184 TALKS OX MANURES. 



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

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

 bushels of dressed wheat and 1,375 lbs. of stniw per acre. On plot 

 2, where 14 tons of bam 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 lbs. of guano. 



"But will the guauu," said the Deaoon, "be as lasting as the 

 manure ?" 



" Not for wheat," said I. " But if you seed the wheat d(jwn 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 i.s a matter of fact 

 lliat there would l^e a considerable proportion of the guano left in 

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

 we all know tliat if we can grow good cro|)s 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 tlius be enabled to 

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

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



" Barnyard-manure," 3;iid 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 lbs. of guano produces 

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

 all kinds, than the guano, but it is so ' la.-^ting' tliat it <loes not do 

 half as much good as its composition would lead us to expect. It3 

 ' histing' properties are a decided objection, rather tlian 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 eflfect, and 

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

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

 less beneficial eflP^ct, because these constituents are not more com- 

 pletely decomposed and rendered available." 



" Tliat,'' 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 accoimt. The sandy-land farmer has an ad- 

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

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

 docs not act so rapidly. The clay-land farmer siiould 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 larircly as a top-dressing on 

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



