Guano
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Solon Robinson >> Guano
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_On Flax._--Experiments in England have proved guano superior to any
other substance ever applied to this crop. With the aid of this manure,
farmers will never complain of flax exhausting the soil. With 300 lbs.
per acre, successive large crops can be grown upon the same ground. It
should be plowed in, but not so deeply as for some other crops, as it is
not expected to benefit succeeding ones as much as the present. As soon
as the "flax cotton" movement now progressing is fully understood, there
will be immense fields of flax grown for that purpose, and the best and
most economical fertilizing material, and for which there will be a
large demand, will be Peruvian guano; for no good farmer will attempt to
grow a crop without it. A top dressing of 25 or 30 bushels of ashes to
the acre will be found beneficial; but farmers ought to try which is
best, more guano and less or no ashes, or the reverse. We cannot advise
rotation with this crop, where guano is used, because the ground becomes
so clean and free from weeds, it is of great advantage, and so far as we
are informed, continuous good crops result from the annual application
of the same quantity of guano, year after year.
_On Cabbages._--Field culture. After the ground is well prepared, lay it
off in checks three to four feet square. With a spade, throw out a deep
spit at each check and put in a spoonful of guano, or at the rate of 400
lbs. per acre, and cover with soil. Set the plants immediately and water
if possible. After the first hoeing, throw a handful of ashes on each
plant.
_For Carrots, Beets and Parsnips_, plow in 500 lbs. per acre, twelve to
eighteen inches deep. Top dress with ashes, salt, and fine manure in
compost, to assist the young plants; the long roots will find the guano
and it will produce such a crop as you never saw before.
_On Hops._--Make a mixture of three cwt. of guano, one of salt, one and
a half of saltpetre, and one of gypsum, for each acre; sow broadcast and
plow in about four inches deep, and you will find your manure well paid
for, and no exhaustion of the soil, as is usually the case wherever this
crop is cultivated, as it is a very gross feeder, and requires very rich
land or great deal of manure; for which reason it is not as much
cultivated as it will be as soon as the virtues of the above application
become fully known.
_For Tobacco_, guano has been found to possess superior qualities,
particularly in obviating the difficulty heretofore experienced in
getting plants sufficiently early. We have the testimony of several
witnesses to prove that burning a seed bed is quite unnecessary, if
guano at the rate of 400 to 600 lbs. to the acre be mixed with an equal
amount of ashes, and plaster and well raked in previous to sowing. Of
the effect upon the crop, we give the testimony of a Virginia planter.
"In the spring of 1850, I applied 200 lbs. to the acre, on eight acres
of land, which had been manured three years before for tobacco, and the
same quantity, on three acres which had never been manured, and was very
poor. On the last I also turned in some half rotted straw, raked up in
the barn yard, after all the farm yard manure had been hauled out.
Between these two pieces of land, 19 acres were heavily manured. The
whole 30 acres had been well broken with four horses, early in the
winter. The last year was the worst I have ever known for tobacco.
Nevertheless, the first eight acres produced a very fine crop--the last
three acres brought much better tobacco than the adjoining manured land,
I should say not less than 600 lbs. to the acre."
_Wheat on Guanoed Tobacco Land._--This field was sown with wheat, and
the writer says--"I measured from these 30 acres next year upwards of
600 bushels of wheat of very fine quality; both pieces of guanoed land
being _above_ the average of the whole lot. Adjoining the _three_ acres
is an equal quantity of land of the same quality, which did not yield
five bushels to the acre."
Of the effect upon another crop of wheat, the same gentleman says--"Two
years ago I purchased three tons, two of which I applied to 20 acres of
a James River hill, which though not gullied, had been a good deal worn
by hard croppings, or bad cultivation, or both combined. The Guano was
sowed _dry_, and on the wide rows laid off for sowing wheat, and
ploughed in with two horses, the wheat then harrowed in. I forgot to say
that the land had been fallowed in with three horses in the month of
August, and the wheat sowed in October. In consequence of the dryness of
the guano, and the width of the rows, the wheat was very much striped,
being very luxuriant where the guano fell in the largest quantities. The
product did not exceed 200 bushels, or 10 bushels to the acre, but the
quality was so superior that I saved it all for seed."
