Sl)c Icirmcc's ittonthlij Visitor. 



18^ 



Use of Guauo. 



To the Editor of the Visitor .— 



Will you be so goo.l as to inform me at what 

 i)lace ynii fiet yoiir Peruvian gii;ino? 1 midor- 

 stiiiid lliere is a >rre.U clcal of ilecc-ption m it. 1 

 thinU yoii inforiiieil luc, wlien at my lioMse last 

 fall, that you -jot it of a pnilicular firm, on wliic i 

 yon coul."l lely. How inucli docs it cost a hnsliol, 

 hundred or l.anel? How much do you put in a 

 hdl 5 and how wear do you put the coin or pota- 

 to to it when you plant? You will cooler a 

 favor by informing me on the above suhjecls. 



P. P. W. 



Instead of giving a written answer to our 

 friend's request, perhaps the object may as well 

 be gained by communii-ating through the columns 

 of the Visitor. 



Our knowledge of the use of guano and its 

 peculiar qualities is yet but limited. We pro- 

 cured and used iwo years a;:o, some thousand 

 pounds of Peruvian guano, will, but little infor- 

 mation of how it might be applied in safely, 

 with the guano, we received a pamphlet, specu- 

 lative upon its uses; but that pamphlet, like 

 many other speculations of highly scientific the- | 

 crisis, left us quite as much in the dark as when 

 we commenced the reading. We followed, as 

 near as one might, the statement of Edward 

 Scammon, of Gorham, Maine, who in the spring 

 of 1845 used a barrel of Ichaboe (African, not 

 Peruvian) guano, and planted it upon 38 of 40 

 rows of corn, increasing his ciop, as he believed, 

 from camparison, at the rate of full 24 bushels to 

 the acre, ujjon ground where fourteen loads of 

 good manure were used to the acre. His method 

 was to drop the gnano in the hill, in the quan- 

 tity of about a common table spoonful, ' cover- 

 ing it with about one inch of the soil, before 

 dropping the corn.' We did the same with our 

 Peruvian guano: it had a great eftect upon the 

 crop of corn which was then planted upon a lot 

 of hard pine plains land. Where the seed corn 

 came too near in contact with the guano, it did 

 not come up-ut all: nearly one fourth of the 

 hills missed where the corn was carelessly 

 dropped. And we have reason to believe that 

 much of the strength and heiiefns of the guano 

 passed off in the air, where it was not carefully 

 covered up in the soil. A portion of the guano 

 mixed with about four of five parts soil, was 

 put upon a field of polatoes, just previous to the 

 first hoeing, after the potatoes had ajqieared 

 above ground: the impiovemeut of these was 

 evinced in the growth, upon common intervale 

 land of a clayey tenacity, of much enlarged po- 

 tatoes. But we might here have lost a part of 

 the benefits of the guano, from the surface ex- 

 posure, if rain ha.l not followed the application 

 within twenly-fonr hours. This was in 1846.— 

 Our experience of that year induced us to pitr- 

 chase a ton of guano for the use of our crops of 

 1847. This we applied first to potatoes in the 

 hill, dropping and covering the guano, before 

 the potatoes were dropped, if the guano in- 

 jured the seed potato at all, the instances were 

 so few as not to he observed. We believe the 

 eff-ct of the guano upon the polatoes, to have 

 been as good as upon corn. It was used upon 

 our corn crop of the last season, mixed with 

 about an equal weight of plaster, and some six 

 of eight parts of pretty strong, leached ashes. 

 Thus mixed, no great care was observed by the 

 more careless droppers of corn, am* the seed was 

 some instances again killed in the hill. The ap- 

 plication of guano and plaster, from the late 

 season and planting, we are of the belief saved 

 us the greater part of our sound corn crop. 

 The prejudice, in the spring of 1837, was so 



strong against the use of guano, that of several 

 cargoes imported into Boston, much of it laid 

 over for the want of sale : we then fouml the Af- 

 rican guano selling at $30 the ton. But in the 

 fall of this year on enquiry at Boston, we found 

 that very little was to be had in market. The | 

 African guano had been sold at «40, and a trifling 

 quantity of Peruvian guano was selling at the 

 rate of $70, being nearly double the price of the 

 spring at which we purchased. We secured to 

 the amount of two tons of the African guano, 

 at $40 per ton ; and this we have at home houseil, 

 intending to follow its use, in planting both po- 

 taioes and corn, next spring. 



The rea.son of the scarcity of guano, was this" 

 Several farmers in the vicinity of Baltimore, hav- 



ing used it to great advantage, had drained tl 



market there ; and it being too late in the season 

 to ship the article from the Pacific ocean, the 

 Baltimore merchants had bought up all they 

 could find in the northern ports. 



Guano being an article peculiar to itself, all 

 attempts to counterfeit or imitate it, to deceive 

 those once acquainted with it, must fail. We do 

 not believe artificial guano can be manufactured 

 by any chemical process. From its improper 

 application, the genuine article will he of little 

 or no value. Its whole slrenglh given to the 

 ground and the crop— we mean of the genuine 

 a,.liele— we are of opinion it is a most valuable 

 manure. It is said that the demand in England 

 has been so great for the article, tliat Ichaboe and 

 the African islands have been exhausted. In 

 the Peruvian islands of the Pacific the guano of 

 the strongest quality is said to he inexhaustible. 

