490 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



culiar manner many of the most essential fertilizing properties and constituents 

 of the various crops, the value which it derives from its portability almost defies 

 calculation ! For in no country in the world does a labor-saving property of itself 

 confer so much value on anything as in this. While labor is everywhere dear, 

 food and everything else, and especially land, is everywhere metaphorically and 

 literally " as cheap as dirt.'" 



Let us stop here again to say that Farmers' Clubs should be formed in every 

 election district in the Union, and that, through their instrumentality informa- 

 tion might and ought to be collected on all such subjects as this. Why, for ex- 

 ample, through a Farmers' Club at Upper Marlborough, or at Leonardtown, or at 

 Easton, or at Cambridge in Maryland, might not every reading farmer in the 

 county be made perfectly familiar, through the papers at those places, with 

 all that has been done and experienced with guano or lime throughout these 

 counties respectively up to this date ? But we must come back to our purpose, 

 which was merely to submit the following instructions for the use of guano on 

 turnips by a Scotch farmer of great experience. 



If we are met with the standing interrogatories — Don't you know the turnip 

 culture is not the branch of husbandry in this country that it is in England ? we 

 answer Yes ; and what fool does not ? But the observant reader will see that 

 there is still ample room and verge enough to turn all such communications of 

 experience to useful account. If we may not apply guano to turnips on a large, 

 we may on a small scale ; and besides, the directions given may be useful in the 

 application of guano to any other drilled crop, and corn is getting to be one of 

 them. 



From ' The (London) Plough.' 

 METHOD OF ArPLYING GUANO FOR TURNIPS. 



Sir : I am desu-ous, through the medium 

 of your journal, to call the attention of agii- 

 eulturists to the proper mode of employing 

 this valuable manure. I have every reason 

 to believe that want of success, or disappoint- 

 ment, from the use of this article, in so many 

 instances, in England, has arisen altogether 

 from inattention to the proper way of apply- 

 ing it ; and I have no doubt that, were a fair 

 trial in every instance made, according to the 

 method adopted in my own practice, and so 

 generally alowed here, guano would soon he 

 in as universal repute in England as it is now 

 throughout Scotland. 1 fec^^l the more called 

 tin and enc'ouragcd to communicate my far- 

 ther experience, and to make the present 

 reconmiendalion to my hri^thren in the South, 

 as I believe I was among the hrst to ]ioint 

 the attention of agricultunsts, generally, lo 

 the practical value- of this first of nuiiiure.s in 

 the growth of tuniips, and have since very 

 successfully, and without one instance of 

 failure, extended its application to this crop, 

 to the extent of considerably upward of 100 

 acres, in each of the two seasons. I\ly method, 

 then, is simply this : After reducing the gua- 

 no, by means of l)ruising and sifting, to an 

 equal ami unifonn consistency, to ajiply it in 

 the drill, by tlio hand, without any admixture 

 of^other sulisfance. The drills heing formed 

 iu the usual way, as in Scotland generally, 

 for the reception of other manures, in prui>u- ! 

 (K»10) 



ration for turnips not quite so deep, perhaps, 

 as for faiTu-yard dung, the guano is applied 

 from the jiand, in the center of the original 

 rib, or drill, wliich hemg reformed by being 

 split, the manure is eftectually covered, so as 

 to pi'event injury to the seed ))y contact, 

 whicli, it is presumed has been the entire 

 cause of failure when a dift'erent method has 

 been pursued. The seed is then sown, by 

 the ordinary drill-machine, on the top of the 

 drill so made up. In no case ouglit it to he 

 attempted to pnt in the guano along with the 

 seed, or by means of any implement where a 

 full covering of earth does not intervene be- 

 tween the manure and the seed ; and, indeed, 

 from the nature ami consistency of the male- 

 rial, it is very doubtful if it is at all possilile. 

 by anv maciiine, to disti-ilnite it in that equal 

 manner neceisary ti»r the growlli of a imilbnn 

 crop. J may farther mention tiiat the guano 

 is here apjilied by women or boys, who, upon 

 the land being stepped oil', are supjilied fnmi 

 a car at either end of the drills, with no more 

 than is sullicient for each ; anil in this way, 

 after a lew turns, tiiey obtain an exactitude 

 in the opeiation, wiiich is abundantly evi- 

 denced from the precise e(puility of the croj>, 

 and which n)ay be said to be characteristic- 

 ally indicative of turnips manured with giuuio. 

 The usual (piantily 1 liave employed peraci" 

 is 3 cwts. ; ami, lliougli it does seem of small 

 bulk to distribute so far, and, indeed, wheu 



