AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
New-lforlc, Wednesday, Nov. 22. 
EXPERIMENTS-DETAILS WANTED. 
On page 168 our readers wiiifind an article 
with an illustration, which will doubtless in¬ 
terest every one, as it gives the details of a 
method actually adopted for using a small 
plot of ground to good advantage. On the 
first page some instructive experiments with 
concentrated fertilizers are given. Another 
article on this page gives other experiments. 
We place a very high value upon experi¬ 
ments of this kind when carefully made. 
They teach us far more than can ever be 
learned from theory. We wish correspond¬ 
ents would be very particular in recording the 
minute details, such as the character of the 
soil originally ; the kind of forest trees that 
grew naturally upon it; the former manuring 
and cropping ; the character of the subsoil; 
the inclination of the surface, if it is not 
level; the kinds of rocks, and loose stones, 
and pebbles mingled with the soil; the time 
of sowing and planting ; subsequent weath¬ 
er, &c., &c. All these details are interesting 
and important for those at a distance. 
HOW TO MAKE FAIRS PAY. 
We found in our visits to the County Shows, 
this fall, that allof our friends had not learned 
the secret of making them pay their own ex¬ 
penses. Their reliance for funds was upon 
the annual subscription of members, and the 
gratuity bestowed by the State. The State 
patronage is very desirable for a time, until 
these institutions are fairly established, 
when they ought to sustain themselves. 
The failure to do this is not to be won¬ 
dered at, for these societies often fall, of 
necessity, into hands that have no experi¬ 
ence whatever in the management of public 
enterprises. It is with great difficulty that 
they contrive to sustain the Shows, from 
year to year, even with the legislative help. 
Economy is often practiced in the wrong 
place, and the premiums are hardly sufficient 
to call out any spirited competition among 
those who have the best samples of fruit, 
vegetables, or the finest animals, to exhibit. 
In one county, whose Show we visited, 
we found a very large concourse assembled, 
for two days in succession. Probably there 
were four or five thousand people in attend¬ 
ance. There was no admission-fee charged, 
to see either the live stock or the fruits and 
vegetables, and the multitudes dispersed with¬ 
out doing any thing to help the finances of 
the society, that had provided for them a 
rich entertainment. Had an admission-fee. 
of only ten cents, been charged, hardly an 
individual would have failed to go in, and it 
would have raised four or five hundred dol¬ 
lars, or more, for the use of the society. 
This properly expended in premiums, would 
have called forth a fuller representation of 
the products of the county, and would have 
made the fair more successful. There are 
multitudes, in all our rural districts, that will 
thus pay an indirect tax to thejsociety, who 
! will never pay an annual subscription of one 
dollar or more. 
EXPERIMENTS WITH NITRATE OF SODA AND 
GUANO. 
We have received and read, with much 
interest and profit, the first part of the fif¬ 
teenth volume of the Journal of the Royal 
Agricultural .Society of England. Notwith¬ 
standing the reputed enterprize of the Yan¬ 
kee Nation, the farmers over the water 
greatly excel us in the promptness with 
which they publish, for general use, the 
more valuable portions of agricultural intel¬ 
ligence, gathered into the archives of their 
various societies. In the volume before us 
articles bear dale as late as the 12th of June, 
of the current year. When shall we get the 
published Reports of the Ncw-York, Penn¬ 
sylvania, Ohio, Connecticut, and other State 
Agricultural Societies for 18541 We fear 
not till the matters of which they treat shall 
have become in part stale, if not valueless by 
age. 
The Journal referred to is one of the most 
valuable of its kind any where published, 
Wc have selected several portions to lay be¬ 
fore our readers. We have only room this 
week to allude to some experiments on the 
subject placed at the head of this article. 
The land experimented upon was a peat 
bog, reclaimed in 1850, thoroughly drained, 
and a coating of six inches of clay was put 
upon the entire surface. It was first cropped 
with oats, then with turnips, and again with 
oats, and seeded down with grass. In March 
of last year it was divided into three portions, 
and treated as follows : the first portion 
nothing; the second, 448 lbs. of guano ; the 
third, 224 lbs. of nitrate of soda and 112 lbs. 
of salt . 
