As our principal object is to convince the skeptical, or induce
unbelievers in its efficacy and value, to try experiments themselves by
which they will be convinced and enriched, we offer the names of a few
more gentlemen of high standing, who have been very fortunate in the use
of this essential element of successful cultivation in Virginia, as
witnesses, whose testimony ought to be, and will be, where they are
known entirely conclusive.
_Col. Robert W. Carter, of Sabine Hall_, on the Rappahanock, whose land
is principally of that kind of clayey loam common upon that river, once
rich but badly worn by cultivation, is so well satisfied that it is
profitable to make rich lands still more rich, he buys annually 30 or 40
tons of the best in market. He says he cannot afford to sow wheat
without guano--it is foolish and unprofitable. He sows it broad cast,
200 lbs. to the acre, with no other preparation than breaking the lumps;
plows it in; sows wheat and harrows that; in some cases has sown clover,
and in others, followed wheat after wheat with increasing productiveness
every year; clearly proving the effect of one application, to be
beneficial to the succeeding crop. Without guano, or very high manuring,
wheat will deteriorate year after year, if sown upon the same soil,
until the product would not pay for the labor of sowing and harvesting.
Upon one upland field, which without manure would not pay for
cultivation, he sowed one bushel of wheat and 200 lbs. Peruvian guano
and made fifteen bushels. Plowed down the stubble with same application,
and when we saw the crop, should have been willing to insure it at
twenty-five bushels. Col. C. has nearly 2,000 acres in cultivation,
which within his recollection was cultivated entirely with hoes--his
grandfather would not use a plow--was as much set against that great
land improver as some modern, but no more wise farmers, are against
guano. Col. C. uses the best of plows; sows 200 lbs. guano to the acre
and plows it in six inches deep, and sows one bushel of wheat and
harrows thoroughly, but not deep enough to disturb the guano. His gain
has been eight bushels average upon 210 lbs. guano. Thinks Peruvian at
$50 a ton preferable to any other at current prices. His land is mostly
clayey loam and was so much exhausted by a hundred years hard usage, it
was barely able to support the servants, until the Colonel commenced his
system of improvements by draining, deep plowing, rotation of crops,
lime, plaster, clover, and guano; the latter of which he looks upon as
the salvation of lower Virginia; while his large sales of eight or ten
hundred acres of corn and wheat, sufficiently attest its value upon that
location. His actual annual profits upon the use of guano, cannot be
less than two thousand dollars.
Doctor Brockenborough, Doctor Gordon, Messrs. Dobyn, Micou, Garnett and
others of Tappahannock and vicinity, have all found the application even
upon the bottom lands, profitable, though not to so great an extent as
upon the poor old field-pine lands of Mr. Newton; but simply from the
reason that his land was utterly worthless before, but after the
application of the guano, was increased in value more than its whole
cost, besides the profit derived from the crop.
Wm. D. Nelson, a neighbor of Mr. Newton, bought a tract of land for a
residence, at $4 an acre, which in its natural condition was not worth
cultivating; but with guano will pay all expenses of that and the
cultivation and the cost of the land the first crop.
Upon a portion of this land, a poor sandy loam, he applied 200 lbs.
Peruvian guano and one bushel of wheat per acre, and made 12 bushels,
while a strip through the field, purposely left without guano, did not
produce the seed, and remained as destitute of clover as though it never
had been sown, forming a very striking contrast to the luxuriant growth
upon each side. In another trial he made 10 bushels from one sowed, with
200 lbs. of Patagonian guano, of a very good quality. This is about in
proportion to the current price of the two kinds, though the latter
cannot be so certainly depended upon for good quality as the Peruvian.
Another trial was made with 1,100 lbs. Peruvian and 1,100 lbs.
Patagonian, and 11 bushels of seed upon 11 acres which made 160 bushels
of wheat of very fine quality, and large growth of straw. Upon 36 acres,
same kind of soil, well manured in the previous crop of corn, sowed 36
bushels and made 162. The first had not been manured. The evidence in
favor of guano in this case, needs no comment. By an outlay of $40, a
much more valuable crop was made from the 11 acres than from the 36; the
permanent improvement to the land from guano was much greater than from
the manure. In this case the guano was plowed in about four inches deep.
Mr. Nelson thinks the yield of wheat will average in that neighborhood,
an increase of 16 bushels for 200 lbs. of Peruvian guano.
H. Chandler, Westmoreland Court House, bought a farm at a price for the
whole below the cost of the mansion house alone, because the land was so
utterly and hopelessly worn out, as to be past the ability of supporting
those engaged in its tillage. When we saw it, we should have been
willing to insure the growing crop of wheat at 20 bushels, the result of
210 lbs. of Peruvian guano to the acre; while the clover upon the
stubble of the previous year could not be excelled in point of
luxuriousness upon the richest field in the State of New York, where the
land was valued at $100 an acre.
Mr. Chandler first commenced with 250 lbs. African guano, measuring
3-1/2 bushels, to the acre, upon which he sowed one bushel of wheat. The
result 17 bushels to the acre upon land which only gave 5-1/2 bushels in
any previous crop. Cost of guano $5; profit, $6 50. The next year he
gained an increase of 12 bushels to the acre over previous years, by the
use of 250 lbs of Patagonian guano; while the clover, Mr. Chandler
thinks, worth more than the whole cost of the application. A still
better result was produced last year from 210 lbs. of Peruvian. The soil
is a yellow clayey loam, which in its unimproved condition looks about
as unpromising for a crop, as the middle of a hard beaten road.
