1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



167 



question, Mr. Editor, permit me to state my own 

 experience in the use of the American Company's 

 "Jarvis Island Guano," — a guano obtained from 

 an island in the Pacific Ocean, whose deposits 

 have the same origin as those at the Cliincha 

 Islands in Peru ; the cliief difference arising from 

 the fact, that the former island is situated in the 

 latitude of variable M'inds, wliich produce occa- 

 sional rains, whereas the latter are within a belt 

 of climate where rain is almost unknown. Peru- 

 vian guano is chiefly valuable for its ammonia, 

 while the Jarvis Island guano is surpassing rich 

 in phosphates — according to Prof. Hayes, of Bos- 

 ton, containing no less than an equivalent of 81 

 per cent. — an element of fertility which, above all 

 others, our old fields and pastures are most de- 

 ficient of. 



I have used the American Company's guano for 

 the last two years with marked success. My first 

 trial of it was upon a half acre of old pasture — 

 light sandy loam — sowed with oats and grass seed, 

 it having "been broken up and planted with pota- 

 toes the previous season, with no other manure 

 than superphosphate in the hill — being too far 

 from home to think of applying barn manure — 

 and which had not been plowed or top-dressed for 

 twenty-five years. I did not expect any other re- 

 turn fi-om the oats, than a little feed for rny young 

 cattle ; but they grew so well, and became so 

 promising for a crop of grain, that I determined 

 to let them mature. Before the grain got out of 

 the milk, a portion became so badly lodged, that I 

 was obliged to cut that portion in a green state, 

 making a small horse load. The remainder of the 

 half acre'matured, and yielded twenty-one bush- 

 els, weighing thii-ty-four pounds to the bushel. 



My second trial was upon ten rows of corn, 

 through a field of three acres, evenly manured 

 throughout with best barn manure, at the rate of 

 eight cords to the acre ; a small handful of the 

 guano was applied to each hill in ten rows, making 

 about twelve hundred hills. These ten rows pre- 

 sented a marked superiority throughout the sea- 

 son, and at harvest, upon careful measurement, 

 yielded twenty per cent, more corn than the aver- 

 age of the rest of the field, besides maturing ten 

 days earlier. My neighbors were often called dur- 

 ing the season to witness its appearance. I have 

 also used this guano as a top-dressing to old field 

 gi-ass with marked and profitable results. I have 

 used it for peas with the most gratifying success. 

 And as tliis guano is sold at about forty dollars 

 per ton, I consider it the best and cheapest foreign 

 fertilizer to be had, especially for pastures and old 

 fields. It is richer in phosphates than any other 

 article with which I am acquainted, and if its ef- 

 fects upon growing crops are not so striking or 

 immediate as the Peruvian guano, I am persuad- 

 ed that it will prove of more lasting benefit to al- 

 most any soil to wliich it may be applied. 



Westhoro\ Jan., 1861. T. A. Smith. 



Remarks. — Whsi Mr. Smith says above, cor- 

 roborates what we have more than once stated as 

 the results of our own experience in the use of 

 American guano. We know him well, and his 

 practices as a farmer. His farm is not managed 

 by guess-work, but is conducted systematically, 

 and so that he is able to give satisfactory reasons 



for the results he objects. We believe that all 

 persons may obtain results similar to those stated 

 by Mr. Smith, if they use the guano as judiciously 

 as he did. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 BEDDING AND PLASTER IN" STABLES. 

 I have just read a piece in your January num- 

 ber, signed "More Anon," on the use of plaster in 

 stables, &:c. I will tell you my plan, which I find 

 is not only cheap, but I think as good as any oth- 

 er, viz : After cleaning out my stables, I have a 

 half-bushel of sawdust, or a large shovelful of sand 

 to each horse or cow, sprinkled over the stables. 

 More does no harm, as it absorbs urine when the 

 stock is put up again. 



I prefer sawdust for horse bedding to anything 

 I know of, and always lay in enough in fall and 

 winter, to carry me through. 1 generally keep a 

 thickness of six inches under my horses all the 

 time, and find it is very little trouble to keep 

 them clean, and the stables sweet. I see forest 

 leaves recommended very highly for putting in 

 yards, hog-pens, stables, &:c., and have no doubt 

 they are excellent. 



WHITE AND PITCH PINE LEAVES. 



Can you recommend the leaves of our common 

 white and pitch pines for the same use ? I have 

 an almost inexhaustible supply of them near by 

 my barn, but have not had faith to use them. 



COE'S SUPERPHOSPHATE OF LIME. 



I put Coe's superphosphate on three rows of 

 corn through a piece last season at planting, and 

 we could pick out the rows an eighth of a mile dis- 

 tant, from the time it came up until cutting stallis, 

 and even after that. I also put it on some corn at 

 the first hoeing, in alternate rows, where there had 

 been no manure at all, and it did not show itself 

 at all. I also tried it on alternate rows of pota- 

 toes on the same land, at the same time, and 

 could see no effect whatever. I set out one- 

 fourth acre of sweet German turnips about the 

 middle of July on some old pasture land, and put 

 a small handful of it in the hill, and had a fine lot 

 of turnips, but a small piece was left without any- 

 thing, and the turnips were not worth pulling. I 

 intend trying it more definitely another year. 



North Blackstone, 18G2. J. Aldrich. 



Timothy Grass in Southern Ohio. — I have 

 had about one hundred acres in grass on my farm, 

 for the last twenty years, and testing its value in 

 dollars and cents by a close calculation of weight, 

 find Timothy to be the most profitable of all grass- 

 es. INIy cattle prefer it to any other grown in this 

 climate. I find that every kind of stock that feeds 

 on grass, works after the Timothy more than the 

 other grasses, and they pull it up and destroy it, 

 and other grasses and weeds take its place. I can 

 cut my grass with a mowing machine, for fifty 

 cents per acre ; a good yield will average two tons 

 per acre. Baling it costs $1,50 per ton; the 

 whole cost of preparing one acre of Timothy grass 

 for market, is $o,50 per acre. ]My crop of hay 

 has sold, for the last three or four years, at the 

 rate of $15 and $16 per ton ; two tons per acre, 

 shows a profit of $24 per acre. — W. D. Kelley, in 

 Ohio Farmer. 



