THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



77 



main on them all — each application invariahly 

 leaving the land in n better condition than it 

 was before. Late in the fall of 1851, 100 

 pounds were applied to the acre on about seven 

 acres of very poor, sandy corn land, for wheat 

 The product was very poor, and in the fall fol- 

 lowing 75 pounds more per acre were used on 

 thesame land. This yield was pretty good. The 

 land then lay out a year in clover, and in 1854 

 was in corn. This crop was not measured, but 

 was supposed to be 4 or 5 barrels to the acre, 

 and was at least double that of the one previ- 

 ous. A crop of corn grown the present year 

 on poor land guanoed three years since for 

 wheat, shows a marked improvement in the 

 soil. A crop of corn grown the present year 

 on common piney old field, after two successive 

 crops of good tobacco, each one only receiv- 

 ing 200 pounds of guano, the measured yield 

 was nine barrels of shelled corn to the acre. 

 And a crop after three successive crops of good 

 tobacco, guanoed as above, will yield about the 

 ■ame. A rather thin tobacco lot of nine acres, 

 manured lightly in 1854, and then guanoed 

 with 250 pounds, with 10 bushels of partially 

 leached ashes to the acre — (tobacco land, uu 

 less very rich, is generally benefitted by ashes) 

 — produced a very good crop of tobacco of re- 

 markably fine body; and the same land, with 

 75 pounds of guano to the acre, though too 

 late, (sown 20th October,) — it was smartly in- 

 jured by "joint-worm " — yielded 23 bushels of 

 wheat to the acre. On this lot, about the 20th 

 of last July, one bushel of cow peas was sown 

 to the acre, and some of these peas, in six weeks 

 afterwards, measured more than six feet. Guano 

 and cow peas, put in drills both together the 

 present year, 100 pounds of the former being 

 used to the acre, on poor land, produced a heavy 

 •rop of both peas and vines, some of the latter 

 measuring more than 11 feet. Guano applied 

 to corn at the last working, 100 pounds to the 

 acre, between the rows, has often increased the 

 yield two or three barrels. Applied to tobacco 

 late in the season that refused to grain and was 

 disposed to turn yellow, 100 pounds to the 

 acre, in the same way as above, the season 

 being favorable, it acted well. Applied in the 

 same way, but earlier in the season, by a neigh- 

 bor, to tobacco, about 200 pounds to the acre, 

 the increase was at least double that of the ad- 

 joining crop on similar land. Applied to three 

 or four acres of common corn land, about the 

 first of April of the present year, 150 pounds 

 to the acre, with a bushel each of oats and cow 

 peas to the acre, and the whole raked in together 

 with three-horse cultivators, a fair crop of both 

 was grown. The action of guano in favorable 

 seasons on clover, is equally marked. In the 

 spring of 1854, six and three-quarter ions were 

 used on eighty-one and a quarter acres, of a 

 poor fallow, for oats. The season was rather 

 unfavorable for oats, and a fallow is always ob- 

 jectionable for that crop. The yield was the 

 rise of 1600 bushels by measure, or about 20 

 bushels to the acre. Clover seed were raked 

 and rolled in with the oats, and in the spring of 



the present year the clover was top-dressed 

 with a mixture of half a bushel of plaster and 

 2 bushels of ahhes to the acre. The clover 

 was good over the whole field, and generally 

 would have paid well to cut for hay. 



It is not to be denied, however, that guano 

 does not succeed so well, generally, on spring 

 crops as on winter wheat. It will always pay 

 well on tobacco, if used with plaster and leach- 

 ed ashes ; but on high and dry corn lands, ex- 

 cept in small quantities at a time, its use is of 

 doubtful propriety. On such soils, if the sea- 

 son should be dry, a large application is almost 

 sure to burn the corn, and often does decided 

 injury. But on moist branch or flat lands, par- 

 ticularly on all well drained and prepared pipe- 

 clay soils, it may be used with profit, more 

 freely. 



The depth to which guano should be put into 

 the soil, is a mooted question. The writer's 

 experience is confirmatory of Mr. Newton's 

 opinion, advanced some years ago, that the 

 shallower it is put the better, provided it is tho- 

 roughly incorporated with the soil; and to accom- 

 plish this latter end, at least two close rakings 

 with heavy harrows, or better still with 3-horse 

 cultivators, should be given the land immedi- 

 ately after the guano is applied — one, say, after 

 the guano, and one after the grain. 



The spreading of guano, when done by hand, 

 evenly on the land, is a difficult operation. The 

 guano requires to be dampened a good deaL 

 This is" best done with a large wat«> ring-pot, 

 several hands stirring the guano all the while. 

 The best way to manage the lumps, perhaps, is* 

 to sprinkle them well in layers, ar>d let them lay 

 in a heap a week or more before mashing them, 

 which latter may be done in a trough with pes- 

 tles. If it is attempted to cru^h the Jumps 

 immediately after sprinkling, the water will be 

 found a disadvantage. Machines have been 

 invented for sowing guano, but none of them 

 seem to succeed veiy well with damp guano, 

 owing to its deliquescent nature. " Seymour ] s 

 Broadcaster" has been used by the writer, and 

 sows dry guano tolerably well ; but it sow* any 

 kind better if mixed with dry charcoal, half and 

 half. To. sow guano well with this machine, it 

 must be entirely clear of lumps. 



From the tenor of some of the foregoing 

 remarks, it might be inferred that guano is 

 thought to be a sovereign balm for all the ills 

 of mother earth. But this idea is by no means 

 entertained. Guano is regarded as a potent 

 means of improvement, rather than a direct 

 improver. With it, judiciously used, the farmer 

 is enabled to grow, wiih more certainty than 

 with any other known fertilizer, large and 

 remunerative crops of every kind ; and these in 

 turn supply him with a vast quaniity of offal, 

 which may be made available for improvement 

 in very many ways; and above all, it enables 

 him to carry on an extensive system of green 

 manuring, which it is thought promises more 

 for the renovation of many of the poor soils of 

 middle Virginia than any other system of farm- 

 ing practicable. Every practical farmer knows 



