Dmprir taim^rok tjre farmer, % flintier, aiti tlje (Sarktter. 
AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, THE MOST USEFUL, AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF AM A t .-Washington- 
CONDUCTING EDITOR, PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 
ORANGE JUDD, A. M. ALLEN & CO., 189 Wat.er-st,., New-York. 
VOL. XIV.—NO. 3.] NEW-YORK, THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 1855. [NEW SERIES.—NO. 81. 
Jm* prospectus, ®enns, $ft., 
CsF' SEE LAST PAGE.^gJ 
All letters relating to Editorial mat¬ 
ters should be addressed to Mr. Orange 
.Tudd, (the Conducting Editor). 
Letters inclosing subscriptions and on oth¬ 
er business should be directed to Allen & 
Co., Publishers, and also those referring to 
both departments. Editorial and business 
matters, if in the same letter, should be on 
separate sheets. 
Every one writing to the Editor or 
Publishers of this journal will please read 
“ Special Notices ,” on last page. 
FOREIGN MANURES. 
Wf, are daily making the subject of fertil¬ 
izers or manures our chief study. How to 
better husband and apply the stores of the 
farm-yard, is a question of the highest im¬ 
portance to every farmer; and next to this 
is one every day put to us, viz : “ What 
foreign fertilizer do you advise us to pro¬ 
cure V' To the former question we shall 
often recur in a future series of articles now 
in course of preparation. The latter we will 
now briefly advert to. But first let us give 
one article of our creed, to-wit: 
No intelligent farmer can afford to buy any 
foreign fertilizer, until he has first used those 
produced upon his own farm. 
Of foreign manures there are four classes : 
1. Those of which the general utility for 
most kinds of crops and soils has been estab¬ 
lished. 
2. Those which are applicable to special 
soils or crops. 
3. Those worthy of experiment. 
4. Those which for at least some crops or 
soils are valuable in themselves, but whose 
market-value depends upon the honesty of 
the manufacturers. 
1st Class.—In this catalogue we can 
only place unburned bones, ground or dis¬ 
solved ; and genuine Peruvian guano. Leav¬ 
ing out of the question the real or supposed 
value of the mineral portion of bones (the 
phosphate of lime), we know that they con¬ 
tain a large amount of animal matter, and 
that there is hardly a plant or crop that 
grows which is not more or less nourished, 
fed, or stimulated, by the products of decay¬ 
ing animals or vegetables. When bones are 
finely ground, or dissolved in an acid, the 
animal matter is reduced to a state in which 
it becomes immediately available. Let the 
crop be wheat, corn, rye, oats, or other cere¬ 
als ; turnips, carrots, beets, or other roots ; 
the various grasses ; or any of the garden 
plants or vegetables, finely ground unburned 
bones, or those dissolved, will not fail to in¬ 
crease the growth in a soil properly pre¬ 
pared, whether applied directly to the seed, 
put on as a top-dressing, or mingled with 
the soil. The degree of benefit immediately 
derived will depend much upon the com¬ 
pleteness of the grinding, or dissolving, and 
the consequent readiness of the materials to 
at once supply the wants of the growing 
plant. This will also be governed by the 
amount of the application, the time and 
mode of using, the sterility of the soil, and 
the physical condition as respects pulveriza¬ 
tion, dryness, compactness, &c. 
There is at the present time a supply of 
bone-dust in the principal markets, which 
can be purchased at prices varying from $2 
to $3 50 per barrel of 150 to 300 lbs. The 
variation in price depends chiefly upon the 
quality. It is economy always to get the 
best that can be procured. Bear in mind 
what we have said about fineness of grinding 
if immediate effect is desired. The more 
coarsely ground will operate less speedily, 
and last longer. If a soil is comparatively 
poor, it should be entirely treated to a dose 
of the fertilizer, and an additional application 
be made to the seed to supply its first wants, 
which is a matter of paramount importance, 
since the first organs being developed, the 
plant will afterwards better provide for its 
own wants. If the soil is comparatively 
rich in vegetable or organic materials, it 
will then be better to make the application 
near the seed to supply the first Avants al¬ 
luded to. || 
We do not know of any artificial prepara¬ 
tion in the market, which is manufactured 
from unburned bones. In another article in 
this number, (page 40,) Ave have given the 
method of dissolving bones in acid. i 
Guano. —There are various kinds of this 
in the market, such as the Peruvian, Mexi¬ 
can, Chilian, African, Patagonian, &c., but 
our experience and observation is, that none 
of these except the first named, (and of this 
only that procured direct from the agents of 
the Peruvian government), have a character 
sufficiently high and definite to warrant 
farmers in purchasing them. A considerable 
quantity of some of the others,has been man¬ 
ufactured or revamped in this country, and 
when brought from abroad there is no guar¬ 
antee that they are much superior to ivashed 
barnyard manure. 
Peruvian guano, as usually sent to this 
country by the authorized agents of the gov¬ 
ernment, consists of the remains of birds 
and their droppings, which have been 
dried under a tropical sun, Avhere no rain falls 
to Avash away the more valuable soluble 
portions. It is much such a compound as 
would be formed by shutting up in a Avarm 
dry roost a number of JoavIs, and alloAv 
them—Avell fed the while—to die and dry up, 
mingled Avith their droppings. The experi¬ 
ence of every farmer is sufficient to convince 
him, that the compound thus formed Avould 
be a valuable fertilizer for any crop. Just 
such a compound is good Peruvian guano. 
What we have said of the manner of using 
bone-dust, applies to guano, Avith this excep¬ 
tion, that guano is a more caustic substance, 
and it should never be put directly in con¬ 
tact Avith plants or seeds. It may be first 
mingled with a considerable quantity of 
muck, earth, or manure in the compost heap 
or otherwise ; or it may be mingled with soil 
by ploAving in previous to planting or soAving 
or it may be put near the hill and mingled 
Avith a quantity of earth, but separated from 
the seed by a layer of soil; or, finally, 
Avhere it has not been practicable to mingle it 
Avith the soil before, it may be sown broad¬ 
cast upon the surface after the seed is in 
the ground. In this case it should be Avorked 
into the soil with the cultivator or hoe. 
The most effectual mode on poor soil is, to 
divide it into tAvo portions, plowing the larger 
portion into the soil for some time previous 
to soAving or planting, and at the same time 
intimately mix the other portion with a large 
quantity of muck or manure, to be applied 
with seed, after it has lain for a time and 
lost its causticity. In this way the first 
wants of the plant are supplied at once, and 
there still remains another portion for the 
future nourishment of the extending roots. 
Of the exhausting effects of guano upon 
the soil, we have not room here to enter into 
the discussion. Suffice it to say, that Ave 
have not yet found sufficient reasons, derived 
from theory or experiment, to believe that 
guano is ever exhausting, in the proper 
sense of that word. That, when applied to 
crops, it supplies their first immediate Avants, 
and develops larger organs for appropri¬ 
ating more speedily Avhat of organic food 
there is in the soil originally, there is little 
doubt. This is a matter of time and econo¬ 
my. If, for example, a soil contains only 
organic food for fifty bushels of Avheat, and 
five sucessive crops of ten bushels each 
Avould, by the ordinary course of cultivation, 
be required to use up all that organic matter, 
it would certainly be economical to stimu¬ 
late tAvo crops by an application of guano 
