88 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



soil ; and then the large and heavy roller to crack 

 the Walnuts ; and then 



(Even in the most fertile districts the Grass crop 

 had been short the previous summer ; the quantity 

 of manure was therefore small, and the quality, on 

 a farm that had never borne a Turnip !) 



"Shall we begin the ridging up for the Swedes 

 to-morrow ? " quoth the bailiff. 



"Yes, one-half of it; the other half will be ma- 

 nured with guano." 



" With what, Sir!" 



I will spare the reader the little scene of utter 

 mystification which followed this announcement ; the 

 subject would be antiquated now ; though many an 

 amusing tale might doubtless be told of the first 

 introduction of that "magic compound" upon the 

 rural mind. In spite of smiles, winks, murmurings, 

 shakes of the foreboding head, and other demonstra- 

 tions, jocular and serious, the guano was at last duly 

 sown, on the flat, a ton to five acres,* and ridged 

 in ; the other five receiving a hundred cartloads of 

 "the good old stuff," hauled (nearly half a mile) 

 from the farm-yard, forked into the ridges, and 

 covered in by a second ridging, as usual. 



* 150 to 250 pounds to the aero, after careful experiment, 

 are found to be sufficient for the thinnest American soils. ED. 



