few details may not be considered tedious or
uninteresting. I applied last fall $350 worth of guano, partly Peruvian
and partly Patagonian, on a poor farm "in the forest," which cost a few
years ago four dollars an acre, and reaped 1089 bushels of beautiful
wheat from 78 sowed. Forty-six bushels were sowed on fallow, (both guano
and wheat put in with the cultivator, followed by a heavy harrow,) and
yielded 790 bushels or over 17-1/4 for one. A considerable part of this
was dressed with Patagonian guano, and was much inferior to the other
portion. A lot on which 15 bushels was sowed, and dressed with Peruvian
guano, was threshed separately, and yielded 301 bushels, or over 20 for
one. The whole cost of the farm was $1520, and I have good reason to
expect with a favorable season from the crop now sowed and dressed with
guano, a bushel of wheat for every dollar of the prime cost of the farm.
Many other instances of profit from the use of guano, equally striking
have occurred among my neighbors and friends, but I confine myself to
those stated, because having come under my immediate observation, I can
vouch for their entire accuracy. It has been frequently objected to the
use of guano, that it is not permanent. It would be unreasonable to
expect great permanent improvement from a manure so active, and which
yielded go large a profit on the first crop. Yet I have seen some
striking evidences of its permanency in heavy crops of clover,
succeeding wheat, and in the increase of the crop of wheat on a second
application. As an instance, I may mention that two years ago I sowed
upon a single detached acre of "forest land," one bushel of wheat and
dressed it with a barrel of African guano, costing $4, and the yield was
seventeen bushels. Last fall the same land, after remaining one year in
clover, was again sowed with one bushel of wheat and dressed with 140
lbs. of Peruvian guano, costing $3, and the product was 22 bushels. Yet
I would advise no one to rely upon guano exclusively. Its analysis shows
that it contains salts of ammonia, alkaline phosphates and the other
mineral elements necessary to produce the grain of wheat, but is
deficient in most of the elements of the straw and roots of the plants.
Hence, (says Liebig) 'a rational agriculturist, in using guano, cannot
dispense with stable dung.' We should, therefore, be careful not to
exhaust the soil of organic manures, but by retaining the straw of the
wheat, and occasionally