GUANO. 



183 



The farmer should make use of guano, as the 

 physician employs Peruvian bark, as a universally 

 invigorating or strengthening remedy for sowings of 

 all kinds that have suffered by the severity of win- 

 ter, or which from want of power in the soil, or 

 from any other cause, are backward in their growth. 

 If in the early spring, or at least before the shooting 

 into ear, such sowings are sprinkled over, according 

 to their condition, with from 150 to 200 lbs. of guano 

 per acre, an extraordinary result may be calculated 

 upon in all cases, and more particularly in winter 

 wheat, because its vegetation proceeds but slowly 

 in the spring. The excess over the usual crop pro- 

 duced in this case by the bird-manure must natu- 

 rally be regarded, after subtracting the cost of the 

 guano, as a pure increase of profit ; for the ex- 

 pense of sowing and tillage, the interest of farming 

 capital, taxes, etc., must be computed in estimating 

 the produce which would have been obtained from 

 the field without an additional manuring with 

 guano, and would have been the same if no in- 

 creased produce had been gained. By " making 

 such improvements," plants which are particularly 

 backward in certain portions of the field may be so 

 invigorated, that a very unequal condition of the 

 crop may be converted into a state of exceeding 

 uniformity of growth. 



Employed in this way, even the farmer who pos- 

 sesses an abundance of stable-manure may derive 

 advantage from guano ; for amongst his natural 



