HOW TO ENRICH THE SOIL. 407 



If we recall to mind the facts, that in Peru, guano is no sooner 

 applied than the land is irrigated, and that in England no sooner is 

 it spread over the land than a shower commences ; and that this 

 shower, or something very near akin to it, keeps itself up all sum- 

 mer long, in the latter country ; and if we then recollect, that in the 

 middle States, five summers out of six, any substance applied near 

 the surface of the ground is as dry as a snuff-box, for the most part 

 of the time, from June to September, we shall not be greatly at a 

 loss to know why so many persons, in this country, believe guano to 

 be nothing more or less than a " humbug." 



If any very good proof of this were wanted, we need go no fur- 

 ther than to the exotic florists in our cities, who cultivate their plants 

 in pots, for their experience. They are nearly the only class of 

 cultivators among us who are sturdy champions for the use of guano. 

 The reason is plain. They use it only in the liquid state, and apply 

 it so as to give the plants under their care every now and then a 

 good wholesome drink, a thorough soaking of a sort of soup more 

 relishing to them than any in M. Soyer's new cookery book, to an 

 epicure in a London club-house. 



Now it is quite impossible for an American cultivator to do any 

 thing worth mentioning, in the way of watering his trees or crops 

 with liquid guano ; partly because labor is too dear, but mainly be- 

 cause the air is so dry and hot, that in a few hours the earth is drier 

 than before ; and so all good effects are at an end. What then is 

 to be done, to enable us to use guano with success ? 



We answer in a few words. Use it in the autumn. 



We know this is quite contrary to the advice of previous writers, 

 and that it will be considered by many a great waste of riches. But 

 our advice is founded on experience, an ounce of which, in such a 

 matter as this, is worth a ton of theory drawn from observation in 

 other climates. 



After having tried guano in various ordinary modes, at the usual 

 season, and with so little satisfaction as to find ourselves among the 

 skeptics as to its merits for this country, we at last made trial of it in 

 the autumn. We spread it over the soil of the kitchen garden, be- 

 fore digging it up at the approach of winter, and, to our astonish- 

 ment, found our soil so treated more productive, even in very dry 



