1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



333 



makes them as impervious to Tvind and cold as the 

 •walls of a well caulked ship. In the way of rural 

 architeditre, this is something we do not read of, 

 but it is nevertheless as comfortable as it is unique, 

 and in apj)earance even is behind no other way of 

 putting wood together that I have seen." 



EDUCATION BETTER THAN WEALTH. 



Experience has often taught the lesson that the 

 children of wealthy parents are ruined by their 

 wealth, while children reared in abject poverty, by 

 the stern discipline of their early years, acquire ha- 

 bits of application and energy and self-control, 

 which qualify them for eminent success in the stern 

 struggles of life. The following incident, referring 

 probably to Judge CoUamore of Vermont, is in 

 point : 



"I remember," says the late Postmaster General 

 of the United States, "the first time 1 visited Bur- 

 lington, Vt., as Judge of the Supreme Court. I 

 had leit many years before, a poor boy. At the 

 time I left there were two families of special note 

 for their standing. Each of them had a son about 

 my own age. I was very poor, and these boys were 

 very rich. During the long years of hard toil which 

 passed before my return, I had almost forgotten 

 them. They had long ago forgotten me. 



Approaching the court-house the first time in 

 company with several gentlemen of the bench and 

 bar, 1 noticed in the court-house yard, a ])ile of old 

 furniture about to be sold at auction. The scenes 

 of early boyhood with which I was surrounded, 

 prompted me to ask whose it was. I was told it 

 belonged to ^Ir. J. 'Mr. J.? I remember a fami- 

 ly of that name, very wealthy ; there is a son too ; 

 can it be he ?' 



I was told that it was even so. He was the son 

 of one of the families already alluded to. He had 

 inherited more than I had earned, and spent it all ; 

 and now his own family was reduced to real want, 

 and his furniture was that day to be sold for debt. 

 I went into the court-house suddenly, yet almost 

 glad that I was born poor. I was soon absorbed in 

 the business before me. One of the first cases 

 called originated in a low drunken quarrel between 

 Mr. H. and Mr. A. Mr. H., thought I, that is a 

 familiar name. Can it be ? In short, I found this 

 was the son of the other wealthy man referred to. 

 I was overwhelmed alike with astonishment and 

 thanksgiving ; astonishment at the change in our 

 relative standing, and thanksgiving that I was not 

 born to inherit wealth without toil. 



Those fathers provide best for their children 

 who leave them with the highest education, the 

 purest morals, and — the least money." 



MANUEACTURE OF FISH GUANO. 



At a late meeting of the Boston Society of Natu- 

 ral History, Dr. Charles T. Jackson, by request oi 

 one of the members, gave an account of the meth- 

 od now employed by the Narraganset Fish Guano 

 Company, in the extraction of oil from Menhaden, 

 and of converting the residual matter into a sub- 

 stitute for guano. "We find the following report of 

 his remarks in the Traveller : 



He said that the manufacture of oil, and of arti- 

 ficial guano from fishes, had long been practised in 

 France, where the fish called Merlan was employed 

 I for this purpose, and yielded but one and a half or 

 two per cent, of oil ; while the Menhaden is a much 

 I fatter fish and produces oil more abundantly. In 

 France the fish cake, remaining after the extrac- 

 j tion of oil, is dried at a steam heat, and is then 

 ground fine and packed in air-tight casks for sale 

 las a manure. 



The Narraganset Company are engaged in sim- 

 jilar processes, in the conversion of their fish cake 

 into manure. They first steam the fish, then press 

 j out the oil, and afterwards dry and grind the re- 

 , mainder, mixing some gypsum, limestone, or earthy 

 I material, in order to render the grinding more per- 

 |fect. Sometimes they add sulphuric acid to the 

 fish cake, and convert the bones of the fish into 

 , sulphate of ammonia and humus, according to the 

 method first indicated by Dr. Hare, of Philadel- 

 :phia. In case this method is employed, the acid 

 fish cake should be ground with limestone, when 

 the excess of sulphuric acid will form sulphate of 

 I lime, and render the addition of gypsum unneces- 

 sary. 



It has been proposed to add a certain proportion 

 of peat to the fish cake, during the operation of 

 ^ grinding it, the peat acting as an excellent absorb- 

 ent of ammonia, and as an antiseptic. This is ap- 

 plicable to the fish cake that has not been treated 

 with sulphuric acid. 



Properly prepared fish cake is fully equal to gu- 

 ano as a fertilizer, and it can be prepared at a much 

 lower cost than guano can be brought from the 

 coast of Peru. There are doubtless many places 

 en our coast, where fish can be obtained in ade- 

 quate quantities for the manufacture of this manure. 



The "Wixconsin Farmer, published monthly at 

 Madison, by Messrs. Powers & Skinner, is an ex- 

 cellent paper — printed well, and its columns filled 

 with practical and well written articles. It is a 

 credit to the West. 



Howe's Seed Sower —Only a single machine has 

 been made; this is in the hands of practical farmers 

 for thorough trial. Others will be manufactured 

 as soon as one or two improvements which have 

 been suggested can be more completely tested. 



Good Cows.— Mr. J. B. Philbrook, of Hardwick, 

 Vermont, has two cows of the native breed, (one of 

 them may be slightly crossed with the Devonshire,) 

 from which he made and sold six hundred lbs. of 

 butter last season, besides supplying his family of two 

 persons with milk and butter. I was at his house 

 to-day and he showed me a tub, containing twenty- 

 two and a half lbs. of beautiful butter, which he had 

 just churned from eight days' milk, being the first 

 the same two cows had made since their calves 

 were taken away this spring. What is remarkable 

 in this case is, that his dairy woman is his mother, 

 who is ninely-four years old. She never keepti a 

 hired-girl, and her boy, the said J. B. P., who is 

 now nearly seventy years old, does not intend to 

 marry while his mother can do her work. — S. D. 

 Kimball, Barton, Vt., Jlpril 1st, 1856. 



0:3* If you would not be forgotten as soon as 

 you are dead, either write things worth reading or 

 do something worth writing. 



