THE CULTIVATOR. 
149 
Use of Guano in Maryland. 
In the first place I will remark that it has become a 
maxim among us, that the poorer the ground the bet¬ 
ter for . the application of guano. It will not pay so 
well if applied to ground capable of bringing 20 or 
25 bushels of wheat per acre; the increased yield here, 
even with a favorable season, will not be over 10 to 20 
per cent, and the richer the land the less yield, and 
some say it does no good. On such land, however, it is 
seldom used. But to the man who owns a farm ex¬ 
hausted by crops of corn, oats and tobacco of his an¬ 
cestors, and upon which he has been breathing (living 
would be too strong a word) for years—his land too 
poor to bring clover even with the aid of plaster, and 
the farmer too poor to apply lime and manure, guano 
proves an enchantress that charms him out of starva¬ 
tion into the midst of peace and plenty. If he be a 
judicious man, and can, sell' enough of anything to buy 
a few tons of guano, his fortune is made. He plows 
up his old field in August, and about the first of Octo¬ 
ber sows on from 200’to 300 lbs. of guano, and harrows 
it in, with a bushel and a half of wheat per acre; 
and where before broom sedge would scarcely bloom, 
he harvests from 15 to 25 bushels per acre, an increase 
of from three to five fold. In the March following, he 
sows on clover seed, and you may imagine the aston¬ 
ishment of the old cows the year afterwards, when 
cropping the blossoms of the succulent clover on grounds 
where formerly they had toiled all the day long for a 
precarious existence, browsing sassafras buds and the 
airy stems and blades of broom sedge. 
The race of improvement is now fairly begun, and 
the farmer, instead of being at an expense for manures, 
finds, after his crop is sold and' all expenses paid, a 
strange jingle of surplus coin in his pocket. If now he 
turns under his clover as deep as he can drive it, and 
applies 100 bushels of lime to the acre, a fertilizer 
that is at, hand everywhere in Maryland, his land is 
made. I heard of a man who having $1,500 in cash, 
purchased a farm on credit for $6 or $7 per acre—the 
whole cost being $2,500. Instead of doing as you 
would suppose any sensible man would do, pay the 
$1,500 cash on his debt,—he expended the whole in 
guano, and applied it 300 lbs. per acre on the worn out 
fields of his new farm, and sowed on wheat. The re¬ 
sult proved he was not so big a ninny as he was gene¬ 
rally esteemed. He paid the whole $2,500 with his 
•wheat crop, and improved his land by a good set of 
clover, at the same time. If, however, the farmer 
should continue the application of guano without other 
manures in the quantities above mentioned, the yield 
will be a diminished one until finally for reasons above 
stated, if the deductions of science are pot all false, 
the final condition of that land must be worse than 
the first. 
Guano always acts better in soils retentive of mois¬ 
ture, having a large per centage of cla,y. The am¬ 
monia of the guano unites with the clay and is given 
out to the solvent powers of the water pf-esent for the 
gradual nourishment of the crop. Hence, too, it acts 
better in moist seasons than in dry, a fact that is true 
of all other manures. On light soils particularly, if 
the particles are coarse, its action is not so favorable, 
and unless the season is very moist it scarcely pays. 
The reason of this is to be found in the porous nature 
of such soils, and their high evaporating powers. 
Should guano be combined or applied without mix¬ 
ture 7 This question was much mooted a year or two 
since in the colunjns of the American Farmer. The 
editor contended it should always be combined with 
plaster to fix the ammonia. , A Virginian chemist on 
the other hand, asserted that such combination called 
into play chemical affinities which injured its efficacy. 
The one adduced experiments to prove that it acted 
well with plaster; the other proved by the same pro¬ 
cess of reasoning, that it acted well without. I am 
satisfied that it acts well in either way. On light po¬ 
rous soils, I should, however, combine with plaster or 
sprinkle with sulphuric acid, and so turn the ammonia 
into a sulphate which is not volatile. The usual mode 
of mixing is to turn the ^hano into a large box, and 
add 1 bushel plaster to 200 lbs guano, sprinkling with 
water and stirring till intimately mixed. With large 
parcels the same may be more conveniently done by 
spreading the guano and plaster on a tight barn floor, 
and turning with a shovel, sprinkling with water as 
before. Some again mix it with strong brine (solution 
of the chloride of soda) turning the ammonia into a 
muriate. I am not satisfied that it acts so well in 
this state as in a sulphate or carbonate, though the 
brine'by adding alkali, in which the guano is deficient, 
is thus far of advantage. 
Should guano be plowed under 7 This was always 
insisted on in its first applications. Uncombined, it 
certainly ought never to be used as a top dressing, and 
although it ought not to be in contact with the seed, 
its caustic nature in that case destroying the young 
plant, yet it ought to be as near the seed as possible. 
The most approved plan now I believe is to harrow in 
wheat and guano at one operation. Many of our far¬ 
mers are now commencing to use the drill which great¬ 
ly facilitates the application of all concentrated ma¬ 
nures. 
Should guano be applied to spring crops 7 My own 
experience and observation lead me to infer that it 
does not pay unless the season and soil are favorable. 
We rarely have a summer sufficiently moist to dissolve 
the active principles of the guano, and the crop is lia¬ 
ble to burn, and on hoed crops where the surface is ex¬ 
posed, evaporation goes on so rapidly that the ammo¬ 
nia is exhaled before the crop matures; and often in 
its early growth, while the moisture of spring is still 
in the ground, the luxuriant appearance of the crop 
leads th‘e farmer to form high expectations that are in 
the end disappointed—and then all after amelioration 
of the soil is put out of the question by this mode of 
using the article. I once sowed 300 lbs. Peruvian gu¬ 
ano on an acre of poor ground—soil alluvial, very 
light but of fine particles. The result was eleven bar¬ 
rels of good corn, or as Cousin Jonathan would express 
it, 55 bushels shelled com, the season being favorable. 
