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.
_Prepared Guano--Agricultural Salts--Generators and Regenerators._--Of
these, the testimony of Mr. Reynolds is exactly to the point, concise
and strong, and exactly in accordance with all the facts we have been
able to collect upon the same subject. He says, "I have tried them on
corn, wheat, oats, clover and tobacco; but have yet to discover that
they ever generated anything for me, though I have heard them sometimes
well spoken of."
Want of room in this pamphlet alone prevents us from inserting the names
and operations of many other gentlemen in this rapidly improving
State--a State now undergoing the process of renovation by the use of
guano, to a greater extent, perhaps, than any other in the Union.