1846.] Guano. 319 



not know whether the plan is feasible or not, and yet the sug- 

 gestion is a good one, and well worthy of consideration. But to 

 return to the consideration of guano, we copy in continuation an 

 article in the same valuable journal we have just referred to. 



" For the use of guano in this country, besides these general 

 reasons, there are the particular ones offered by the article itself. 

 Its component parts are precisely those we want for manure, and 

 precisely those we have in the manures usually emplo) ed, but in 

 a far more concentrated form. It appears from the analyses made 

 by many distinguished chemists, to contain everything that is 

 wanted to act on soils and increase their powers of producing, as 

 well as every ingredient contained in plants. From this it would 

 seem expressly designed for a strong action on vegetable life, 

 and expressly calculated for the restoration of worn-out soils. In 

 this country, as we have before said, the experiments have been 

 so few and on so small a scale, that we cannot bring forward 

 much of a practical and definite nature to bear out this opinion. 

 All that has been done here, however, proves it, and if we choose 

 to admit the success of England, there is no doubt or cjuestion on 

 that point. In the experiments that were made last year in dif- 

 ferent parts of the country, it should be borne in mind that the 

 season was extremely unfavorable. The drouth at the commence- 

 ment of the season, and the long continued and excessive heat, 

 would have kept back the action of any manure, more particu- 

 larly of one that must have moisture for its decomposition. There 

 was besides a very severe frost in the spring, that killed acres of 

 wheat and cut down potatoes and corn: this, with the aid of the 

 cut-worm, in some cases very much diminished the anticipated 

 glories of the guano. But as far as the experiments made in 

 East Bradford went, they prove the strong action of guano on 

 vegetation. The clover and the grass were both very much in- 

 creased; the corn which was moistened with a solution of guano, 

 showed itself sooner than any of the rest of the field, and ap- 

 peared, until attacked by the frost and worm, much the most 

 flourishing. For so slight an application, this was all that could 

 be expected; but if this had been followed up by the Peruvian 

 mode of throwing the guano about the roots after the corn reaches 

 a few inches in height, and then again when out in tassel, the 

 full eflfect would have been seen, and a general conclusion could 

 have been drawn, as respects its action upon this vegetable. But 

 unless each plant had been watered after these applications, the 

 excessive drouth would have caused disappointment, and the ma- 

 nure considered in fault. A gentleman near Boston, on a poor, 

 sterile, sandy soil, planted a few hills with the variety known as 

 sweet corn. A teaspoonful of guano — South American — was 

 mixed with the soil when the corn was sown. A second appli- 



