COMPOST MANURES, GUANO, ETC. 91 



the manure is hauled on the land. This done, we proceed to 

 spread it out over the land, by first running off the rows with 

 a scooter-plough in the old water furrow, which is yet per- 

 fectly visible, though the land lay last year in fallow then two 

 hands are put to each heap row of manure, with good shovels 

 (Ames' long handles are best), and they scatter each heap 

 for fifteen feet on all sides, which gives ten bushels of good 

 manure to the surface of 900 square feet. All this is plain, 

 simple, efficacious and practical ; thus the broadcasting con- 

 tinues, until one suit of rows is done, when the ploughs com- 

 mence, by first running around these rows with a scooter good 

 and deep, and the balance is broken and bedded out with good 

 turning-ploughs, by running four times in each row, thus di- 

 viding the soil equally, and throwing up each row uniformly. 

 You thus see that the manure is incorporated equally and uni- 

 formly throughout all the soil. Whatever may be the opinion 

 of casuists to the contrary, this is the true economy in the ap- 

 plication of compost manures. I have given you, in this de- 

 tail, the plan of operations that I pursue, in the preparation 

 and application to the soil of compost manure ; I shall, there- 

 fore, close this article with a few brief remarks upon the ap- 

 plication and value of guano. 



Ten to twelve years ago, guano, as a fertilizer, was com- 

 paratively unknown to the planters of the South. At the 

 present time, however, the readers of the Cotton Planter are 

 well " posted up" on the subject of its history and constituent 

 elements, as a fertilizer. My attention was first directed to 

 it in 1842, by an article from the pen of Prof. Liebig, prepared 

 for the British Association of Agriculture. I was confident, 

 after examining his analysis of guano, that it contained the 

 true elements for the food of the cereals, and for the cotton 

 plant, out of which to perfect the seed. I had it introduced 

 into Alabama immediately, for experiment on cotton, the re- 



