184 TALKS OX MANURES. 



Here again, I want the Deacon to look at plot 0, where 500 Ibs. 

 Peruvian guano, sown in October, gives an increase of nearly 14 

 bushels of dressed wheat and 1,375 Ibs. of straw per acre. On plot 

 2, where 14 tons of barn-yard manure have now been applied four 

 years in succession (56 tons in all), there is a little more straw, but 

 not quite so much grain, as from the 500 Ibs. of guano. 



" But will the guano," said the Deacon, " be as lasting as the 

 manure ? " 



" Not for wheat," said I. " But if you seed the wheat down with 

 clover, as would be the case in this section, we should get consid- 

 erable benefit, probably, from the guano. If wheat was sown after 

 the wheat, the guano applied the previous season would do little 

 good on the second crop of wheat. And yet it is a matter of fact 

 that there would be a considerable proportion of the guano left in 

 the soil. The wheat cannot take it up. But the clover can. And 

 we al) know that if we can grow good crops of clover, plowing it 

 under, or feeding it out on the land, or making it into hay and 

 saving the manure obtained from it, we shall thus be enabled to 

 raise good crops of wheat, barley, oats, potatoes, and corn, and 

 in this sense guano is a ' lasting ' manure." 



" Barnyard-manure," said the Doctor, " is altogether too ' last- 

 ing.' Here we have had 56 tons of manure on an acre of land in 

 four years, and yet an acre dressed with 500 Ibs. of guano produces 

 just as good a crop. The manure contains far more plant-food, of 

 all kinds, than the guano, but it is so * lasting ' that it does not do 

 half as much good as its composition would lead us to expect. Its 

 * lasting ' properties are a decided objection, rather than an ad- 

 vantage. If we could make it less lasting in other words, if we 

 could make it act quicker, it would produce a greater effect, and 

 possess a greater value. In proportion to its constituents, the 

 barn-yard manure is far cheaper than the guano, but it has a 

 less beneficial effect, because these constituents are not more com- 

 pletely decomposed and rendered available." 



" That," said I, " opens up a very important question. "We have 

 more real value in manure than most of us are as yet able to bring 

 out and turn to good account. The sandy-land farmer has an ad- 

 vantage over the clay-land farmer in this respect. The latter has a 

 naturally richer soil, but it costs him more to work it, and manure 

 does not act so rapidly. The clay-land farmer should use his best 

 endeavors to decompose his manure." 



" Yes," said the Doctor, " and, like John Johnston, he will prob- 

 ably find it to his advantage to use it largely as a top-dressing on 

 the suiiace. Exposing manure to the atmosphere, spread out on 