"The land sowed two years ago, is now _striped with clover_, as it was
with wheat."
This land is a tenacious red clay formation, from which the soil we
presume has all been washed away "long time ago." No planter, he says,
would have put such land in tobacco without heavy manuring; and yet it
produced a fair crop of tobacco. Owing to distance from navigation, he
could not use lime, or any heavy manure, and without guano he could not
make crops, and, consequently could not make manure at home.
The editor of the American Farmer, in a note says--"Our correspondent
appears to desire that his land should be brought to a state of
fertility by the _quickest_ practicable process, and from the beautiful
results of his experiments with guano, we know of no agent to which he
could look with so much certainty of success as to that very manure."
_The quantity per acre for Tobacco._--We should recommend at least 400
lbs. sown broadcast and plowed in, on such land as described, not over
four inches deep. The tobacco to be followed with wheat, the wheat with
clover, the clover after one year with corn and then tobacco and guano
again. The clover should have a bushel of plaster fall and spring.
Whoever tries this will find the benefit of guano on tobacco. But there
is one still greater benefit; we have been assured that the tobacco worm
which it was supposed from his natural taste, nothing could nauseate,
actually gets sick of guano, and refuses his accustomed food.
_Another mode of applying_ it to tobacco has been practised successfully
as follows:--Mark off the land in checks and put a small spoonful in
each check, and cover up directly under the bed where the plant is to
stand, three or four inches deep. To this a handful of ashes and plaster
may be advantageously added. Guano does not give tobacco the rank flavor
that is often acquired from high manuring.
Mr. Pleasants, although many experiments have failed, principally, as he
believes, from improper application, says in a recent letter--"There is
no actual reason why guano should not act as well on tobacco as any
other crop. The failures are doubtless to be ascribed to the injudicious
manner in which it has been applied. I can conceive of only one mode in
which it can be used to advantage, and that is by strewing it along a
deep furrow as described for corn; then bedding upon it and confining
the cultivation to one direction. This has been my way of cultivating
cabbages for the market for several years, and the guano has always
acted promptly and powerfully. If chopped in at the base of the hill it
would require a great quantity of rain to dissolve it and make it
available to the young plants, for the conical shape of the hill has a
tendency to shed the rain instead of absorbing it. I expect soon to
receive very accurate results of a crop grown with guano, which Judge
Nash represented to me as splendid. If I cultivated tobacco, I should
have every confidence of success by planting it on ridges with the Guano
buried at a considerable depth, say from four to six inches beneath the
surface of the ridge--1 lb. to ten yards would be a sufficient quantity.
"In short, I consider guano good for any crop. For potatoes (that is
Irish potatoes) I regard it as a specific manure. The quantity I apply
is 3/4 lbs. to every ten yards put in the furrows as recommended for
corn and tobacco, and then covered over about one inch with earth drawn
from the sides of the furrows. After this the potato cuttings are
planted and covered over with the plough or hoe. The quantity
recommended is about right as far as my experience goes (which is of
several years duration) if the cuttings are placed about two inches
apart."
_Guano for Cotton._--But few trials upon this crop have come to our
knowledge, but such as have, indicate that it will prove one of the most
valuable promoters of the growth of this staple product of America ever
discovered. The analysis of cotton--stalk, seed and lint--compared with
that of guano, is sufficient to prove the latter to be the very matter
required to produce the former. We are assured upon the most reliable
authority that guano will give an average increase of pound for pound
upon any soil producing less than a bale per acre so that every pound of
guano costing two and a half cents, will give a pound of cotton
averaging at least 6-1/4 cents.
_Mode of applying on Cotton Land._--Open a deep furrow and drill in the
bottom at the rate of 400 lbs. to the acre, upon land usually producing
300 to 500 lbs. seed cotton, and less for a better quality of land, down
to one-fourth the quantity. Bed on this as deep as you please; the
moisture of the earth will disengage the ammonia and phosphates, and
send their fertilizing properties up to the roots. Never use guano as a
top-dressing for cotton. The seed will be found better matured, and
consequently more valuable to manure another crop, besides being so much
easier separated from the lint, which will be found as much improved in
quality as quantity. For Sea Island planters, where manure is so
valuable and so hard to obtain, we would earnestly recommend a thorough
trial of guano. As the land for this crop is mostly prepared with hoes,
care must be taken that the servants do not neglect to bury it at the
very bottom of a good bed.