Mr. C. tried guano upon river bottom land, but the improvement was not
so remarkable.
We were assured by Mr. C., that many persons who had long been
accustomed to look upon the hopeless barrenness of this land, were wont
to stop as they rode past this field of clover, and look at it with
utter astonishment. Some could not be satisfied with looking, but would
drive to the house to inquire what magical power had been used to
produce such a strange metamorphosis in the appearance of the place.
When assured it was all effected by guano, they went away--not
satisfied--but unbelieving.
What tends much to increase the effect of this improvement, is the fact,
that directly opposite lies another tract, still in its barren
condition, lately purchased by Dr. Spence, a very enterprising
gentleman, imbued with the spirit of improvement, which will soon be
brought into the same condition, notwithstanding its unforbidding
appearance.
Mr. S. B. Atwell who owns an adjoining farm, has been equally successful
in the use of guano. Before using it, his wheat upon 20 acres was hardly
sufficient to pay for harvesting. The first crop after using it, 400
bushels. He has also increased the crop of corn from 20 to 260 barrels
by lime, guano and clover. In the meantime, the land has increased in
value in about the same ratio.
In Lancaster County, we saw a field of wheat on the farm of Dr. Leland,
sown upon corn ground, one part with 200 lbs. of Peruvian guano to the
acre, the other with a full dressing of hog-pen manure, by the side of
which the ground was seen in its natural barrenness, scarcely making a
show of greenness; while the rank growth of the guanoed portion made as
great a contrast with that manured upon the opposite side.
Guanoed wheat upon the farm of Col. Downing in the same county showed as
great a contrast with land both limed and manured; while directly
alongside of this luxuriant growth, the land was as destitute of
vegetation as a brick pavement.
The effect of guano upon strawberries, Col. D. found to excel anything
else ever tried.
A neighbor of Col. Downing had a fine show for a wheat crop on
exceedingly poor land from the application of only 90 lbs. Peruvian
Guano to the acre.
Capt Wm. Harding, Northumberland, C. H., assured us he made 27 bushels
per acre upon only tolerably fair land, by the use of 200 lbs. Peruvian
guano, plowed in and followed by clover, worth more than the guano cost.
Col. Richard A. Claybrook, in the same neighborhood, made 15
bushels--the land along side almost as bare as the surface of the guano
islands.
We might mention a dozen others in the same place, in fact in most of
the places mentioned, whose testimony would be as strong as those we
have named.
Col. Edward Tayloe of King George Co., having been very successful in
the use of guano, induced his neighbor, Wm. Roy Mason, Esq. to test its
powers by the most severe experiment we have ever known it subjected to.
He selected a point of a hill, from which every particle of soil had
been washed away, until nothing in the world would grow there. It would
not produce, said he, a peck of wheat to the acre, but with a dressing
of 300 lbs. African guano, it gave me thirteen bushels, and now while
that is covered with clover, other, so called, rich parts of the field
are almost bare. A field which had never produced for years, over four
bushels of wheat to the acre, was dressed with 250 lbs. of guano and one
bushel of plaster at a cost of $7 to the acre, which gave thirteen
bushels of a quality greatly improved, and a very large growth of straw,
which he esteems highly as a top dressing for the clover, which far
exceeded upon the guanoed land that which was highly manured. The
success of Mr. Mason was so flattering, he immediately purchased six
tons for the next experiment.
If all the faithless would pursue the course indicated in the following
_experiment with guano_, by Mr. Richard Rouzee of Essex Co. Va., they
would probably be as well convinced as he, that the greatest
"humbugging" about guano, is in neglecting to profit by its use. He
says:--"I must confess that I have been skeptical in relation to the
various accounts of the fertilizing properties of guano, especially in
these times of humbuggery, and therefore determined to subject it to the
most rigid test." In view of this, on the 3d of October last, I selected
two acres of land by actual measurement, proverbially poor, never having
yielded in a course of ten years cultivation more than three bushels per
acre, and in consequence, was called by way of derision, "Old Kentuck."
To the two acres 560 lbs. of guano were applied in the most injudicious
manner by strewing it on the top of the corn bed--the consequence was,
when the wheat was ploughed in, and came up, a small girth was only seen
on the top and a space between each row at least one third of its width;
in this condition it remained until about the middle of November, when
it had so sensibly disappeared, that it attracted the attention of one
of my neighbors, who remarked to me, that at least one half of it had
been destroyed, in which opinion I concurred; in examining that which
remained, we were of opinion that three-fourths of it had from three to
ten flies in the maggot state on each stalk; in this state of things I
surrendered all hope of any tolerable return, more especially as the
rust made its appearance in it a short time before it ripened.--Now for
the result--
The 2 acres of land yielded me 32 1/4 bushels of wheat at $1 per
bushel, $32 25
Deduct for average yield of the above, 2 acres, 6 bushels
at $1 per bushel, $6 00
Deduct for Cost of 560 lbs. Guano, $12 70
-------
$18 70
-------
$13 55
Add for additional straw, 50
-------
Clear profit, $14.05
Here is a clear profit of $14 upon $12.70 invested, and acknowledged to
be applied in the most injudicious manner. It is easy to judge what
would have been the profit under different circumstances. In the
vicinity of this city where straw sells for $5 per hundred little
bundles, instead of a credit of 50 cents it would have been at least
half the cost of the guano.