.Vfc* 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



PUBLISHED BT JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 62 NOKTH MARKET STREET, (Aobiccltubai. Waeihocse.) 



XXII.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MAY 22, 1844. 



[NO. 4T, 



N. E. FARMER. 



AFRICAN GUANO. 



Editor of the N. E. Farmer : 



AR Sin [ send you a short notice of the 



, from a paper by Dr. John Davy, in the 

 number of the Edinboro' Pliiloaophical Jour- 

 Tho African guano hng been imported into 

 pool by Mr Roe, whose son has discovered 

 e>v and abundant deposit. It is on an island, 

 ren rock, on the S. VV. coast of Africa, about 

 es from main land. The son of Mr Roe, was 

 ) loci, fur it, from a notice in the journal of an 

 •ican whaler, which he read when at school, 

 lin nor fresh water is found on the island, nor 

 there appear to be, in fact, any thing except 

 uins, nnd a deposit of guano, Iwenly feet deep, 

 I'.lu whole iiland, which is about a mile in cir- 

 lerenoe. The penguins were so tame tliat they 

 sd at the naked feet of Mr Roe and his com- 

 i>n. 



ne African guano has the external characters 

 e South American, and each afforded Dr. Da- 

 i folbws : 



I'.ruu.t. 

 111.2 



eo.o 



2.8 



19. 

 8. 



00. 



African. 



40.2— Matter soluble in water, volatil«, 



or deBlnictibleby fire, being ox- 



alrte of ammonia, diplioepbalc 



and muriate of ammonia, and 



animal maltPr. 



28.2 — Phosphnte of lime and mBgnesia, 



little sulphate of lime and sand. 



6.4_Common salt, sulphate and sesqui- 



carbonalH of potash. 

 — Urate of ammonia. 

 25 'i — Water and carbonate of ammonia. 



100. 



the changes in African guano. Without affording 

 more oxalate of ammonia than the American, its 

 urate of ammonia and urea, seem to be replaced by 

 carbonate of ammonia. These are changes unno- 

 ticed by Dr. Davy, though the change of urea into 

 carbonate of ammonia, by the addition of the ele- 

 ments of water, is one of the best established facts 

 of modern chemistry. Allowing, then, the African 

 guano to have been originally like the excrement 

 of other birds, some peculiar induRiices seem to 

 have changed its uric acid, as well os its urea, 

 into carbonate of ammonia. Now, Mr Editor, so 

 far as this has occurred, it has replaced a 6xed, by 

 a very volatile salt, and of course has produced an 

 article more liable to deterioration in proportion to 

 its amount of carbonate of ammonia. 



The Liverpool price of the African article is £9, 

 the American aljut £12 per ton. 



Lowell, Mny 10, 1844. S. L. D. 



our readers will be no less surprised than was 

 Davy, at finding no urate of ammonia in this 

 can guano. It abounds in crystals of oxalate 

 ninionia, but contains no oxalate of lime, nor 

 es of urea. The absence of urate of animonia 

 ery remarkable, as this salt is so very charac- 

 stic of the urine of birds, always voided with 

 r excrement. Dr. Davy instituted new analy- 

 of the excrements of several birds, and con- 

 ed the received opinion that urate of ammonia 

 Iways a constituent of bird excrement, whatev- 

 nay be the food of the bird. Thus, he found 

 .e of ammonia in the common goose, fed on 

 38; in the pigeon, common foivl, gull, pelican, 



white-headed sea eagle. The three last were 

 he tjarden of the London Zoological Society ; 



w?re fed, the gull wholly, and the others 

 ;fly, on fish. What has, therefore, become of 



urate of ammonia, the characteristic of the 

 I excrement, in the African guano? Dr. Davy 

 iks, m accordance with Liebig's view, that uric 

 i has changed to oxalic acid. He found not a 

 ',e of oialalt of ammonia in the excrement of 



above birds. Time and the oxygen of the air, 

 thinks, have produced this change. He goes 

 ther, and experimentally, by boiling urate of ain- 

 nia With oxide of manganese, in a few hours 

 !Cted a transformation of uric to oxalic acid. 

 rUinly some peculiar influences have controlled 



CURING HAY WITH SALT. 



We copied into our last week's paper, a commu- 

 nication from the Albany Cultivator, by Mr R. L. 

 Pell, giving his method of curing hay in the mow 

 instead of the field — applying o bushel of salt to 

 each layer of a tim of the gretn grass, as it is 

 slowed in the barn. We doubted the practicabili- 

 ty of this plan, notwithstanding Mr Pell's state- 

 ment that he has followed it with good success ; 

 for we could not well conceive tiiat gt^^s — espe- 

 cially clover — housed as soon as cut, could be pre- 

 served from damage by the mere application of salt. 

