42 



crops require. The farmer is satisfied with its operation, and 

 wants nothing better. But he cannot, in ordinary cases, make 

 enough of it to answer his purpose. It is a costly article to man- 

 ufacture, and, at the present price of labor, it can be carried out 

 and applied to the land only at great expense. Hence he uses 

 guano, not as a substitute for barn-yard manure, but as an aux- 

 iliary. The time may come, under judicious management, when 

 the land shall yield such crops as will, in their consumption and 

 in the consequent production of manure, render guano unneces- 

 sary. 



Of course all experiments will not be successful. Guano is a 

 new and powerful fertihzer. People forget or do not know its 

 strength, employ it too lavishly and kill thedr seed, or scatter it in 

 dry weather and its ammonia evaporates, or cover it too lightly or 

 not at all, and the same result follows, or neglect to mix it thor- 

 oughly with mould or mud before using it, and thus lose part of 

 its virtue. There is no remedy for this but increased knowledge 

 and experience. In England, where it has been most used, it is 

 prized more highly each succeeding year. There, and in some of 

 our middle and southern States, where it is extensively employed 

 in restoring worn-out land, it is found to be a cheap, profitable 

 and lasting manure. There is not a subject connected with farm- 

 ing, about Avhich so many inquiries are made of this committee, 

 as about guano.* 



We are obhged to report a general failure in the potato crop. 

 Many ingenious theories have been proposed, to account for the 

 rot, but no preventive has yet been found. Perhaps none will be 

 found short of an entire renewal of the stock from seed grown in 



* From a series of very carefully made experiments by Mr. William 

 Fleming, of Barochan, Scotland, he came to these conclusions : — " Par- 

 ticular attention should be paid when guano is used, that it be well mixed 

 with the soil, as this is of the greatest importance to the health of the plants 

 and tBe bulk of the crop, especially in the case of potatoes and turnips. It 

 has also been found, after many trials, that the best and most economical 

 way of using guano for the potato crop, is by adding two or three hundred 

 pounds per acre to half the usual quantity of farm-yard dung, which Avill 

 be found to give at least as good a crop as double the quantity of dung 

 alone, whilst it is much cheaper in the first cost, and saves much cartage. 

 For hay crops, the most profitable way of using salt, ammonia, nitrate of 

 soda and guano, is to make a compost, &c." 



