_Henry K. Burgwyn's first trial with guano. Its effect on grass sown
with wheat._--The name and farm of this gentleman is so widely known as
a successful renovator of miserably poor worn out fields, that we are
delighted to have it in our power to have his testimony to our
impregnable array of witnesses in favor of the most valuable substance
for the improvement of such land, ever given by an overruling power for
the benefit of those who ought to be exceedingly thankful for so good a
gift. But hear what this writer has to say upon this interesting
subject.
"Having about 150 acres of my wheat, this year sown upon last year's
corn ground, and the land being rather light and not too rich, I feared
lest I should fail with my grass sown on _this_ wheat, because of the
two successive cereal crops; I therefore bought guano, mixed it with its
bulk of plaster, then added fine charcoal, the same, and to this mixture
double the whole bulk of deposit of the Roanoke river, a rich alluvial
earth, and sowed the whole broadcast in February and March, and harrowed
it in, on the top of the wheat I sowed at the rate of 200 lbs. of guano
to the acre; the value of which, no doubt, was doubled by the mixture
with the absorbents of the ammonia, which is so exceedingly volatile
even when left for a few hours, is easily dissipated by the March winds.
On this land, I had sown in October previous, clover, timothy, Kentucky
blue grass, and Italian ray grass. My harvest has now been over, three
weeks, and I have never had a finer stand of all these, even on our rich
bottoms. The ray grass matured its seed, rather sooner than the wheat
was two-thirds as tall, and where _very thickly sown_, materially
injured the product of the wheat, _I have reaped an increased product
from my wheat, amply sufficient to repay my outlay for the guano,
plaster, &c., and have my grass as my profit on the investment_; this in
turn will shade and improve my land, fatten my stock, increase my crops,
and cheer my eye with 'grassy slopes,' in place of 'galled hill sides;'
this is profit sufficient for the most greedy if turned to a proper
account;--be it remembered, too, this was a light and rather poor soil,
but based on a good clay subsoil."
To this we beg leave to add from our own knowledge of this land, which
is situated on the Roanoke river 6 or 7 miles below Halifax, that it was
before being improved by Mr. Burgwyn, about as unpromising a tract as
can be found upon all the "cottoned to death," poor old fields of that
sadly abused State. In the condition it was when we first saw it, while
undergoing the operation of putting a four horse plow through the broom
straw and old field pines, notwithstanding our strong faith in the
ability of such men as the Messrs. Burgwyns to redeem such land from its
condition of utter and apparently hopeless barrenness, we must own, that
if Mr. B. had made the assertion while we were riding over this very
tract, that within two years he would reap a remunerating crop of wheat
from the barren waste, and coat the ground with a carpet of luxuriant
grass, we should have told him the day of miracles had passed away. But
we had not then seen as much as we have since of the miraculous power of
Peruvian guano.
We might continue to cite hundreds of similar cases but propose to pass
over into Maryland, and after showing its application there has produced
equally beneficial results, travel northward, calling here and there a
witness as we proceed. Among others, we may call to the stand in
Maryland, will be the editor of the American Farmer, whose testimony we
consider almost invaluable, having devoted much attention to the
subject, and to whom, and his able correspondents, we desire to award
full credit, in this general manner, to save repetition, for much of the
information we shall give the readers of several of the succeeding
pages. The testimony of witnesses of such high standing, cannot be too
highly estimated by those who are anxious to learn how to renovate their
worn out farms, or make the rich ones richer.