ended
opportunities of witnessing the application and effect of guano upon the
various soils and climates of this country, will give this work such a
character, as to induce every improving farmer, gardener, or
horticulturist, in America to give it a careful perusal. The author
believes it will be found to contain all and much more than its title
imports, and be of great value to every person using or dealing in
guano; as the analysis, not only of the pure article is given, but that
of several specimens of adulterated samples, so as to enable the farmer
to avoid being cheated by base counterfeits.

The author will be much obliged to any gentleman who will furnish him
for publication in future editions of this work, or in the columns of
THE AGRICULTOR, any details of experiments in the use of
Peruvian guano, which will be useful to the farmers of this country, as
it is his desire, as well as the guano agents, to give them useful
facts; not only to increase the sale, but the fertility of the land, and
wealth of the owners.

With assurances to my friends that I have no other interest in the
increased consumption of guano, I am most sincerely and respectfully

Your old Friend,

SOLON ROBINSON.

_New York, October 1852._

A TREATISE ON GUANO.

PERUVIAN GUANO--ITS USES AND BENEFITS.

Of all manures procurable by the American Farmer, guano from the
rainless islands of Peru, is perhaps not only the most concentrated--the
most economical to the purchaser--but by its composition, as we will
show by analysis, the best adapted to all the crops cultivated in this
country requiring manure. For wheat, especially, it is the one thing
needful. The mineral constituents of cultivated plants, as will also be
shown by analysis, are chiefly lime, magnesia, potash, soda, chlorine,
sulphuric and phosphoric acid; all of which will be found in Peruvian
guano. Nitrogen, the most valuable constituent of stable or compost
manures, exists in great abundance in guano, in the exact condition
required by plants to promote rapid vegetation. The concentration of all
these valuable properties in the small bulk of guano, renders it
particularly valuable to farms situated in districts unprovided with
facilities of cheap transportation. In some hilly regions, it would be
utterly impossible to make any ordinary manure pay for transportation.
With guano the case is very different--one wagon will carry enough with
a single pair of h