13.—1846.] THE 
AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
209 
OTTER'S GUANO FOR TURNIPS. 
Result of an Experiment tried by Professor DAUBENY, 
communicated to the Royal Agricultural Society,and published 
in their “J 1,” Vol. vi. Part 2. 
in their Journal >RODUCE PER ACRE. 
Weight of 
s| 
zi 
| Ibs. 
1 Unmanured .. .. oo E ..| 14,298 
2 Bone Shavings, 10 cwt. Se Pec EE 
3 Manure Company's Guano, 260 Tb: SG 26,058. 
4 Nitrate of Soda, 14 cwt. E E 28,459 
5 Phosphorite, 12 ewt. — . r 28,639 
6 Ditto, with Oil of Vitriol m " 30,869 
7 Peruvian m * 81,114 
8 Bones, with Vitriolic Acid, oe «| 91,89 
9 ima Kcd c EE S 
10 Sulphate Ammonia, 1 ewt., .. I. ^. ..| 32,070 
11 Bones, finely powdered, 12 cwt. «+ E . ee 
12|POTTER’S GUANO, 260 Ibs. oo be al 3 
Oxford, Dec. 8, 1845. 
Nore.—It thus appears, that by the application of POTTERS 
Guano, the productive power of the Jand was nearly trebled ; 
and when tried against eleven other artificial manures, it beat 
them all, producing a greater weight of BULBS, at a much less 
cost. 
Its superiority over the Peruvian is evident in this trial, the 
latter applied at a cost of 25s. giving 31,114 Ibs. ; while Por- 
rER’s, costing 21s. gave 37,201 tbs. 
‘A similar result on Grass was obtained by LORD ZETLAND in 
1842. See his Testimonial. 
gar Wanted, a few active intelligent AGENTS, 
: * Observe, Mr. Porrer’s present address is 28, Clapham-road- 
Y place, London, 
The Agricultural Gazette, 
SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 1846. 
" ‘Agricultural Society of England. 
Wapwrspax, April d Highland and Agricultural Society. 
‘THURSDAY, — 2 land, 
LOCAL SOCIETIES. 
" " hi E. Forfa 
Leyland Hundred — Wool 
FARMERS’ CLUBS. 
April 7— Rochford Hundred—Fram- 
lingham — Watford — Jed- 
urg! 
4—Ducham — London — Col- | — 8—Harleston — Braintree and 
Jumpron Bockin 
— 62$: Columb — Newark — | — 9—Tavistock—Northampton 
Great Oakley — Wenlock — | — 10—Northallerton— Chelmsford 
—Hadleigh — là 
Wakefield 
— 11—Swansea—Cardiff — Winch- 
à 
oxford. 
Yoxfor comb —Darifort 
— 7—Wooton Basset — Wivelis- 
combe—A bergaveni 
Accorpine to an official paper lately laid before 
Parliament, the importation of Guano has increase 
from 1738 tons in 1841, to 220,934 tons in 1845 ; 
employing a fleet of 683 sail, and 11,486 men. This 
quantity of guano must have sufficed to manure 
between two and three millions of acres; and 
proves beyond all possibility of doubt the great im- 
portance of the article to farmers. 
We fear, however, that many who have used it, 
have met with no small disappointment in the result 
of its application ; partly because they have suf- 
fered themselves to be cheated by the swindlers 
whom we formerly exposed, and partly because 
they have purchased, for the sake of a low price, an 
article very inferior in quality, although really of 
foreign origin. It is this, indeed, which constitutes 
ihe whole objection to the use of guano, that 
ordinary persons cannot tell whether it is good or 
bad, genuine or fraudulent. It is as easy to fabri- 
cate analyses as to compound a false guano; and 
we fear that many of the buyers, in whose hands 
bona fide analyses are placed, but little understand 
their true import. As to frauds, we have no 
doubt that they are as mumerous as ever; 
they are so easy to commit, so difficult to 
detect, and so very profitable, that it is hard to say 
in what way they can be guarded against effectually. 
At this moment there is in the West India Docks 
a ship-load of precipitated gypsum, probably the 
refuse of some tartaric acid manufactory, so dex- 
terously coloured brown that it is impossible to 
detect its presence in guano by the eye, and this is 
no doubt intended by some of the honest guano 
dealers as a new (?) material for swindling farmers, 
To us it appears that there are but two means of 
guarding against this monstrous evil. e one is 
to buy Peruvian guano in preference to all others, 
and to obtain that directly from the importers 
essrs. Grnns and Co., of London or Liverpool, 
who, although they will not themselves sell less 
than 30 tons at a time, would, we are persuaded, 
direct applicants to their agents who could be relied 
Upon. The other is for farmers to agree among 
themselves to have theirown Inspector of artificial 
manures, through whom every purchase should be 
made, whose sole business it should be to watch the 
Operations of the manure trade, to collect evidence 
of fraud, and to preserve samples of everything 
bought, so that in case of roguery being suspected 
he might furnish evidence that would be irresistible 
in a court of law, to which it is high time that 
farmers should betake themselves. 