From the knowledge the writer has of the culture and value of long
staple cotton, and the price and value of guano, he has no hesitation in
expressing his honest conviction that a clear profit of two to four
hundred per cent. may be made upon every dollar expended in the purchase
and proper application of guano to that crop.
Guano, for all staple crops in the United States, is no longer an
experiment. It has been clearly demonstrated, to be the cheapest and
most valuable fertilizer, particularly for all poor, worn out, hard used
and exhausted soils ever discovered; which no sensible man will neglect
to profit by, as soon as he learns its value, unless prevented by deep
prejudice or strong circumstances.
_Application to Miscellaneous Crops._--Under this head we will give the
experience of several individuals in various sections, soils and
climates, in hopes it may encourage the doubtful, and direct those who
are disposed to emerge from darkness into the light of scientific
agriculture. A gentleman from Warsaw, Virginia, where the soil is
generally a sandy loam, badly worn by long years of bad tillage, says,
"My wheat looks finely, especially where I applied guano last fall. I
put it in with the seed furrow about three inches deep, and also with
double plow six inches deep, harrowing in the wheat frequently side by
side. At this time I can see no difference in the wheat crop. I use a
large wooden toothed harrow extending over the bed of ten feet, and an
even soil, free from stone; they do admirable work and drill the wheat
as if put in with the drill."
Willoughby Newton, whose operation we have already spoken of, says; "I
do not believe it possible to improve a farm, on the old three shift
system, of corn, wheat and pasture, without a large supply of foreign
manures. If clover can be substituted for pasture in the summer, then
the land, if not naturally poor, may be rapidly improved by the use of
lime alone, in addition to the putrescent manures that may, by proper
care, be made on the farm. On other land of less fertility, and drier, I
greatly prefer the five field system, under which, with the use of lime,
guano and clover, a rapid improvement may be effected at the same time
that heavy crops of wheat are reaped."
Another writer in speaking of how to improve worn out lands, says; "Let
whatever little surplus he can spare from supplying the necessary wants
of his family be laid out in the purchase of some one of the reliable
concentrated manures. [Guano is by far the cheapest, and therefore the
best for him, if he will plow it in well]. And my observation and
experience have convinced me that he may make such improvement as will
bring him a quick return, and soon enable him to get his farm well set
in grass. This once effected, his facilities for its further improvement
will assuredly increase in a ratio just in proportion as he is careful
to pursue the course indicated. If a farmer can succeed in getting his
fields well set in grass, a large and long array of facts and experience
have proved that he may then, under a judicious course of management,
render them more and more fertile without foreign aid of any kind
whatever."
The editor of the American Farmer, in deprecating the price of guano
says, "Of the efficacy of guano, in restoring worn out lands to
productiveness--of its capacity to increase the yield of any lands in a
sound condition--there cannot be a doubt; but even with all its
regenerating properties, we do think that its market value is too high.
Forty-eight dollars for a ton of 2,000 lbs. of Peruvian guano is more
than it is intrinsically worth, and should it be continued thus high,
must, we should think, limit its use, for the obvious reason, that
farmers cannot afford to pay a price for it which is so disproportionate
to its real value."
Yet they do continue to pay, and make it pay a greater profit than any
other manure ever purchased. We hold to have done as much as any other
individual to reduce the price of guano, and wish as heartily as does
the editor of the Am. Farmer, it was only half the price it now is; yet,
we must counsel our readers not to wait for that cheap time coming. It
is now cheaper than it was then, and probably as low as it will be for
years; and in the hands of the present agents, the public may depend
upon a regular supply, and of genuine quality, at what the Peruvian
government deem a fair price.
