1854. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



533 



■was carried to England, in 1586, by Sii* Walter 

 Kaleigh, and planted in his garden. Not being 

 sufficiently acquainted with the plant, he 'was 

 near consigning it to destruction in consequence 

 of finding the potato apple, or fruit of the 

 plant, bitter and unpalatable, and it was in dig- 

 ging them up that the edible potato was discov- 

 ered. The plant throve rapidly in the British 

 Isles, but especially in Ireland. The potato al- 

 luded to in Shakspeare, as being common in the 

 reign of Queen Elizabeth, was the convolvolus 

 batata, of which Burnett says : — "Not only were 

 its tender roots, and young leaves and shoots, 

 eaten as pot-herbs, but they were candied, and 

 made into various sweet-meats." 



now imported. My advice to the farmer then is 

 to begin at home. J. L. Edgerton. Georgia, 

 Vt. — Country Gentleman. 



DOMESTIC GUANO. 



Editors of Cocntrt Gentlemen : — I wish to 

 say a few things more about guano. 1 suppose 

 the present annual importation of guano into the 

 United States will not fall much short of two hun- 

 dred thousand tons, at an expense of at least ten 

 million of dollars. Think of that, gentlemen far- 

 mers, ten million of dollars annually exported 

 from the United States for foreign manures. But 

 this two hundred thousand tons, imported into 

 the United States, is but a mere mite of what is 

 demanded by the American farmers. Probably 

 not one fixrmer in 100,000 is supplied from this 

 source. But, if these numbers startle you, then 

 take the least possible computation that facts will 

 allow, and say that we need one thousand times 

 more instead of one hundred thousand, to supply 

 the present demand, and then it will require two 

 hundred million tons, at an expense of ten or 

 twelve thousand million of dollars. These figures, 

 gentlemen, will alarm you ; but be assured it is 

 no fanciful sketch. Let all the American farmers 

 be supplied with foreign manures according to 

 their necessities, as the privileged farmers are, 

 and more than this would be realized. But what 

 are the American farmers to do ? The entire 

 lands of the entire country are rapidly deprecia- 

 ting in fertility. To crop them as the farmers 

 now do is a ruinous course. But to buy foreign 

 manures would only end in national bankruptcy. 

 Come, now, let us reason together on the sub- 

 ject, and see what can be done. Every family of 

 four persons, might with no trouble or expense, 

 except to keep neat and clean about the house, 

 manufiicturc one ton of guano. The excrement 

 of the family, together with tlie dirty slop, now 

 all wasted, would more than make one ton, 

 whether we regard the quantity or quality of the 

 material. But, if we include in this account, all 

 the materials necessary to absorb all the licjuid, 

 the amount would be swelled to two tons, even to 

 every family of four persons. But, if we take 

 the lowest estimate, eight hundred tliousand per- 

 sons might make annually from their own house, 

 two hundred thousand tous of guano, a sum equal 

 to all that is now imported into the United States, 

 at an expense of some ten or twelve millions ol 

 dollars. And the excrement of one hog, a cow 

 and a horse, with the poultry-yard, would cer- 

 tainly produce anotiier ton. I do not know ex- 

 actly the population of tlie State of New York, 

 but my opinion is that more ^uano could be man- 

 ufactured from the families alone, exclusive of all 

 the wasted urine of the animals, than all that is 



WHY IS A GARDEN FRUITFUL? 



The almost universal opinion is, because it is 

 more highly manured than fields, and tlierefore 

 has a richer soil. Yet this is not always the case. 

 There are other things to be attended to, in order 

 to render the soil prolific. One is to pulverize the 

 soil ; though this may seem a small matter to 

 many of our would-be farmers. But it is owing 

 to the finely pulverized condition of the beds of a 

 garden that it possesses a highly absorbent power 

 to attract the moisture of the atmosphere — a 

 source of fertility that many farmers scarcely 

 seem aware that they possess. If the soil of the 

 field was as carefully worked, and fresh earth con- 

 stantly exposed to the atmosphere, as in the well- 

 attended garden, the land would increase each 

 year in fertility. Let the rule be, plow deep, 

 cultivate well, pulverize lumps and sods, return 

 your straw to the soil, and you may carry off an 

 immense quantity of food, and have fertile soil 

 still. Plants, in their nature, are organized be- 

 ings. By means of their roots they take up food 

 from the soil, and often the very food which the 

 soil has taken up, by its power of absorption, from 

 the atmosphere, and which 'power is increased to 

 an almost indefinite extent, by separating the par- 

 ticles of which it is composed. The acts of plow- 

 ing and harrowing are a part of the process of 

 manuring. The act of stirring the earth, in times 

 of drought, serves as a watering of the plants. 

 The moisture thus absorbed is loaded with fertiliz- 

 ing properties. If, then, you would have your 

 fields as fertile as a garden, you must not depend 

 upon manure alone, but pulverize freely, not upon 

 the surface, but deep below it. — Dollar Ncivspaper. 



SQUIRRELS IN THE WOODS. 



There are few things more pleasing than to lie 

 upon the grass on a sunny day in summer, and 

 watch the squirrels in the trees above you. IPeer- 

 ing up, you will espy, on one of the tree stems, a 

 little brown, monkeyfied-looking rat, with a sort 

 of rabbit's head, and a foxy tail as long as its body 

 and curling over it, and ecce my lord squirrel ! 

 Down he comes, leaping from branch to branch 

 clawing, racing so fast, and now he reaches the 

 turf and sits upon his hind legs, and looks this 

 way and that, and listens. Do not move, or he is 

 ofl'; do not wink so much as an eyelid. "All 

 right ?" his merry brown eyes seem to ask. Yes, 

 all right ; for a nut drops from between his teeth 

 into his fore paws, and giving his mighty conse 

 quential tail an extra curl, he makes ready for 

 breakfast. That is another sight — the way in 

 which a squirrel deals with a nut. First of all he 

 shakes and rattles it, that he may be sure there is 

 something inside ; then he twists it round and 

 round in his paws, till he gets tlie narrow end up- 

 permost, for he knowa that at the upper end the 

 shell is the thinnest ; then he begins to grate 

 and file till ho has worked his Avay through, 

 getting noisier and noisier as the hole grows 

 bigger; and then come intervals of (juiot, which 

 mean that his teeth are iu the kernel, and that he 

 is eating all within reach ; for a squirrel never has 



