to him at first little short of miraculous. He found
that by the application of a few hundredweights per acre, poor soils
could be made to yield large returns, and that barren patches in a field
could be brought up to the average of the surrounding portions by
sprinkling merely a few handfuls of it; that by its means a good start
could be ensured to every crop, and one slow of coming away could be
hastened on. In short, in this wonderful brown powder, with such a
characteristic odour, the astonished farmer discovered a manure which,
for the speed of its action, and for the increase of crop it gave,
completely threw into the shade both farmyard manure and bones. What
wonder, then, that its fame as a manure should have become so quickly
known and its use so extensive! It thus gave a most powerful impetus to
intelligent farming by bringing home to the minds of those who used it
the important position nitrogen and phosphates occupied as constituents
of the soil, and the influence they exercised on plant-growth. It
furnished, in fact, on an enormously large scale, a practical
demonstration of the principles of manuring. The educational value which
the use of guano thus exercised may be said to have been very great. It
also led the way to the use of the various artificial manures so much
used during the last fifty years. Impressed by the value of guano,
farmers were favourably disposed towards the use of other fertilisers;
and, largely owing to its widespread popularity, the new practice
speedily gained ground.

_Influence not wholly for Good._

But its influence, it must be admitted, was not wholly for good. In its
very popularity lay the danger of its abuse. Had its value and the
method of its action been more widely understood, and had the principles
upon which the practice of artificial manuring depends been better
realised, agriculturists would have been spared much of the needless
pecuniary losses they sustained by being imposed upon by unscrupulous
manure-dealers. Among the farming community the word guano soon became a
name to conjure with, and under this title many spurious and worthless
manures were attempted to be palmed off on the unwary farmer. Even the
genuine article, there can be little doubt, was at one time largely
adulterated; and as the farmer was almost invariably content to purchase
the article not on any guaranteed chemical analysis, but simply on the
ground of its appearance, colour, and more especi