The yield from the first, portion was 3,080 
of bay ; from the second portion, (guanoed,) 
5,940 lbs.: from the third portion, (nitrated,) 
6,600 lbs. The value of the hay from the 
plots, respectively, was $26 25, $50 62, and 
$56 25. The cost of the guano, nitrate and 
salt is not given. Taking them at their av¬ 
erage price in this country, the cost of the 
guano would be about $11, and the nitrate of 
soda and salt, taken together, would amount 
to very nearly the same sum. Deducting 
this cost from the value of the increased 
yield, and we have a direct profit, from the 
448 lbs. of guano, of $13 37; and from the 
224 lbs. of nitrate of soda, with the 112 lbs. 
of salt, a profit of $19. 
The experimenter, Jas. Dyee Nicol, re¬ 
marks that he prefers the nitrate, because it 
requires little moisture to convey it to the 
roots of plants. A strong dew appeared to 
carry it down in one night, and in less than 
two days afterward the grass turned to a 
dark luxuriant green color, while the guano 
is comparatively ineffectual till the fall of a 
good shower of rain. 
Similar experiments upon.barley and oats, 
on a mossy loam with a mixture of clay, re¬ 
sulted in favor of the guano. It is to be 
noted, however, that in these experiments 
no salt was used. 
tt -11 ■■ mrn— .. - 
Have the courage to do right at the risk of 
being ridiculed by man. 
CIDER-WHAT IT IS MADE OF. 
A few years ago, while stopping in a town 
m Massachusetts, we fell into a little “ tem¬ 
perance discourse” with an old farmer, who 
was praising up the virtues of his good 
cider. Finding all our other arguments use¬ 
less, we tried to carry our point by appeals 
to his love of cleanliness. But he was equal¬ 
ly invulnerable on this point, “///sciderwas 
made of clean apples and was nice enough 
for the king.” 
We finally agreed to meet him next 
day, and examine the apples collected at the 
cider mill. Arriving at the mill, we together 
measured off the quantity required for one 
barrel of cider, and commenced looking 
them over. The result was that one heap 
of clean apples contained one thousand seven 
hundred and eiglitysix wormy specimens. 
We of course could no longer contend that 
such fruit would not produce a rich flavored^, 
and peculiarly nutritious beverage. Our 
friend gave up his point, but soon after found 
a relief in “ the fact,” “ that the cider worked 
itself off clean,” and that although new cider 
might not be so pure, fermented cider was 
quite so. *He did not, however, inform us 
how the cider purified itself, or by what pro¬ 
cess the “ worm juice,” is separated from the 
apple juice ; nor have we yet found any 
one who could solve the mystery. Till we 
do we shall prefer father “Adam’s ale.” 
ANOTHER NATIONAL POULTRY SHOW. 
On Thursday evening last quite a number 
of gentlemen, mostly managers of the Na¬ 
tional Poultry Society organized last Janua¬ 
ry, met at the Astor House to talk over the 
subject of an Annual Show. There was a 
unanimous opinion expressed that there 
should not only be a National Show the 
coming winter, but also that a strong effort 
should be made to get up an exhibition on a 
larger and more magnificent scale, if possible, 
than any hitherto held in this country. A 
committee on premiums was appointed, and 
th.ey were instructed to prepare a premium 
list, offering still larger sums than were giv¬ 
en at the first exhibition. The committee 
consists of Messrs. Solon Robinson, Wm. 
DeLemano, and G. W. Tuttle. 
A committee was also appointed to pre¬ 
pare and publish an announcement of rules 
and regulations, to appoint judges, and make 
all other necessary preliminary arrange¬ 
ments, and to have charge of all matters re¬ 
lating to the show. The committee of ar¬ 
rangements consists of Messrs. John N. 
Genin, M. P. Beers, Lorillard Spencer, J. S. 
Oatman, and Benjamin Haines. 
A resolution was unanimously adopted 
alluding to the satisfactory manner in which 
Mr. Barnum had carried out the task under¬ 
taken by him at the former exhibition, and 
earnestly inviting him lo assume the same 
responsibility for the forthcoming show. 
Mr. B. acceded to the invitation, and prom¬ 
ised to do still more than formerly, as he 
should have a much greater time for prepa¬ 
ration. We predict a gathering of fowls 
worthy of at least a short pilgrimage to 
witness. 
