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Solon Robinson >> Guano
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"It is probable those will be disappointed who expect to do everything
with guano--make fine crops and improve the land, while they take
everything off, and dispense almost, if not entirely, with the more
permanent manures, all equally within their reach. True, we may exist
for a time, only half fed and half clothed; but it is just as reasonable
to expect to improve under such a regimen, as to calculate upon
continued, not to say increased fertility of the soil, without an ample
supply, of the right kind of manure.
"With all its acknowledged advantages, it may be questioned whether there
is not one drawback to the introduction of guano. It is used with less
profit in direct connexion with lime, than with most kinds of manure;
and its facility of application, and quick return, has induced many to
give up the lime entirely, if not also to some extent, to neglect the
resources of the farm. Others again, in improving poor land, advise the
guano first, and the lime afterwards. This may do very well; but is
often better in theory than in practice, for the lime is omitted
altogether, and perhaps at some risk of loss, in both time and money, as
regards permanent improvement. To use a figure of speech--the prudent
architect will first secure a solid foundation to build upon, and with
materials of known durability; this accomplished, he need have no fears
of the stability of the structure, and may, at pleasure add thereto,
either for ornament or utility."
"That thin lands may be brought to a very productive state, by the
liberal and repeated applications of guano, there is no doubt; but at
what cost and how durable the improvements might be, I am not prepared
to say. In two instances, from 700 to 800 lbs. were applied at one time
to an acre; but in neither did the results correspond with the expense,
or induce a repetition of the experiment. My own experience so far, is
in favor of more limited applications, say 100 to 200 lbs. to the acre,
(taking in consideration the price of both grain and guano,) and also
used in connection with other manures, which is found to be the most
profitable, and probably more durable in its effect; in two experiments,
with from 50 to 150 lbs. of guano to the acre applied three years since
with barnyard manure, for wheat, the effect on the grass crop at this
time, is quite marked; applied in this way, it hastens maturity--thus,
in a degree, guarding against rust--renders the grain more perfect, and
is believed to be one of the most profitable modes of using guano."
Nothing could be more sensible than the advice of this gentleman, not to
rely upon guano alone. To waste or neglect stable and home made manures,
or throw away bones or other valuable fertilizers, because we could buy
guano, would be as insensible as it would for a man to throw away a
handful of bank bills, because he happened to have just then a pocket
full of gold and silver coin.
We never have, nor shall we recommend guano to the exclusion of
everything else; but we do recommend every farmer in America, to whom an
additional quantity of manure would be an object, to buy guano; because
he will be almost sure to derive a certain and immediate profit from the
investment. It will make poor lands rich, and rich lands richer.
EVIDENCE OF THE DURABLE EFFECTS OF GUANO.
Upon this point, we have the following testimony of Thomas P. Stabler,
of Montgomery County, Md., a gentleman of the highest degree of
intelligence and integrity; one of the society of Friends, who are
rather noted for not being extravagant in their expressions or encomiums
of an article, without good grounds therefor. We make these remarks,
because, as every good lawyer will tell you, the character and standing
of your witnesses is of more importance than their language, to make a
strong impression in your favor.
In speaking of the means within reach of farmers, by which they can
renovate their worn out lands, of which Maryland has an ample share,
friend Stabler says, "In some districts the distance from lime is so
great, that the man with small means can scarcely be expected to use it
upon a large scale--but in regions of country where bone, guano and
poudrette act favorably, none need be without important aid from their
use. Under a judicious system of cultivation and correct management,
either of these will make bountiful returns the first year, and the
strongest and most conclusive evidence exists of their durability as
manures. Proofs of this abound in my neighborhood. Reference to the
'facts' in a single case in point may suffice for an example. In the
summer of 1845, I prepared seventeen acres and a few perches of land for
wheat About five sixths of this was extremely poor--upon a portion of
the field, was put 112 ox-cart loads of manure from the barn yard and
stable, on what I considered about an average quality of the land. On
the 12th of the 9th month, (September,) I sowed seven bushels of wheat
on this part of the ground and plowed the manure and wheat in together
with the double shovel plow--very soon after the balance was sowed with
270 pounds of good African guano per acre, for which I paid $40 per ton,
and plowed this in with the wheat, immediately after sowing, in the
same manner as the other. During the succeeding winter and spring, the
appearance of my wheat field became the subject of much notice and
remark on the part of my neighbors, as well as others from several
adjoining counties who saw it, many of whom supposed that this
application of guano could not possibly produce such a crop as its then
present appearance indicated--in this, however, they were
disappointed--there were two small pieces left without manure of any
kind. One of these upon the best part of the field, and the other upon a
part of medium quality.
