1855. 



NEW ENGLAND F^VRMER. 



23 



erful, that corn and even potatoes will refuse to 

 vegetate, if the seed be placed in contact with it. 

 Many persons destroyed their seed -ast season, by 

 placing it over guano, imperfectly covered. If 

 you converse with these persons, you will find 

 most of them will declare, they did cover the 

 guano an inch or two deep, at least, before drop- 

 ping the seed, and if you pursue the investiga- 

 tion further, you will, in nine cases out of ten, as- 

 certain that the covering was done with the foot, 

 and not with a hoe. It is true, that it makes no 

 particular difference how the earth is put upon 

 the guano, provided it be thoroughly done ; but 

 where we see men go into the field and actually 

 cover an acre of corn or potatoes with a cowhide 

 boot, instead of a good polished steel hoe, we 

 shall continue to look upon the kicking process 

 with suspicion. "With the help of my boy Wil- 

 lie, of ten years old, I applied guano to about an 

 acre of corn, at the rate of one ounce to the 

 hill, and covered it about an inch and a half 

 deep, with a hoe, with my own hands, and not 

 one single hill was injured, and the whole was 

 much benefited, while close by, on similar land, 

 part of a neighbor's cornfield to which guano 

 had been applied, looked as one might imagine 

 Sodom andn^romorrah to appear, after the first 

 shower of fire and brimstone. One-half the piece 

 was nearly destroyed, .while the other grew very 

 handsomely. I inquired the reason of the differ- 

 ence, and was informed that the first half was 

 carefully covered with a hoe, and the other with 

 the foot. 



For one, I am not yet prepared to admit that 

 guano is not to be used to advantage, by our 

 farmers in New England. 



That it will supercede the use of other fertil- 

 izers, no sensible farmer will pretend, and no one 

 should neglect to use all the means which Nature 

 has put within his control to increase the quan- 

 tity of manure on his farm. But, after we have 

 carefully saved everything from the stable and 

 barn and vaults and sinks and swamps and woods, 

 we often have not enough, and sometimes may 

 purchase with profit. Evcryljody knows some- 

 thing of the labor and expense of hauling and 

 composting stable manure, and the time necessa- 

 rily consumed in these operations. If we con- 

 sider, that when we have loaded a ton of man- 

 ure in our barn cellar, and hauled it out with 

 four oxen, and perhaps laid it in a large pile, 

 and afterwards reloaded it, and dropped it in 

 small heaps, and once more handled it all over 

 in spreading, if we consider that of the whole 

 ton, all but four hundred pounds is water, just 

 such as we are deluged with every spring, it does 

 not seem unreasonable that farmers should look 

 carefully for some more concentrated form of fer- 

 tilizers. My intention now is, to say enough to 

 keep the subject in mind, as still an open one, 



for while we have not yet experience enough in 

 the use of guano, to satisfy us how it may be 

 used to the best advantage, there can be no 

 doubt that it is a powerful stimulant and fertil- 

 izer, when properly applied. 



The great question yet remains open, whether 

 at the present prices of guano, and of crops, it 

 can be profitably purchased. 



I will now give a statement made by Mr. Ru- 

 fus Sanborn, of Hampton Falls, at the meeting 

 before named, as I pencilled it down, when he 

 gave it. It may be remarked, by the way, that 

 the Hampton Falls Farmers' Club, of M'hich ]Mr. 

 Sanborn is a member, has been conducting a 

 course of experiments, with the various fertilizers, 

 which may be of great service, if we can procure 

 them for publication. 



Mr. Sanborn's first experiment was with pota- 

 toes. He planted them on dry land, on which he 

 had applied sixteen loads of manure and plowed 

 it in. He put one hundred pounds of Peruvian 

 guano into the hills, on half an acre, lea\ing the 

 rest with no manure except what Avas plowed in. 

 He dug the potatoes in July, and sold them at 

 an average price of one dollar fifty cents a bush- 

 el. He got just twenty-five per cent, more po- 

 tatoes where the guano was applied, and they 

 were of better size. 



His crop was one hundred bushels to the acre. 

 The value of the guano and labor of applying it 

 was three dollars, and the gain by its use about 

 twelve and a half bushels of potatoes which sold 

 for $18,75. On another piece of similar land, 

 he applied swamp mud in the hill, to the whole, 

 and to a part Peruvian guano at the rate of 100 

 pounds to the acre, which increased the crop one 

 bushel in ten. The crop was understood to be a 

 later crop than the first, and to have been 200 

 bushels to the acre, so that the 100 lbs. of guano 

 worth three dollars, gave twenty bushels of po- 

 tatoes worth about sixteen dollars. 



Mr. Sanborn applied 100 lbs. to three-quarters 

 of an acre, and plowed it in for Rye, leaving a 

 part of the piece with no guano. It was cut by 

 his men in his absence, and not kept sepai-ato. 

 The whole crop was twenty bushels to the acre, 

 which he called a small crop. His opinion is, 

 that there was fully double the quantity of sti'aw, 

 and nearly double the quantity of grain on the 

 part where the guano was applied. He applied 

 200 lbs. to an acre for Barley, and inci'eased his 

 crop one-third by the means, as compared with a 

 part of the field not guanoed. 



The part on which the guano was used, gave 

 a crop of fifty bushels to the acre, so that he got 

 about twelve and a half bushels of barley, worth 

 as many dollars, for about five dollars worth of 

 guano, to say nothing of the increase of straw. 



The barley was raised last year, and the land 

 laid to grass. He says there was this year, no 



