150 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



SILK PLANT— GUANO. 

 LETTER FROM MR. TESCHEMACHER. 



Boston, 4th Aug:u8t, 184.5. 



Dear Sir : Two days ago your publishers 

 sent me No. 1 of the Farmers' Library and 

 Monthly Journal of Agriculture, edited by yon. 

 Allow me to ofl'er my best wLshes for its success, 

 and occasionally a few hints, as the spread of 

 sound agricultural knowledge in this country 

 is an object near to my heart. 



Your Silk Plant from Tripoli is an asclepiad- 

 eous plant called Gomphocarpus, (from gom- 

 phos and karpos, club-fruited) ; it differs from 

 Asclepias, our milk-weed, merely in the con- 

 struction of that part of the flower called the 

 corona, and in the club-shaped fruit. I have 

 raised plants here several years ago, but the 

 Sun»merwas hai-dly long enough to mature the 

 fruit, the sUky appendage to the seed, ho^vever, 

 is not of sufficient strength to make it valuable 

 for cultivation, and for stuffing cushions it would 

 be very expensive. 



Yom* infonnatiou on the subject of Guano 

 does not appear to be the result of well-con- 

 dtJcted experiments, but of such, where it has 

 been applied, as chance directed. In Mr. Breck's 

 paper (New-England Farmer) last Autumn, I 

 suggested that the Agricultural Society of Mas- 

 sachusetts should offer a handsome premium for 

 the best-conducted Agricultural Experiments 

 on this subject ; we should then have had valu- 

 able and authentic information. I thought it 

 within the range of their duties ; they, I sup- 

 pose, thought otherwise, and nothing was done. 

 Having myself only a little garden spot, of 

 course it ■was out of my power to make agri- 

 cultaral experiments, but what could be done 

 in a small garden I have done. 



I confess I am surprised to hear of so many 

 failures — all which I have been able to investi- 

 gate, arise from error in application. In no soil 

 but a stiff clay can it fail to produce its effects ; 

 in no soil but one amply provided akeady with 

 phosphate of lime, can its effects fail to be per- 

 manent. In arid soils it is, properly applied, of 

 great value, as it infuses tlia:t strength and soliditj- 

 into the juices which enable the plant to with- 

 stand the drouth. To this object, one of my 

 experiments has been devoted with perfect suc- 

 cess. On a southern bank, my peas were green 

 and fre.sh, while those of my neighbors, with 

 manure, w^ere brown and burnt up. This, and 

 every other efficient action of Guano, is pro- 

 duced by reflecting on the gi'owth and position 

 of the roots of plants, and placing the Guano in 

 such a situation that they may reach it \\ hen 

 ihey are of a pretty good strength, and the 

 moisture of the soil has sufficiently decomposed 

 the manure; but sowing the seed in contact 

 with Guano, or placing where the young eprout- 

 (306) 



ing root touches it immediatelj^ is sure to cause 

 a failure. The same is sure to ensue when the 

 Guano is spread on the sui-face, so that ammo- 

 niacal virtues escape into the atmosphere. 



Excuse my troubling you with these hasty 

 lines, and believe me, 



Most truly your well-wisher, 

 J. E. TESCHEAUCHER. 

 John S. Skinneb, Esq. 



NATIVE, OR WILD ^UIZE. 



[From the National Institute.] 



Washington, 15tli July, 1845. 



My Dear Sir : I send you some pods, con- 

 taining seeds, of a plant called " Native, or Wild 

 Maize," indigenous to the southern part of Mex- 

 ico. Specimens of this plant were recently sent 

 by John Black, Esq. U. S. Consul at the City oi 

 Mexico, to Mr. Markoe. The Consul says, in 

 his letter accomompanyiug the plants, " From 

 this seed the Maize now in use, is said to have 

 been produced by repetition of plantings." 

 Whether tliis is true or not, I am not able to say, 

 but am inclined to doubt it.* In this opinion I am 

 sustained by Mr. Rich, Botanist of the Exploring 

 Expedition. It would, however, be interesting 

 to plant the seed, give it a fair trial, and ascer- 

 tain what changes, if any, it would undergo by 

 cultivation. 



Its mode of growth is totally different from that 

 of our common Indian Com, and it seems to me 

 almost impossible that it should ever even as- 

 similate to it. 



With respect and esteem, your friend and obt. sevt 

 JNO. K* TOWNSEND. 



J. S. Skinneb, Esq. 



[* The improvement appears to us not to be greater 

 than has been accomplished by cultivation in some 

 other cases. The plant may be seen at the office of 

 the Fanners' Libraiy. — Ed.} 



J^' The beautiful illustration of the Cotton 

 PLANT.byMr.S.B.THORPK, of Louisiana, "taken 

 from life," which adorns this number of the 

 Farmers' Library, will, when the volume is 

 bound, more properly belong to the October 

 number, in which we propose to commence, if 

 not to conclude a sketch of tlie history and uses 

 of Cotton, from the classical pen of W. B. Sea- 

 brook, Esq., President of the South-Carolina 

 Agricultural Society. In that number, too, we 

 expect to give the first of a series of papers, on 

 the growth and manufacture of the Sugar Cane, 

 from a gentleman whose pen casts new light on 

 whatever it touches. 



