NEW ENGL.AND FARMER. 



PUBLISHED BY J. B. RUSSELL, AT NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (at the Acricultbral Warehouse.)— T. G. FESSENDE.N, EDITOR. 



VOL. IX. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1830. 



^e ^ sa ai^ sf a >s A a 3 © sj 3(. 



NO. 17. 



Mk Fessesdejt. — Since my last communication, the 

 Jnly number of Annates de la Societe D'Hoiticulture D' 

 Paris, has been received. I have extracted such articles, 

 appeared most valuable, which are enclosed. 

 Truly your most obedient servant, 



H. A. S. DEARBORN. 

 Klnl»v Place, Rolbury, ) 

 Uclober 23, 1830. i 



EXTRACT NO. XXV. 



From the Annates D'HorticuUure. 



method of increasing the size of Fruits ; by M. 



Jaume Sai.vt-Hilaire. 



Amateurs of beautiful fruits, will doubtless read 

 itU pli-asuie, the experiments made by M. Jaiime 

 aiiit-Hilaire, for increasing the size of Pears, 

 hich are described in a memoir, read by him, on 

 e 5ili of November, 1829, before the Societe 

 oyale et Ceutrale D'Agriculture. 



On examining the espalier pear trees, in the 

 areery of the Luxembourg and in many other 

 irdens, I have several times remarked, says the 



thor, and particularly during the month of Au- 



st last, that when a ])ear was accidentally siis- 



Ined by the trellis and wall, or was placed in the 

 k of two branches, it was generally larger, 

 n those ou the same tree, which were freely 

 pended from the branches. I presumed that 

 s difference was thus occasioned ; that when 

 fruit attained a certain size, its wright con- 

 •-ted the tubes and vessels of the peduncle des- 

 •d to conduct the sap of the tree, and prevented 

 cm obtaining a size equal to such as were sup- 

 ted and consequently more favorably situated, 

 receiving the nourishing juices. I was there- 

 desirous of ascertaining, how far this hy- 

 lesis would be confirmed by experiments, upon 

 rent kinds of pears; M. Dalbert, an intelligent 

 zealous gardener, aided me in making them, 

 le department of fruit trees, in the Royal Gar- 

 We first selected a young tree bearing a 

 called the Duchesse D\iugouhme figured in 

 ilF/ora et la Pomone Francaise (PI. LVI.) A 

 ., situated near the middle of the tree, was, on 

 1116th of September, 9 inches and 4 lines in cir- 

 'erence ; it was left suspended from the branch. 

 her pear situated Jower, was at the same time 

 ihesand 10 lines in circumference. We placed 

 r the latter a little shelf fixed upon a stake 

 n into the ground, in such a manner that the 

 was supported by it. The 30th of September 

 ing, the two pears were gathered ; the first, 

 h remained suspended, had increased but 2 

 and the second which was supported by the 

 was 9 inches and 7 lines in circuinference ; 

 gained 9 lines, which is considerable, for so 

 a pear, and in fifteen days, 

 may be objected, that the position of the pears 

 the upper or lower branches, contributed to 

 jse the size of one more than the other. 



selected two pears, called Beurre D'Arem- 

 growing on the sani» branch and emanating 

 the same fruit spur. On the 15th of Sep- 

 r, one of them was 8 inches and 4 lines in 

 inference, which was left suspended ; the 

 was 8 inches and was supported by a 

 The 7th of October following, both pears 



were gathered ; the first had increased but 2 lines ; 

 the second was 8 inches and 8 lines in cir- 

 cumference, having been enlarged 8 lines. It 

 will be seen that the largest of the two pears 

 was left sjispended and the smallest was supported. 

 An experiment, the reverse of this was made. 



Upon a Chaptal pear tree, figured in the Flora 

 et la Pom9ne Francaise (PI. XCIII,) two Avere se- 

 lectefl,. which emanated from the same fruit spur: 

 instead of placing the shelf under the smallest it 

 was put under the largest, which, on the 15th of 

 September, was 3 lines greater in circuinference, 

 than the other. On the 15th of October, these two 

 pears we,re gathered ; the largest was then 9 lines 

 larger than the other, that is, it had increased 6 

 lines more. 



From these experiments, it is believed, if they 

 were re,peated the following year, and commenced 

 in .July. or Aug. a more marked difference and more 

 satisfactory. results would be produced ; and my 

 theory could be applied to other kinds of fruits, 

 such as Quinces, Apples, Oranges, &c. 



EXTRACT NO. XXVI. 