"It may be recollected that the crop of wheat that season was generally
most inferior, both in quality and quantity. Upon the parts left without
manure, it was scarcely worth cutting, and men of integrity and good
judgment, were of the opinion that without the aid of the guano, I could
not have saved more than 60 or 70 bushels of wheat from the field. The
product was 320 bushels, that weighed 64 lbs. to the bushel. The guanoed
portion continued at harvest to be decidedly better than that manured
from the barn yard and stable. This field was sown with clover in the
spring of 1846, and to this time its appearance affords as strong
evidence of great improvement in the land, as it did during the growth
of wheat. It has now been pastured freely during two summers, and been
exposed to the action of the frosts of two winters, and upon the guanoed
portion I have not yet seen a single clover root thrown out of the
ground, while from the part manured from the barn yard, it has almost
entirely disappeared. Good farmers have frequently remarked during the
present summer that the appearance of this field warrants the conclusion
that it is now capable of producing largely of any crop common to our
country.
"Thus 'worn out land' is renovated, and ample means produced for
increasing its fertility. Similar instances of improvement exist in very
many examples that can be seen in this portion of our country, resulting
from the application of lime, bone and poudrette, as well as from
guano."
_Guano prevents clover from being thrown out by frost._--We wish to call
back the attention of the reader to this reliable statement of Mr.
Stabler, not only for its importance to farmers, but because the same
thing has been remarked by other gentlemen who have used guano. It can
only be accounted for from the fact, that guano seems to be peculiarly
adapted, more than any other manure, to give the young clover a vigorous
start, so that in its early stages it acquires a growth too strong to be
affected by the usual course of freezing and thawing, by which less
vigorous plants are thrown out. For this reason alone, if guano had no
other value, farmers in some sections of the country where the soil is
peculiarly affected by this difficulty, would find their account in the
use of an article which would enable them to grow clover, for clover is
manure, and it should be a sine qua non with every farmer to avail
himself of all the means within his reach to increase the supply of
manure from the products of his farm. Let him not depend alone upon the
purchase of guano, but rather upon the means which that brings within
his reach of increasing his home supply by the growth of clover, and
largely increased production of straw. Those who are interested
pecuniarily, which the writer is not, in the increased sale of guano in
the United States, have no fears that our recommendations to make manure
at home--to use lime, plaster, bones, clover, and every other source of
fertility within their reach, will decrease the sale of guano. On the
contrary, those who are most disposed to use all these sources of
fertility, are the very men most disposed to use a substance which all
experience has proved superior to all others. Besides, there is, and
probably always will be, enough "worn out lands" which can be profitably
renovated, to use up all the guano which will ever find its way into
this country. So our earnest recommendation is, where lime is available,
let no man claiming the honorable title of farmer, fail to make the
application. Let him also gather up all the fragments--let nothing be
lost--make all the manure at home he possibly can, and then he will not
only have the means, but a disposition also to buy that which a
beneficent Providence sends him from the coast of Peru; of the good
effect of which we will prove by further testimony--that of the Hon.
James A. Pearce, Senator from Maryland, and a farmer of no small note in
that State. He says--"In April 1845, I applied 350 lbs., probably of
African or Patagonian guano to an acre of growing wheat, the land being
entirely unimproved and very poor. It was applied as a top dressing, of
course, but mixed with plaster." (In what proportion he does not say,
but we will by and bye; but he does say)--"_The wheat was doubled in
quantity at least_--fine clover succeeded it--and in two crops, one of
corn and one of small grain, three and four years afterwards, the
effects are still apparent." Now this effect was produced by the use of
the guano as a top dressing; a method universally acknowledged to be the
most unfavorable to the development of the full value of the
application.
