The Farming of Cheshire. 
91 
Gxiano. 
Many experiments have been tried in Cheshire with this won- 
derful manure ; but from my own observations, and the informa- 
tion which I have obtained from others who have used it, I am 
induced to believe that it is very uncertain in its effects, especially 
in dry seasons. 
One of the tenants of Mr. Wilbraham, of Delamere House, has applied 
it to a weak sandy soil for common turnips with good effect. A gentle- 
man in the Hundred ofWirral has tried it on pasture with extraordinary 
results ; the herbage was most luxuriant and palatable to the cattle, and 
he affirms that the cheese made from them while grazing on the land to 
which the guano had been applied, was much superior to that made from 
the cows when feeding on the ordinary pastures, and realized 5a\ or 6s. 
per cwt. more when sold. I tried guano myself in 1842 for my turnip 
crops, on a cool (or damp) peaty soil, at the rate of 2 cwt. per acre, with 
an equal quantity of ashes from coal and wood ; the field having been pre- 
viously drained and limed at the rate of 4 tons per acre ; and although the 
weather throughout the summer was exceedingly dry, I had a luxuriant 
crop of white globe turnips, the tops being more than 3 feet high ; but 
on the crop being taken up, the bulbs proved light ; this might in some 
measure be owing to the rapidity with which they grew in the tops after 
the first hoeing, and not receiving their second hoeing in time ; on a butt 
where the guano was not applied, the turnips were very inferior. On an- 
other field of six acres, one half a sandy loam on a porous subsoil, the 
other on a marly subsoil (the latter having been drained to the depth of 
2 feet by parallel drains 8 yards apart) and the whole sub-soiled to the 
depth of 14 inches, I sowed Swedish turnips in drills 27 inches apart; 
manured with farm-yard dung at the rate of 15 tons per acre — part in a 
rotten state, having been drawn to the field early in the spring, and turned 
twice in the heap, the other in a high state of fermentation. 
I commenced sowing (the seed-drill following the plough as closely as 
possible) the last week in May, and finished about the 1st of June, depo- 
siting at the same time, although not immediately in contact with the seed, 
1 cwt. of guano, and an equal quantity of ashes (2 cwt. in the whole per 
acre) ; in a few drills gypsum was deposited by the same machine, instead 
of, and in the same ratio as the guano ; and in two drills, exactly similar, 
the same mixture of guano was applied without any other manure, at the 
rate of 6 cwt., 3 of guano and 3 of ashes. The seed sown on the last- 
mentioned drills was four or five days later in making its appearance than 
on any of the former ; my object in sowing with guano was principally to 
force the young plants out of the way of the fly, at the same time saving 
a portion of my farm-yard manure ; in the first place it certainly had the 
desired effect, for I never saw turnips grow more rapidly; and those sown 
first on the part where the rotten manure was applied were a good crop ; 
but all the other part was a light crop, and especially the two drills where 
guano was applied alone ; they were certainly not more than two-thirds of 
the weight of the latter, which did not average more than 22 tons per acre. 
The season was remarkably dry, and the whole crop much mildewed ; 
nearly one-third of the turnips were hollow and full of juice like cocoa 
nuts. 
Nitrate of soda was tried in the parish where I reside, in 1840, 
on grass-land, and with apparently good effect, the grass soon 
becoming of a dark green colour, and increasing rapidly in quan- 
