168 



<EI)c JTanncr's ittontliln iHsitor. 



contact only with the mould, had been spread 

 over the ground before quick ploughing of" the 

 previous potato ground, about one bundled 

 pounds each of the guano and ground plaster 

 were sowed over it and the ground was harrow- 

 ed. We do not doubl that lliis composition of guano 

 and plaster gave us more than half the value of the 

 entire crop of corn and potatoes upon this ground. 

 It was the stimulant which so forced the corn 

 crop of the larger kind requiring a longer time 

 to mature and ripen, that it was very nearly out 

 of the way of the frost in three months and ten 

 days (Sept. 10) from the time of planting. The 

 potatoes too, as the effect of the compost and 

 guano, ripened without rotting or signs of decay. 

 The average of sound corn, we think, was fifty 

 bushels to the acre — the potatoes about one hun- 

 dred and twenty-five bushels. Both crops would 

 have been much improved, if not increased, 

 could this ground, duly prepared, have been 

 planted fifteen days earlier. 



New Hampshire Enterprise in Maine ! 



During a few hours tarry in Portland last sum- 

 mer, we visited the school-book establishment of 

 Messrs. Sanborn and Carter: it was to us matter 

 of gratification to see the improvement which 

 had been made in books and book-making in 

 the space of the last forty years. It is now about 

 thirty-six years — before stereotyping made it 

 convenient to publish in larger or smaller edi- 

 tions — since the writer started the publication of 

 n single edition of nineteen thousand common 

 school-testaments: this required an enormous 

 amount of paper. The work, done on a single 

 hand Ratnage press, required some six months 

 run of night and day. with hard pulls of the 

 workmen : the edition, when completed, was full 

 four years in selling. Nearly twenty years after 

 this, Mr. Sanborn, in this his native town, com- 

 menced the trade of a book binder — bis first 

 work was on the school-books and other publi- 

 cations issuing from the several presses in this 

 town, which followed in the train of our first be- 

 ginning. The establishment in which he is en- 

 gaged presents a striking contrast to the hand- 

 work done here thirty years ago. The printing 

 press invented by Mr. Adams of Boston, (another 

 native mechanic of our State) is a thing as dif- 

 ferent from the old Ramage press as any two 

 machines can be conceived. With the power of 

 a single steam engine in Sanborn and Carter's 

 establishment, three of the large machine presses 

 are moving at the same time: there is no hard 

 work about them. The hand of a single female 

 alone is sufficient to lay the sheet over the tym- 

 pan — the self-operating machine does all the 

 rest : it distributes and lays the ink over the 

 types — it moves the form and exactly adjusts it 

 in the place where the weight is let down to 

 produce the impression — it moves back and with 

 artificial hands lays off the sheets in print more 

 bright and even and perfect than the possibility 

 of doing by the best hand-work. The Portland 

 establishment was using up one hundred dollars 

 worth of white paper in a full working day. We 

 acknowledge the receipt of a set of the " Popu- 

 lar School Books," published by the gentlemen 

 of the Portland house. The binding of these 

 books and the paper would recommend them be- 

 yond almost any other hooks we have yet seen. 

 They have been compiled and prepared by one 

 of the most experienced and talented instructors 

 of youth in the country — n mnn of great learn- 

 ing and science, Salem Town, Esq. Mr. Cartel 

 of the firm, lately on a visit to this town, informs 



us that the Portland house manufactures an ave- 

 rage of nine hundred of these volumes in each 

 working day. Wherever Mr. Town's books have 

 been introduced, they have been preferred to al- 

 most all others. The demand for them in the 

 common schools of New York has become so 

 great as to require a duplicate establishment at 

 Cooperstown, in the interior of that State, where 

 the books will be published in quantities similar 

 as at the Portland establishment. The saving of 

 expense, first in paper-making, and afterwards in 

 printing and binding, presents a very beautiful 

 school-book at a very low price; and this is one 

 advantage which the poor have for instruction 

 which the poor of former days enjoyed not. 

 The following is a list of the school-books pub- 

 lished by Carter and Sanborn at Portland ; we 

 believe tlry may be had in this town at the 

 bookstore of Mr. John F. Brown, and perhaps 

 at other bookstores in the State : 

 Town's First Reader, 

 " Second Reader, 



Third Reader, 

 " Fourth Reader, 

 " Speller and Definer, 

 " Analysis of Derivative Words, 

 Thurston's Analysis of the English Alphabet, 

 Welch's Arithmetic enlarged, 

 Weld's English Grammar, 

 " Parsing Book, 

 " Latin Lessons and Reader, 

 Greene's Grammar for Children, 

 Greene's Practical Grammar. 



Leached Ashes. 



