MANURES. 81 



Another valuable fertilizer from manufactories is " sugar 

 house scum," which is composed largely of blood, char- 

 coal, and saccharine refuse ; as it heats violently, instead 

 of being thrown in heaps by itself, it should be composted 

 wi th equal quantities of soil or muck, and turned frequent- 

 ly, so that the whole is thoroughly mixed ; thus when 

 composted, it makes an excellent manure at twenty tons 

 per acre ; it is best applied by lightly plowing, or deeply 

 harro wing-in. 



Of concentrated manures, perhaps the best for general 

 purposes, is pure Peruvian guano ; this for general crops, 

 when used without the addition of stable manures, is put 

 on at the rate of from 1000 to 1200 pounds per acre; it is 

 first pounded to powder so that it can be regularly sown 

 over the surface, after plowing ; it is then thoroughly har- 

 rowed in, and the crop is sown or planted at once. In my 

 experience, the next best concentrated fertilizer is bone- 

 dust, or flour of bone ; in experiments last season, with 

 our crops of cauliflower and cabbage, we applied it in 

 the same manner as guano, but at the rate of nearly 2000 

 pounds per acre, and it gave most satisfactory results, sur- 

 passing those of guano, where that had been used at the rate 

 of 1200 pounds per acre. In applying manures to the 

 soil, we have long ago discovered the great importance of 

 an alternation of different kinds ; when I first began busi- 

 ness as a market gardener, I had opportunities of getting 

 large quantities of night soil from the scavengers of Jersey 

 City ; this was mixed with stable manure, charcoal, saw- 

 dust, or any other absorbent most convenient, and applied 

 so mixed at the rate of about 30 ^tons per acre. The 

 ciops raised with this manure were enormous, for two or 



