GUANO AND FLOUR OF BONE. 283 



ferent soils, one pint in a hill for corn, marked the rows where 

 used, plucked the cars and measured carefully ; difference 

 where used and where not used, imperceptible. Have purchased 

 none of the article since. 



We next tried muriate of lime, a light-colored article, but 

 found ourself sold again. 



Used more or less of Peruvian guano till the figures reached 

 sixty-five dollars per ton, when we discontinued its use. Our 

 experience with that most powerful of all fertilizers convinced 

 us that it was not good policy or economy to apply it to the 

 same soil for a succession of years. The second application 

 never showed so good results as the first. 



The most striking and clearly apparent results from the use 

 of guano were produced in this manner : Having some rows of 

 nursery stock which began to assume a yellowish cast, and 

 stinted in growth, evincing a hungry state, we ran the horse- 

 plough between the rows, sprinkled after the rate of two hun- 

 dred pounds to the acre where the furrow was thrown out, 

 and levelled up again. In two weeks the foliage would turn a 

 darker green, the bark, also, begin to assume a more healthy 

 appearance, and the trees grow quite thriftily till the close of 

 the season. Thus we did at different times, and with uniform 

 favorable results. Our experiments convinced us that the guano 

 spent its force the first year. Could discover no beneficial effect 

 on the trees the second year. Have used Bradley's superphos- 

 phate several times, and every time resolve that that shall be 

 the last. That manure generally pushes plant-growth for a few 

 weeks — its force is gone, and then it leaves the crop, not to die 

 exactly, but, like the old man's calf, to " kinder give out." 



At a subsequent period bought some flour of bone — crushed 

 bone — of Devereaux, Merchants' Row, in Boston. Some of it 

 (the flour) had the appearance of being bewitched, for in spite 

 of all my efforts to hold a little in hand it would crawl out 

 between my fingers. I rather thought quicksand held the 

 preponderance in that barrel. I noticed also that the barrel 

 was nicely lined with paper, as I supposed to keep the stuflf 

 in a nearly water-tight cask. If there was any bone in that 

 mixture I hope yet to harvest big apples and pears where the 

 application was made. Having applied a ton, and learning that 



