GUANO. 273 



bear in mind.) The other had received no special care or 

 manuring. This charming woman, surrounded by her lovely 

 children, was equally engaged in teaching the young idea as the 

 sweet-brier how to shoot, and they too showed the beautiful 

 results of devoted and assiduous culture. 



I have seen the extraordinary effects of the application of 

 guano all over the country, and I have met with very few 

 instances of disappointment. I have been favored with a great 

 many reports of its application ; but my readers will, I think, be 

 better satisfied with general results than with a long list of par 

 ticular examples. 



When I speak of its extraordinary effects, I yet do not con 

 sider them as so surprising as the effects of gypsum in many 

 parts of the United States, whose operation, I venture to say, 

 remains wholly unexplained. I do not, of course, mean to 

 imply that one can be substituted for the other. The effects of 

 half a bushel of finely-powdered gypsum, scattered over an acre 

 of land, in some places, in increasing the crop of grass, and in 

 respect to some other crops, is amazing ; yet in all England, I 

 have not been able to find a single well-attested example of its 

 being applied with any benefit whatever. The application of 

 guano has been made, in England and Scotland, to all kinds of 

 plants, and in some instances with great success ; indeed witli 

 rarely a failure. 



It has been used for turnips, barley, wheat, oats, grass, garden 

 vegetables, onions, asparagus, potatoes, flowers, and trees. I 

 have seen its application in all these cases, excepting asparagus 

 and trees ; but the testimony which certifies its success in these 

 cases is unquestionable. Comparisons made between guano and 

 other manures, are not quite satisfactory in respect to quantities, 

 because it is obviously very difficult to institute any instructive 

 comparison between so many pounds of guano, and so many 

 loads of manure ; manure is so various in its nature, quality, 

 bulk, &c. ; but it will be quite easy to compare the two in 

 respect to the ease or difficulty of their transportation, and of 

 their application to the plant or soil. Comparisons, likewise, in 

 respect to the cost of different applications, as made here, would 

 be of little use in the United States, as prices of manure and of 

 labor are totally different ; and the one can afford no rule for the 