imes are at hand when a great alteration in the 
Operations of farming will be inevitable, and among 
€ changes must be the certain prevention of all 
frauds upon the part of manure dealers. Farmers 
will, in fact, stand in relation to their land in the 
same position as a manufacturer to his mill, factory, 
or laboratory. A manufacturer does not buy lead 
for silver, or thistle-down for cotton, or cobwebs 
for flax ; but he takes care that every article pur- 
chased by him is not only cheap but pure. Neglect- 
ing such precautions, his road to the Gazette is quick 
and certain. Why, then, should farmers purchase 
ind hes for soot, li bonedust, or 
Epping loam for guano? Such folly or misfortune 
can, in the long run, lead to only one result, and we 
earnestly commend the matter to the most serious 
consideration of the agricultural interest. It is one 
in which newspapers can do little, but in which com- 
bined spirit and good sense on the part of buyers 
can do everything. 
We are constantly receiving inquiries as to THE 
QUANTITY AND NATURE or MANURES SUITABLE FOR 
PARTICULAR Crors. If readers will refer to ** No- 
tices” in back Numbers of the Paper, they will find 
that such inquiries have almost uniformly been an- 
swered by recommendations to apply 3 cwt. or 
4 cwt., per acre, of Peruvian or African guano, or 
other quantities of various animal and compound 
fertilisers. And we have no doubt that many in- 
uirers have been dissatisfied with the very general 
answers they have always in these cases received ; 
and some, perhaps, seeing the uniformity of our 
replies, notwithstanding the variety of the crops 
they referred to, may have doubted their trustwor- 
thiness. We beg the attention of such to two con- 
siderations, which, as they possess general interest, 
we make no apology for alluding to here :—1. Plants 
certainly do exhibit specifie differences of mineral 
composition; the ashes of different crops do vary, 
sometimes in the nature and always in the relative 
proportions of their ingredients. A crop of Tur- 
nips removes from the soil a remarkably large quan- 
tity of potash; grain crops are distinguished by 
their abstraction of large quantities of soluble silica ; 
7 | and the Clovers require an abundant supply of lime. 
Whatever differences there may be among scientific 
men as to the actual amounts of the different sub- 
stances thus removed, there is none as to the exist- 
ence of the specific distinctions we have referred to. 
And it is, doubtless, an acquaintance with this which 
has given rise to the questions of our correspond- 
ents; but they forget that, though the knowledge 
of a plant’s composition will enable us to supply 
it with suitable food, further information is required 
before we can do this with economy. Nature sup- 
plies even an artificial vegetation with much the 
larger proportion of what it needs—both atmosphere 
and soil are full of the food of plants; the latter 
only is under our control; but, besides the wants 
of a particular crop, the supplies which, in the soil, 
are naturally at its command must also be told us 
before we can say what is needed to ensure its pro- 
ductiveness. And on the latter point we are 
always, and perhaps unavoidably, left in the dark ; 
we are thus unable to state what substance, if any, 
the soil under the circumstances requires. What 
alternative, then, is there left open to us? simply 
to name some compound manure, such as guano, 
which, as it contains many ingredients, is most likely 
to contain that or those in which the soil may be 
deficient. 2. But there is another point, and a 
more important one, to which we beg the attention 
of our correspondents ; for we consider their ques- 
tions to indicate an entirely erroneous agriculture. 
It may, under extreme uncertainty of tenure, be 
expedient to consider the soil as the mere vehicle 
of nourishment to plants ; but that, in our opinion, 
only shows how tenancy at will tends to bad farm- 
ing. The soil is not a mere vehicle for the food of 
plants; to a great extent it is the food itself, and 
the more it is made so, the better the cultivation 
which is indicated. Farmers should possess a dor- 
mant capital, so to speak, invested in their land. 
Plants should not live, as it were, from hand to 
mouth ; to make them do so involves a great risk 
of failure. If you have security of tenure you 
should be a cultivator not of Wheat, not of Oats or 
Barley, Beans, or Peas, not of Potatoes or Carrots, 
Turnips or Mangold Wurzel, &c., but of the soil. 
