Excerpt from The Southern Planter, Vol. 21: Devoted to Agriculture, Horticulture, and the Household Arts, May, 1861On my way to Richmond, in crossing the Pamunkey river, at the Pipentree, I was delayed, and my friend in 'the course of our conversation on the subject of guano, informed me that most of the surplus of his crops of corn and wheat, were loaned out to farmers to purchase guano with, and that he did not believe that they had realized one cent from the use of guano, besides owing the money for the guano. The expectation of making large returns from its use had en gen dered speculation amongst farmers, and that they really were worse o¿' then than if they had never purchased a ton of guano. My friend, however, had been, and is now, constantly using the green sand marl, found along the Pamunkey, hasmot only a fine farm, but makes large crops, entirely by the use of marl, clove'r and peas. He is, what is rarely to be found in this section of Virginia, a thrifty farmer. N ow that the fact is notorious that guano, and all the V8. rieties of manipulated manures, are in the hands of speculators and their agents, it becomes us, as farmers, feeling a mutual interest'to rescue it from their hands and place it under the control of those who have won our confidence. Never has any class, in any community, sufi'ered so much as the farmer, by speculators, his lands, his crops, and-his manures are now under their controlling in¿uence, so that, in many instances, he is not really purchasing what he supposes espe cially is this the case with guano, as I hear that frequently our native dirt, with here and there a sprinkle of guano, has been imposed upon an unsuspecting pur chaser. Ashes and bone dust are certainly of great value, and if they could be obtained at any thing like a reasonable cost, and could be warranted genu ine, they would be great improvers, and I believe, they would pay in using them 3 but the same objection is here met with as in the case of all bought ma nures. There are other compounded manures, such as Manz'pulated Guanioes, Salts, Renovators, &c., , &c., , (their name will, I am sure, be legion in a few years, ) all made by different Chemists and Doctors, and the manipulators them selves differing ln their compounds, and deprecating the use of the particular nos trum of their opponent, is a su¿icient guaranty that they all will not answer the same purpose, and, added to the fact that they have not improved or benefitted our lands and crops, is su¿icient to warrant us in recommending other cheaper and better manures. Such all will agree, are barn-yard and stable MA nure.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.