“But in every way there is great difficulty in collecting vegetable manure in sufficient quantities; recently, guano has been tried with the most brilliant success.
“Peruvian guano is the most compact fertilizer known, and a very small quantity suffices to manure a tobacco field; its cost is not excessive, and is very frequently less than the carriage of other manures to the spot where they are to be used. Its most active results are shown on light and sandy soil; it quickens vegetation, and experience has shown that it increases prodigiously the quantity and value of crops; we therefore recommend the use of guano as a fertilizer of the first order for tobacco cultivation, and as light and sandy soils possess in themselves the substances most suitable for the development of the tobacco plant, on such soils guano acts as a stimulant to the plant.
“Before using Peruvian guano, it should be sifted; all the stones and lumps remaining should be broken up, and again sifted, so that nothing may be lost. After this, three or four times its weight of dry sandy soil should be thoroughly mixed with it, and it should remain thus 6–8 days before being used. This preparation should be made under cover, to avoid the possibility of rain falling on the mixture, and the heap should be covered with the empty guano bags, or anything else, to prevent the evaporation of the volatile alkali which it contains.
“It is better to prepare this mixture in detail, each heap containing one bag of guano, whose weight is 150–160 lb., so as to facilitate the calculation of the quantity that should be applied, and prevent mistakes. We will start, therefore, on this calculation.
“On lands of good quality, but which, nevertheless, require manure, from having been overworked, one pound of guano should be applied to each 15–20 superficial yards, or, say one heap of compost for each 2500–3000 yards, or, otherwise said, one heap of manure will suffice for a surface that contains 5000–6000 plants.
“In sandy unproductive soil, and on sterile savannah lands, 1 lb. of guano to 9–12 yards; or a heap of compost guano to 1500–2000 yards; or one heap for 3000–4000 plants.
“These are the proportions to be used for the first year; for the second, and forward, two-thirds of that employed the first year will be sufficient.
“When crops of tobacco and corn are grown on the same lands, half the guano should be applied to the corn and the other half to the tobacco; but then a somewhat larger quantity will be required. The manure should be applied shortly before transplanting, and after the ground has been well cross-ploughed and prepared, and the ground should be plotted out into squares or beds of 50 yards square. The manure should then be spread and ploughed in, and the land should at once be furrowed and planted.
“Under this system of applying Peruvian guano as manure for tobacco the best results have been obtained, and, of all the various trials made, this is the most simple and the easiest to execute.”
The remarks of the last-quoted essayist are good so long as guano is to be had. But there is a limit to the supply, and in many places it would be unprocurable.