THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



133 



stances essential to vegetation which they contain, 

 particularly potash. Although the quantity of the 

 potash contained in them may be small, yet by its 

 chemical action of decomposing and rendering solu- 

 ble some of the most intractable, though essential, of 

 the mineral constituents of manures, and reducing 

 them to a condition of suitable nutriment to crops, 

 it renders them a valuable and permanent manure. 

 All clay lands contain potash unless deprived of it by 

 long continued and exhausting cultivation, conse- 

 quently its action on light silicous soils is much more 

 apparent, and in supplying the silicate of potash, 

 that which forms the outer coat of all vegetable 

 substances, and thereby giving them the power of 

 production, renders it most valuable for such soils. 

 After a sufficient quantity of lime or marl has been 

 applied to land it becomes the duty of the farmer 

 to commence with an application of ashes, as they 

 supply the soil with still more of the alkalies which 

 they require for production. The effect of the ap- 

 plication of ashes has been visible in the expe- 

 rience of ail farmers who have tried them, but as 

 a full supply can only be obtained in the imme- 

 diate neighborhoods of cities, and that only at a 

 high cost, owing to "the supply being unequal to 

 the demand," and then often in an adulterated con- 

 dition, I shall urge their use no further than to re- 

 commend them whenever a genuine article can be 

 obtained at a fair cost. [ 



Guano. — The value of guano is now universally 

 known and its use rapidly extending throughout 

 our country. To the farmer who has neither the 

 advantages of lime nor marl and who is remote 

 from navigation, it may be said to be essential in 

 improving his land, for it places him almost upon 

 an equal footing with him who has the advantages 

 of marl, or who from his proximity to market can 

 avail himself of lime. An experience in the use 

 of guano for several years, together with an obser- 

 vation of its effects under the management of others, 

 induces me to believe it is a most valuable agent, 

 not only for the advancement of improved lands to 

 a still higher state of fertility, but for the resusci- 

 tation of those long since exhausted and aban- 

 doned. There is no agent which the farmer can 

 employ so prompt in its action as guano. It is un- 

 questionably one of the cheapest, most profitable 

 and concentrated fertilizers that can be used. By 

 its prompt action it not only soon reimburses its 

 cost by the increase of the crop to which it is ap- 

 plied, but leaves the land in a fine condition for the 

 growth of clover and other grasses. This manure 

 has scarcely ever failed of producing a good crop 

 whenever it has been fairly tried, unless the article 

 used was of an inferior quality or a dry season fol- 

 lowed after its application. It is beneficially ap- 

 i plied when ploughed in from three to four* inches, 

 as spread upon the earth, and for permanent ef- 

 fects should be ploughed in still deeper. All top- 

 dressings with guano are inexpedient and wasteful, 

 as from the volatile nature of the active parts of 

 the manure, great loss must inevitably result from 

 all such applications, and because more moisture 

 than is to be found on the surface, is necessary to 

 excite and carry on that progressive state of de- 

 composition which is required to render guano 

 most available for present production and future 

 improvement. Guano is the most active of ma- 

 nures. The large quantity of ammonia it contains 

 and its evanescent nature, renders it necessary that 

 something should be used to fix its volatile parts. 

 It is recommended by most practical farmers to 

 mix a peck of plaster with every 100 pounds of 



guano. By this mixture the sulphuric acid of the 

 former, from its greater affinity for ammonia than 

 for lime, is liberated, when a new compound is 

 formed between the two former, that of sulphate 

 of ammonia, a form in which the latter salt is much 

 more- moderately soluble, and therefore longer re- 

 tained in the soil, and the more durably efficacious 

 as the food of plants. Guano may be used with 

 entire success in the first process "in improving 

 and enriching poor land." It prepares the soil for 

 the application of lime or marl, supplies it with the 

 necessary vegetable substances to be acted upon 

 by them, and renders the improvement of the land 

 permanent. Two hundred pounds of guano are 

 applied usually to the acre when the land is in 

 moderate heart, and when the soil is good one hun- 

 dred pounds have been known to act beneficially. 

 It has mostly been applied to the wheat crop, yet I 

 have seen it applied to young corn with great be- 

 nefit after it has been worked the first time. About 

 one hundred pounds to the acre, strewed each side 

 of the young corn, the plough following imme- 

 diately after the application, throwing the dirt to 

 the corn, and thereby covering the guano, at once 

 gives it a start in growing. In my immediate 

 neighborhood upon poor forest lands corn has been 

 made equal to that on river bottoms in this manner. 



Bone Dust. — This manure, composed as it is, of 

 50 per cent, of the phosphate of lime and 44 per 

 cent, of gelatinous matter, which is easily decom- 

 posed in the soil and converted into manure, cannot 

 fail in producing important effects in the process of 

 "improving and enriching poor land." From the 

 very large quantity of cartilagineous matter con- 

 tained in bone dust, it may be considered both a 

 mineral and a nutritive manure, and to comprise 

 within itself much that is necessary to impart fer- 

 tility to the soil. The finer bones are ground, the 

 sooner do they yield up their fertilizing properties 

 to the land. In sandy loams they act more effi- 

 ciently than upon stiff soils, as the porosity of the 

 earth offers less obstruction to the influences of the 

 sun and air in securing the degree of heat and 

 moisture always necessary to carry on decomposi- 

 tion and prepare them to give up their mineral 

 and animal properties to the wants of the growing 

 plants. From twelve to fifteen bushels of bone 

 dust are a sufficient application for an acre of land, 

 but a combination of bone dust with sulphuric acid, 

 ashes and wood mould, is usually recommended 

 and preferred, as by such combinations it adds still 

 more of the valuable constituents to the soil. The 

 great difficulty of procuring bones unadulterated, 

 (as they are frequently boiled in the glue factories 

 before being ground, by which process they lose 

 much of their nutritive and fertilizing qualities, 

 together with the high cost at which they are ob- 

 tained,) renders their application doubtful, as guano 

 in supplying the phosphates, could be substituted 

 in their place at a more reasonable cost, and with 

 almost equal advantage. 



Having described some of the inorganic, or mi- 

 neral agents, which a productive soil must contain 

 in quantity and variety suited to the wants of the 

 peculiar species of plants, it becomes necessary to 

 mention some of the organic agents, or vegetable 

 and animal substances, which by their economical: 

 use the land may be made a contributor to its own 

 restoration and to the maintenance and increase of 

 its own fertility. And the first I shall mention is 

 Clover. — This grass belongs to the leguminous 

 class of plants, and derives a large portion of its 

 nourishment from the atmosphere, and when as- 



