GUANO. 



31 



adapted to develop the agency of Guano than is 

 the climate of the United States. In Peru, the 

 aboriginal savages, as white men, in the asceuJ- 

 ant, are prone to call all people whom they con- 

 quer and plunder, had built up gi-cat canals and 

 works for irrigation, and had cai-ried Agricul- 

 ture and Horticulture to a high degree of im- 

 provement. Hence it was that there, though 

 the cUmate is much more arid than ours. Guano 

 was considered indispensable to the subsistence 

 of the Peruvian population ; for there they had 

 tlie means to irrigate the crops whenever the 

 Guano was applied. In England, on the other 

 hand, the humidity of the atmosphere and their 

 exemption, geuersUy, from drouths, supply the 

 place of inigation ; while in this countrj' we 

 enjoj' not the means of irrigation, and are at the 

 same time exposed to temble drouths. And 

 this, it is obvious, is one of the causes which this 

 year has operated most inauspiciously for the 

 use of Guano, begetting danger that what has 

 been the result of the most extraordinai-j^ drouth 

 almost ever known at that season of the year, 

 when it should have been acting, maj- be as- 

 cribed to inertness or inherent -svorthlessness 

 in the article itself, causing it to be totally con- 

 demned and rejected ; for we cannot claim more 

 than other nations that sedatcuess of chai-acter 

 which should restrain nations as well as indi- 

 viduals fi-om limning suddenly from one ex- 

 treme to the other. 



With these preliminary observations, ■we pro- 

 ceed to submit the most recent notices and com- 

 munications which have fallen under our notice 

 — not having time or space, were it otherwise 

 expedient, to turn to the foreign magazines, 

 which are full of experiments to ascertain the 

 value of Guano in itself and as compared in 

 every form of use, and result, with other ma- 

 nures. And fir.st, from the June number of the 

 Southern Planter, published at Richmond, 

 Virginia : 



" Guano. — I wish to state the following facts 

 for the benefit of the Agricultural community : 



'■ This Spring I purchased of Messi-s. Williams 

 and Haxall a lot of Guano, v^-hich I applied as 

 follows : I mixed Pla.ster with Guano at the 

 rate of two measures to one, and applied of the 

 mbtturc ten bu.shels to the acre on wheat. This 

 was during the drouth. I afterwards repeated 

 the application twice during a rain ujion the 

 game laud, and up to this day I have not per- 

 ceived the least beneficial effect from it. I al.'JO 

 soaked some of my seed oats in brine and roUed 

 them in Guano, without being able to perceive 

 that it produced any effect at all. I aX^o mixed 

 it and applied it to com in the hill, after the 

 manner recommended by Mr. Petticola.s, in the 

 Planter, with a like result. In .short, I feel con- 

 strained to say, that in my ca.se the money and 

 labor expended on Guano, have been entirely 

 thrown away. John Mackenzie." 



We stop here to transcribe fi-om the Ameri 

 can Fanner, vol. 6, pa?e 316, 1S24, what might 

 (79) 



perhaps better have come in previously. The 

 extract is a translation from " A Voyage to 

 South America, hy Don Antonio dc Ullva," 

 vol. 2, page 99. He says : 



" This manure, used in the fields, sowed with 

 Maize, and with proper watering, is found 

 greatly to fertilise tlie soil, a little of it being 

 put close to the stem and then watered. It is 

 also in use in fields of other grain, except Wheat 

 and Barley, and consequently prodigious quan- 

 tities of it ai-e used yearly." 



In corroboration of the above statement, Mr. 

 Bennet, near Brooklyn, a very industrious and 

 mtelligent farmer, told us yesterday that with 

 potatoes and some other crops this year it had 

 destroyed the seed, but he believed it was be- 

 cause he had used an over dose. 



We next call up finend Tatum, of the Farmers' 

 Cabmet, as truthful a man as lives, and very dis- 

 creet withal : 



" In walking one day last week, over the 

 farm of Samuel S. Richie, which lies some 

 eight miles from this city, and a mile east of the 

 Gennantown road, we were highly gratified 

 with its general ajipearance, and with tlie proofs 

 over eveiy part of it of the close attention and^ 

 good management of the owner. His lot of 

 wheat — five acres — ^was really splendid, and the 

 best we have seen this spring, unless it may be 

 rivalled by William R. Tatums field of fifteen 

 acres, at Woodbury. N. J. The lot had wheat 

 in it last season, and produced a miserable crop. 

 All parts of it were manured last fall, either 

 with Poudrctte, Guano. Charcoal from the sugar 

 refiners, refuse from the glue factoiy, or with 

 Salt. These applications are now on their re- 

 spective portions, doing credit to themselves, to 

 the evident satisfaction of the farmer. He men- 

 tioned a little anecdote, which shows at any rate 

 that there is virtue in Guano. W hile he was 

 applying some this Spring on another part of his 

 farm, one of his neighbors came along and rid- 

 iculed the idea of looking for a compensating 

 return for such an expenditure. After he left 

 him. he took a very small quantity — saj- half a 

 pint — into the middle of his neighbor's oat field, 

 which was near by, and strewed it round, i^ as 

 to make on the gi-ound, m large size, the initials 

 S S R, of his own name. The editor accompa- 

 nied him to the spot, and there were the let- 

 ters in bold relief shown by the rank growth 

 and dark color of the oats, as plainly and dis- 

 tinctly as they appear on this page." 



EFFECT OF GUANO, AS NOW EXmRITF.D IN 

 MARYL.^ND, ON WHEAT AND OATS. 

 Sandy Spking, Montgomerv Co.. Md., J 

 5tl! Month let, 1845. ) 

 Eateemed Friend: — I have to report that 

 my Guano experiments increase in interest as 

 they advance to fruition. The first experiment 

 on "an acre of wheat, is likely to surpass even 

 my most .sanguine expectations. It is the most 

 luxuriant growth I ever saw, to be so unifonn 

 and even in height, and regularity mi the ground. 

 The average height is from five "to six feet, with 

 heads quite in proportion. About two and one- 

 half bu.shels was sown to the acre, but I am 

 now satisfied another bushel might have been 

 added, and the yield been in proportion greater. 

 Not less than fifty persons have examined it ; 

 of these a large proportion were from Mary- 

 laud, and some fi-om the District, and Western 



