NEW YORK FARMERS’ CLUB.-DOMESTIC FLORA OF CHtNA, NO. 4. 
NEW YORK FARMERS’ CLUB. 
Good Effects of Deep Plowing. —Hon. Dixon H 
Lewis, of Alabama, on being called upon by the 
President of this Club, a few months since, for 
some observations on Southern Agriculture, remark¬ 
ed that, by a long course of cultivation, land be¬ 
comes exhausted at the surface, and consequently 
deep plowing is requisite to bring up the subsoil, 
in order to impart to growing plants the greatest 
possible amount of nutriment. He stated that he 
had planted corn for some twenty years, and that 
his crops formerly averaged from fifty to seventy 
bushel? per acre; but late years, they had not 
amounted to more than thirty to forty-five bushels 
to the acre—the reduction being caused, as he 
thought, in consequence of shallow plowing. 
To remedy the evil, Mr. Lewis put in operation 
on his plantation, a subsoil-plow driven into the 
ground with the full strength of three horses, six¬ 
teen inches deep, so that the subsoil was turned up 
to the surface from that depth. From the accounts 
he had last received from his overseer, the prospects 
of his corn-crop, for the present season, bid fair to 
yield double the product of the last few years past, 
which he attributed mainly to the use of the sub¬ 
soil-plow. 
Prepared Guano. —A circular and advertisement 
from S. F. Halsey, of New York, were distributed 
among the members of the club purporting to sell 
a Prepared Guano at One Cent per Pound! 
Guano, as imported in its crude state, is represented 
as not jit for use! According to the language of the 
advertiser, “ It usually contains at least twenty 
per cent, of water, which is a heavy loss to the far¬ 
mer. Crystals of ammonia also abound in it, so 
that if it be employed in its crude condition, it 
proves greatly too powerful for any kind of vegeta¬ 
tion 
“ In the ‘ Prepared Guano,’ these defects are 
remedied. Being combined with the most fertiliz¬ 
ing absorbents , they prevent the escape of the am¬ 
monia and give it out to vegetation, only as it re¬ 
quires it. What they thus part with to plants, they 
again attract from the atmosphere, which renders 
the ‘ Prepared Guano’ durable and permanently nu¬ 
tritive for years!!” It is stated that, “ last spring 
the demand was so extensive, that many orders un¬ 
avoidably remained unexecuted,” and that “ appli¬ 
cations should therefore be made early, for the fall 
and winter crops, a large quantity having been pre¬ 
pared in anticipation” (a). 
(a) Whenever a new invention or a discovery is 
offered for public use, or for experiment, that ap¬ 
pears to possess merit and bids fair to be applied 
with a tolerable degree of success, we are ever 
among the first to encourage its adoption ; but when 
the farmer or the gardener is beset by a gross hum¬ 
bug, or is liable to be led into error, either by igno¬ 
rance or design, we, as public journalists, consider 
it our duty to apprise him of it, after which he may 
be governed by his own choice. 
Of the article above referred to, in itself, we pos¬ 
sess no knowledge ; but as the principles set forth 
by the advertiser are at variance with the experi¬ 
ence of practical men, and with a full belief that 
every farmer can prepare his own guano, at a 
cheaper rate than “ one cent per pound,” we do not 
aoi 
feel justified in suffering the subject to pass in 
silence. 
In the outset, directly in the face of the fact that 
guano has been annually used for several years as 
a fertilizer both in Europe and in America, by 
thousands of tons, and has been attended with the 
most unequivocal and beneficial results, we are told 
by the advertiser, that, as imported, it “ is not fit 
for use.” Again, for him to say that good Peru¬ 
vian guano abounds in crystals of ammonia, or 
that it contains twenty per cent, of water, would be 
equally unfounded. His theory, too, in regard to 
the “ absorbents ” of his compound attracting am¬ 
monia from the atmosphere in sufficient abundance 
to produce a good crop of grain, or that any one 
preparation of manure can be made “ permanently 
nutritive” for such a crop, is not in accordance with 
the dictates of reason nor with practical experience. 
It is true that it was argued by Liebig, a few years 
ago, that the atmosphere can supply the ammonia 
from which plants derive their nitrogen, in suffi¬ 
cient quantity for agricultural purposes ;* but his 
views on this subject have since been changed ; yet 
the farmer should bear in mind that agricultural 
plants, which practice has shown to differ widely 
from each other in their respective relations to soil, 
climate, manuring, and position in rotation, possess, 
at the same time, widely different powers of reli¬ 
ance upon the atmosphere for the constituents which 
it is known to supply in a greater or less degree. 
Guano, it is well known owes its fertilizing pro¬ 
perties principally to the ammonia it contains; and 
ammonia, when liberated, is a highly volatile sub¬ 
stance, which must be obvious to every one who 
has sown guano on a hot day, from the scent caused 
by its best part (the ammonia) escaping into the 
air instead of being kept in the ground. This am¬ 
monia may be deprived of its power of volatility, 
ill ordinary temperatures, by mixing 300 lbs. of Pe¬ 
ruvian guano with an equal weight of ground plaster 
(gypsum), to which should be added at least 600 lbs. 
of dry leaf-mould or pulverized peat, the whole to 
be thoroughly incorporated and kept free from mois¬ 
ture or wet. By so doing, the farmer will not only 
economize in the use of his guano, but render its 
effects more lasting, and will obtain an excellent 
fertilizer for an acre of almost every kind of crop 
for less than three-fourths of a cent per pound. 
THE DOMESTIC FLORA OF CHINA.—No. 4. 
Cemeteries. —During the summer which had now 
passed by, I had had frequent opportunities of in¬ 
specting the tombs of the Chinese both in the north¬ 
ern and southern districts. In the south, the na¬ 
tives form no regular cemeteries or churchyards, as 
we do in Europe, but the tombs of the dead are 
scattered all over the sides of the hills, the most 
pleasant situations being generally selected. The 
more wealthy individuals often convey their dead 
a considerable distance, and employ a kind of for¬ 
tune-teller, whose duty it is to find out the most 
appropriate resting-place. This man goes with the 
corpse to the place appointed, and of course pretends 
to be very wise in the selection of the spot, as well 
as in the choice of the soil with which the ashes of 
the dead are to mingle in after years; and upon 
trial, should the particular earth appear unsuitable, 
he immediately orders the procession off to some 
