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 6¼ 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."