_Guano for Melons and other Vines._--Mr. Pleasants, of whom we have
before spoken, and whose long experience in the use of guano in
connection with a market garden, entitle him to a high degree of credit,
says, "I have been in the habit of using it for several years, and can
testify to its value, not only using it for melons, but for the whole
tribe of cucurbitacae. The mode of application which I prefer is this;
when the ground is prepared and checked off, remove the loose soil at
the intersections of the furrows, leaving clear spaces on the substratum
of not less than eighteen inches in diameter. Upon these spaces sprinkle
guano, at the rate one pound to eight hills. Follow with a hilling or
grubbing hoe, and incorporate the guano with the subsoil; then draw the
loose earth back, and finish by chopping a small quantity, a spadeful or
less, of well rotted manure into the hill near the surface. Guano placed
near the surface, will remain almost inert, and buried deep, as I
recommended, it will be too remote from the seed to give the young
plants the quick start which is indispensable to an early crop of
melons. The small quantity of manure near the top of the hill answers
the purpose of immediate forcing, and enables the roots to strike
rapidly into the guano, when the growth of the vines will be stimulated
to such a degree as to cause them to mature their fruit a week or ten
days earlier than they would do from either guano or manure alone.
Melons equally fine may be raised from nothing but guano, applied in the
manner directed; but they will not be an early crop, from the fact that
the plants remain almost stationary until the roots reach the guano.
Last year, from such a preparation as is now recommended, I had as fine
a crop of melons as I ever saw; and they began to ripen at a very early
period in the season. Two years ago, I had them nearly or quite as good
from guano alone; but they were late. This year the crop was almost a
failure, from the wetness of the season, which caused the vines to die.
Cantelope melons, however, have produced abundantly, grown entirely with
the aid of guano. Where manure is scarce, I have no doubt an admirable
compost might be prepared, consisting of guano and rich earth. It
should be made several weeks, or even months, before it is wanted for
use; and the heap worked over frequently in order to bring it into a
suitable condition. Such a compost would doubtless supply the place in
the hill which I have assigned to the manure. For pumpkins, squashes,
cymblins and cucumbers, when it is not particularly desirable to have
them early, nothing more is necessary than to prepare the hills with
guano."
The following extract from a letter of E. G. Booth, to F. C. Stainbrook,
written in that plain familiar style of one friend to another, which
characterises the man, with an evident intent to do good; though it was
not designed for publication, we give it because we believe it will do
others good, as well as the recipient. Mr. Booth confirms our opinion
often expressed, that the poor old barren fields of lower Virginia, are
really more valuable than the rich lands of the west; because, owing to
facilities of intercourse with commercial cities by water, these lands
can be bought, and cultivated by aid of guano, with more profit than the
richest prairie farm in Illinois. Mr. Booth's testimony upon the
durability of this manure, is enough to contradict all the assertions
that "it is of no use for only one crop." On his land, strangers can
easily tell where guano was applied four years previous.
"Yours of the third has been received, and it affords me pleasure to
give you any information in my power. The wheat crop during the the
winter was very unpromising. There was a general complaint that it was
too thin. The Poland wheat (most generally sown in this neighborhood,)
is said to branch more than other kinds, and I regard the present
prospect of the wheat crop as flattering, particularly where guano was
used. It is now a fixed fact, that no poor land ought to be cultivated
without guano, by any person who can command the money or credit to buy
it. It is remarkable that it pays a much better profit, or per cent. on
the investment, on poor land, than rich. I was inclined for some time to
believe that the difference was really in appearance alone. The
difference of five bushels increase on land which without it would bring
only fifteen--or in other words, an increase from fifteen to twenty
bushels to the acre, would not be very perceptible, while an increase of
five bushels on land previously making only five, would be very evident.
Still, the real increase would be five bushels in each case. I am now
however, decidedly of the opinion that it pays a much larger per cent.
on poor than rich land; because it supplies that in which poor land is
deficient, and of which rich land may have enough. I have it now in
strips on a clover fallow, scarcely showing any difference. I last
applied it on about the poorest land on my plantation, and the product
was remarkable. This circumstance much reduces the difference between
the value of poor and rich land, and admonishes us that there is not a
plot in our wide extended surface, which need be abandoned or neglected.
We can, if we manage properly, support a population which will out vote
the West in 1865. There is another fact which experience confirms, that
is it is much more durable than at first supposed. My visitors have been
able to point out the strips of land on which it was sown, four years
after its application. I noticed a very evident effect on the farm of
Mr. William Fitzgerald, a few days ago. He last year put it in drills,
and hilled on them for tobacco, in the fall the whole surface was sown
in wheat, which is now growing in ridges corresponding with the furrows
where it was placed.