There is no more lasting manure on light land 

 than hard wood leached ashes: from our own 

 observation we can testify that so small a quan- 

 tity as a peck to a square rod will essentially ex- 

 change the yellow to a chocolate colored soil, 

 and that in successive crops it will he felt eight 

 and ten years. Mr. Philip Farrington, a farmer 

 of Hopkinton recently removed to our village, 

 informs us that he remembers the late Benjamin 

 Wiggin, Esq., an extensive trader of that town, 

 who fifty years ago manufactured potash as the 

 only use that could be made of the masses of 

 wood on the ground to be burned ; that the 

 leached ashes from Mr, Wiggin's potash were 

 carted and spread over light lands near Hopkin- 

 ton meeting-house, stimulating the ploughed 

 lands to a large crop ; that the common remark 

 and belief was that these ashes exhausted and 

 run out the land, in a lew years inducing the 

 owner to abandon it as for cultivated plough- 

 land. Thus abandoned and neglected for some 

 forty years, the plough was again ii/ifd upon it, 

 when all that part which had received a gene- 

 rous supply of the leached ashes, turned out a 

 most exuberant growth— a vast deal taller and 

 heavier grain than the same kind of surrounding 

 land where no leached ashes had been used. 



MtLKt.NG Cows.— It is important that all the 

 milk should he drawn from the udder; if it be 

 not, the quantity secreted will diminish in pro- 

 portion to the quantity left tit each milking. 

 That which is left in the udder is re-absorbed 

 into the system, and the next milking will he so 

 much less in quantity. Cons will not yield their 

 milk to a person they dislike; but will show by 

 their quiet attitude and chewing the cud that the 

 operation, when performed by a gentle and ex- 

 pert milker, is productive of pleasure. The ud- 

 der and teats should always he Hashed clean 

 with water, which in the winter should be 

 warmed. This will not only insure the cleanli- 

 ness of the milk, but will cause it to flow more 

 freely. 



The Florida Ever-Glades. 

 We have received from Hon. Mr. Westcott, 

 member of the UnitedStates Senate from Florida,a 

 copy of Congressional Document 243, containing 

 a copy of the bill reported by that gentleman at 

 the late session of Congress, " to authorize the 

 draining of the Ever-Glades in the State of Flo- 

 rida, by said State, and to grant the same to said 

 State for that purpose." The Document con- 

 tains a great amount of interesting information 

 relating to this subject. It seems that the tract 

 which it is proposed to reclaim, comprises, by 

 estimation about one million of acres — the cost 

 of reclamation is estimated at half a million of 

 dollars — and it is thought that the tract would he 

 capable of supporting a population of 250,000. 

 At the present lime these Ever-Glades are near- 

 ly worthless. The tract is mostly covered with 

 water-grasses, growing from six to ten feet high, 

 and the soil is more or less covered with water 

 all the year. The basis is said to be lime-stone, 

 upon which a deep vegetable deposit lias accu- 

 mulated from the decay of the plants produced 

 for ages. The general surface of the soil being 

 twelve or fifteen feet above the level of the sea, 

 it is proposed to drain it by cutting canals 

 through various portions — they emptying into 

 tide creeks or rivers, which it is said extend up 

 into the Ever-Glades When this body of land 

 is made suitable for cultivation, it is proposed to 

 introduce the various tropical plants, valuable in 

 commerce. The tract is situated to the south- 

 ward of twenty-seven degrees thirty minutes, 

 where there is no frost, and where many pro- 

 ductions may be obtained that will not grow in 

 other parts of the United States. The following 

 schedule is given of the articles it is proposed to 

 introduce : 



Comply, yam, casava, ginger, pulka, Sisal hemp, 

 indigo, tobacco, cortex cascarilla, can ilia alba, 

 sarsaparilla, sugar cane, pepper, bush and vine 

 pepper, pimento, tea plant, orange, guava, Ota- 

 heite plum, shaddock, lime, hog plum, forbidden 

 fruit, lemon, Jamaica apple, grape fruit, citron, 

 sugar apple, banana, pine apple, cocoanut, plan- 

 tain, sapadilla, sour sop, Avocato pear, mango, 

 olive, mame sapota, boxwood, lignumvitse, ma- 

 hogany, tili, and ship timber. 



If the scheme proposed by Mr. Westcott and 

 his associates, can be carried out — and there is 

 certainly much evidence of its feasibility — it 

 seems to us that the results could not fail to be 

 vastly beneficial to the country. — Albany Cidt. 



On the Use of Fish for Manure. 



Messrs. Editors. — In those towns in this section 

 bordering on the seacoast, White-fish are exten- 

 sively used as manure, for all kinds of crops. 

 The price of them varies from fifty cents to one 

 dollar and fifty cents a thousand, the average 

 price being about one dollar. They are caught 

 in large numbers from Slay till October, in 

 schools varying from one hundred fish to one 

 hundred thousand, and are applied to the soil in 

 various ways. Some persons, during the hurry 

 of haying and harvesting, spread them on the' 

 surface of the ground, ami allow them to dry up 

 by the sun, a stench in the nostrils of every • 

 passer by. Others spread them year after year 

 on their rye stubble, as long as they can get ten. 

 or fifteen bushels of rye per acre, and until their 

 land is atcually fished to death, and overrun with 

 sorrel and noxious weeds. 



They are usually spread over the surface of . 

 the ground, at the rate of about ten thousand 

 to the acre, and ploughed in in the course of 

 twenty-four hours, it being less work than to" 

 compost them. But the best way in which they 

 can be used, is to mix them intimately with 

 muck and coalpit dirt,, and let them remain over J 

 the winter, when they will he changed into a 



