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THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



touch any part of the furniture that is not spotted. 

 As soon as the ink is extracted, rinse the spot 

 with pearlash water, and then with fair water. 

 It is said that blotting paper alone will extract 

 the ink, if rolled up tight and rubbed hard on 

 the spots. If it answers the purpose, it is alto- 

 gether best to use it, as there is always danger 

 attending the use of oil of vitriol, it being so 

 powerful as to corrode whatever it may get 

 dropped on, without its effects are destroyed by 

 the use of an alkali. — American Housewife. 



GUANO. 



This subject is continually pressed upon our 

 notice by the certificates of its efficacy with 

 which the country is flooded. We know how 

 cautious our friends are and ought to be of the 

 glowing accounts that are from time to time put 

 forth of the magical value of different articles 

 which live a day, are forgotten, and yield in turn 

 to their successors. The number of these im- 

 positions and the greediness with which, in de- 

 spite of experience, they are clutched at by the 

 farming community prove the need and value of 

 a concentrated fertilizer. 



The expense of making and hauling out 

 farm yard manure is felt to be a heavy draw- 

 back upon the profits of the farm, and yet it is 

 universally admitted to be ah indispensable re- 

 quisite to good farming. We will not consent 

 to institute a comparison between guano and 

 stable or farm yard manure, when the one has 

 to be purchased and the other is made at home, 

 for we will consent to do nothing which may 

 have a tendency to relax a farmer's exertions in 

 what we believe to be the most important de- 

 partment of his business, the collection and pre- 

 servation of the domestic sources of fertility. — 

 But with all our exertions the home product will 

 go just so far and no farther ; there is always 

 a portion of the crop that it will not cover. — 

 Then after the domestic resource has been ex- 

 hausted we are willing to consider whether the 

 farmer can make money by buying guano at 

 three cents a pound (its present price in the 

 Richmond market,) and applying it to land that 

 would otherwise go unmanured. Every calcu- 

 lation of this sort must rest on its own bottom, 

 for the cost of the guano will vary with the dif- 

 ferent locations to which it may be transported. 

 All that we can do, therefore, is to lay before 

 our readers the statements of its effects when 

 applied to different crops. 



From hundreds of such statements we have 

 Vol. IV.-35 



273 



selected the following furnished us by Mr. Peti- 

 colas, of Petersburg, because it is very exact, 

 very satisfactory, and because we and our read- 

 ers, generally, know the source from which it 

 comes to be perfectly reliable : 



Charles T. Botts, Esq. 



Dear Sir, — In compliance with your request, 

 I will simply state, that from the numerous tes- 

 timonials of the surprising efficacy of this ma- 

 nure in France, England and the United States, 

 I was induced to try it on white turnips, sowed 

 28th August, in drills, leaving one row unma- 

 nured, against a bed of equal size heavily ma- 

 nured, sowed 27th August. 1 applied the guano 

 in eight days after they were up, (by making a 

 small drill with a light hoe on both sides,) at 

 the rate of 1 lb. to twenty yards. In ten days 

 after its application, the tops without one drop 

 of rain, were double the size of the manured 

 bed, and of a richer green color. At this time 

 the turnips average fifteen inches in circumfer- 

 ence, whilst those in the manured bed are not 

 more than one-half the size, and the unmanured 

 row will not make, judging from present ap- 

 pearances. Accidentally some long scarlet ra- 

 dishes were mixed in the turnips, which grew 

 to an enormous size, averaging more than one 

 foot in length, and very tender; we ate them 

 about the 10th October. In another small bed 

 to which I applied the guano, there Were some 

 old beets reserved for seed and a few carrots, 

 both of which grew rapidly, and the carrots are 

 now by far the largest I have ever had. I then 

 applied it to two-thirds of the cabbages on a 

 sandy hill, (which is so poor that the remain- 

 ing cabbages are not over six or seven inches 

 high and will certainly never head,) the others, 

 with three or four exceptions, are fine hard heads; 

 those which have not headed are very large. I 

 have since tried it on two-thirds of an acre in 

 turnips, sown from 28th September to 2d Octo- 

 ber. To the first drills in this bed, I applied the 

 guano at the bottom of the drill, interposing 

 about an inch of soil, and then sowed. These 

 did not come up, and I suppose were killed in 

 germinating. I have since re-sowed, and do not 

 despair of making turnips from those sowed 28th 

 September, as they are growing rapidly. 



It has been applied in this town with complete 

 success to peach trees, at the rate of a table- 

 spoonful to each tree, producing an abundant 

 crop without a worm, and larger than usual. — 

 Also to a few stalks of Indian corn, a tea-spoon- 

 ful to each stalk. If it produces in like propor- 

 tion in fields, we should soon have the poor- 

 lands about Petersburg producing like James 

 river low grounds. 



I have also tried it on a variety of shrubbery 

 and late flowers with surprising results. The 

 monthly roses to which it was applied are now 



