564 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



upon these paces, we ask them, in all fairness, not 

 to introduce "the track" upon our show grounds, 

 and thus give our exhibitions a new and doubtful 

 character. 



Entertaining these views, we have looked with 

 interest to our exchange papers to learn what opin- 

 ions they have upon the subject, and we find them, 

 with scarcely an exception, agreeing with us. Among 

 those now before us, are the Country Gentleman, 

 Albany, the Amherst Express, the Massachusetts 

 Ploughman, the Ohio Cultivator, the Sicentific 

 American, Boston Traveller, Evening Transcript, 

 Boston, New York Tribune, Rural jYew-Yorker, 

 Philadelphia Ledger and Transcript, New Hamp- 

 shire Telegraph, and many others not tiow at 

 hand. The Prairie Farmer, published at Chicago, 

 in speaking of the Wisconsin State Fair, says : — "A 

 gentleman from Walworth County, who took stock 

 there to exhibit, says, farmers have decided to with- 

 draw their countenance and influence from horse- 

 races, and will exhibit no more stock, or any more 

 farm products, at any fair where "jockeyism con- 

 trols." We know such to be the feeling to some 

 extent in New England. We had hoped that these 

 festivals would be kept free from all "entangling 

 alliances," and especially from those of a political 

 nature, or any that might by the remotest transmu- 

 tation be considered of an immoral, or even of a 

 doubtful character. 



We are, we confess, disappointed. A blight has 

 fallen on our cherished hopes. The tree which we 

 planted and nourished until its fair limbs spread in 

 freshness and beauty over the land, has been graft- 

 ed by other hands with bitter and repulsive fruit. 

 It is for the farmer to say whether he will contin- 

 ue to cherish it, or purge it of its corruptions, and 

 restore it to its original purity. 



How AND WHEN TO APPLY Gu.\JS'o. — The Mark 

 Lane Express gives the following rules to be used 

 in the application of Guano, and considers them, 

 from experience, to be useful as a guide to those 

 using the fertilizer : — 1st. Guano is best applied in 

 damp or showery weather. 2d. Guano should not 

 generally be put on grass land in the spring later 

 than April. 3d. When Guano is applied to arable 

 land, it should be immediately mixed with the 

 soil, either by harrowing or otherwise. 4th. When 

 the wheat is sown very early in the autumn, a less 

 than usual amount of Guano should at that time be 

 applied, and the rest in the spring. The wheat, 

 otherwise, might become too luxuriant, and be in- 

 jured by subsequent frosts. 5th. Guano, and arti- 

 ficial manures in general, should be put on the 

 land only in quantities sufficient for the particular 

 crop intended to be grown, and not with the inten- 

 tion of assisting the succeeding one. Each crop 

 should be separately manured. 6th. Guano, be- 

 fore application, should be mixed with at least 

 from five to six times its weight of ashes, charcoal, 

 salt, or fine soil. 7th. Guano should on no ac- 

 count be allowed to come in direct contact with 

 the seed. 



AN OPEN POLAR SEA. 



An open sea near the pole, or even an open po- 

 lar basin, has been a topic of theory for a long 

 time, and has been shadowed forth to some extent 

 by actual or supposed discoveries. As far back as 

 the days of Barentz, in 1596, without referring to 

 the earlier and more uncertain chronicles, water 

 was seen to eastward of the northernmost cape of 

 Novaia Zemlia ; and, until its limited extent was 

 defined by direct observation, it was assumed to be 

 the sea itself. The Dutch fishermen, above and 

 around Spitzbergen, pushed their adventurous 

 cruises through the ice into open space varying in 

 size and form with the season and the winds ; and 

 Dr. Scoresby, a venerated authority, alludes to such 

 vacancies in the floe as pointing in argument to a 

 freedom of movement from the north, inducing 

 open water in the neighborhood of the pole. Bar- 

 on Wrangell, when forty miles from the coast of 

 Arctic Asia, savy, as he thought, a "vast, illimitable 

 ocean," forgetting for the moment how narrow are 

 the limits of the human vision on a sphere. So, 

 still more recently. Captain Penny proclaimed a sea 

 in Wellington Sound on the very spot where Sir 

 Edward Belcher has since left his frozen ships; 

 and my predecessor. Captain Inglefiekl, from the 

 mast-head of his little vessel, announced an "open 

 Polar basin" but fifteen miles ofi" from the ice which 

 arrested our progress the next year. 



All these illusory discoveries were, no doubt, 

 chronicled with perfect integrity ; and it may seem 

 to others, as since I have left the field it sometimes 

 does to myself, that my own, though on a larger 

 scale, may one day pass within the same category. 

 Unlike the others, however, that which I have ven- 

 tured tocdll an open sea has been travelled for ma- 

 ny miles along its coast, and was viewed from an 

 elevation of five hundred and eighty feet, still with- 

 out a limit, moved by a heavy swell, free of ice, 

 and dashing in surf against a rock-bound shore. 



It is impossible, in reviewing the facts which con- 

 nect themselves with this discovery — the melted 

 snow upon the rocks, the crowds of marine birds, 

 the limited but still advancing vegetable life, the 

 rise of the thermometer in the water — not to be 

 struck with their bearing on the question of a mild- 

 er climate near the pole. To refer them all to the 

 modification of temperature induced by the prox- 

 imity of open water is only to change the form of 

 the question ; for it leaves the inquiry unsatisfied, 

 what is the cause of the open water ? 



This, however, is not the place to enter upon 

 such a discussion. There is no doubt on my mind 

 that at a time within historical and even recent 

 limits, the climate of this region was milder than it 

 is now. I might base this opinion on the fact, 

 abundantly developed by our expedition, of a secu- 

 lar elevation of the coast line ; but, independently 

 of the ancient beaches and terraces, and other ge- 

 ological marks, which show that the shore has ris- 

 en, the stone huts of the natives are found scatter- 

 ed along the line of the bay in spots now so fenced 

 in by ice, as to preclude all possibility of the hunt, 

 and, of course, of habitation by men who rely on i' 

 for subsistence. 



Tradition points to these as once favorite hunt- 

 ing-grounds near open water. At Rensselaer har- 

 bor, called by the natives Aunatok, or the Thawing, 

 we met with" huts in quite tolerable preservation, 

 with the stone pedestals still, standing, which used 

 to sustain the carcasses of the captured seals and 



