1854. 
THE CULTIVATOR 
247 
What shall we Substitute for Guano? 
The supplies of guano must have some limit. This 
seems almost self-evident. It did not lead to any prac¬ 
tical result however, until this common-sense sugges¬ 
tion was confirmed by the surveys of Admiral Moresby 
and others interested, by whose. computation it would 
appear that the Peruvian supplies are limited to eight 
or ten years at the present rate of consumption. This 
prospective limit to supply, together with more limited 
supplies even now, is causing considerable anxiety 
among agriculturists. It is known that some of the 
deposits of guano upon the Patagonian coast are al¬ 
ready exhausted. These circumstances conspire to give 
interest to the above inquiry. 
Another set of considerations also give the above 
question an additional degree of interest. The adul¬ 
teration of guano is getting to be a very common prac¬ 
tice. Farmers cannot detect these frauds, and there¬ 
fore it is very natural that they should wish that there 
were some good substitute for guano which could not 
be so easily adulterated, or whose adulterations could 
be more easily detected. 
Moved by considerations such as we have just 
named, the Royal Agricultural Society of England of¬ 
fered, some time ago, a premium for the discovery of 
a substance equal in fertilizing value to Peruvian gua¬ 
no, and to be sold at or under £5 ($25) a ton. In 
competition for this premium there have already been 
lodged over one hundred and forty claims. Those who 
have put forward these claims ai'e severally confident 
of the validity and value thereof. And the public, 
after making allowance for the self-deception of many 
of the claimants, may still be very confident that, 
among the many substances offered as a substitute for 
guano, there will certainly be one or more which will 
meet the conditions of the premium, and furnish to the 
farming community something quite equal to Peruvian 
guano in fertilizing properties, and at the same time 
to be had at one half the cost. The majority of the 
substances entered for competition may prove worth¬ 
less ; but still there can hardly be the smallest doubt 
but that something will be found among the crowd of 
offered substitutes which may really prove a good one, 
or at least an artificial manure of high value for the 
purposes of the cultivator. So much good, at lea^t, 
will very surely flow from the stirring of men’s atten¬ 
tion and ingenuity by the offered premium. It can¬ 
not be supposed that all the claimants have deceived 
themselves, that not one out of one hundred and forty 
has succeeded in discovering a substance or composi¬ 
tion which will supply ammonia and phosphates at one 
half the rates at which these are at present supplied 
by Peruvian guano. 
But, even if not one of the substancee offered in 
competition should stand the severe scrutiny to which 
it will be subjected; if not even one of them should 
pass the scrutiny of the preliminary chemical test; if 
not even one should be found to contain such amounts 
of nitrogen or ammonia and phosphates as to render 
it probable that it could ever be equal to Peruvian 
guano in manorial effects,—still there will be benefits, 
of no inconsiderable amount, which will arise from 
the competition for this premium. If, after subjecting 
the several substances offered to the preliminary 
chemical test and to subsequent experiments in the 
field, the Society should pronounce that not one of the 
many claimants is entitled to the premium—that not 
one of the substances offered as substitutes for Peruvian 
guano has fully come up to all the conditions specified 
by the Society, still an appeal to the public is open to 
those who do not think they have obtained justice at 
the hands of the Society—an appeal which will un¬ 
doubtedly be made by several of the disappointed 
competitors. This will bring within the reach of the 
cultivators of the soil several new substances and new 
compositions at the very lowest possible rates, and they 
will be able, in the course of a few seasons, to decide 
what merit is really due to each. Among them there 
will be found one or more, which, if not fully en¬ 
titled to the premium of the English Society, will, 
at least, be of great value as a fertilizer, and, taking 
into consideration the difference in cost or money va¬ 
lue, will make a nearer approach than has yet been 
made to substance manurially equal to Peruvian gua¬ 
no. If it should, at the same time, be an article not 
easily adulterated, or the adulteration of which could 
be easily detected, quite a large benefit will have been 
confered on the agriculturists of Great Britain and of 
America. —— 
Curing Clover Hay. 
The New England Farmer gives the following brief 
and simple directions, on the management of clover 
hay, \yhich accord with what has been occasionally 
before published on the subject. A little experience 
may be necessary in conducting this management in 
the best manner ; hence if not fully Successful at the 
first trial, this mode should not be hastily given up. 
In curing clover hay, the principal value of which 
consists in the heads and foliage, we have observed, 
that when cut early and cured in “grass cock,” as it 
is called, the hay possessed a much more brilliant and 
beautiful appearance than the same quality of grass, 
cut at the same time, and cured in the open air, or 
under a free exposure often for a protracted period to 
the sun. By cutting this grass when the crop is in 
full blossom, allowing it to remain in the swath the 
first day after mowing, till nearly night, and then 
turning it carefully with a fork so as to expose a fresh 
and unwilted surface to the night dews, and cocking it 
in the afternoon of the second day, in small compact 
cocks, of about eighty pounds unmade hay, to the cock, 
it will make evenly and thoroughly, and may be pitch¬ 
ed and even trodden down in mow without being de¬ 
prived of its heads or finer leaves. The color will be 
a most beautiful green, and the flowers will be almost 
as fresh in color as when cut. After cocking, let the 
weather be fair or foul, no opening or turning, (unless 
in case of a protracted storm) of the “grass cocks” 
should be allowed. It is unnecessary, as the hay will 
“ cure .” completely through, and the outside, when 
saturated with water, will soon dry off, and effect no 
harm whatever to the hay. You will never see moul¬ 
dy hay, if this method is adopted, in “ making” or 
curing it. In forming grass cocks, the fork is prefera¬ 
ble to the rake, which is of service only in gathering 
up the scatterings, and regulating the size and shape 
of the cocks. 