The editor of the Farmer in answer to an inquiry whether a combination
of charcoal, plaster, and guano would make a profitable _top dressing_
in spring for wheat, says, "yes"--but thinks if it had been plowed in
with the seed in the fall, the result would have been much better.
However, says he, "we entertain not the slightest doubt, that, if his
wheat field be top dressed with the mixture next spring, it will greatly
increase the yield of his wheat crop, unless the season should prove a
very dry one, as the charcoal, and plaster, will each tend to prevent
the escape of the ammoniacal gases of the guano, and as it were, offer
them up as food to the wheat plants.
"In April 1845, I applied 350 lbs. of guano to an acre of growing wheat,
the land being entirely unimproved and very poor. Of course it was
applied as a top-dressing, _mixed, however, with plaster_. The wheat was
doubled in quantity at least; fine clover succeeded it; and in two
crops, one of corn, and the other of small grain, last year and the
present, the effects are still apparent."
If our correspondent would _mix_, in the proportion of 200 lbs. of
_guano_, one bushel of _charcoal_, and half a bushel of plaster per
acre, and sow the mixture on his wheat field next spring, after the
frost is entirely out of the ground, then seed each acre with clover
seed, and roll his land, we have no doubt that his wheat crop would be
increased five or six bushels to the acre, perhaps more, and that he
would have a good stand of clover plants, and a luxuriant crop of the
latter next year.
"Our opinion is, that _guanoed_ land should always be sowed to clover, or
clover and orchard grass."
In this, particularly the opinion of the last paragraph, we fully
concur--to obtain the full value of guano it must either be mixed with
plaster or charcoal, or what is better, plowed in and thoroughly
incorporated with the soil, and the land always sown with clover, peas
or some other plant of equal value for green manure. It is true Col.
Carter has been successful with wheat after wheat; while many continue
successful, by carefully retaining all the straw; the guano being
sufficient to keep up the everlasting ability of the soil to produce an
annual crop of grain.
THE FIVE FIELD SYSTEM AND GUANO.
We look upon this as the most preferable of all other systems of farming
ever adopted in the South--it is the system of Edmund Ruffin, to whom
Virginia owes a debt of gratitude beyond her power to pay. It will be
seen from the following extract from a letter of Mr. Newton that that
eminent agriculturist is of opinion that improvement of poor land is
unlimited, if guano in connection with this system is perseveringly
applied. He says--"The "five field System," which is now rapidly extending
over all the poor and worn lands that are now under improvement by marl,
lime, or guano, originated, or at least was first extensively
introduced in lower Virginia, on the Pamunkey, and has there wrought
wonders, aided by marl and judicious farming. The rotation is
corn,--wheat,--clover--wheat, or clover fallow,--and pasture, and after
pasture one year, commencing the round again with corn. This system, if
guano be applied to both crops of wheat, on corn land and fallow, or
alternately with lime or marl, when calcareous manures are required,
will readily increase the crops and permanent improvement of the land.
In the commencement of the rotation, lime had better be applied with the
putrescent manures to the corn crop, to be followed by guano on wheat.
If this system be perseveringly, pursued, I can scarcely see any
reasonable limits to the improvement of poor lands and the increase of
the profits of agriculture."
Disappointment will result from the application of lime, marl, salt
potash, guano, or any special and highly concentrated substance as a
fertilizer, to the neglect of organic manures. We lay down this fact as
incontrovertible, that no soil, however fertile it may be made for the
time being by any of these special manures, can remain permanently so,
unless care is used to maintain a healthful supply of organic
matter,--rich mould--good soil upon the land cultivated. If this is
done, we never shall hear of guano failing to bring increased crops or
of the "land running out," where it has been applied. Special manures of
any kind may fail to produce crops, where this essential requisite to
good farming is neglected. Guano, in our opinion, should always be
followed by crops of clover, grass, peas, or some crop that will shade
the earth, and can be turned under with the plow, to keep up the
necessary supply of nitrogenous food for cereal crops.
_The effect of Lime and Salt_ upon land is to _dissolve_ the inert
portions of organic matters in the soil, so that plants can suck up
their substance into their own composition. Both are highly beneficial,
but insufficient to add permanent fertility.
