Sea Manures.—The Island of Madeira, 
337 
ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Sea Manures, 
Gent. —Having been much interested in the account 
in the October No. of your periodical, of the enlight¬ 
ened practice of Mr. Seely, in his management on the 
Wheat Sheaf Farm, of sea manures, I could not but 
wish his method was made known to, and practised by 
all our farmers on the sea coast. I recollect when I 
resided at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, that the usual 
way of applying these manures, was exceedingly an¬ 
noying to many in the neighborhood, and as the method 
may not be known, at least to your inland readers, I 
will give you a short detail of its process. 
From a little beyond Portsmouth, along the towns of 
Rye, and Hampton, the coast assumes the shape of a 
bended bow for 15 miles or so, making it a very favor¬ 
able section for the reception and retaining of sea ma¬ 
nures. When the easterly winds prevail, especially 
during spring tides in the fall of the year, immense 
quantities of sea-weed, mingled with more or less fish, 
are blown up here, which, after the reflux of the water, 
presents the appearance at a little distance, of large 
winrows of hay. The former system with our farmers, 
was to take this up immediately and put it into large 
heaps without any admixture of earth or other sub¬ 
stances, and let it rot all winter. By spring it would 
be tolerably well decomposed, when it was spread 
broadcast upon the land, and plowed in for potatoes; 
and notwithstanding the soil here is of rather a poor 
quality, 400 bushels would be frequently obtained in 
consequence of this manure, though 300 might be con¬ 
sidered a good average crop. But great objections 
were made to thus applying the sea-weed and fish ; for 
they not only throw out an unpleasant odor while 
undergoing decomposition in heaps, disagreeably scent¬ 
ing the air in the neighborhood, but give so strong a 
taste to the crop, as to make the potatoes unpalatable 
for the table. In consequence of this, many of the 
farmers changed their plan of operation, and planted 
corn instead of potatoes after manuring with fish and 
sea-weed, or spread the compost on grass lots, and the 
second or third year after this, devoted the land to po¬ 
tatoes, which then escaped all unpleasant taste; though 
I have sometimes thought they were not as mealy and 
sweet as those raised upon land in the same neighbor¬ 
hood, not thus manured. But still we were annoyed 
by the unpleasant odors of the decomposing heap, and 
I cannot but think Mr. Seely’s method much the best 
under any circumstances of applying sea manures. 
John Langdon. 
Buffalo , January , 1843. 
We have just been favored with a package 
of letters from a young friend of ours, ad¬ 
dressed to a relative in this city, from the 
Island of Madeira. He sailed for that place 
last February, and arrived in March, and as 
the letters contain some notices of the man¬ 
ner of cultivating the grape in Madeira, and 
other topics which we thought might interest 
our readers, we have made a few extracts. His 
lungs were dangerously affected when he left 
home; but we add with great pleasure, that 
the voyage out and residence there for a few 
months, proved very beneficial to him, and 
he has now returned to this city a compara¬ 
tively hearty and well man. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
The Island of Madeira, and its Grape Cultivation. 
Madeira is nothing more or less than an immense 
mountain, 35 miles long from east to west, and 20 
broad from north to south, and is entirely volcanic. 
The island is seen at an immense distance at sea. The 
mountains rise abruptly from the shore, the highest 
peak of which, has an elevation of about 7000 feet. 
There is absolutely no level ground on the island. The 
height of the mountains along the south side (where I 
am,) cannot be less than 4000 feet. Four or five miles 
west of this place, is Cape Giram, which we passed in 
coming in to Funchal roadstead. The pitch of that 
cape is one immense precipice with a descent of 1800 
feet perpendicular; there are no vallies between the 
mountains, but everywhere the hills are rent asunder 
and separated by deep and dark ravines —such ravines 
as my eyes never saw before. Everywhere the island 
gives evidence of the mighty convulsion of nature, by 
which it was originally elevated from the bottom of the 
sea. The scenery is unlike any other I ever saw ; and 
you require to get familiar with it before you like it. 
There is a mixture of the beautiful and the sublime in 
it, that is strange and wonderful. Funchal lies on the 
shore of a large cove ; there is no harbor , but merely a 
semicircular indentation in the coast. Behind it, the 
mountains rise like an amphitheatre to the height, as I 
should think, of 4000 feet, studded far up their sides 
with villas called “ quintas ,” while everywhere the 
ground is terraced , for without terraces the land would 
be too steep to cultivate; and often while we are enjoy¬ 
ing the bright sunshine and the mild warm atmosphere 
in Funchal, we can look up and see the mountain tops 
enveloped in a robe of clouds, and the rain pouring 
down. But it does not reach us, we are too low down 
for that. The mountains composing this amphitheatre 
behind Funchal, are rent by three immense ravines 
which add to the sublimity of the scenery. One of 
these ravines passes through the west, one through the 
middle, and one through the eastern part of the town, 
dividing Funchal into three parts. 
The precipices and the ravines are the wonderful 
features of Madeira scenery. There is much cultiva¬ 
tion on the island, fer the soil is very fertile, as indeed, 
all volcanic soils are—everywhere you see vineyards. 
The vines are trained along a frame work abont 3 feet 
from the ground, and when the leaves are out, as they 
are beginning to be at this time, a vineyard presents a 
very beautiful appearance. The island, where the vine 
is cultivated, being terraced, adds much to the beauty 
of the scenery, for each vineyard seems to be composed 
of several, rising one above the other. Everything 
here tells of the great business of the island—all the 
people have more or less to do with wines, no matter 
what may be their occupations. You see the vineyard 
on the mountain slope, and as you pass through the 
streets of Funchal, your nostrils are constantly saluted 
by the perfume of wine in the vaults, which, by the 
way, are all on a level with the streets; and a very 
pleasant perfume it is too. For one, I like the odor, 
though I cannot drink the wine. The population here 
are very temperate, though theirs is the wine business. 
I just said I liked the odor of wines in a wine vault. 
There certainly is a perfume which you can perceive 
as you pass a wine vault here, which I never noticed 
in America, and which I think is very pleasant. I at¬ 
tribute the agreeable nature of the smell, to the fact 
that there is nothing but wine in the vaults, and that 
the wines are not so much adulterated as with us. 
This is indeed an extraordinary climate. There has 
been no ram since I landed here, (on the 21st March,) 
but it rains enough on the tops of the mountains, and 
