•li. XXIt. NO. 30. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER, 



235 



en. If then wc can determine, as chemistry 1 moiUlis of the rivers and litllo creeks, and some- 

 , how much nitrogen e.xi.sts in or forms a part of | times indeed they appear to be driven olmost out 

 lire, two and a lialf times that will be the am- jot the water by the sharks and porpoises which 

 ia of that manure. If then the vegetable part follow them in from the sea. They are taken, he 



said, by the seine, in the common way, drawn to 



nanure is, as we have snid, valuable and active 

 proportion to its degree of being dissolved by 

 er, then, as ammonia gives it this easy solubili- 

 we [nay safely say that the quantity of nitrogen 

 lanure, is the me.isure of the value of its vege- 

 c part. One thing must be guarded against ; 

 to place from this view the whole of the value 

 nanure upon its ammonia. Remember that ma- 

 3 consi.sts of carbon, water, and salts. The 

 )le are equally essential to its action. There 

 eye, nor ear, nor foot nor hand in manure 

 ch may say to the other members, " I liave no 

 d of tiiee." The whole net together ; but it is 

 10 be doubted that ammonia is the lieart of ma- 

 e, and keeps up the healthy circulation among 

 other members. 



(To be continued.) 



MR WEBSTER AND HIS FARM. 



^. corespondent of the New York Commercial 

 irertiser, writing from Marshfield, where the 

 n of Hon. Daniel Webster is situated, gives the 

 owing interesting particulars : 



vir. We'jster, unlike most men of the present 

 , goes early to bed, and sleeps during the first 

 t of the night. By t) o'clock, unless the pre- 

 ce of company or some pressing engagement 



induced him to remain longer in the parlor, he 

 bund ill a sound sleep. But he rises very early 

 the morning. I have heard him say there have 

 in periods while in Washington, when he has 

 .ved and dressed himself for six months together 



candle light. The morning is his time for 

 dy, for writing, for thinking, and for all kinds of 

 ntal labor ; from the time when the first streak 

 dawn is seen in the east, till nine or ten o'clock 



the forenoon, scarcely a moment is lost ; and 

 is then that the mighty results which distinguish 

 1 life are produced. 



This morning we walked out into the fields to- 

 ther. One nf the first we passed liad been an 

 1 dry pasture, which the plough had not touch- 



for forty years. It usually had produced, Mr. 

 ebstor said, in the spring and early summer, a 

 tie white honey suckle and other sweet grass 

 r the use of the dairy, but by mid summer it was 

 mmonly dry, parched and brown. This led to a 

 nversation on the utility of manuring land'by 

 h when circumstances and eituntion allow it. 

 Mr. Webster said his attention had been first 

 awn to- the subject by seeing the practice in 

 hode Island. He had subsequently seen prodi- 

 ous etfects from it on some parts of Long Island, 

 pecially about South Hampton. He had seen 

 I use at Chatham and other places on the extrein- 

 les of Cape Cod. He observed that whether it 

 )uld be obtained or used for a reasonable price 

 jpcnded, first on the nearness of the land to the 

 la, and secondly on the general state of the wea- 

 ler during the time when the fish usually visit the 

 3ast. These fish are a species of herring not 

 lown in Europe, and are called in the United 

 tates by the various names of moss bunkers, hard 

 cads bony fish and mcnliaden. In the summer 

 ley migrate north and are otf Marshfield some- 

 mes by the middle of June, and sometimes not till 

 une. When the weather is mild and the sea 

 Booth they come close to the sliore, or into the 



the shore, and hauled of}' immediately to their des- 

 tined use. 



Until this year, ho says, he has only used these 

 fish by spreading them directly on the surface of 

 the land, and as he does not hold to manuring by 

 halves, the quantity is not spared. Ten, twelve, 

 or fourteen cart loads, each weighing twenty-six 

 or twenty-seven hundred, are allowed to the acre. 

 There has been a notion psevailing to some ex- 

 tent, that this species of manure stimulates the 

 land too much, and soon exhausts it. In refuta- 

 tion of this notion, Mr. Webster showed me a field 

 which was thus dressed in the year 1834, and 

 which has yielded an abundant crop every year 

 since. This year twenty acres have been heavily 

 fished, and the fish ploughed immediately in ; the 

 land is destined for corn next season. 



A great mass of compost is also made by mix- 

 ing earth or common loam with fish, in the propor- 

 tion of about four loads of earth to one of the fish, 

 and putting in lime as another ingredient. This 

 being done in the Summer, the whole mass is dug 

 up or turned over and mixed anew in the Autumn 

 or Winter, and in the ensuing Spring it is found 

 an excellent manure for any farming purpose what- 

 ever. His gardens, his meadows, his pasture and 

 plowed lands, all bear abundant proof of the utili- 

 ty of this species of manure. 



