124 
FAT HEIFERS.-EXPERIMENTS WITH GUANO. 
outside of the Alcazar is miserable in its appear-1 
since ; but the first court after entering the gate has j 
a very grand effect. The courts are ornamented 
with marble fountains, and are well shaded with 
corridors, supported by marble pillars. The garden 
is said to have been laid out by the Moors, and is 
preserved in its original state. It contains walks 
paved with marble, and parterres laid out with 
evergreens and shaded with orange trees. In many 
parts of it there are baths, supplied by marble 
fountains from an aqueduct, and there is a contri¬ 
vance for rendering the walks one continued foun¬ 
tain, by forcing up small streams of water from 
minute pipes, in the joinings of the slabs, which, in 
this climate, produces a most grateful effect.” 
(Jacob.) 
“ El Retiro, the seat of Count Villalcazar, lies a 
few miles from Malaga, and was formerly a royal 
residence. The gardens are laid out in the Moor¬ 
ish style, with straight cypress walks. They are 
remarkable for the lakes, fountains, and beautiful 
water-works which they contain, the curious shapes 
into which the trees and shrubs are cut, and the 
great variety of flowers cultivated.” (Loudon.) 
L. T. Talbot. 
FAT HEIFERS. 
In February last, Mr. Clift showed and sold in 
New York two very superior fat heifers; one was 
four and-a-half years old, weighing 1,670 lbs. live 
weight; the other, three years old, coming four, 
weighing 1,610 lbs. The oldest was bred b) r Mr. 
Clift; the other, and the better, was bred in West¬ 
ern New York. Roth were high grade Short- 
Horns. Their quarters alone weighed nearly 2,000 
lbs. They did great credit to Mr. Clift’s feeding. 
Their dead 'proof was admirable, as their living 
handling indicated. The following is Mr. C.’s 
statement of their feeding. 
Carmel , Putnam Co., N.Y. 
My method of feeding these heifers was as follows: 
They were both in what we call good strong flesh to 
begin with, when turned out to pasture last spring ; 
they had previously, for about one week, four quarts 
jf cob and corn meal a day each. After run¬ 
ning the usual time at grass, or it may be a little 
earlier, on account of the drought which prevailed 
throughout the season, I commenced to give them 
a sheaf of oats each, and a feed of green corn daily; 
this was continued until the time of green corn was 
over; this was followed by only one feed of meal 
per day, oats and corn, and sometimes buckwheat, 
mixed in about equal quantities, and never to ex¬ 
ceed eight quarts to each heifer, a day. This, it 
may be said, was pretty light feeding as respects 
grain, and especiall^in an attempt to make very fat 
or extra animals. 
But what I coqceive to have been the greatest aid 
or benefit in the laying on the flesh of these heifers 
was, that during the time they were on hay, they 
were well protected by shelter, and had clean litter, 
■and the privilege at all times of going to a mow of 
the choicest fine sheep hay, such as I cut on my 
old upland meadows early in the month of June, 
and had put up as green as possible. 
I could write a longa rticle on the great import¬ 
ance of having the proper grass, and making out of 
it the right sort of hay, for the fattening of sheep 
and cattle, and for cows giving milk, &c. Every 
observing farmer ought to know at least, that for 
such stock, in order to have them do well and make, 
a profitable return in any given time, their hay 
should be of a superior quality, and such as they 
will eat readily. Doubtless, in all profitable feed¬ 
ing of sheep and cattle, for the shambles, some kind 
of grain and roots should be fed regularly and daily. 
But all the grain given them, with hay that they 
will not eat with good appetite, will fall far short 
of making them what they may be made, in feed¬ 
ing less grain and the right sort of bay. Another 
thing is, as they advance in flesh and fatness, the 
more delicate and dainty are they in the choice of 
food, and the more clean should be what is given to 
them. It is true that I obtained less for the heifers 
in market than I had anticipated, viz., only $190, 
or about $9.50 cts. per cwt. Their live weight was 
1,670 and 1,610 lbs., and the butcher who slaughter¬ 
ed them, informed me, that their quarters weighed 
1,988 lbs. L. D. Clift. 
EXPERIMENTS WITH GUANO. 
As the time approaches to determine what ma¬ 
nures shall be used for spring crops, I take the 
liberty of sending you what I know of the effects 
of guano the past season. It is little to be sure; 
but as I feel much better satisfied of its value than 
before this experience, perhaps it may have the 
same effect upon others. At least one-half of the 
experiments I have seen tried have failed, and the 
experimenters heartily discouraged and frightened 
from further use of it; not by any fault of the ma¬ 
nure, but from want of care in using it. 
The most favorable results, as yet, have been 
with wheat, applied both at the time of sowing and 
in spring. In most cases it has been sown broad¬ 
cast, in a pure state, without being mixed, and con¬ 
sequently liable to great loss by evaporation, unless 
the soil by chance contained something capable of 
retaining the gases. I presume in this way its effect 
will not be seen for more than one or two crops, 
and will give rise to the opinion that it will not last. 
Experiments on corn have not done as well. In 
some cases, half a gill has been thrown on the 
crop, and but slightly mixed by the planter, the 
corn carelessly dropped and covered; there most of 
it lies still, for aught I know: one thing is certain, 
not more than half of it has yet made its appear¬ 
ance above ground. In other instances, it has beeii 
mixed with rich earth, or coal ashes, just before 
using, in proportion of two or three times its bulk, 
amounting to about the same thing as not being 
mixed at all, so far as preventing the grain from 
germinating is concerned; these all shared the same 
fate as the first. No one complains of its effect on 
what did get above ground; in fact it is admitted to 
do good above most manures of the same value; but 
then for this crop it is considered a kind of kill or 
cure medicine, which they are not over anxious to 
try except in desperate cases. I do not know one 
instance in which the application has been made in 
a way to receive the full benefit of its action, not 
excepting the small experiments made by myself. 
I bought a few hundred pounds last spring with¬ 
out much faith, and with small hope of getting my 
money back, which was rather lessened than in- 
J creased by the tough stories I had read of its aston- 
