112 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



riches, the "Dirigo" state should be good for its motto, and take 

 the lead, not only, as now, by building more ships than any 

 other, to skim its surface, but by plunging into it, and drawing 

 thence, in some form or other, that which shall amply compen- 

 sate for what, in ages past, it has robbed the land ; and it would 

 be well, too, if it could be put into a form so portable as to be 

 easilv carried as far into the interior as it was oria-inallv washed 

 from. The manufacture of "fish guano," as recently attempted, 

 seems to indicate something of this kind, as both practicable 

 and possibly, not very far distant. * 



An intelligent correspondent, Writing from one of our sea- 

 board towns in answer to the question, whether any special 

 means are taken to increase the quantity or improve the quality 

 of manures, says: "Gathering muck, salt marsh mud, rock- 

 Weed, fish and offal of every kind, are the means usually resorted 

 to. Rockweed is the principal resource. Mixed with stable 

 manure, it not only increases the quantity, but improves the 

 quality. Spread on grass, it is a powerful fertilizer, particularly 

 in wet seasons. Bonos are gathered, horn-piths, <Src., and of all 

 manures for immediate effect and for durability, nothing wliich 

 I have seen equals crashed bone. We have fifty miles of sea- 

 coast in our ioicn, including the coves and indentures, and on 

 tVv'o sides, a bay abounding in fish ; in almost every large cove, 

 a fish weir, where arc taken any quantity of herrings, flounders, 

 sculpins, lobsters, and big and little fish generally. Now witli 

 this fifty miles of rockweed, and this abundant supply of fish and 

 offal, what is to hinder us from making our farms as productive 

 as we wish? Why need our young men go to the far west?'' 



When we consider that this is only one out of more than 

 seventy-five towns in this State, Vv'hich are washed by the ocean, 

 or other bodies of salt Avater, and in all which marine manures 

 may be had without going beyond their own limits, it will be 

 seen both how great arc our facilities, and how inexcusable any 

 neglect to profit as we may by them. 



There is no complaint so general among our farmers as the 

 want of manure. It is the stereotyped excuse for poor cultiva- 



* n may not be amiss to remark, that the immense deposits of gaano in the Chincha Islands and 

 elsewhere, which now add so materially to the production of the earth, are entirely of marine 

 origin. , 



