AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 188 
fully meets and obviates this difficulty. The 
varieties of guano and those combinations 
which chemical science has furnished the 
agricultural community, are subjects of pro¬ 
found interest to Eastern Virginia and North 
Carolina, and to develop them fully would 
require more than I could properly assign to 
them on this occasion. All of them are val¬ 
uable to renovate and increase the fertility of 
our soils, but the particular fertilizer to 
which I shall chiefly refer is the Peruvian 
guano. This is the most powerful as well 
as the most universally efficient of any 
which have gained the confidence of the 
agriculturists of the country. The prompt¬ 
ness and certainty of its action, and the al¬ 
most incredible results from its application 
render it of inestimable value to those en¬ 
gaged in the cultivation of the earth, ft is 
also fortunate for us, sir, that the use of it 
has become so general, particularly as a ma¬ 
nure for tobacco and wheat, that experi¬ 
ments enough have been made to give us 
quite a satisfactory guidance in the practi¬ 
cal application of this manure. Nothing is 
more desirable to the farmer than the cer¬ 
tainty of agricultural truth founded upon 
faithful experiments. The nature of his oc¬ 
cupation inclines him to recoil from doubtful 
theories; he desires 
-“ Truth alone— 
Truth tangible and palpable—such truth 
As may be weighed and measured, truth deduced 
By logical conclusion, close, severe, 
From premises incontrovertible.” 
Not the oracular givings out of those 
whose age and experience have only en¬ 
deared their own errors more strongly to 
their hearts ; whose ancient saws and pithy 
sayings are directed to the discouragement 
of progressive improvement; who "tell of 
failures only, prophesy them for the future— 
and forgetful of all success in what they are 
pleased to call book-farming, tell with pecu¬ 
liar glee of disappointments in any enterprise 
which comes new and fresh from genius and 
science— 
“ Some persons have a knack, you know, 
Of saying things mat apropos, 
And making all the world reflect 
On what it hates to recollect; 
They talk to misers of their heir. 
To women of the times that were, 
To poets of the wrong review, 
And to the French of Waterloo.” 
The diligent and inquiring farmer has no 
use for such oracles—he desires practical, 
experimental truth, and I rejoice that in the 
use of the great renovator, Peruvian guano, 
experience has given clear and unerring de¬ 
velopments, that in it we possess a resource 
which, if judiciously employed, gives assur¬ 
ance ol the restoration of Eastern Virginia, 
and North Carolina. I do not propose, sir, 
to deliver a lecture on agricultural chemis¬ 
try, for however sincerely I may value its 
discoveries and invoke its aid, I concur with 
you that all such dissertation among us 
should be ruled out of order until we shall 
have taken the first and obvious steps for the 
increased comfort of our farms and curtil¬ 
ages. But certain interesting facts have 
been ascertained, and the whole current of 
proof sets in one direction, to-wit: that it is 
an unequaled renovator of the productive 
power in impoverished soils. These facts 
have been fixed in relation to the mode, as 
well as the quantity employed in its applica¬ 
tion. It seems to be conceded that it should 
be always applied broadcast to the surface in 
order to its greatest effects—whether upon 
wheat or oats at the time of seeding—upon 
tobacco land when prepared for hilling—or 
on corn, with this additional fact, that the 
most decided impression is produced by 
sowing the guano upon the land at the second 
or even the last working of corn, and turning 
it in with the plow—that it acts satisfactori¬ 
ly, whether combined with plaster or char¬ 
coal, 01 not and above all, that it seems 
almost to annihilate for the time the differ¬ 
ence between poor and rich soils in the re¬ 
sults of production. Experience has es¬ 
tablished another fact, in my section of 
North Carolina, namely that its most mani¬ 
fest and valuable effects as a manure for 
tobacco, are realized upon old fields covered 
with sedge, bushes and pines. Such soils, 
upon the application of from 150 to 200 
pounds to the acre, produce both in quality 
and quantity, crops equaling our best to¬ 
bacco lands. This is the conclusion of our 
best planters from the experience of several 
years. Early and effectual plowing is prop¬ 
er in such lands, and with such preparation 
the tobacco stands readily, and resembles the 
purest and best of that grown upon new 
ground. If sown upon the tobacco at the 
first hilling and plowing after the establish¬ 
ment of the crop, there is a most remarkable 
improvement in its growth as well as its 
early maturity. This is perhaps as good a 
mode as can be adopted. 
The best conclusion which repeated exper¬ 
iments have justified, is that upon naked 
land, guano does not do well for tobacco. 
Litter is necessary in order to the health of 
the plant, and its consequent vigorous growth. 
When used for wheat this difference is not 
perceived ; it acts like magic on all poor sur¬ 
faces in the production of this crop. There 
is a peculiarity in the soil which produces 
the fine manufacturing tobacco in the portion 
of North Carolina where I reside, which 
those familiar with the appearance and natu¬ 
ral growth readily detect. Much of such 
soil is naturally too poor to produce tobacco 
in quantities which would repay the cultiva¬ 
tion. The application of guano to such lands 
insures in any ordinary season such a quan¬ 
tity as well as quality of tobacco as is most 
satisfactory to the planter; and this maybe 
kept up for a series of years—especially if a 
combination of potash and plaster is occa¬ 
sionally applied at the rate of one hundred 
and fifty pounds to the acre after the first 
two years of cultivation. Care must, how¬ 
ever, be taken not to apply them in combina¬ 
tion, as the potash would neutralize the best 
properties of the guano by freeing ammonia 
which it contains. The limes of application 
should he different—the potash and plaster in 
the fall or early in the spring, and the guano 
just before hilling, or during the cultivation. 