MASS. HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



EXHIlilTION OF FRUITS. 



Saturday, Jan. ^0, 1844. 

 From the President of the Society — Two large 

 dishes of the Beurre d' Areiiiberg and one of 

 Prince's St. Germain Pears. 



From Moses R. Marsh, Quincy ■; IJleeker'a 

 Meadow Pears. 



For the Committee, 



Joseph Breck. 



Hull Pear. — Mr Wilbur, who introduced the 

 above Pear, says in a letter to Hon. B. V. French, 

 that the " tree is a wilding in the town of Swansey, 

 in this State. It was removed from an old orchard 

 a few years since, is now about forty years old," 

 is a first rate pear, " and a great bearer." 



Q^An interesting communication from a Nor- 

 folk farmer, is deferred until next week for want 

 of room, — as also an editorial article prepared for 

 this week. 



Use of Ttirkies at the South. — J. S. Skinner, 

 Esq., in a communication in the Albany Cultiva- 

 tor, says : 



" Many object to rearing turkies, as being very 

 mischievous and destructive to vegetables and 

 grain ; but in the tobacco region they are consid- 

 ered indispensable for their agency in destroying 

 the worm which destroys the plant in the bed. In 

 Maryland, the large planters, besides rearing all 

 the turkies they can, send round and buy up large 

 ' gangs ' of young turkies, at from 37 1-2 to 50 els. 

 each, expressly to assist in • keeping down the 

 worms.' As soon as the dew is ofi", the young 

 negroes drive these gangs of turkies regularly over 

 the tobacco field, where each one takes his row, 

 and It is curious to see how quickly they can spy 

 out the smallest worm, and what numbers they 

 will kill. As the heat of the day comes on, they 

 are driven into some neighboring shade, and fed 

 with a little grain, to prevent the worms from mak- 

 ing them sick, and to keep them from being sur- 

 feited with too much of a good thing. After the 

 tobacco has been housed, the planter allows his 

 feathered auxiliaries to take the run of the corn- 

 field and the hog-pen. In this way they soon get 

 their growth and become fat, when all except the 

 breeding slock reserved for the next year, become 

 the perquisite or pin money of the good housewife, 

 who sends them to the Washington market, where 

 they average about $1 to the boarding-houae keep- 

 ers, and are ia their turn devoured by members of 

 Congress." 



A down-east editor speaking of the progress of 

 civilization, discourseth thus: "Its march is on- 

 ward — onward like the slow but intrepid tread of 

 a jackass towards a peck of oats !" 



HOW SHOULD WOODLAND BR MANAGED? 

 This, in many parts of our State, is beginning 

 to be a question of no small importance. South 

 and west of us, we believe it has become the set- 

 tled conviction of farmers, that it is best to cut the 

 wood off clean as your go, and leave the suckers 

 from the old roots, or the new seeds which may 

 called into action by the power of the son and air, 

 to fill up the ground as fast as the growth will al- 

 low, and that is pretty fast. But in this section 

 of the State, there seem to be doubts yet among 

 farmers, which is the best course to pursue. Some 

 adopt the above plan, but we believe the most of 

 people cull out the older trees and leave the youn- 

 ger to increase in size by age. One of the best 

 woodlots that we ever saw in Maine, was managed 

 in this way, but it was owned by a very careful 

 man, who did not manage in quite so Slovenish 

 and careless way as many do. He was careful to 

 cut the old trees clean as he went along, and at 

 the same lime thinned out the younger growth, so 

 that he could not only get about among it without 

 breaking or running over any of the young Irees, 

 and in this way the influence of the sun and air, 

 which are essential to the growth of vegetation, 

 could be felt by the trees, and their growth was 

 much accelerated thereby. This mode, it is true, 

 amounts very nearly to that first mentioned. We 

 are inclined to think that the growth of our wood 

 is not quite so rapid as that of the same species in 

 Massachusetts, and farther south. It is therefore, 

 more important to manage it in such a way that 

 the greatest growth shall accrue in a given lime. 



On our seaboard, and on our rivers, coal is much 

 used, and the wood will therefore be in less de- 

 mand, or in other words, there will not be so much 

 used, unless it can be aflforded at a price that will 

 make it more economical than conl is. But in ma- 

 ny parts of the interior there has been so much im- 

 providence in regard to the preservation of wood, 

 that there really begins to be a scarcity. In such 

 situations it is absolutely necessary that care and 

 attenlion should be bestowed upon the woodlot. 



We should like to hear from some of our ob- 

 serving and matter-of-fact farmers upon the subject. 

 Maine Farmtr. 



