266 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



JlTNB 



various parte of the country, and we believe with 

 pretty good succcse. The tree grows rapidly and 

 produces timber of great value. We have never 

 prepared the seed for planting, but can say how 

 it ha« been done by others ; and on reference to 

 Bome of the best English works, we find the prac- 

 tice by our own people sustained by some of the 

 best writers on the plaiitiug and preservation of 

 forest trees. 



Doct. Samuel Baud's method of preparing the 

 seeds was to pour boiling water on them, and let 

 it stand and cool. The hard outer coat Avould 

 thus be softened, and if the seed swelled by this 

 operation, it might be planted, and would soon 

 oome up. 



Judge MiTcnELL, of North Hempstead, Long 

 Island, took a quantity of seed ami put it in an 

 earthern pitcher, ami poured upon it water near 

 to boiling. After standing 24 hooirs, he turned 

 off the water and selected the seeds that were 

 swelled by this application of heat and moisture. 

 To the remainder he added hot water again, and 

 after 24 hours, selected as before, and so again the 

 third time. lie planted the seeds in drills about 

 four feet apart, and in eight or ten days they were 

 all above ground. About three years after this, 

 these were transplanted on a side hill of waste 

 ground which had lain for many years unculti- 

 vated, which was soon improved by the addition 

 of a large grove of valuable locust trees, in the 

 most thrifty condition. 



Prof. IlKN'snAW put some seeds into boiling wa- 

 ter ; others he actually boiled 1^, 3, G, and even 

 15 minutes ; he planted them afterwards in the 

 earth, and they all sprouted and grew in half the 

 time that seeds did which had not been boiled or 

 soaked. When young, the plants must be pro- 

 tected from cattle. 



Dr. DrowxV, of Rhode Island, says that "the 

 easiest method of raising the locust is as follows : 

 Plant fifteen or twenty trees on an acre, and 

 when fifteen or twenty feet high, run straggling 

 furrows through the ground, and wherever the 

 roots are cut with the plow, new trees will start 

 up, and will soon stock the ground with a plenti- 

 ful growth." 



GOOD BEEF. 



Horace Buixock, Esq., of Rehoboth, recently 

 slaughtered a beef which I think is worthy of be- 

 ing recorded in your valuable paper. It had been 

 stall-fed with meal for about one 3'oar ; .age four 

 this spring. It weighed as follows : — Cross weiglit, 

 1081 lbs., dry weight, 1200 lbs.; rough tallow, 

 119 lbs. ; hide. 111 lbs. The girth was 7 feet, 1 

 inch. The meat was sold in this city for $8,50 

 per hundred, which taking into consideration the 

 high price of all kinds of provision,was very cheap. 



Providence, R. I., March 18, 1854. e. d. b. 



The Editor indulges in a Beef Steak ! — Beef 

 Steaks is riz, most certainly — but we could think 



of nothing else so appropriate wherewith to taste 

 and try the Tomato Ketchup, of friend Cutttu, of 

 Pelham, N. II. Beefsteak, and Tomato Ketchup ! 

 Any description would be of little aid and comfort ; 

 would only "make the mouth water," without 

 sustaining the stomach ; you must buy them j'our- 

 setf. CcTTER prepares a small ocean of the ketch- 

 up annually, and if any body can do it better, 

 his bottles have n't made their appearance this way. 

 That's all ! 



PERUVIAN GUANO, 



The notice which we have recently been led to 

 take of various estimates of the supply of Guano 

 at the Chincha Islands, has induced a friend to 

 send us a statement or report, made and published 

 in England in December last, by Geo. Peacock, 

 F. R. G. S. The statement is founded upon a 

 personal survey, made by Mr. Peacock during four 

 months special devotion to the sulyect, in an open 

 boat, all along the coast of Peru. His survey was 

 made at the instigation of the Br. Government, with 

 a promise of 1000 tons of guano as compensation, 

 which promise, it is said, has never been fulfilled. 

 The English holders of Peruvian bonds, secured by 

 the proceeds of the guano islands, began to appre- 

 hend a failure of their guaranty; and hence, prob- 

 ably this survey. As to the Ctiincha group, Mr. 

 Peacock says : — Journal. 



"I estimated in 1844 that the quantity remain- 

 ing on the northern island alone, was at least ten 

 millions of tons ; although it had been worked by 

 the Indians from time immemorial, and although 

 a very large quantity had been removed since the 

 permission of its first exportation to Europe in 

 1841 ; besides the immense quantities that had 

 been used by the Peruvian farmers since the con- 

 quest. At this time (1844) I measured the cliff 

 of pure guano lying in a north-eastand south-west 

 direction, where it had been worked in upon from 

 the north-west verge of the rocky basement to- 

 wards the middle ridge of the island; I found it to 

 be 85 feet perpendicular, and I calculated that by 

 the time tlie workings had reached the summit or 

 crown of the hill it would be at least 100 feet in 

 section to the rocky base, all pure guano. 



I did not examine the other two islands, merely 

 landing on them, the deposits there not having at 

 that time been opened upon ; but Senor Villa, who 

 examined them in 1842, declared that they con- 

 tain, in his opinion, considerably larger quantities 

 than the northern island, the middle one being the 

 largest of the three. A rough estimate was formed 

 that from 40 to 50 millions of tons existed on this 

 group. Senor Don Framisco de Rivera, the late 

 charge d'affaires of Peru in London, who was en- 

 trusted with my plans and estimates of the new 

 guenarosdiscovcredbyme, found (as 1 was informed 

 in 1840) that valleys filled with guano to tlie lev- 

 el of the sumunding liill of this material, up- 

 wards of 120 feet in depth, existed in the Chincha 

 group, and that the quantity might be said to be 

 practically inexhaustible during the present gener- 

 ation. 



However, independent of these immense deposits 

 on the Chincha Group, theLobos, Guanape, Ilua- 

 ura and other islands upon the north-west coast of 

 Peru were estimated by me to contain some five 

 millions of tons of it, at least ; whilst that truly 



