1860. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



523 



sufficient for his wants. Baker's Island guano, 

 being of all fei'tilizers the richest in phosphoric 

 acid, will be of especial importance. As far as 

 chemistry can judge, there is hardly room for a 

 doul)t that in all cases where the fertility of a field 

 would be increased by the use of bone dust, the 

 Baker's Island guano will be used with decided 

 advantage. The phosphate of lime in the Baker's 

 Island guano is far more easily dissolved than 

 that of bones, and if we take the proportion of 

 that ingredient to be sixty pounds in the latter, 

 one hundred pounds in the Baker's Island guano 

 are equivalent to one hundred and forty pounds ot 

 bones. Thus the agriculturist would be benefited 

 as much by using seventy pounds of Baker's 

 Island guano as by one hundred pounds of bone 

 dust. This guano contains in ammonia, nitric 

 acid and azotic substances, nearly one per cent. 

 of active nitrogen. A small addition of salt ot 

 ammonia would give it the full strength of Peru- 

 vian guano. 



" 'For turnips, clover, &c., the Jarvis Island 

 guano is just as good as the Baker's. Judging 

 simply from its per centage of phosphates, it is of 

 less value as an article of importation ; but it is 

 rich in sulphate of lime, which is also a fertilizer, 

 and its phosphoric acid is of higher value, as 

 nearly half of it exists in soluble phosphate ot 

 lime. The Jarvis Island guano would seem to be 

 an excellent means of restoring cotton or sugar 

 plantations whose soil has been worn out by long- 

 continued cultivation. I think it is preferable to 

 Peruvian guano, which, being rich in ammonia, 

 tends rather to great development of leaves and 

 stems.' " — N. Y. Journal of Commerce. 



A PLEA FOB, THS CROW". 



A series of articles on birds, in the Atlantic 

 Monthly, understood to be from the pen of Wil- 

 son Flagg, of Beverly, Mass., has given that work 

 a considerable reputation, in an ornithological 

 point of view. In a recent number, the author 

 speaks a good word for the crow, and we hope all 

 our readers will read the following extract, and 

 then judge as to the truth of the statement : 



"He consumes, in the course of the year, vast 

 quantities of grubs, Avorms and noxious vermin ; 

 he is a valuable scavenger, and clears the land of 

 ofi'ensive masses of decaying animal substances ; 

 he hunts the grass fields, and pulls out and de- 

 vours the underground caterpillars, wherever he 

 perceives the signs of their operations, as evinced 

 by the wilted stalks ; he destroys mice, young rats, 

 lizards and serpents ; lastly, he is a volunteer sen- 

 tinel about the farm, and drives the hawk from its 

 enclosures, thus preventing greater mischief than 

 that of which he is himself guilty. It is chiefly 

 during seed-time and harvest that the depreda- 

 tions of the crow are committed ; during the re- 

 mainder of the year we witness only his services, 

 and so highly are these services appreciated by 

 those who have written of birds, that I cannot 

 name an ornithologist who does not plead in its 

 behalf." 



Galvanizing Silk Worms. — Silk worms re- 

 quire as much persuasion to induce them to work 

 as the laziest negroes. M. Sauvageon reports to 

 the Academy his experience in the matter. Find- 



ing the little things torpid and unwilling to work, 

 the idea struck him to stir them up by electricity. 

 The results, as he gives them, are really marvel- 

 lous. He took fifty-three worms at random from 

 among thousands belonging to a neighbor, put 

 them every day on a sheet-iron plate through 

 which a current of electricity was passed, kept 

 them each time as long as they could stand it, and 

 now has fifty-three beautiful cocoons, an amount 

 which his neighbors will not obtain, to all appear- 

 ances, from several thousand ungalvanized worms. 

 If these results may be relied on, he has made a 

 very valuable discovery. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 SHINGLING. 



Mr. Editor : — A correspondent in the Farmer 

 asks, "What will make shingles last longer ?" 

 Twenty-three years ago I found I had quite a lot 

 of refuse shingles on liand, both sappy and shakey, 

 and I laid them on the back kitchen and wood- 

 shed. 



I have just examined them, and think they will 

 last at least seven years longer. The building 

 has not leaked, to my knowledge. 



I soaked these shingles in a very thin white- 

 wash made with brine instead of clear water. 

 There has been nothing done to them since, al- 

 though I have no doubt that to have whitewashed, 

 or served a coat of dry-slaked lime or fine salt 

 once in two or three years on them, would have 

 been of great advantage to them. 



As I shingle dilTerently from almost any one 

 else, I will give you my method, and my reasons 

 for it. 



However wide the shingles may be, I do not 

 allow the nails to be put more than two inches 

 apart. 



Bcason. — If your shingles are wet or green, 

 and the wide ones are nailed at the edges, the 

 shingle must split, or one of the nails must di'aw 

 Avhen the shingle shrinks. If the shingle is dry 

 it must huff" or crowd the nail out when it swells. 

 Thus your nails are kept in constant motion by 

 every shrink or swell of the shingle, till they are 

 broken, pulled out, or the shingle is split. 



I do not want the nails drove quite in, or so as 

 to sink the head. 



Reason. — The heads of the nails hold up the 

 butts of the next row of shingles, and give the air 

 a free circulation. 



I lay all my shingles in whitewash. I prefer 

 brine for making it. I line with red chalk. I 

 then whitewash the last course laid down to the 

 line, and after the building is shingled I white- 

 wash the whole of the roof. 



Reason. — To make the shingle last twice as 

 long as they would without the whitewash, and 

 I consider it much better than just whiteAvashing 

 the roof after shingling. 



Carpenters often object to shingling in this 

 way, as it is rather dirty work, and declare they 

 know it does not do any good — that it is just as 

 good to whitewash nfter shingling, &c. 



Eollis, Sept. 29, 1860. Ed. Emerson. 



Remarks. — Capital. A common practice of 

 these suggestions would probably save thousands 

 of dollars in time, lumber and nails, annually. 



I 