"While on the subject I will mention another fact different from first
impressions, viz: that it is more productive, (the first crop, at
least,) when harrowed in with the grain, on the surface, than when
turned in very deep. I have yet to satisfy myself which is most durable.
In the experiment which lasted four years, I think it was turned in. The
purchases the ensuing fall will be very large. Those who were most
incredulous are now going in largely. A very intelligent and
enterprising friend of mine, who has been improving his land judiciously
and profitably in this way, related to me an anecdote which occurred to
him. He had two neighbors remarkable for their judgment and success in
farming as well as other things, who, however, were inclined to
underrate his expenditure of money in these elements of improvement.
They knew he had purchased and used a ton of guano, and thought they
knew where he had used the whole of it. They went, not exactly by night,
but rather privately, to examine into the result. They made their
observations and calculations, and agreed that he had got his money
back, but no profit worthy consideration, and were only confirmed in
their opposition to such an expenditure. The truth was, however, that
only about one eighth of the ton had been used where they calculated for
the whole. One of these gentlemen, I am informed, is now about the
largest purchaser of such articles in the county; and perhaps the other
also, though I have not been informed."
PLASTER WITH GUANO.
A Virginia farmer, in a letter of December 1847, in speaking of using
plaster with guano, and the effect says--"I am a firm believer in the
merits of the mixture, and always use it. I have used it on turnips with
decided effect, as decided as that following any application of guano I
ever saw. Several farmers of my acquaintance used the mixture of guano
and plaster, and stable manure and plaster habitually, like myself, and
one told me he used it half and half, producing the most marked effect
on wheat, and that a neighbor of his had used it in the same proportion
with the same effect--the usual surprising effect of guano. For myself,
I used some $400 worth of guano on wheat this fall, the whole of it
mixed with plaster. I believe the effect of the mixture will not be so
vigorous on the first crop, as guano by itself--the plaster husbanding
the ammonia for succeeding crops, upon which the mixture, (if the theory
be correct,) will have more effect than guano unmixed, that being
exhausted by the first crop."
A gentleman after making sundry careful experiments with plaster and
carbonate of ammonia, thus expresses his conclusions--"These experiments
prove to me that no matter in what state, (whether _wet_, _moist_, or
_dry_,) plaster is presented to guano, or any other manure from which
the carbonate of ammonia is escaping, it must retain a certain amount of
ammonia that would otherwise be lost in the atmosphere."
The editor of the American Farmer says--"If the soil be poor, and it be
desired to permanently improve it, at least four hundred pounds of
guano, without respect to the fixer used, should be spread _broadcast_,
on every acre of it, and plowed in to the full depth of the furrow. If
the land be in moderate heart, three hundred pounds will be enough per
acre. Where the soil may be good, two hundred will be sufficient. These
quantities, as the reader will observe, have relation to broadcast
applications, as all should be where general improvement is
contemplated; if compelled to confine his experiments on corn to
applications in the hill, a form of manuring, we have ever disapproved,
two hundred pounds, or even one hundred of guano, will manure an acre,
mixed with a bushel of plaster, five bushels of slaked ashes, and a
double horse cart of wood mould more effective than ten loads of manure
applied in the hill."
Yes, as has been proved by careful experiment made in England, more than
fourteen tons of manure. The editor also says, what we have so often
repeated--"We hold these to be agricultural truths--that guano is most
beneficially applied, when ploughed in as spread on the the earth, never
less than four inches deep--and better, for permanent effect, to be
ploughed in deeper, say six to eight inches--where it may be desirable
only to bury it four inches deep, the land should be previously ploughed
as deep as the furrow can be turned up, and the guano applied at a
second ploughing--that all top-dressings with guano are wasteful,
inasmuch, as from the volatile nature of the more active parts of the
manure, great loss must inevitably result from all such applications,
and because, more moisture than is to be found on the surface, is
necessary to excite, and carry on, that healthful progressive state of
decomposition, which is required to render guano most available for
present production and future improvement.
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