428 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



Plantation — 300 acres ( in 3 fields and 3 lots. ) 

 Tobacco, 25 acres, $40 per acre $1000 00 

 Corn, 75 acres, 300 bush, at 4 barrels 



per acre all used on plantation. 

 Wheat, 100 acres, field and tobacco 

 lot at 10 bushels per acre, allow- 

 ing $1 per bushel, and deducting 

 • seed 100 bushels, 900 bushels, 900 00 



1\ tons guano at $50, deducted 



1900 00 

 375 00 



$1525 00 



Farm of 500 acres [in 5 fields) cultivated by 10 

 hands. 



Corn, 100 acres, 5 barrels 



per acre, 500 bbls. 



Farm use, 300 



Wheat, 200 acres, 10 bush- 

 els per acre, $1 per bush- 

 el, deducting seed 200 

 bushels, 1800, 



15 tons guano at $50 de- 

 ducted, 



$120 for rent per year 200 

 acres at 6 per cent, on 

 $10. per acre, 



100 at S3 $600 00 



1800 00 



2400 00 

 750 00 



1650 00 

 120 00 



In favor of farm 



1530 00 

 1525 00 



$5 00 



Respectfully submitted by 



GEORGE FITZGERALD, 



Permanence of improvement by Guano. 



From the Payers of the Nottoway Farmer's 

 Club. 



Not being aware until recently that the 

 presiding officer was required to make any 

 other report than an address at the end of 

 his official year, I flattered myself I should 

 be saved the necessity of preparing one, 

 and be exempt from a duty which I knew 

 was incumbent upon every other member; 

 I, therefore, in compliance with that re- 

 quisition, wish to make a few observations 

 on the effects of Guano ; as permanent 

 and as lasting, I think, as any other fer- 

 tilizer, even including our domestic ma- 

 nures. In the fall of 1853, a corn field, 

 from which was gathered one hundred 

 and eighty three barrels, was seeded in 

 wheat, and to every bushel of wheat about 



one hundred and fifty pounds of guano 

 was sowed, which produced a crop of 

 wheat, much more in quantity than I could 

 otherwise have expected. After removing 

 the wheat from the field it was made a 

 pasture and continued so until it was 

 again planted in corn the past year. The 

 cultivation was similar to the crop of 1853,. 

 and notwithstanding the great unfavora- 

 bleness of the season and the extent of 

 injury by the ravages of the chinch-bug 

 which destroyed and seriously injured 

 many acres of the corn, I am satisfied 

 from the fine, luxuriant growth before it 

 met with these disasters, that the field 

 would have made a much larger and bet- 

 ter crop than it did when it was in culti- 

 vation before. As it was, it made of good 

 merchantable corn a hundred and seventy 

 nine barrels, being only four less, and in 

 a very bad crop year as compared with 

 the crop of 1853, which was favored with 

 abundant rains whenever needed. The 

 difference in the growth of last year's 

 over the one that preceded it three years 

 before, was very marked and perceptible, 

 so much so, that several of my neigh- 

 bours made the inquiry if the corn then 

 growing and looking so well had not been 

 recently guanoed. It appears very obvi- 

 ous that the product of the field would 

 have been much more abundant had not 

 the vegetation been kept under by pastu- 

 rage. I have observed the same effects 

 on other land on which guano has been 

 applied when sown in wheat, three years 

 before, and I am inclined to think its ac- 

 tion in the improvement of the soil is as 

 durable and permanent as any other ma- 

 nure. Why should it not be so? And why 

 should clover, or any other of the grasses, 

 not grow as luxuriantly after guano as any 

 other means of improvement? If such is 

 the fact, and I see no reason why it should 

 not be, as chemistry informs us that guano 

 returns to the land the phosphates and 

 other constituents which the preceding 

 growth had taken from it, does it not 

 seem clear, that the farmer may congratu- 

 late himself on having at his control a 

 powerful and speedy agent in the improve- 

 ment of his farm and in making it almost 

 at once far more productive. 



Powdered charcoal placed around rose-bush- 

 es and other -flowers, has the effect of adding 

 greatly to the richness of the flowers. 