 In a late number of the Visitor, it was said 

 that the employment of guano, as a manure, was 

 very ancient in Peru. In much of that country 

 there is no rain in the season of vegetation. The 

 fields are watered by irrigation from the rivers, 

 flashing the water over the land as it is wanted. 

 The method there is, 'a tew weeks after the 

 seeds begin to shoot, a little hollow is dug around 

 each root, and is filled with guano, which is af- 

 terwards covered with a layer of earlh. After 

 the lap=e of twelve or fifteen hours, the whole 

 field is laid under water, and is left in that stale 

 tbr some hours.' The effect of the gnano is saul 

 to produce a crop of three for one ; and this is 

 probably true, for according to our limited ex- 

 perience the use of water upon it while new in 

 the earth, would best pre|.are it for its whole 

 effect upon any crop. We anticipate as much 

 or more beneficial effect from the guano in the 

 ground, for the crop of the second, as of the 

 first year. Living to cultivate ground hereafter, 

 we intend to know more of the use of guano. 



We believe our friend may find Peruvian gua- 

 no in small quantities, at the establishment of 

 Ruggles, Nourse and Mason, in the Quincy mar- 

 ket, Boston. 



Large WATERMELONS-Mr. Charles Dutlon 

 of Unity, (Maine) raised the past seasmi, upon 

 one vine, 125 3 4 pounds of watermelons; one 

 of which measured 2fl. 10 1 2 inches in cir- 

 cumference ; and the largest weighed 22 1 4 lbs. 

 It will take a 'smart watermelon seed' to beat 

 that.— .Wame Farmer. 



Among the splendid vegetable productions 

 not mentioned in the pa|)ers as having been ex- 

 hibited at the horticultural exhibition of tlie 

 Natural History Society in Concord, Sept. 1847, 

 were watermelons raise<l in Henniker by the 

 grandson of our late friend Nathaniel Noyes, 

 Esq. one of the excellent farmers of his time 

 upon the premises inherited by his ancestor. - 



One ol these melons Mr. Noyes directed to bt 

 presented to the editor: we had the curiosity to 

 weigii it, and it bore down very decidedly twen« 

 ty-eight pouud-i in the S'-ale. 



It has been supposed that New Hampshire 



and Maine were too far north to raise the bet, 



ter and larger melons. With the right kind ol 



soil rightly prepared, we believe there can bq 



no difiicully. The cases of Messrs. Dutton and 



Noyes prove our position. In. preparing well 



for melons take the lighter soil : let tiie ground 



be moved to the depth of twelve to twenty 



inches. Stimulating ininures sbouhl he laid dii 



rectly uniler the roots, with soil above, deep 



but liot so deep that the roots of the vine maj 



not receive succor at the proper time. The hes) 



stimulant above ground, as well as to preveni 



the inroads of ravenous bugs, will be a sprinkj 



ling of ground plaster about the plant in its ten 



der state, covering the plant itself as with meal 



As a publication, more generally to be iisei 

 than the New Ham|)shire Register, the Almanac 

 Pocket Memorandum and Account Book, (luh 

 lished by Mr. John F. Brown, may be reconi 

 mended to the use of every person, male and fe 

 male, who wishes to bring the year square abou 

 in the ordinary affairs of life. This cheap littf 

 annual, done in Mr. Brown's style of characte* 

 estic neatness, this year has reached its elevenl| 

 nundier. 



Mr. Brown also publishes the Almanac com 

 piled and prepared for a half a century by th 

 venerable Dudley Leavitt. Such is the great a' 

 tachment of the peojile to the experience an 

 better judgment of the good old man, wh 

 writes now as he always has written, correct aiJ 

 legible as the best printed book, that seldom \ 

 an edition required less than thirty thousan 

 copies. 



MTIi — 



Copper Veins worked by the Indians. 



From late discoveries on the shores of lal 

 Superior, it is supposed that some of the veins^ 

 copper in that region were worked by the ll 

 diaiis manv vears ago. During the progress 

 a survey of "the location of the North Westei 

 Company not far from Eagle River, pieces of co 

 per considerably wrought into shape, were lout 

 several feet below the surface, and near the 

 were stone hammers, wedges, and other iiiipl 

 inents. In one pit, which ran down several le 

 into the solid rock, a bushel of hammers, wedi;^ 

 and pieces of copper were discovered. Ne 

 this pit an open cut 24 I'eet in length had be( 

 made along the course of a vein of metal. Sir 

 ilar proof that other veins had been rudely wor 

 ed 'many years ago, are said to have been loui 

 in various locations. [ 



The copper mines upon Lake Superior we 

 understood and perliajis worked when thewhc 

 of that region, so far as it h;id an European occ 

 pant, was known to the French. To this d 

 the North Western trade to the Lakes has hej 

 carried on byllie Canailian French, which h^ 

 intermixed with the Indian race. Maj. Robi 

 Rogers, the chief of the Ranger service, at 1 

 close of the war which lerminated in the C( 

 quest of the Caiiadas by the British, in 17 

 went personally the whole distance from IMi 

 treal, by Ontario and the Niagara, through E 

 Huron to Michigan and Mackinaw, thence 

 the Sank St. Mario, coasting along the wh 

 length of Superior. With a Canadian Fret 

 trader he purchased in the year 17(30 from 

 chiefs ofthe Chippewa tribe, a territory kno 

 to contain the luesent location of the cojj 

 mines of Superior, as well on the present Caj 

 da side as upon the American side. The teril 



