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THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



moved up a little farther, and thus give his hogs 

 access to a fresh portion of the potato field. — 

 This plant, we think, commends itself to the 

 attention of planters on several accounts. The 

 cheapness of the food ; its being ready for use 

 at an important season for pushing forward 

 young hogs, (and nearly every southern planter 

 kills his hogs young,) the greater amount of 

 pork it enables him to raise, and the less corn it 

 requires in the fall to make his hogs fully fat. — 

 And we may add to these, that every hog is 

 thus made to gather his own harvest. The 

 cheapness of this article of food, (when the labor 

 of harvesting is saved,) certainly cannot be 

 questioned. For from two to four hundred 

 bushels of roots, besides the vines, per acre, is 

 no small amount of nutritious matter for the la- 

 bor bestowed in culture. If any one needs to 

 be convinced that August is an important month 

 for pushing forward hogs that are to be killed 

 in the fall, let him try to fatten a very poor hog ; 

 he will eat more than his bacon will be worth. 

 And, in fact, a year old that has been kept poor 

 until the pea fields are open, will yield very little 

 bacon. This plan enables the planter to keep 

 his hogs fat and growing rapidly from the first 

 of August until killing time. For by the time 

 the potatoes are fully eaten out, the pea fields 

 may be opened, and by the time they are done 

 and the hogs confined ten days on corn, to har- 

 den the fat, the weather will probably be cold 

 enough to kill. And here another advantage 

 is gained. For the most successful curers of ba- 

 con we know, all agree that the earlier you can 

 kill your hogs, the surer you are to have your 

 bacon free from bugs in the summer. — Planter. 



GUANO. 



Upon the South American shore of the Pa- 

 cific Ocean and the adjacent islands, is found a 

 substance called Guano, which is supposed to 

 be the accumulated dung of birds, that in count- 

 less myriads range that extensive coast, seeking 

 their prey in the finny tribe of the great ocean. 

 The fertilizing effects of the article are well 

 known to the Peruvians, and have induced its 

 transportation six thousand miles to the shores 

 of England. Occasionally for the last twenty 

 years, a ship load would find its way to the 

 English ports, and although, perhaps, the pro- 

 duction is too limited, and the cost of transpor- 

 tation too great, to permit it ever to become an 

 extensive article of commerce, its extraordinary 

 fertilizing properties render it a subject of ex- 

 treme interest to the inquiring agriculturist. It 

 sells in England for about five dollars the hun- 

 dred weight, and from two to four hundred 

 weight is used to the acre. One bushel is 



reckoned to be equal to thirty or forty of the 

 best rotted stable dung. This product has been 

 analyzed, and its constituents have been found 

 to consist of those salts, which modern discovery 

 has shown to be most instrumental in aiding the 

 growth of vegetable products. Indeed, so ex- 

 actly does this substance seem adapted for the 

 purpose to which it is applied, that an attempt 

 has been made to produce it by an artificial com- 

 bination of its constituents ; and it is yet hoped 

 that this attempt will lead to a chemical com- 

 position, that will afford us an artificial manure 

 with all the properties of the guano, at a much 

 lower price than the natural product can be im- 

 ported. When this article is fresh, it is said to 

 be of a light greyish color, but exposure soon 

 gives it a brownish cast. It probably only ex- 

 cels the dung of our pigeons and domestic fowls, 

 because of the animal food from which it is ela- 

 borated. A ship load of guano was lately 

 brought into the port of Baltimore, where it was 

 sold at seven cents a pound ; a friend, who hap- 

 pened to be in the city at the time, was kind 

 enough to bring us a little box of it, a part of 

 which was applied to some geraniums and other 

 plants by way of experiment. Much as we had 

 heard of its marvellous effects we were asto- 

 nished at the magical result upon our flower 

 bed. 



We are yet groping in the dark upon the 

 subject of agriculture, but a spirit of inquiry is 

 awakened that we are satisfied will never slum- 

 ber until the most astonishing and most satisfac- 

 tory results are obtained. 



From the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 FLORICULTURE. 



An intelligent friend, long accustomed to the 

 pursuits of floriculture, and remarkably fortunate 

 in raising plants from seed and cuttings, attri- 

 butes his success, in a great measure, to the 

 plan he has invariably adopted, which is, to keep 

 his plants as near the level of the ground as 

 possible ; the windows of his kitchen affording 

 him the best situation for striking cuttings, &c; 

 after which come his parlor windows, and then 

 those of his first floor; but above this, his plants 

 never flourish. And the cause for this, he con- 

 siders perfectly plain and natural; for at, and 

 near the surface of the earth, there is always a 

 degree of moisture floating in the atmosphere ; 

 but above, it is wanting; while the altitude of 

 a third story, or an attic, is dry and unfriendly 

 to vegetation. 



When the season arrives for the removal of 