A method . of making Camellias produce seed; by 



M. Laffay Fodrneir. 



The author says, that having seen Camellias 

 filled with seeds, in a garden he remarked these 

 plfints with more attention, and perceived, that 

 the most of them had their branches mutilated 

 and the ends broken off. In February following, Mr 

 Laffay suppressed the wood buds, which accom- 

 panied the flowers, on several of his camellias, in 

 order to direct the sap into the floweis and nour- 

 ish the seeds; the experiment was successfid, and 

 has been repeated sihce with equally good fortune, 

 particularly with Camellias cultivated in pots. 



EXTRACT NO XXVII. 



A method of accelerating the malxtrity of Melons. 

 This consists in spreading under and around 

 the melons, a bed of pulverized charcoal two in- 

 ches deep. Lampodias, at Freiheng, attempted this 

 experiment in 1813, and he succeeded in ripening 

 melons in a box filled with earth and not covered 

 during the cold summer of that year. The sur- 

 face of the charcoal attained a temperature at noon 

 of from 115 to 188 degrees, while elsewhere it was 

 only from 85 to 88 degrees. 



FOR THE NEW ENGLAND TARMEK. 



GUANO. 



Dear Sir — I observed in the .Veui England 

 Farmer of Sept. 3, page 54, an extract of a letter 

 from the American Consul at Arequipa, Peru, 

 ' relative to a kind of manure, called by the Span- 

 iards, ^urrno.' Perhaps the following more par- 

 ticular account of that substance, extracted from 

 M. Von Humboldt's letter to M. Klaproth, may be 

 interesting to those who have seen the above quota- 

 tion. — Undoubtedly it is the ordure of sea-birds of 

 the Pacific, which has been accumulating osecii?!* 

 seculorum. 



All the Aborigines of Peru were of opinion, 

 that this substance is birds-dung ; which was, 

 however, doubted by many of the Spaniard.s. It 

 is worth remarking that all the Guano-Islands 



,and rocks are situated between the IStb and 21sl 

 I degree of South latitude ; and yet the number of 

 cormorants, flamingos, and cranes appears to bs 

 equally considerable in the islands situated farther 

 towards the north or south. In Asia large nui"^ 

 zines are erected alongside the shore for the re- 

 ception of the guano. If we consider that, ever 

 since the twelfth, or at least the thirteenth cei>. 

 tiiry, it has been customary in Peru to maimre 

 with this substance ; that many millions of cubic 

 feet have been strewed over the sandy jiarts of 

 Peru (and indeed the po.ssibility of practising 

 agriculture along the sea-coast depends entirely 

 on this precious material); and farther, that the 

 guano still continues to be furnished in large quan- 

 tities, and that the experience of the present gen- 

 eration appears to prove that those birds, on one 

 of the islands, will scarcely produce a ship load 

 of dung in a groat number of years ; if we con- 

 sider all this, we cannot refrain from being aston- 

 ished at the long series of centuries, or the vast 

 number of birds, that must have been required to 

 accumulate those inmiense strata of guano. 



Though we can no longer hesitate to consider 

 also the guano as dung of birds, yet it may be 

 asked, has it originated on the same islands where 

 it is now found, or has it been accumulated there 

 by some revolution of the earth .' Does jt point 

 back to an era when the deluged _glol)e was pro- 

 vided with a greater number of aquatic birds than 

 at the j)r«seut. tiijo, in the same manner as the 

 coal formation refers us back to a vastly luxuri- 

 ant vegetation ? Or was the guano formed un- 

 der circumstances perfectly similar to those now 

 existing, and was nothing required to produce 

 such immense stratification but a long succession 

 of ages ? A long residence on the rocks and isl- 

 ands of the Peruvian coast, and attentive observa- 

 tion of the quantity of dung deposited at present 

 by many thousand cormorants and flamingos in 

 the space of one year, are the means which may, 

 perhaps, at a future period, enable us to answer 

 these questions. But it may he asked, what is to 

 become of Peruvian agriculture, and what of the 

 population of the coast, when the exhausted 

 Guano islands shall no longer yield this manure? 



In the neighborhood of Arica, where the crop 

 of pepper [Capsicum baccatum, bird-pepper,) is 

 valued at from 3 to 400,000 dollars a year, each 

 plant is manureil three times every season with 

 guano, viz. at the periods of taking root, flower- 

 ing, and producing the fruit. 



Under the government of the Incas, the guano 

 was considered as an important object of political 

 economy. It was prohibited, under pain of death, 

 to destroy any of the birds on the Guano islands, 

 each of which had its inspectors, and was divided 

 into departments. From Arica to Chancay, a 

 tract of 200 leagues in length, no other manure 

 was made use of than guano. This great care 

 accounts in some measure for the vast increase of 

 the guano. But those wise regulations have long 

 been abolished : at present the guano is dug for 

 without regularity and at all seasons. 



In an account of the guano, given to Messrs 

 Fourcroy, and Vauquelin, [to whom specimens 

 were communicated] mention is made of a few 

 other circumstances relative to that substanca. — 



