1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



235 



IMPROVEMENT OF STOCK. 



Considerable has been said of late, of the hereti- 

 cal notions put forth in the Report on Milch Cows, 

 in Essex County, 1855. Without presuming to be 

 expert in these matters, we beg leave to call atten- 

 tion to the closing sentence of this report, which 

 reads as follows, viz : — 



"Whether cross breeding with imported stock — 

 or a course of judicious selection for a series of 

 years from one common stock, be they natives or 

 nameless, or your well aiding the selection, by a 

 system of constant care and nutritious food, will 

 best accomplish the end in view, your committee 

 express no opinion." 



Although the intelligent chairman of this com- 

 mittee prudently abstains from the expression of 

 an opinion, no one can carefully analyze and com- 

 pare the facts included in his report, (see abstract, 

 p. 193 — 199,) without coming to the conclusion 

 that his own judgment was in favor of "the common 

 stock" of the country as the best basis of hope for 

 improvement. 



For the New England Farmer. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH GUANO. 



Mr. Editor : — Dear Sir, — In your number 

 of the loth inst., is a statement purporting to be 

 my experience in the use of Peruvian guano, which 

 is far from my experience in practice. If it is not 

 asking too much, you will obhge me by publishing 

 this statement of my experience with the Peruvian 

 guano. 



In the spring of 1852, I purchased one ton of 

 said guano for $56 delivered. The land it was 

 used upon was a gravelly pasture tliat was never 

 manured, plowed in the fall and cross plowed in the 

 spring. The guano was carted into the field in the 

 sacks, and placed so as to be convenient for putting 

 300 pounds per acre, then emptied from the sacks 

 into the furrows, or a smooth place, and mixed 

 with about one-quarter earth, then sowed broad 

 cast from a bag or basket, saving out the hard 

 lumps ; when mixing it with the earth, put the 

 lumps in the sacks, and at some convenient time, 

 place them upon a flat stone, and pound them fine 

 with an axe or stone-hammer, and sow as above ; 

 nubs not larger than walnuts or chestnuts, will do 

 no harm. Sow on still days, if damp weather, all 

 the better, and haiTow as fast as sowed, to keep the 

 ammonia from escaping : then well brushed over 

 with a good white birch bush, so arranged as to 

 take a sweep 12 or 14 feet wide, which is ])refera- 

 ble to a good roller. The second week in May, I 

 planted tlie com square, three and a half feet each 

 way ; then cultivated it both ways ; it required but 

 a little hoeing. Good judges estimated it to in- 

 crease the crop at least fifteen bushels per acre, 

 upon seven acres. We had a good opportunity of 

 judging, as it was side by side with that which had 

 no guano. 



I also made an experiment on meadow lands, 

 both wet and dry, by sowing broadcast 300 pounds 

 per acre, and harrowed as before, and upon each 

 side of said acre, plowed in fifteen loads of 



than the manured, and was eight or ten days ear- 

 lier. In the fall sowed to rye, and when harvested, 

 the guanoed acre had the preference. 



I nave also mixed guano with a quarter earth, or 

 one bushel plaster with 300 pounds guano, per 

 acre, and sowed it as a top-dressing in the spring 

 upon grass ; sow in damp weather or before a rain. 

 I have tried it upon wet, rich lands, and upon up- 

 lands poor and dry, with good success. Also, after 

 taking off the first and second crop of hay, it has 

 always paid. 



In the spring of 1854, 1 purchased of Messrs. 

 Allen & Co., of Springfield, the Peruvian guano, at 

 $53 per ton. Sowed one ton upon eight acres of 

 gravelly pasture as above ; cultivated as above, and 

 it gave me 218 bushels good shelled corn ; all that 

 saw it judged that the guano increased the crop 

 100 bushels ; the stalks sold for $30, which would 

 not have brought more than ten ; the corn sold for 

 $110, so that the $53 worth of guano, gave a prof- 

 it of $77. I am confident it produced mor* com 

 than $100 worth of manure, to say nothing about 

 drawing it one and a half miles. In the fall, sowed 

 the above to rye, adding 150 pounds guano per 

 acre ; it more than doubled any previous crop, and 

 gave fifty per cent, more grass, for feed, than ever 

 before. 



I also plowed in fifteen good cart loads of stable 

 manure per acre, on seven acre* of my meadow, 

 some of it warm, some cold and hea\')' loam ; sowed 

 150 pounds guano upon five acres of it, and bushed 

 the whole, but did not harrow for fear of disturbing 

 the manure ; planted the corn the third week in 

 May, three feet square, cut it up the first week in 

 September, husked early in October, ripe and dry. 

 Weighed the haisked corn from the same number 

 of hills upon one rod of each, and upon three dif- 

 ferent rods of each, and made an estimate of the 

 number of hills to the acre, and allowing 74 pounds 

 to the bushel, as it was very dry, and found the av- 

 erage increase per acre of the five acres that were 

 guanoed, was 23 bushels, so that $19,87 worth of 

 guano gave an increase of 115 bushels good shelled 

 corn, and it was eight or ten days earlier than the 

 two acres that had no guano upon the land, just 

 alike, and has been treated and cultivated alike for 

 years. 



Also sowed half a ton at the rate of from 100 to 

 150 pounds per acre. The drought affected some 

 fields so that it would not more than pay for har- 

 vesting. It was so with mine where no guano was 

 used, side by side, but where it was used, it had 

 very little if any effect — all cultivated alike in rak- 

 ing to set it up ; where the guano was it produced 

 nine bunches to one on the same chstance where 

 there was no guano used, the straw was increased 

 enough to pay for the guano — to say nothing of the 

 berry which was very heavy and nice. 



Last spring, 1855, plowed in fifteen cart loads of 

 good stable manure per acre, on nine acres of warm 

 river land. Then sowed 250 pounds guano per 

 acre, and bushed it in with a bush harrow, as I call 

 it. Planted the first week in May, the Dutton 

 twelve-rowed yellow corn ; fifteen years ago the 

 ears were short ; by selecting the best ears for seed, 

 they have increased in length and size of the great 

 twelve-rowed corn, that is late. Every hill came 

 ood up and was healthy, and of a dark green color, and 

 stable manure. The land was equally good, and was even over the whole field. The first week in 

 was planted and cultivated alike. The acre that August the ears were suitable for boiling ; cut it up 

 was guanoed yielded from a quarter to a third more ' the second week in September, and hnsVed in Oo- 