_The effect of guano_, is greater than any other highly concentrated
manure ever discovered and applied to any soil. Its benefits are
immediate continuous, and unlike lime, without exhausting the soil of
its organic matter. Yet its benefits will be increased by the addition
of organic manures derived from green crops, straw, or the stable, and
the value of these will be greatly increased by the addition of lime,
salt and plaster, while any deficiency of phosphates must be supplied by
powdered bones or another application of guano.
_The effect of plaster with guano_ is to arrest the excursive
disposition of the volatile parts of the guano, and imprison them in the
earth until called forth by the growing plants to do the State some
service. The following question to the Editor of the American Farmer,
and his reply, are to the point in this matter:--
A correspondent says--"As to the question of mixing plaster with guano,
there is one question I should like to propose to the editor,
viz.--'what will be the effect of sowing guano upon land by itself, and
then, the seed being in the ground, giving it a heavy top-dressing of
plaster, so as to arrest the 'excursion,' of which so much is said?"
_Reply by the editor._--"The effect of such application of guano and
plaster would be, to prevent the waste of the ammonia of the former, as
every rain would decompose more or less of the plaster, separate the
sulphuric acid from the lime, and the sulphuric acid when liberated,
would unite with the ammonia, form a sulphate of ammonia, and hold the
latter in reserve to be taken up by the roots of the plants. The
presence of plaster with all _organic_ manures, either directly mixed
with them, or broadcasted after they may be applied, tends to prevent
the escape of their volatile parts. We prefer them together for two
reasons,--_first_, because, by bringing the two into _immediate
contact_, the action of the plaster is more direct; and _secondly_,
because the time and expense of one sowing is thereby saved. We go for
saving every way, as time and labor costs money, and we look upon
economy as a virtue, which should be practised by all, and especially by
husbandmen."
If the plaster and guano is mixed together, 25 lbs. of the former to 100
lbs. of the latter, will be found a proper proportion, and sufficient to
prevent the ammonia from making an "excursion." Unless the soil be very
poor, 200 lbs. of good Peruvian guano is as much as we should recommend
for wheat. In this we have the concurrence of the editor of the Farmer,
and perhaps a hundred gentlemen whom we have conversed with upon this
subject. All agree in the opinion, whether mixed with plaster or not,
that a judicious application of guano will more certainly restore
productiveness to worn out land, or add fertility to that already
productive, than any other substance ever applied.
_Want of Faith in the efficacy of guano._--Whatever doubts may have
existed in the minds of careful men, there is no room for doubts now,
that Peruvian guano possesses regenerating properties beyond belief,
without evidence, and capacity to increase the productiveness of lands
in sound condition, in such an eminent degree, that any farmer who has
the power to obtain it, evinces great folly and perverse obstinacy, if
he continue to cultivate his land without applying it; either for want
of faith, or pretended disbelief in its efficacy; or because he thinks
the price fixed upon it by the Peruvian Government, "unjustifiably
high;" or because although he has no doubt it will answer in the moist
climate of England, is sure it will never answer in this dry climate; or
because he is afraid the luxuriant crops produced by the application of
guano will exhaust his land; or because his neighbor Jones killed all
his seed corn by putting only a handful in the hill; while Mrs. Jones
killed all her flowers and fifty kinds of roses with the "pisen stuff;"
and therefore he don't want any more to do with it; or because it has
failed to give remuneration under the most injudicious application, made
contrary to all instructions or experience of those who have used it; or
for any and all the other thousand and one objections raised by those
who have never used it, and seem determined they never will; probably
because when the almost miraculous accounts of its operations were first
published, they had cried out "humbug" so loudly they are determined no
after evidence shall convince them the only humbug in the case was in
their own disbelief. It is for the benefit of these unbelievers we are
now writing. Our object is to present such an array of facts guaranteed
by such respectable names, they shall have no hook to hang a doubt
upon--no reason--no justifiable excuse for any sane man longer to
neglect to apply an article of such positive, certain benefit to his
hungry soil.
ED. REYNOLDS ESQ., OF BALTIMORE, ON THE VALUE OF GUANO.