Do not let your crops depend on the specific ma- 
nuring of the current year; they should rather be 
dependent on the fertility of the soil. And that, 
though attainable, for the sake of establishing a 
curious and useful theory,* by the application of 
definite quantities of particular compounds, is rather 
to be sought for by means of thorough cultivation 
and the consumption on the land of the crops 
raised from it. Do you want to grow a good crop 
of Wheat ? The way to do it, if your climate be 
no hindrance, is to make your soil fit for growing 
anything. Drain and cultivate it thoroughly, and 
* See Mr. Huxtable’s letter to Lord Portman in the current 
Number of the “ English Agricultural Society’s Ji ournal" We 
shall transfer it to our columns next week, if possible, 
thus bring atmospheric influences to bear upon it. 
Apply guano, or night-soil, or bone-dust, or sul- 
phurie acid and bones, and force a crop of Turnips ; 
consume them on the land, and you will thus confer 
fertility on the soil. And this will exhibit itself, 
whatever be the crop you may choose to take next. 
It may look like extravag tor d such 
a treatment as shall lay up in the land stores of food 
for plants sufficient for many years; but in the 
present state of agriculture as an art, we may 
depend upon it that this is true economy. 1t tends 
to improve the texture of the soil as well as its 
richness, and till we can leave this wholly to the 
agency of machines, and till we are able perfectly 
to carry out a true theory of agriculture, we must 
be content to act according to a plan proved pro- 
fitable, however exceptionable it may bein the eyes 
of scientific men. 
Amone the prizes for Implements to be awarded 
at the next annual meeting of the Royal Agricul- 
tural Society is one of 10/. for the best WEIGHING 
MACHINE for live cattle and farm produce generally. 
Although a prize has been already awarded, on a 
previous occasion, to an implement of this class, 
the judges reported (Journ. Ag. Soc. vol. 6 p. 318) 
that “a greater degree of portability is desirable 
than has yet been accomplished by Mr. James, or 
other makers, in order to realise all that is wished 
for by the Society and farmers generally? To 
this prize, and to these remarks, we beg to call 
the attention of our agricultural engineers and 
mechanicians. 
It is singular what very little exact knowledge 
exists even among practical men, of the details and 
results of their art; we much need a more general 
use of the weighing machine; all published illus- 
trations of farm experience should be quantitative ; 
the nature of the means used, and the character of 
their results, may be useful things to know, but the 
influence of the one, and the value of the other, 
depend upon their quantity, weight, extent, as well 
as upon their tendency, and these, therefore, should 
also always be made known. Statements thus use- 
ful, though still few in number considering the 
extent and variety of the subjects requiring illus- 
tration are rapidly accumulating. All our best 
agricultural periodicals are more exclusively de- 
voting themselves to their dissemination—witness 
the current Number of the “ English Agricultural 
Society’s Journal? It is in the increase of inform- 
ation which such statements convey that the pro- 
gress of agriculture as an art consists. One diffi- 
culty in the way of this progress has hitherto been 
the want of means sufficiently simple and efficient 
by which the generality of farmers might be enabled 
accurately to ascertain and then contribute their 
experience. Let us hope that the offer of the 
Agricultural Society may be successful in bringing 
out an implement of the kind required. It must be 
cheap, simple, and efficient for obvious reasons; 
and it must be portable. 
This last feature is essential; the farmers’ crops 
are bulky, and his stock being migratory are often at 
inconvenient distances ; they cannot easily be 
brought all to one place, there to suffer the test of 
weight. Our Turnip crops, in the great majority of 
cases, are consumed on the land ; they are, in fact, 
fixtures; the mountain cannot come to Mahomet, 
and therefore Mahomet must come to the mountain ; 
portability in a weighing machine for farm produce 
is, in short, a sine qua non. And this portability 
must be unaccompanied by complexity, for that is 
incompatible with cheapness, which is also essential. 
What we want is an implement possessing such 
facility of use and such cheapness as shall ensure its 
being extensively purchased and employed. 
It is the opinion we entertain of the high utility 
of which this machine is capable to the enlightened 
farmer, and of the good service which so simple an 
agent may do to the art of cultivation, that has in- 
duced this appeal to our agricultural machinists. 
Tf practical farmers participate in our sentiments ; 
if they individually feel the want of the implement, 
and can consequently believe that in all cases it will 
soon pay for itself, and in some be the means of 
adding to the stock of permanent knowledge con- 
nected with the cultivation of the soil ; if, in fact, 
they are prepared to become purchasers, we have 
no doubt makers will come without “calling.” We 
say this on the strength of the fact that not only has 
the supply of implements of an improved construc- 
tion up to this time been adequate to the demand, 
but in many cases our spirited mechanists have 
placed before us improvements and machines which 
we have neither asked for nor expected. Antici- 
pating our wants in these cases, the supply has in 
fact created the demand. And thus, whether the 
farmer is, or is not, fully alive to the value of the im- 
plement to which we have so particularly alluded, 
the manufacturer will,we are sure, not fail to execute 
