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crop; or are more frequently used for growing corn, for which 

 purpose one or two fish, are placed in each hill and buried 

 with the seed. This was the system adopted by the Abori- 

 gines of our country in raising their maize on exhausted lands, 

 long before their occupancy or even discovery by the whites. 

 There is waste in this practice, as the soils used for corn are 

 generally light sandy, and the slight silicious covering im- 

 perfectly combines with the putrefying fish, and much of their 

 U'l^rs thereby eludes tho plant, to the excessive anoyance of 

 the olfactories for miles around. 



The proper method of using them, is by composting with 

 dry peat in alternate layers of about three inches in thickness 

 offish to nine of peat, and over the whole a coating of 2 to 4 feet 

 of peat is placed. A few months of warm weather suffices 

 to decompose the fish, which unite with the peat, no percept- 

 ible effluvia escaping from the heap so effectual is its absorb- 

 tion. A strong acid smell is however noticeable, originating 

 in the escape of the acidifying or antiseptic principle, which 

 has kept the peat for ages in a state of preservation, and 

 whose expulsion is the signal for breaking up its own struc- 

 ture. It now passes rapidly into decay, and is soon lost in 

 a mass of undistinguishable vegetable mold, the fruitful 

 bed of new and varied vegetable forms. This compost may 

 remain without injury, for years. Two or three weeks be- 

 fore using, it should be overhauled and intimately mixed, 

 when another fermentation commences with an elevation of 

 temperature. When this ceases, it may be applied to the 

 land, and is suited to nearly all soils and crops. 



SEA WEED 



Is a powerful aid to the farmer when within convenient 

 distances. It is thrown upon the sea coast by the waves in 

 large windrows, or it is carefully raked up from the rocks or 

 bottom of the bays, either by farmers or those who make it 

 a business to procure and sell it. It may be used as bedding 

 tor cattle or litter for the barn yard, or added directly to the 

 compost heap. Where the distance for carrying it would 

 prevent its use, it may be burned and the ashes removed to 

 the land. It has much more saline matter than vegetables 

 which grow on land and yields a more valuable manure. 



PEAT. 



This substance is seldom found in this country in the 

 purity that characterizes it in many parts of Northern 

 Europe. There, its nearly pure carbonaceous quality admits 



