1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER. 



93 



after flowering and not in the spring. The 

 Siberian plants are protected by the deep 

 snows of that climate, and our open winters 

 are fatal to many plants from that region, and 

 I once lost a bed of this elegant flower from 

 too much exposure. It should be kept in a 

 frame through the winter, or otherwise pro- 

 tected, if not covered by snow." 



For the New England Farmer, 

 ^ PISH AS A MANURE. 



About thirty years since a few individuals 

 purchased a seine for the purpose of catching 

 menhaden which were at that time very nu- 

 merous in the vicinity of Nantasket Beach in 

 the town of Hull. For a few years large 

 quantities were caught and sold to the farmers 

 in this vicinity ; the price charged, when taken 

 from the beach, being one dollar per thousand 

 fish, the weight of which was a trifle less than 

 one pound each. 



My father purchased considerable quantities, 

 and tried a variety of experiments. In some 

 cases the fish were spread on the land and 

 ploughed in immediately ; the next spring the 

 land was harrowed and planted with Indian 

 corn. One piece was sown with winter rye 

 soon after the fish were ploughed ip^ Both 

 crops satisfied my father that fish was an ex- 

 cellent fertilizer for his land. 



A compost was made of sand, muck and fish, 

 using about 1000 fish to a cord of sand and 

 muck. This made a very valuable fertilizer, 

 as a top-dressing for grass, or for any hoed 

 crop. There are but few fertilizers that I have 

 ever seen that force almost every kind of veg- 

 etation to such a degree as a compost made of 

 fish. But I regret to say that owing to this 

 very fact farmers in this vicinity were very 

 much prejudiced against its use, believing that 

 it forced all the fertility out of the soil, and, 

 as they termed it, "killed the land." This pre- 

 judice was so deep that no amount of argu- 

 ments or facts could remove it. 



To give the fish a fair test, I put some on a 

 small piece of poor sandy land and for seven 

 years permitted the land to lay without manure 

 or cultivation, but at the end of seven years it 

 could readily be seen where the fish were 

 spread. Yet I have my doubts if with this ev- 

 idence I changed the opinion of a single indi- 

 vidual who had previously made up his mind 

 on the subject. It is very much to be regretted 

 that farmers, like those who follow other oc- 

 cupations, form too hasty opinions, and when 

 formed, are unwilling to change them, even 

 though carefully tried experiments prove them 

 to be erroneous. 



There is no doubt that the flesh of the fish 

 is soon absorbed by the surrounding vegeta- 

 tion ; but the bones make one of the most last- 

 ing fertilizers within the reach of the farmer. 

 I have seen stalks of rye more than twice the 



usual size grow where only one-half a gill of 

 bone was put in the hills of corn the year pre- 

 vious. 



The value of fish as a manure was well un- 

 derstood by the Pilgrims. The report of 

 Isaac D. Raisiers, who visited Plymouth in 

 1627, contains the following statement: — "At 

 the south side of the town there flows down 

 a small river of fresh water, very rapid, but 

 shallow, which takes its rise from several lakes 

 in the land above, and there empties into the 

 sea, where in April and the beginning of May 

 there come so many herring from the sea which 

 want to ascend that river, that it is quite sur- 

 prising. This river the English have shut in 

 with planks, and in the middle with a little 

 door, which slides up and down, and at the 

 sides with trellis work, through which the wa- 

 ter has its course, but which they can also 

 close with slides. At the mouth they have 

 constructed it with planks like an eel pot, 

 with wings, where in the middle is also a slid- 

 ing door, and with trellis work at the sides, so 

 that between the two (dams) there is a square 

 pool into which the fish aforesaid come swim- 

 ming in such shoals, in order to get up above, 

 where they deposit their spawn, that at one 

 tide there are 10,000 to 12,000 fish in it, which 

 they shut off in the rear at the ebb, and close 

 up the trellises above, so that no more water 

 comes in. Then the water runs out through the 

 lower trellises and they draw out the fish with 

 baskets each according to the land he culti- 

 vates, and carry them to it, depositing in each 

 hill three or four fishes, and in these they 

 plant their maize, which grows as luxuriantly 

 therein as though it were the best manure in 

 the world; and if they do not lay this fish 

 therein, the maize will not grow ; so that such 

 is the nature of the soil." E. Hersey. 



Hingliam, Mass., Dec. 22, 1868. 



FARMER OB MERCHANT. 

 We copy the following paragraphs from an 

 article in the Germantoion Telegraph, written 

 by J. Wilkinson, Esq., of Baltimore, Md., 

 who addressed the Board of Agriculture at its 

 late meeting at Amherst, and whose personal 

 acquaintance we had the pleasure of making on 

 that occasion. Mr. Wilkinson's business as 

 Landscape Gardener and Rural Architect, has 

 afforded him rate opportunities for a personal 

 observation of the advantages of city and 

 country life. He says : — 



Some seventeen years since the writer took 

 from a situation as porter and salesman in a 

 village grocery, a young man of promise, of 

 the age of nineteen years, who had sagacity 

 sufficient to be able to compare the chances of 

 success in merchandizing and in agriculture, 

 and see that the latter presented much the 

 greater promise. He commenced as a farm 