 Mr P. says that it can ■ others, as appears from the 

 following extracts from the May No. of "The Cul- 

 tivator," disagree with him : — 



Messrs. Editors — On rrading Mr R. L. Pell's 

 letter in the Cultivator for March, I took up my 

 pen to show that some of his opinions are wrong, 

 and some of his practices actually cruel. After 

 telling the time he CHS his grass, he says : "tlie 

 grass thus cut, is drawn immediately into the barn, 

 and one bushel of fine salt spread by hand over 

 each alternate layer composing a ton." Now I 

 maintain that the quant.ty of salt he puts on, actu- 

 ally punishes the poor animals that have to eat the 



hay and eat it they must, if they have nothing 



else, or starve. Some 14 years ago, I read in some 

 paper, this mode of curing hay, and I tried the ex- 

 periment by commencing to feed 012 sheep with 

 hay so cured. It took me all of an hour and a 

 half each day, to pump water for them, and then, 

 after drinking till they were like to burst, they 

 would, in cold days, stand and shiver for hours ; 

 and I believe if 1 had not changed their feed to 

 something else half of the time, that so much salt 

 would have killed a number of them. » * • 



JoBfC JOHKSTO.N. 



Messrs. Editors— Yom statement in the Jan. No. 

 of the Cultivator, that salt may bo properly used 

 to prevent damp hay from being damaged, does not 

 agree with my experience on the subject ; for as 

 far as I have observed, the salt increases the damp- 

 nesf, and should be sjiaringly used on wet hay as 



well as dry. Most farmers, in the hurry of the 

 hay-making season, are apt to house loo much of 

 their hay in a gri-en, damp state, and use salt so 

 profusely as to injure it, and the stock thut con- 

 sumes it. Stock need but little salt in winter, and 

 more than to make their food palatable, must havo 

 a contrary effect, and be eaten from necessity rath- 

 er than choice. 



My practice is to cure my hay properly and put 

 two quarts of fine salt to a ton, taking care to have 

 the lumps well piilveri'/.ed. 



The above >vas written before I read a conimu- 

 nication from R. L. Pell, of Ulster county, in your 

 March number. If Mr Pell has made any consid- 

 erable quantity of hay in the way he de>cribDs, 

 and fed that exclusively any considerable time to 

 his stock, and not lost ihem, I think they iniist bo 

 of a different teiiiperaineiit from my neighbor's cow 

 that was killed by eating salted cucutnliers, or my 

 pigs that shared the same fate hy drinking a pail- 

 full of swill with one pint of salt in it. 



Daniel S. Curtis. 



Millet. — We wnuld advise farmers to procure a 

 little of this seed for cultivation. It ie worth rais- 

 ing, cither for the seed or for fodder. When sown 

 broadcast, at the rate of a peck to the acre, it makes 

 excellent fodder for cattle, and produces at the 

 rate of one and ii half to three tons the acre. When 

 sown thinner and cut laier, on good corn ground, 

 it produces from forty to seventy bushels of seed 

 per acre. This is admirably adapted for poultry, 

 but is oflen fed to cattle and hogs. If ground, it 

 is considered equal to corn. It rnay be sown any 

 lime from the middle of April to the middle of 

 June. There is a good article on the subject of 

 this plant in Fessenden's Complete Fanner, to 

 which we would refer the reader. — Louisville Jour. 



Rearing Calves. — A correspondent of the Alba- 

 ny Cultivator says: "When I first commenced 

 farming, I never could get my calves through the 

 first winter without losing one or more. They 

 would always grow poor towards spring ; their 

 backs would assume the appearance of an arch; 

 the scours would set in, and they would die in de- 

 spite of all my care and attention. Experience 

 and observation have convinced me that lice were 

 the primary cause of all the difficulty ; and for 

 several years past, I have adopted the practice of 

 destroying them in the fall, or forepart of winter, 

 since which time I have not lost a calf I have 

 found sulphur the best remedy. I take two 

 parts of lard and one of sulphur ; melt the lard, 

 and when nearly cold mix in the sulphur, and rub 

 this thoroughly on the parts most frequented by 

 these troublesome vermin, and they will soon di«- 

 • ppear. It sticks close to the hide and hair, and 

 prevents any more from petting on them from other 

 animals. I keep my calves by themselves, and 

 have a warm phelter for them to go in when they 

 choose, in addition to as much good hay as they 

 can eat. I give them each half a pint of oats or 

 corn-meal (ground in the ear, night and morning." 