Writing on the subject of "bought manures," as everything is termed not
produced upon the farm, and how dubiously they are looked upon by some
persons calling themselves good farmers, for fear of being humbugged,
Mr. Reynolds says, in a letter dated July, 1850, "Since 1843, I have
been trying to find out which is the best of all these 'new things,' and
have now, after having been very considerably humbugged, settled down
upon bones and guano--although, even the last named in a very dry year,
has also 'cheated me'; but this is by no means its character, as I am
constrained to admit, that after having tried it on all sorts of soil,
and perhaps as long if not longer than any other person in the State, it
is my opinion that when properly applied, with an average fair season,
it is a very powerful fertilizer. My mode of using it is, when applied
to tobacco, to mix one and a half bushels of the Peruvian, (which is
ordinarily 100 lbs.) with one bushel rich earth, and one bushel of
plaster, which admits about the fifth part of a gill of the mixture to
each hill for every 5,000 hills--and putting it in the center of the
check before being scraped--so that when the hill is made, it lies
beneath the plant. On wheat, I apply three bushels of Peruvian guano
equal to 200 lbs. mixed with one bushel of plaster, one bushel rich
earth to the acre, sowing on the surface and plowing it in as soon and
as deep as possible, after it is sowed. The past spring I have put 300
lbs. to the acre, on 30 acres of corn, being half of a field, on a farm
in Calvert, mixing with it the same quantity of rich earth and plaster,
and sowing on the surface, plowing in at once very deep, using the
cultivator only in working it afterwards. I do not intend to use it at
all with corn, hereafter, but not because I do not think it also a good
fertilizer with this crop, (as my corn on my Calvert farm, upon which it
has been used, now shows very fair,) but only because it has never
failed to pay me three fold better on wheat, than on anything else. In
order to test its virtue, it is essentially necessary to plow it in
deeply, and stir it as little as possible afterwards."
_Bones._--Of these I have used both ground and crushed, and always to
advantage at ten to twelve bushels per acre; bought from manufacturers
here, and agents of houses in New York; but I am using the crushed
dissolved by oil of vitriol, as prepared by myself on my farm in Calvert
in the following way: The bones, (which we buy in the neighborhood at 50
cents per 112 lbs.) after breaking them with a small sledge hammer on an
old anvil, we put at the rate of three bushels in half a hogshead, and
apply to that quantity 75 lbs. oil of vitriol, filling up the half
hogshead to within eight inches of the top with water, letting them
remain, (but stir the contents occasionally with a stick,) say two to
five weeks, according to the quality and strength of the vitriol; then
start the contents of the half hogshead into a large iron kettle, apply
a slight fire and the whole contents will in less than an hour be
reduced to a perfect jelly. We use two half hogsheads at once, to
prepare it expeditiously. We then mix the contents of each kettle, with
a horse cart load of rich earth, or ashes, throwing in a half barrel of
plaster, mix or compost it handsomely, and use at pleasure, on an acre
of land with any crop you choose, and you will have permanently improved
two acres at the following cost, viz: Bones, $1.50, vitriol, $3.75,
plaster, $1.12, making $6.37, or $3.18 per acre, and this may be
repeated so as with proper attention, as much lasting improvement may be
made each year as many farmers derive from their barn yards. Bones in
any form never fails to show their striking effects on clover and other
grasses--but either bones or guano will scarcely ever fail to produce a
better crop of clover, which, with the increased quantity of straw,
(particularly when guano is used,) will enable and encourage the saving
of larger quantities of barn yard manure, and which must inevitably
cause a lasting improvement.
This coincides with our views exactly, as we have in all these pages
endeavored to impress upon our readers, that the increased growth of
straw from the use of guano, will increase the manure pile, and
"inevitably cause a lasting improvement."
_Poudrette._--"I have used also, to good advantage, particularly on
clayey lands, at the rate of six to eight barrels per acre. It is a
first rate top dressing on young clover in spring, at two to three
barrels per acre; this article has been prepared so badly heretofore,
that a great quantity of it was really worthless."
We also concede to poudrette as much credit as Mr. Reynolds but as will
be seen, it will cost more to improve land with it than with guano.
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