utting the fine back in the bags and
lumps on the floor. These may be mashed with a stout hoe or shovel, or
with a block like a pavier's rammer. Sift and break again until all is
fine. Lay the dust with a very slight sprinkle from the nose of a
watering pot; of a solution of copperas, at the rate of 10 lbs. to the
cwt. of guano, or with plaster or loamy earth--woods mould or dry fine
clay. Many persons prefer to mix plaster with the guano in the first
instance at the rate of a peck of plaster to a bushel of guano--others
use an equal weight of each. Where plaster is not to be had, from five
to ten bushels of pulverized charcoal or dust from the coal pit, or
pulverized peat, to each hundred weight of guano may be used to fix the
ammonia and prevent loss. Sulphuric acid 1 lb. to 10 of water, with
which to sprinkle the mass may be used as a fixer. But if it is kept in
the bags, in a dry room, until ready for use, and then prepared, sown
and plowed in at once with as little exposure to the air as possible,
very little of the ammonia will escape. The true axiom to be observed in
the use of guano, is to plow it in as soon as possible after it is sown
and before it is moistened with dew or rain; and to plow it in deep, or
in some way thoroughly incorporate it with the soil, so that rains will
not wash it away, or hot sunshine cause it to evaporate. We hold all
top-dressings with guano, to be wasteful, on account of its volatile
character, and because it needs the moisture in the earth to fit the
substance of which it is composed so its fertilizing properties can be
taken up by the roots of the plants. If spread upon the surface, it must
wait for a dissolving shower to carry it down to the roots; in the
meantime, it is moistened by dews and evaporated by the sun, and carried
off to enrich your neighbor's crops half as much as your own.

_Preparing Land and Sowing._--When ready to plow the land for wheat,
measure an acre and lay it off in lands 18 feet wide; put the guano in a
pail and walk up one side and down the other with a moderate step
throwing handfulls across at each step, and you will find you do not
vary much from two hundred pounds to the acre. Never sow in a windy day
if it can be avoided, nor faster than it can be plowed in the same day.

_To prevent guano from getting into the mouth and nostrils._--Take a
thin piece of sponge and wet it and tie over the mouth and nose.
Whenever the dust accumulates, wash it out. If