THE 



SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



llfioteH to &QvttmvLW> horticulture, ant* the ©ousehols arts. 



Agriculture is the nursing mother of the Arts. 

 jkjenophon. 



Tillage and Pasturage are the two breasts of ta© 

 State.— SulW. 



FRANK: G. RUFFIN, Editor and Proprietor. 



Vol. XV 



RICHMOND, JULY, 1855 



T. BAILIE, Publisher, 

 No. 7. 



GREAT FRAUD IN GUANO. 



[We do not know - to whom allusion is made in 

 the following article which the Boston Cultivator 

 copies from the Country Gentleman, but we think we 

 do. It is proper though to warn people here in 

 Virginia, especially, where our inspection laws are 

 not worth a cent. — Ed. Plant.] 



It is common to declaim, against the caution 

 of farmers in regard to the adoption of new 

 things. If, as will not be denied, they have 

 practiced an undue conservatism, it will be 

 found on inquiry to be, in many instances, 

 only the natural result of influences to which 

 they have been subjected. They have so fre- 

 quently been led astray by the false guides, 

 that like the savage who became the victim of 

 misplaced confidence, they are ready to ask— 

 n How shall we know whom to believe, having 

 been so deceived ?" The disposition to im- 

 prove which has been manifest among a por- 

 tion of the rural population, has opened the 

 wav for the practice of empiricism and decep- 

 tion on a large scale, and the reaction which is 

 the result constitutes a serious obstacle to the 

 spread of truth. Thus the false friends of 

 agriculture are in reality its worst enemies. 



The following article from the Country 

 Gentleman exposes one of the ways by which 

 base men aggrandize themselves at the expense 

 of honest farmers. The parties engaged in 

 this new system of rascality are no " green 

 hands, 1 ' as many persons already too well, 

 know. — Eds. j 



"Everyone acquainted with the guano trade 

 of Great Britain is aware that adulteration is 

 carried on to an enormous extent. The laws 

 are stringent, and the penalties in case of de- 

 tection severe, yet the profits are so large and ] 

 the difficulty of proving the fraud so great, 

 that numbers of dishonest men are willing to 

 brave the chances of detection. The agricul- 

 tural press, when in the hands of honest, inde- 

 pendent men, \w trammeled by business con- 



nections, is the great safe-guard against these 

 and other impositions : but, though the British 

 agricultural journals are mostly of a high tone 

 and character, their price prevents an exten- 

 sive circulation; and, indeed, comparatively 

 few farmers t; ke any agricultural paper what - 

 ever. Under such circumstances, therefore., 

 it is no wonder that fraudulent manure dealers 

 reap a rich harvest. 



We have long been convinced that there 

 were parties in this country engaged in manu- 

 facturing various artificial fertilizers which 

 are of little value— and we have done our part 

 towards exposing their fraudulent practices, 

 We were also aware that inferior guanos are 

 often sold under an assurance that they are 

 equal to the best Peruvian, but we had no idea 

 that there was any one in this country engaged 

 in the manufacture of guano. We are sorry 

 to say we have been deceived. Numerous as 

 are our agricultural papers, great as are their 

 circulation and influence, they are found in- 

 sufficient to prevent unscrupulous men from 

 attempting to palm off on the credulous far- 

 mers of our broad domain a comparatively 

 worthless article, at a high price, under a false 

 name, and, what is most to be regretted, it is 

 one of the professed friends and teachers of 

 scientific agriculture that i,« engaged in this 

 deception. 



How we discovered the fraud, we are not at 

 liberty to state. Suffice it to say, that some 

 six weeks ago, we were informed that an arti- 

 cle known as Mexican guano was taken to an 

 establishment, near Newark. N. JV, and there 

 mixed with plaster, salt, sugar-house scum, 

 Peruvian guano and quick-linie, the whole 

 ground up together and put m bags, marked 

 11 Chilian Guano" 



Following the direction of our informant, 

 we proceeded to Newark, and there found a 

 krge heap, of about 250 tons of Mexican gu- 

 ano, and some 200 tons of the manufactured 

 article in bags', marked " Chilian guano," as 



