1855. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



25 



For the New England Farmer. 



MORE ASOUT GUANO. 



Mr. Brown : — I have perused with much in- 

 terest your paper of this date, (Dec. 2, 1854,) 

 and particularly the talk of brother F. about 

 guano. Tliis is just the talk for farmers. Plain 

 facts brought forward in this fomiliar manner, 

 will be read and reraemberedj when a formal 

 essay will be passed without notice. I was par- 

 ticularly struck by tl;e fine crop of corn grown 

 by farmer Sanborn, of Hampton Falls — 98 bush- 

 els of corn, actually shelled aud measured, as the 

 product of one acre, is what does not often hap- 

 pen on the farms of Xew England. I have heard 

 of larger crops, Plymo^Uh measure; but when in- 

 quired into, there is found some exceptions about 

 the measure. I have seen many fine crops of 

 corn, but never one that yielded better than this 

 Hampton crop. How much of this is to be cred- 

 ited to the three times plowing the field, how much 

 to the manure spread upon the land, and how much 

 to the guano, it may not bo easy to distinguish, j 



I am glad to know that any of our farmers 

 can give a favorable account of the use o£ guano. 

 So far as I have witnessed its use the present 

 season, except where it was applied to grass land 

 in the eaidy part of the season, but little benefit 

 has accrued from it. As at present advised, I 

 should prefer ashes at nincpence a 1)ushel, to 

 guano at ,^^50 per ton, for the growing of grass ; 

 and I should prefer ten cords of good stable ma- 

 nure to a ton of guano for the growing of car- 

 rots, turnips or onions. I cannot learn that our 

 growers of onions have experienced any benefit 

 whatever from the application of guano to their 

 onion fields. My late worthy friend. Dr. N., 

 thought, two years ago, that it improved his 

 crop ; but it will be remembered that he applied 

 ashes to the same land — therefore he could not 

 be certain which medicine wrought the cure. I 

 would not discourage the use of guano, but I am 

 by no means satisfied that it will be found worth 

 using. 



Danvers, Dec. 2, 1854. 



THE HUKBUT APPLE. 



Medial ; flattish-conical ; pale yel- 

 low, mostly covered with red, with 

 bright stripes in the sun ; stem medial 

 length, slender, in a rather broad, 

 deep cavity, always covered with rus- 

 set, often extending on the base; calyx 

 small, closed, in a shallow basin ; flesh 

 yellowish white, fine texture, rather 

 tender, remarkably crisp, juicy, of a 

 mild, sprightly, aromatic flavor. Nov. 

 and Dec. We find this as great and 

 stout a grower, in the nursery, as the 

 Baldwin. Great bearer. The origi- 

 nal tree is still flourishing on the fiirm 



of Gen. Leonard Ilurlbut, Winchester, Ct. It 

 bore 40 bushels one year, and 20 the next. One 

 of the finest of the season, for the dessert and 

 kitchen. 



Mammoth Oxen. — There is now on exhibition 

 near the Fitchburg Depot, Boston, a pair of 

 Oxen said to weigh ninety hundred pounds ! One 

 of them girts twelve feet and one inch, and is 

 eighteen feet in length, from the tip of the nose 

 to the end of the tail, and is six feet and four 

 inches high ! They were raised by Jlr. William 

 Paddock, of Hoosick, Rensscllacr county, New 

 York, and worked and fattened by Mr. John 

 Lee, of Washington county, same State. They 

 are bright and active, and well worth looking at, 

 and the ninepence which it costs for the oppor- 

 tunity to do so. 



For the New England Farmer. 



A MAGNIFICENT PAINTING. 



Many of your readers are doubtless aware that 

 many years ago Congress selected an artist to 

 paint a picture for the vacant panel in the rotun- 

 da at Washington. William H. Powell, was the 

 almost unanimous choice. After five years of 

 labor, the picture is completed. The subject of 

 the painting is, " De Soto discovering the Missis- 

 sippi.^' A few words of history will render the 

 description more intelligible. De Soto was Gov- 

 ernor of Cuba. In April, 1539, he set out in 

 company with several hundred men, on an explo- 

 ration through Florida to the Mississippi River. 

 He had been an officer under Pizarro in I'eru , and 

 perhaps expected to find gold among the Indians. 



" The picture represents the discovery as taking 

 place at the last of the Chickasaw Bluffs ])elow 

 Natchez. De Soto, after months of laborious 

 travel, has just arrived on the banks of the migh ty 



