186 GUANO. 



them. The remarkable extension which the culture 

 of these crops has obtained in Saxony during the 

 last ten years, is chiefly owing to this manure. 

 Their cultivation reaches, in the rough Erzgebirge,* 

 even to a height of 2,000 feet above the level of 

 the sea. By the assistance of guano in the more 

 mountainous districts, summer rape is raised on a 

 far more extensive scale than was formerly the 

 case. Since this plant requires a very short time to 

 attain maturity, and is readily marketable immedi- 

 ately after its harvest, the money expended in ma- 

 nuring, together with the gain attained thereby, is 

 returned in some three months, and the land is at 

 the same time brought into a state extremely suita- 

 ble to the reception of the winter sowing, yielding 

 without any fresh manuring an excellent crop. In 

 these hilly districts, guano furnishes an additional 

 and altogether peculiar advantage in the sowing of 

 winter rye on land that has had a single ploughing 

 after growing grass for one or more years, and, if 

 the soil is not too heavy and binding, it has proved 

 of extraordinary service ; for if the extent of these 

 winter sowings was formerly contingent upon the 

 quantity of manure actually present in the farm- 

 yard, any extension that is desired may now be 

 given to them by the assistance of guano. 



It would lead us here too far to communicate the 

 special results obtained by practical experiment in 



* A chain of mountains extending between Bohemia and Saxony. 



