THE CULTIVATOR 
Does Manuring always Pay? 
This is a question which seems to be agitated by a 
great many of our agricultural brethren, with whom 
We have lately conversed. Perhaps the reduction 
Which the agents of the Peruvian Government in this 
country have quite recently made in the price of guano, 
may have given fresh importance to this question, and 
made it assume of late a more prominent place in con¬ 
versation. Previous to this late reduction in price, hr 
when it was above $50 per ton, the impression seemed 
to be very general among farmers that they could not 
afford to buy, or, in other words, that manuring with 
that would not pay. A similar impression prevails, 
we should judge from their conversation, in the minds 
of many in regard to all marketable manures. They 
do not purchase—they do not try, for they hate got the 
persuasion pretty firmly fixed in their minds that using 
these advertised fertilizers will not pay, that is, that 
their crops will not be increased thereby in sufficient 
quantity to remunerate them for their outlaid money. 
A similar impression seems to be very common in re¬ 
gard to home-made manures which require some con¬ 
siderable time or labor in their production. Many 
seem to have doubts about their ever getting remune¬ 
rated for their time and pains in getting up some kind 
of protection to their manure-heaps against exposure 
to sun and rains, or in throwing up a compost heap ; 
and many more are incredulous about ever getting 
paid were they to go to work and manufacture their 
own poudrette, or save the urine on their premises, con¬ 
verting it into a dry manure by having it absorbed by 
muck or other material. Few seem to think that it 
would pay to be at the little labor necessary to save 
the manure of their hen-roosts or poultry-yards, which 
is just about as valuable as guano from abroad. Whole 
neighborhoods, perhaps whole towns, may be heard of, 
in which no other manure seems ever to have been used 
save that which is to be found at stable-doors or in cat¬ 
tle-yards, after it has been well leached by rains, and 
had all the valuable gases and fertilizing matter ex¬ 
tracted and exhaled from it by exposure to the rays of 
a burning sun. 
These fears, doubts and incredulities, about manures 
and manuring not paying, are the products, we fear, 
more of laziness and want of enterprise than of well- 
authenticated facts, and of just inferences therefrom. 
They seem to us to be baseless—without any foundation 
in fact or reason. And not only so, but like a great 
many other errors and mis-judgments, they are the 
sources of a great deal of loss and mischief. Were 
these doubts and erroneous impressions removed, there 
might be an addition to the crops of the whole country, 
of ten or even twenty per cent. If this estimate is not 
exaggerated, then these erroneous impressions cause to 
individuals and to the community generally an im¬ 
mense loss. To remove them is, therefore, an object 
of no small importance. The products of the soil and 
of the farm generally, would thereby be much increas¬ 
ed. The wants of society would be more abundantly 
supplied, and comforts be more easily procurable. Let 
these errors, then, be attacked wherever they exist- 
Let the facts and the truths to which they are opposed 
be well established and brought out so as to secure at¬ 
tention and candid consideration. 
As a Small contribution towards this important ob¬ 
ject, we would at present, lay before the reader a few 
facts which seem to warrant us in expecting that ma¬ 
nuring will always pay , when good judgment presides 
Over the whole operation ;—and that farmers would be 
much nearer the truth at all events, in expecting that 
manuring will always, or nearly always, pay, than in 
indulging such fears and foolish notions as those to 
which we have alluded at the commencement of this 
article. 
The almost universal opinion among our best and 
most enterprising farmers, that guano will cause an in¬ 
crease of products which will Hot only pay cost, at $50 
per ton or $2.50 per 100 lbs. as it has lately been sold at, 
and for the time and labor in applying it, but will also 
furnish a considerable net profit besides—this general 
opinion among those who have tried it, both in Great 
Britain and America, may be fairly adduced as very 
good proof that manuring will pay, even when the 
article used costs a high price, and is often adulterated 
or deteriorated in quality. We have known and read 
of instances in which guano was used injudiciously, 
and therefore without any remunerating increase of 
crop, but the general result has been such as to com¬ 
pensate abundantly for the outlay of money, time and 
labor in applying it. The benefits of guano are now 
so well established and so generally known, that the 
demand is almost incredible. But for the statement 
made by Dr. James Higgins, the chemist of the 
Maryland Agricultural Society, who lives near the 
great importers of guano, Barreda & Bro., we should 
have been slow to believe that the demand in the Uni¬ 
ted States has ever amounted to 200,000 tons, in one 
year. Dr. Higgins, in a letter to the Washington 
Union , says however, that he has learned from a most 
reliable source, that the quantity of guano which will 
be brought to the United States this year will be about 
the quantity above named. The recent reduction 
which these importers have made in the price will 
probably increase the demand of next year to 250,000 
tons. This at their lowest price, $50 per ton, will amount 
to $12,500,000. If the agricultural products of the 
country can be increased to such an extent by guano 
as to make a remunerating return for an outlay of ten 
or twelve and a half millions of dollars, surely it would 
pay to be at more expense than we now are to save the 
fertilizing elements of crops which now so generally go 
to waste, both in cities and villages, and also about in¬ 
dividual homesteads, stables and barnyards. 
As it is principally in regard to manures made on 
the farm , that we wish to persuade our brethren that 
it will pay , to make and use them, we will now give 
an instance of the fertilizing effects of a home-made 
manure. A farmer in Piermont, N. H., was led by 
some remarks in the Patent Office Report for 1851, pp. 
380, 381, to make some experiments with a fertilizer 
