your careless negroes will come very near kill- 

 ing the whole crop. The only way I have ever seen it 

 applied to the growing crop to good advantage, is to bar 

 off with a good sized turning plow — such, for example, 

 as Allen's No. 14, or A. 1 — as close to the corn as you 

 can run, and as deep as a good mule can pull it. In the 

 bottom of this furrow, drill the guano at the rate of 200 

 lbs. to the acre, and turn a heavy furrow right back upon 

 it at once. I have little doubt an application in this way, 

 if followed by rain, would be found equal to any other 

 method. 



If any further information I happen to possess, will 

 be of service to your readers, let them ask, and they 

 shall receive. 



I am, most respectfully, &c., 



Solon Robinson. 



Charleston, S. C, April 14, 1851. 



