GUANO. 279 



turnips, by the side of the same crop manured with three hun 

 dred weight of guano, the advantage was very greatly in favor 

 of the former. 



Mr. James Smith, of Deanston, states that a friend of his ma 

 nured three acres ; the first with fifteen tons of stable-dung, cost 

 4 ; the second acre with three hundred weight of guano, cost 

 1, 6s. ; the third acre with eight tons of liquid manure, cost 

 2s. 6d. ; and the crop on the last was far the best. Dr. Playfair 

 was kind enough to communicate to me this statement. 



In an admirable lecture, delivered by the last-named active 

 and intelligent friend of an improved agriculture, at the meeting 

 of the Royal Agricultural Society, that gentleman saw fit to 

 state that one pound of urine contained materials for producing 

 one pound of wheat ; and that the effete matter which runs into 

 the Thames, annually, from the city of London, amounts to 



1,095,000,000 pounds in one year, 

 and contains nitrogen sufficient to produce 



1,600,000,000 pounds of wheat, 

 1,800,000,000 pounds of barley ; 



and, calculating this waste at a moderate value, for agricultu 

 ral purposes, London suffers a loss of 1,000,000 sterling, or 

 5,000,000 dollars per year. 



These curious statistics will, I know, give no offence to any 

 sensible person ; and they may suggest considerations of the 

 very highest moment to the rising cities of the United States, 

 where the sanatary and economical arrangements are not com 

 pleted, and in many cases not begun. They especially enforce 

 upon every individual farmer the duty of examining and hus 

 banding, with a miserly frugality, all the resources of his own 

 farm, even the most inconsiderable and humble. They have, I 

 may be allowed to say, a far higher use by leading the reflecting 

 and serious mind to admire and adore the never-ending circles 

 of the divine beneficence the mixed and wonderful compensa 

 tions and mutual subserviences which pervade the whole system 

 of nature ; and, above all, that constant miracle of miracles, going 

 on continually in the vegetable world, by which the most worth 

 less and the most offensive substances are returned again to bless 

 the animal creation, in those substantial products by which life 

 is sustained, and comfort every where diffused, in fruits most 

 delicious to the senses, and in plants, and flowers, which, in 



