258 HANDY-BOOK OF HUSBANDRY. 



consume the crops raised, there is no other agent so valuable as 

 Peruvian guano ; for the cultivation of hired land, or land which 

 has been bought ^t a low rate for a specific purpose, the crops 

 being sold away, nothing is more injurious. 



This manure is as powerful and almost as dangerous as gun- 

 powder. It may tfe made to produce the best permanent results, 

 and to add more than almost any thing else can to the prosperity 

 of the farmer. But unless managed with care and prudence he 

 might almost as well blow up his whole concern, for certain im- 

 poverishment of the land, and probably of the farmer too, will 

 result from such a system of robbery as Peruvian guano makes 

 possible and strongly tempts us to. 



Fish guano is subject to all of the recommendations, and to all 

 of the strictures which have been applied in the case of Peruvian 

 guano. It is the refuse of fish-oil works, which have been estab- 

 lished within a few years, along our eastern coast, where the 

 menhaden, or moss-bunker, is subjected to hydraulic pressure for 

 the extraction of its oil. The refuse, which is ground more or less 

 fine, is sold for manure, and, containing all of the bones and all of 

 the nitrogenous elements of the fish, has a very highly stimulating 

 effect, and is, undoubtedly, a capital fertilizer when used with 

 discretion. Several manufacturers of superphosphate of lime add 

 fish guano to their products in order to give them a more rapid 

 action. It is a question, however, whether they do not get so 

 high a price for the guano added as to make their fertilizers too 

 expensive for use. Unfortunately, also, there are no means by 

 which they may be restrained from adding sand, ashes, and other 

 worthless material to the mass, and so swindle their purchasers 

 to an unlimited extent. Such fertilizers should be purchased 

 only by careful chemical analysis, their price being regulated ac- 

 cording to the value of their useful constituents. 



Solvent Manures. 



It is hardly possible — indeed, it is quite impossible — to separate 

 into a class by themselves those manures whose action is due to 



