98 
GUANO MANURE. 
and among these we found the Kentucky coffee- 
tree, with its double pinnate leaves of large size, 
and handsome panicles of white flowers; the 
sea-buckthorn, ( hippophce ,) with its pale silver 
leaves; the New Castle, and Washington thorn, 
which make superior hedges; the western varie¬ 
ties of the horse chestnut, trees little known among 
us, and deserving universal attention; Madeira- 
nut trees, from nuts grown in the nursery; superb 
specimens of the magnolia conspicua ; the buffalo 
berry, standing in pairs, and sparkling with its 
rich clusters of scarlet fruit; the elm of the south¬ 
ern states, (ulmus alata,) of very rapid growth, 
the branches of which are winged with cork some¬ 
what like the cork-oak ; and a beautiful evergreen 
hedge, making a perfect screen at all seasons, 18 
feet high, of the American arbor vitse, (thuya occi¬ 
dentalism) which is indigenous to the neighborhood, 
and superior to any other in the country, forming 
naturally a handsome cone-like tree, clothed from 
the ground upward, and resembling at a little dis¬ 
tance an oriental cypress. 
View from Mr. Downing’s.—(Fig. 20.) 
The view from these gardens of the river and 
surrounding country is grand, varied, and beautiful 
to an eminent degree. We give a rough sketch 
of it, standing in the piazza of Mr. Downing’s 
villa; but neither pen nor pencil can describe the 
sublimity of the Beacon hills, with their frowning 
precipices, rising abruptly from the opposite bank 
of the Hudson to a height of 1,500 feet—the wild 
ranges of the Highlands, with West Point below— 
the beautiful picturesque country dotted with vil¬ 
las above, and the various sail craft dancing along 
the sparkling waters. 
Mr. Downing is well known as the author of 
Designs for Cottage Residences, and a treatise on 
Landscape Gardening and Rural Architecture; 
two most excellent works, which have had a 
large sale, and been the means of greatly impro¬ 
ving the taste of our people in these matters. He 
has another work now in press, the Fruits and 
Fruit-trees of America, which we trust will soon 
be out. We think it will be one of the most valu¬ 
able publications ever issued on this subject. 
The residence of Mr. Charles Downing is about 
half a mile above, and near the river; it is a very 
neat and tasteful one, and here are grown all the 
wholesale sorts of fruit-trees. They are kept in 
the best manner, and everything so classed and 
arranged as to prevent mistakes in taking up for 
sales. Mr. C. Downing showed us a superior kind 
of rhubarb, which is larger even than the celebra¬ 
ted Victoria. It comes forward sooner, and con¬ 
tinues longer than any other variety, and is re¬ 
markable for its tender, succulent quality. We 
also saw the Spanish tobacco growing here. It 
attains a great height, and produces a beautiful 
flower. 
Mr. Downing makes use of considerable marl 
and muck in his nursery-grounds, and prefers 
them mixed with stable manure to the latter alone. 
Muck and marl cost 50 cents per load of 30 bush¬ 
els, delivered at the nursery. After being dug, 
the muck is allowed to lie six months in heaps, it 
is then taken and mixed with stable manure, one 
part of the former to two of the latter, covering 
the whole heap over two inches deep with dried 
muck. After standing six to eight weeks, the 
heap is turned and then covered again with muck 
as before. At the end of the same period it is 
again turned and well mixed. At this time it is 
about half manure and half muck, and will be fit 
for use in a month’s time after this second turning, 
GUANO MANURE. 
Since Mr. Teschemacher’s valuable discovery, 
(an account of which appeared page 24 of our 
January No.,) that corn grown by the application 
of guano contains 50 per cent, more of phosphates 
in it than that raised on the same land without 
guano, and that its product may be doubled on a 
poor soil by the use of a few dollars’ worth of this 
powerful fertilizer per acre, considerable atten¬ 
tion has been excited in regard to it by the farmers 
of this vicinity, and we have been called upon for 
further information as to its history and use. This 
has been obligingly furnished us by Mr. Bartlett 
of this city, who resided some time in Peru, where 
