NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



41 



iii 



Hi 



l!')! 



Now, at the first time these cases were brought 

 before the Supreme Judicial Court, Mr. Choate 

 remarked to Mr. Mason, when he was commenting 

 to the Court on the character of the Canal acf, that 

 ihey had two strings to pull, meaning the mill. 

 Mr. Mason appealed to the Court, and they then 

 and there decided that they could not ; that the 

 Canal Company must take their election ; they 

 then decided that the dam was raised for Canal 

 purposes solely, and we were obliged to go on, and 

 they have ever since defended their rights under 

 that act. 



Some three years since, the Company applied to 

 the Legislature to surrender their franchise, we 

 asked (not that we wished a corporation to exist 

 which had done so much injury,) that if public ne- 

 cessity did not require its existence, it should go 

 down on such terms as justice to the meadow own- 

 ers seemed to require, and save litigation. Par- 

 ties were heard before a committee of the House, 

 and a bill was reported to extinguish the cor])ora- 

 tion but it was not acted upon. A law passed the 

 same session giving power to the Supreme Judicial 

 Court on application of any corporation to surren- 

 der their franchise, to take cognizance and adjudi- 

 cate thereon. Subsequently the Canal Company 

 did petition the Court to surrender ; we also filed 

 objections unless our rights were considered ; there 

 that matter rests. In the meantime the land is 

 abandoned and the mill privilege sold to said Tal- 

 bert, and in accordance with tTie opinion of the le- 

 gal gentlemen named and others, the case recently 

 decided was instituted. 



Those gentlemen all said, in answer to the ques- 

 tion what will be the effect of a surrender of the 

 Canal act, "Down, down, every breath or act they 

 have done." But what says the Court, knowing 

 that neither the Canal Company nor any person 

 has ever paid one mill for all the valuable land 

 bordering on Concord river, consisting of many 

 thousand acres, which they have damaged? Why 

 they had a right to stand behind their Canal act. 

 and build a dam where and as high as they pleased, 

 and no one can approach them only by the Canal 

 act ; and now, if the public don't require its contin- 

 uance, they tell us it is not, as they have always said, 

 a Canal dam, but a mill dam, and that what was 

 white yesterday is black today. There is no doubt 

 but that the Canal Company sold in the belief that 

 their dam was to be taken down to the 1798 dam. 



JVayland, March 28, 18.57. Wayland. 



For the New England Farmer. 



ABOUT GUANO. 



I have been a subscriber to your Monthly for 

 somewhat more than a year, and have read with in- 

 terest many of your articles, and especially those 

 relating to manures. Though somewhat advanced 

 in life, I am a young farmer, if farmer at all, and 

 yet I fancy I am in possession of some facts which 

 may be of use to our agricultural friends. In no- 

 ticing the remarks of various correspondents on the 

 subject of guano as a fertilizer, one is struck with 

 the discrepancy of testimony, one making it of lit- 

 tle value, another of the greatest value, but none 

 have suggested its variety of quality. 



That it is one of the best of fertilizers there can 

 be little doubt, if we may draw our conclusions from 

 the quantity used among the intelligent and scien- 



tific farmers of England, where more is annually 

 used than in all the world beside ; as also from the. 

 Peruvians and Chilians, where it had been used 

 from long b€ fore the Spanish conquest of these coun- 

 tries. But however discerning in other things, the 

 Americans do not seem yet to have learned that 

 there is about as much difference in the quality of 

 the article, as there is between yellow sand and peat 

 mud. In this, our wiser European brethren are be- 

 fore us. They have taken pains to analyze the dif- 

 ferent deposites on the Chincha Islands, and know- 

 ing that its virtues lie very much in the quantity 

 of ammonia contained therein, have been drawing 

 their supplies for years from a deposit which is said 

 at the Islands to contain nearly double the amount 

 of that article contained in any other deposit. 



This article may be very easily known by a prac- 

 tised eye and correct nasal organs. It is of a gran- 

 ite color, and so strongly impregnated with ammo- 

 nia as to be easily distinguished. The least valua- 

 ble is of a dirty tan color, without the smell of am- 

 monia or nearly so ; and there is another kind of a 

 muddy color and a very disagreeable smell. Neith- 

 er of these are worth buying. This I think accounts 

 for much of the diff"erence of results in experiment- 

 ing with the guano. The better kind is taken from 

 the north side of the North Chincha Islands, from 

 which place when I was there none but the good 

 was shipped. At some future period, I may give 

 you some further views of this subject, but I write 

 this hastily to put those on their guard who are 

 disposed to experiment now. NATHAN Beiggs. 



Marion, April 3, 1857. 



A GOOD YEAST. 



One of the best articles of its kind that has ever 

 fallen under our observation was recently handed 

 us for examination, by a lady whose reputation as a 

 domestic economist is deservedly high wherever 

 she is known. The recipe for its manufacture — 

 kindly furnished us by the same fair hand — is as 

 follows : — 



"Take half a dozen common-sized potatoes, boil, 

 peel, and strain them through a common sieve — 

 first adding half a pint of warm water, then suffi- 

 cient wheat flour, sifted, to make the whole into a 

 thin batter ; with this mix two tablespoonfuls of 

 ordinary bakers' yeast. If prepared at night it 

 will be fit for use in the morning." It is said that 

 any quantity may be used for cakes, bread, &c., 

 as it does not communicate the usual bitter taste, 

 which attends the excessive use of other articles of 

 yeast. 



Gooseberry Bushes. — To prevent the goose- 

 berry from beingattackedby mildew, cover the soil 

 around the roots with a stratum of salt hay, two or 

 three inches thick, and allow it to remain through 

 the season. Irrigating once a week with soap suds, 

 taking care to sprinkle all the foliage with the fluid, 

 will also be beneficial. One thing, however, should 

 be observed in the cuhivation of this fruit, and that 

 is, never to plant the bushes under trees or in the 

 shade. 