The aid which this manure has furnished 
in securing plants for early planting, has 
been a great boon to the tobacco growing 
region. Nothing compares with it in this 
respect. I hear from some sources that if 
applied in sufficient quantities that burning 
may be dispensed with on the plant beds. 
Facts, however, do not sustain this declara¬ 
tion as far as my own observation extends. 
But the proof is abundant that as a quicken¬ 
ing manure, Peruvian guano has no rival on 
the plant beds. I give the experience and 
practice of a planter who has not entirely 
failed in plants for twenty-five years, who 
usually establishes his crop among the ear¬ 
liest, but who estimates guano, which he has 
used for the last five years, as the best secu¬ 
rity for early and strong plants that we pos¬ 
sess. He employs that agent in reference to 
plants, as all foreign fertilizers ought to be 
employed for other crops, only as a means 
combining the increase of production with 
the increased facility for extending the im¬ 
provement. 
The first requisite is to burn enough land— 
and not all of the same kind. Some low— 
some high land—but all of it inclined to be 
moist. Close soils inclining to the produc¬ 
tion of small sweet gum, whether poor or 
rich, are best. Before burning, after the 
land is raked, cover with stable manure, and 
chop it in with hilling hoes ; then burn the 
land sufficiently, which will not injure the 
manure, which ought to be chopped in some 
four or five inches. Coulter the bed, and re¬ 
move the roots, and chop in one hundred 
pounds of guano to every twelve hundred 
square yards, and sow the seed. Either 
tread or beat the surface with brush, and 
cover it all over with tobacco stalks, one 
layer thick. These soon give out their fer¬ 
tilizing properties from the effects of a rain 
and dew. As soon as the first plants appear 
on the outsides, remove the tobacco stalks, 
and cover with brush. But little remains to 
be done, except slight sowings of guano once 
a week during the spring, in the dry part of 
the day, after the dew disappears. Fall 
burning is best, as well because of the unu¬ 
sual dryness of the earth, as the suitable 
weather for the hands engaged in the work. 
It is best to select beds in the forest, and not 
near open fields or old beds. The fly—that 
great enemy to plants—breed in open sur¬ 
faces, and live and winter in old plant beds. 
There should be several places, as remote as 
convenient from each other, that they may 
not be exposed to a common disaster. Ihave 
been thus minute, because convinced that 
early and abundant resources of plants are 
indispensable to success. To the question : 
is guano a permanent manure! experience 
replies, as much so as any other applied in 
the same quantities, and infinitely more val¬ 
uable than alike quantity of any other fertil¬ 
izer in the result of production. It gives a 
good crop of tobacco, wheat and clover, on 
lands of moderate quality, from one applica¬ 
tion ; and this is all that could be asked from 
the outlay made. Applied to turnips and po¬ 
tatoes it is extremely effective—and equally 
so on every variety ot peas and beans. 
We sometimes hear it objected that this 
manure is too costly to be used much—that 
it may be well to apply it in moderate quan¬ 
tities—and that the supply on the Pacific 
coast will soon be exhausted. The obvious 
reply to the first remark is, that if a little is 
profitable, a great deal of the same kind of 
application must greatly increase the profit; 
and if the supply is soon to be exhausted, 
wisdom would urge us to get the full benefit 
before it passes away. Its value consists in 
the restoration of lands, heretofore valueless, 
to a highly productive condition. The in¬ 
crease of market staples, and what is of equal 
importance, in the offal of those increased 
crops as well as in the production of grasses, 
the means of making manure on the farm, 
are incalculably increased. Combined with 
plaster it is the best top dressing for grass, 
or meadows, or fields of clover, that can be 
employed—always remembering that it 
should not be sown on the grass while moist 
from rain or dew. 
I pass by the objection that although a 
present stimulant, it is an ultimate impover¬ 
ishes with the remark that the fertilizing 
elements of guano are contained in all the 
putrescent manures of our stables and farm- 
pens—only highly concentrated and uncom¬ 
bined with vegetable matter, which ought to 
be furnished to lands upon which guano is 
sown—that the idea of stimulants to the soil 
seems to be predicated upon the existence of 
a nervous system in the earth which has not 
obtained credence with those who have ex¬ 
amined the subject. It is exceedingly objec¬ 
tionable to employ terms unphilosophically. 
A nervous system capable of stimulation 
does not exist in the soil. It is a strong 
figure of speech to apply the term stimulus 
in this manner. Philosophy and science do 
not recognize tropes and figures. They de¬ 
mand severe sternness in the use of terms in 
order to the ascertainment of truth. Ma¬ 
nures are only the elements of fertility 
mixed into and assimilated with the soil— 
affording support to vegetation. They being 
inanimate, act upon inanimate subjects ac¬ 
cording to the laws of nature. They make 
such combinations as fulfill the conditions of 
