1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



29 



soon be without employment ; can turn our hand to 

 most anything; don't like to be idle— but deter- 

 mined not to work for nothing, where folks can af- 

 ford to pay. Who wants help? We can make 

 bonnets, dresses, puddings, pies and cakes, patch, 

 darn, knit, roast, stew and fry, make butter and 

 cheese, milk cows, feed chickens, hoe corn, sweep 

 out the kitchen, put the parlor to rights, make beds, 

 spHt wood, kindle fires, wash and iron, besides be- 

 ing remarkabl)- fond of babies ; in fact, can do any- 

 thing the most accomplished housewife is capable 

 of, not forgetting the scoldings on Mondays and 

 Saturdays. For specimens of spirit, will refer you 

 to our overseer. Speak quick. Black eyes, fair 

 foreheads, clustering locks, beautiful as Hebe, can 

 sing like a seraph, and smile most bewitchingly. 

 An elderly gentleman in want of a good housekeep- 

 er, or a nice man in want of a wife — willing to sus- 

 tain either character ; in fact, we are in the mar- 

 ket ! Who bids ? Going — gone — gone ! Who's 

 the lucky man ?" 



HOME MADE GUANO. 



It is not, perhaps, generally known that the de- 

 posits of the hen-house, when suffered to accumu- 

 late for several years, without exposure to wet, are 

 very nearly of the same nature as the African and 

 Peruvian guano, of which so much has been said. 

 It is concentrated and caustic manure, and should 

 never be applied to crops without being largely di- 

 luted with loam or some other substance, to reduce 

 its strength by diffusion, as it will invariably jjrove 

 detrimental, if not destructive in its effects. If it 

 be thrown into a heap with six times its bulk of 

 muck, or of good loam, and moistened with water, 

 it will be found highly efficient in promoting the 

 growth and healthy development of any plant 

 to which it may be applied ; but it should never 

 be used in its raw and caustic state. A few 

 bushels of this manure, properly diluted and pre- 

 pared, will be found to produce the results secured 

 by a vastly larger amount of the best stable or 

 barn-yard manure. For vines and garden vegeta- 

 bles it is altogether unsurpassed. 



In a recent discussion upon the profits of poul- 

 trj', evidence was adduced by two or three persons, 

 that the manure from the hen-house produced bet- 

 ter results on crops than any other fertilizer used 

 on the farm. In one instance, where about one 

 hundred fowls were kept, sand — mere granular 

 sand — was scattered plentifully on the floor, and 

 upon which the droppings fell. Two or three 

 times a week the surface of this was carefully swept, 

 gathering up a ])ortion of the sand with the droj)- 

 pings and depositing the whole in barrels. In the 

 spring this was in the most convenient form to be 

 taken to the fields and applied to the hills where 

 corn was to be planted, and on a large field where 

 excellent barn-yard manure was applied at the rate 

 of twenty ox-cart loads, or about eight cords, per 

 acre, the portion where a single handful of the 

 home-made guano had been applied was altogether 



stouter, and the corn earlier and more sound. But, 

 independently of this source of profit from fowls, 

 the discussion to which we refer afforded satisfac- 

 tory proof to us, that no product of the farm yields 

 a better profit than its fowls. 



HOW APES CATCH CRABS. 



A traveller in Java relates the following amusing 

 scene, which he witnessed in the company of some 

 of the natives : 



After walking close up to the old campaign, they 

 were upon the point of turning back, when a young 

 fellow emerged from the thicket, and said a few 

 words to the mandoor. The latter turned with a 

 laugh to Frank, and asked him if he had ever seen 

 the apes catch crabs. Frank replied in the nega- 

 tive, and the mandoor taking his hand, led him gent- 

 ly and cautiously through the deserted village, to a 

 spot which the young fellow had pointed out, and 

 where the old man had formerly planted hedges, 

 rendering it an easy task for them to approach un- 

 observed. 



At length they reached the boundary of the for- 

 mer settlement — a dry, sandy soil, strip of beach, 

 where all vegetation ceased, and only a single tall 

 pandanus tree, whose roots were thickly interlaced 

 with creeping plants, formed as it were the advanced 

 post of the vegetable kingdom. Behind this they 

 crawled along, and cautiously raising their heads, 

 they saw several apes, and at a distance of two or 

 three hundred paces, who were pertly looking for 

 something as they walked up and down the beach, 

 while others stood motionless. 



It was the long tailed, brown variety, and Frank 

 was beginning to regret that he had not his tele- 

 scope with him, to watch the motions of these 

 strange beings more closely, when one of them, a 

 tremendous large fellow, began to draw nearer to 

 them. Carefully examining the gi-ound, over which 

 lie went with all fours, he stood at intervals to 

 scratch himself, or to snap at some insect that 

 buzzed around him. 



He came so close that Frank fancied that he 

 must scent them, and give the alarm to the other 

 monkeys, when suddenly passing over a little eleva- 

 tion covered with withered reedy grass, he here dis- 

 covered a party of crabs, parading up and dowTi on 

 the hot sand. With a bound he was amongst them, 

 but not quick enough to catch a single one ; for the 

 crabs, though apparantly so clumsy, darted like 

 lightning into a quantity of small holes or cavities, 

 which made the groimd here resemble a seive, and 

 the ape could not thrust his paws after them, for 

 the orifice was too narrow. 



The mandoor nudged Frank gently, to draw his 

 attention, and they saw the ape, after crawling once 

 or twice up and do'wn the small strip of land, and 

 peeping into the various holes, with his nose close 

 to the ground, suddenly seating himself very grave- 

 ly by one of them, which he fancied most suitable. 

 He then brought round his • long tail to the front, 

 thrust the end of it into the carity, until he met 

 with an obstacle, and suddenly made a face which 

 so amused Frank, that he would have laughed loud- 

 ly, had not the mandoor raised his finger warningly 

 -^and directly the ape drew out his extraordinary 

 line with a jerk. At the end of it, however hung 

 the desired booty, a fat crab by one of its claws, 

 and swinging it round on the ground with such vi- 



