One gentleman assures us he tried an experiment very carefully, and
found an application of guano at two and a half cents a pound, 300 lbs.
to the acre, more economical than hauling his own manure one mile. The
fair value of team work and cost of labor hired, was more to the acre
than the guano, and the first crop quite inferior, the second no
difference, and the third slightly in favor of the manure. He thinks
buying city manure, particularly street sweepings, about the poorest use
to which he could put his money, as he certainly could make 50 per ct.
more upon the same amount expended in Peruvian guano. Professor Mapes
entertains the same opinion, about hauling manure, where guano, or
rather with him, guano improved by the addition of his "improved
superphosphate of lime," can be procured.
Dr. Peck, a gentleman well known for his philanthropic motives in
settling and improving the "Long Island barrens," has proved that every
acre of that long neglected, and until quite recently considered
worthless portion of the Island, can be rendered fertile, so as to be
cultivated with great profit, either in farms or market gardens, by the
aid of this greatest blessing ever bestowed by Providence upon an
unfertile land.
Several of the Messrs. Smith, of Smithtown, could show any Long Island
farmer who still has doubts upon the subject, that guano is the greatest
worker of miracles in this age--that it is just as capable of producing
great crops on the barren sands of the Island, as it is on the tide
water shores of Virginia, upon soil of the same character.
A great deal has been said in deprecation of the waste of fertilizing
matters in the city of New York, in which the writer of this pamphlet
has conscientiously joined; because, he thought it wicked to commit such
waste, while we were surrounded by lands lying idle, for the want of
these very substances. Precious, however, as they would be to the
farmer, he cannot afford to use them. That is, it would be poor economy
for a Long Island farmer, no matter how near the city, to expend money
in the hire of men, vessels and teams, to save, carry, haul and apply to
his farm, the immense amount of fertilizing substances now wasted;
because the same capital expended in purchasing and applying guano, will
produce a much greater profit. The difference in cartage is enough to
astonish one who has never thought upon the subject. One man with a pair
of horses can easily carry guano enough in one day, thirty miles into
the country, to manure ten acres of ground. To carry an equivalent of
city manure, in the same time, would require 300 pair of horses and 350
men. Who can wonder that barren lands have remained barren? Who will not
wonder if they still continue so, with such fertilizers as their owners
might possess to render them otherwise? But few of the residents in the
interior of Long Island, if the manure was given to them, can afford the
time and team work to haul 300 loads for ten acres, while all can afford
the time for one load; and they may be morally certain the capital
invested in that load will be returned in the first crop. The great
advantage of guano over all other manures is, the concentration of
immense fertilizing power in such small bulk.
_Guano in New York and Connecticut_, generally, has been less used than
any sound reason will justify. A comparatively small portion of the
market gardeners--a few gentlemen in the improvement of rural homes, and
here and there a nurseryman, have derived immense benefits; but the bulk
of the farmers are still either faithless, or ignorant; in most cases
the latter, of the benefits they might derive from a liberal expenditure
in the means, and the only means within their reach, of rendering their
lands productive.
_Effect of Guano on Garden Seeds._--From the society of Shakers, at
Lebanon, so justly celebrated for growing garden seeds, we receive the
most positive assurance that no manure ever applied by them, has had
such an effect as guano. The production of seeds of all descriptions, is
not only increased, but the quality is improved to an astonishing
degree. The same effect has been noted upon wheat, particularly in our
account of Mr. Newton's operations. So also has it in England. This view
of the case should give an additional value to guano to the farmer, as
not only an improver of the quantity of his products, but by the gradual
improvement in the quality of the seed, calculated to be of vast benefit
to him in that respect. Garden seeds raised by guano, as soon as their
superiority becomes known, will be in such demand that no other can be
sold. Another advantage will arise from the fact that such seeds will be
found entirely free from weeds, as none grow after a few years upon land
manured only with guano.
The beautiful residence of Mr. Edwin Bartlett, near Tarrytown, exhibits
strong evidence of the fertilizing power of guano upon the poor,
unproductive hill sides of Westchester Co. That place, now so luxuriant,
was noted a few years ago, as too poor to support grasshoppers. It was
the poverty stricken joke of the neighborhood.
[Footnote 1: For interesting letters from Long Island, see appendix.]