European Agriculture and Rural Economy. 223 



specifically different, and the effects upon vegetation different. I pretend 

 not to say in what this difference consists ; this, chemistry has not yet 

 reached, though I can but hope the goal will presently be attained. I am 

 not therefore entirely satisfied with any account which chemistry has given 

 of guano, so far as its operation is concerned. It has done much, and is 

 clearly able to determine the different specific values of different samples. 

 This is of great importance to the farmer, and not less so to the honest 

 dealer. But the specific qualities of this extraordinary manure, as proved 

 by its effects, are, I presume to believe, with all possible respect for science, 

 yet to be discovered. I know the consequence of questioning the infallibil- 

 ity of the pope, but I am no Catholic. 



One, indeed, may well speak of its effects as extraordinary, from what I 

 myself have seen. In Scotland, last autumn, two shrubs were shown to 

 me, sweet-briers, growing in front of a two-story house, and trained upon 

 its sides; one at one, the other at the other end. The soil in which they 

 grew, the aspect, and other circumstances, were the same. One, in the 

 season, had grown six or seven feet; the other, nearly thirty feet! It had 

 actually climbed to the roof of the house, and turned and hung down, reach- 

 ing half the distance down from the roof to the ground. I judged this 

 could not have been less than thirty feet. This had been repeatedly water- 

 ed with liquid guano, by the hands of its fair cultivator ; for this was another 

 experiment by a lady, (which I hope my American friends will bear in 

 mind.) The other had received no special care or manuring. This charm- 

 ing woman, surrounded by her lovely children, was equally engaged in 

 teaching the young idea as the sweet-brier how to shoot, and they too 

 showed the beautiful results of devoted and assiduous culture. 



I have seen the extraordinary effects of the application of guano all over 

 the country, and I have met with very few instances of disappointment. I 

 have been favored with a great many reports of its application ; but my 

 readers will, I think, be better satisfied with general results, than with a 

 long list of particular examples. 



When I speak of its extraordinary effects, I yet do not consider them as 

 so surprising as the effects of gypsum in many parts of the United States, 

 whose operation, I venture to say, remains wholly unexplained. I do not, 

 of course, mean to imply that one can be substituted for the other. The 

 effects of half a bushel of finely-powdered gypsum, scattered over an acre 

 of land, in some places, in increasing the crop of grass, and in respect to 

 some other crops, is amazing; yet in all England, I have not been able to 

 find a single well-attested example of its being applied with any benefit 

 whatever. The application of guano has been made, in England and Scot- 

 land, to all kinds of plants, and in some instances with great success ; in- 

 deed, with rarely a failure. 



It has been used for turnips, barley, wheat, oats, grass, garden vegeta- 

 bles, onions, asparagus, potatoes, flowers, and trees. I have seen its ap- 

 plication in all these cases, excepting asparagus and trees ; but the testi- 

 mony which certifies its success in these cases is unquestionable. Compar- 



