20 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
There is a sadness in leaving home by sea 
that those who have not experienced cannot 
understand. Those of us who depart, expect¬ 
ing to return soon, watch with the deepest inter¬ 
est for the last glimpse of land. But with 
Ihose who leave home forever, how inexpressi¬ 
bly sad is the fading away of their native land ! 
The picture above is full of sentiment, and will 
recall to many a reader the most touching mem¬ 
ories. The old country, the fatherland, en¬ 
deared by so many ties, where so many loves 
and hopes lie buried; why should not these 
parting emigrants look lovingly back upon it ? 
In a few days their faces will be turned with 
equal earnestness, but with different emotions, 
to catch the first sight of the new land where 
they are to make new homes. Speed on, good 
ship! bear them safely to our shores. We 
have work enough and room enough for all who 
will work. There is abundant land which the 
industrious may possess, and upon which they 
can make homes that will in time be dearer to 
them than those they left behind, for they will be 
their own, and no landlord can dispossess them. 
Peruvian Guano as a Lasting Manure. 
Much has been said of the injury that has 
been done by the use of Peruvian guano. The 
wheat lands of Delaware are a striking instance 
of such injury. Before the use of guano, the 
produce was small but sure. The early crops 
from the use of guano were very large. They 
soon dwindled to a very low point, and finally 
not even liberal manuring with guano would 
enable these lands to produce so much as they 
had done before guano was known. Had the 
guano exhausted the land? By no means; the 
wheat had done the mischief. The guano had 
enabled the crop to take more mineral matter 
from the soil than, without the guano, would 
have been possible; and the demand of the in¬ 
creased crop for mi n al food was much in ex¬ 
cess of the quanlil ■ contained in the manure. 
This excess was taken from the soil, deposited 
in the grain, and cold. away. When the large 
crops had complet'd; exhausted the available 
food in the soil, the guano produced only so 
much crop as its own mineral matters sup¬ 
plied,—not enough to pay the cost of cultivation. 
The land was exhausted, and guano greatly 
aided its exhaustion,—but only as it enabled the 
farmer to convert its most valuable parts into a 
salable form. If the crop had been allowed to 
fall and rot on the_ground, the soil would have 
been improved in quality, and the guano would 
have been a benefit instead of an injury. It is 
not the production of the crop that does harm, 
but its removal. The heavier the growth, the 
better, if the whole of it is retained on the farm. 
On a dairy farm, where the only thing sold is 
butter, Peruvian guano is the best manure that 
can be used,—and it is, so far as the condition 
of the farm is concerned, a very lasting manure. 
Suppose a grass field of ten acres to be ma¬ 
nured with two tons of Peruvian guano, and to 
produce, in consequence, fifteen tons of hay 
more than it would have produced without ma¬ 
nure; whether it is benefited or injured will 
depend on the disposition that is made of this 
hay. If it is removed permanently from the 
land, it will leave it much poorer than before 
the guano was used. If, on the other hand, it fa 
