6rMi SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



should be manufactured, that I will endeavor to show you how 

 to manufacture, as well as my knowledge will enable me, and 

 which it is recommended you should apply in large quantities 

 at a time, in hopes permanently to enrich your sandy soil. It 

 is equally beneficial on other soils, and enables it to absorb and 

 hold the beneficial juices of the manure of future years, which 

 are necessary for the support of a constant luxuriant vegeta- 

 tion. Some here may have seen districts where there are five 

 to ten inches of black surface soil resting on many feet depth 

 of gravel, sand, clay or rock, and these few inches are all there 

 is to depend on for raising annual crops. I have seen large 

 districts in Europe where the solid chalk was covered by six 

 or eight inches of yellow or black earth, as it consisted of loam 

 or vegetable matter, on which, by careful tillage, the finest crops 

 were annually raised. It is these few inches of highly reten- 

 tive soil into which you should convert the surface of your 

 sandy plains, and from which you may raise remunerative 

 crops. 



The first prominent idea to impress on your minds, is the 

 importance of the consolidation or concentration of your ma- 

 nure, that is, of making it occupy the smallest possible space. 

 Why is guano so much superior to any other artificial manure, 

 however scientifically composed ? It is because its ingredients 

 have lain, in immense masses, one or two hundred feet deep, 

 for centuries, under the pressure of constant accumulations, un- 

 til all its virtues have become condensed into the smallest pos- 

 sible bulk ; observe also, it has been well stored and protected. 

 On the guano islands it never rains, but there are heavy dews 

 which moisten the top ; the hot sun bakes this damp portion 

 into a hard crust, which completely protects it and prevents 

 the exhalation of any of the valuable gases from the under- 

 neath layers ; and I name this, because I mean to insist also 

 on the principle of this protection as an absolutely requisite 

 part of the process for storing manure. No doubt the night 

 soil, which is now deodorized and manufactured into poudrette 

 and other artifical manures, would be much improved if it could 

 be left for years in large masses to concentrate, under proper 

 protection j and probably this want of concentration by time, 



