3 18 Extracts from the Journals. [April, 



sity to change, which constantly breaks up our society, and inter- 

 feres with steady, well directed occupation. Let us discourage 

 that spirit of dissatisfaction, which ever longs for that which 

 it has not, and despises and undervalues that which it has. Let 

 us encourage an opposite disposition — and if all other reasons 

 were wanting, let us stand up for our own home, simply because 

 it is OUR OWN. The same instinctive patriotism, which prompts 

 us to prefer our nation before all others, should also impel us to 

 prefer our State, our County, our Home, before all other states 

 and counties and homes. 



" This feeling need imply no want of liberality toward other 

 sections of our country. We will do them justice, but let us first 

 do justice to our own. Our standing principle should be, that our 

 home is to be considered better than any other place until it is 

 proved to be otherwise, and not, as would seem to be too com- 

 mon, the reverse — that every other place is to be considered bet- 

 ter than the one in which our lot is cast, until dear bought expe- 

 rience shall prove to us the contrary." 



GUANO. 



We have been cautious in recommending the common use of 

 this substance for the following reasons: its beneficial effects de- 

 pend too much on circumstances; if the season is very dry, it is 

 useless; if it is applied in a dry time, the good effects will be 

 quite uncertain, for it is essential that it should be dissolved and 

 incorporated with the soil, and be brought to the roots in a solu- 

 tion. Other evils, too, attend the use of the substance, which 

 arise, however, from the application of too large a quantity; but 

 abuses of a substance never ought to be a bar to its employment. 

 If a thing is good in itself, let us use it carefully until we learn 

 how to avoid the evils to which it is liable. We believe, how- 

 ever, that in a few years the whole stock will be exhausted, and 

 hence cannot be relied upon by the farmers of this country as a 

 common article to enrich their lands and supply their wastes. 

 Others may think differently. The nature and composition of 

 guano is everything which is required for manure; at the ssme 

 time, it has a drawback, viz., that it is liable to spontaneous de- 

 composition when it is exposed to air and other atmospheric 

 agents by which it loses its ammonia, a very essential part of its 

 composition. It is not entirely destroyed, its phosphate of lime 

 remains, and it is still as useful as ground bones. In this con- 

 nection we will digress, as the subject puts us in mind of a sug- 

 gestion in the Farmers' Cabinet, by Chemico, of the expediency 

 of bringing home the carcasses of whales for manure. We do 



