DEVOTED EXCLUSIVELY TO THE IMPROVEMENT OP SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE’ 
VOL. XVII. AUGUSTA, GA., JANUARY, 1859. NO. 1. 
WIIililAM S. JONES, Publisher. BANIEL LEE, TtI. D., and D. REDMOND, Editors. 
See Terns on Cover. 
Ccnuniiii} cni ^iscelknij. 
THE STUDY OF MANURES. 
A late number of the Sandersville Gcorgiav. mskes th.e 
following statements : 
"There has been quite an extensive outlay among our 
Hancock planters for Gaano to apply to cotton, the past 
eeason, one gentleman expended the handsome sum of 
S7,000 for this single fertilizer alone. Last year it paid 
well it seems, this year it pays over the left shoulder. The 
guanoed cotton has suiiered more with the rust than any 
other. We still hold to what we have heretofore enunci- 
ated, that, the purchase of Guano two years hence will be 
much smaller than now. Purchased in small quantities, 
and applied judicious’y, to particular classes of lands, in 
moderate quantities and especially to winter crops we 
think it will pay then a half dozen years together ; but on 
summer crops, a decided failure of our crop in three or 
four years takes off all the profits. 
"Last fall we applied 185 pounds of guano to an acre of 
wheat at a cost of $1 40. The wheat grew off finely, out- 
stripped the rest of the field, and ran up nearly a foot high- 
er ; but the manure seemed nearly spent, and made but a 
small head. The result was, just about enough overplus 
to save us from loss, leaving the land, in our opinion, 
poorer in salts than the surrounding acres, for the growth 
of grass and weeds is not more luxuriant than in the rest 
of the field. We took off of that acre about 1200 pounds 
more than we put on of valuable salts, which, in our 
humble opinion, is obliged to tell in a series of years.” 
It by no means follows that, if one removes 1200 pounds 
of wheat from an acre a year, (no matter for what length 
of time), more than he applies in manure, his soil must be 
impoverished by the operation. Yet, if he uses only 
Peruvian guano, bone dust, or " ammoniated super-phos- 
phate of lime,” the final exhaustion of the cultivated land 
so treated may be reasonably expected. If guano, and 
the phosphate of lime were perfect fertilizers, they 
would equally enrich the soil forever, precisely as 
good stable manure is known to do ; but they are special 
and partial manures, which furnish to growing crops 
only a part of their necessary mineral food. Mow, 
as a part of a thing can never be equal to the whole, the 
commercial fertilizers named are essentially defective for 
the due nourishment of all agricullura! plants in all soil*. 
It is true that they will often hit, and give a good immedi- 
ate return ; but this is poor evidence of their value. 
The live stock of a farm subsist on the vegetable pro- 
ducts of the land, and, therefore, their excrements are pre- 
cisely adapted by nature to give back to the soil those ele- 
ments of plants which it furnishes and parts with in their 
growth. The sea-birds whose excrements form guano, sub- 
sist not on the seeds of land plants, but on flesh and bones of 
fish and other marine animals. Their excrements, there- 
fore are rich in bone earth, and rich in nitrogen, (two im- 
portant elements of fertility) but poor in potash, soda and 
magnesia. Nearly one-half of the ash of the seeds of 
wheat, corn and cotton, (our greatest staples) is made up 
of the two ingredients, potash and magnesia. As guano 
fails to supply these constituents to the crops named, the 
soil must furnish them; and when from the long use of 
super- phosphate of lime or guano, one has exhausted the 
potash and magnesia in his old fields, their sterility is far 
more hopeless and forbidding than it would have been 
had a wise system of tillage and husbandry been earlier 
adopted. In a word, if commercial and special manures 
are used at all, it should be with a view to the permanent 
improvement of a landed estate — not to rob it of those 
costly alkalies, without which no crop can be grown. 
The Patent Office Reports have done and are still doing 
great injury to the farming interest of the whole country, 
by scattering broadcast over it exaggerated statements in 
favor of new things and fancy manures. Speaking of 
"Columbian or Bird Jslanu Guano” in the report for 1854, 
page 95, Mr. Browns says : "From ^areful analyses, it has 
been ascertained that this substance is by far the richest 
source of phosphoric acid for the farmer yet discovered, 
as it contains eighty-four per cent, of dry super-phospliaie 
of lime'^ On page 97, in the same article, in describing 
the general features of all guanos, Mr. B. says, "they in- 
variably contain feathers and comminuted shells ; water 
of course; organic matter, always; crystalized gypsum ^ 
never ; carbonate of lime, comm jnly ; phosphate of lime j 
always ; super -phosphaU, never ; ard nitrogen or ammonia, 
invariably.” 
It is obvious that both of the statements in regard to 
the super-phosphate of lime cannot be true; while the 
farmers of the country who read this official document are 
